Jill bit her thumbnail and realized it was down to the quick and winced. “It’s worse than that. Lesley said he’d hired a private investigator to find her. I’d say it’s a sure thing. Lesley said his last name was Mazur.”
Dammit.
This was not how he’d been anticipating tonight to go. He’d definitely gotten the vibe that Jill wanted him to stay at her place for the night—instead, they were at his house, playing with his computer set-up.
Fuck me.
Clancy, the communications and computer expert from his team, was in Montana hunting with his father, so he couldn’t tap him. Instead, he reached out to his buddy on the Night Storm team, Kane McNamara. The man was a genius when it came to computers and getting information. There was only one drawback; he was one of Ash’s best friends. That meant that soon his brother would be up his ass wanting to know who in the hell Jill was.
“So why aren’t we going to the police again?” Jill asked for the second time.
He looked at his laptop, his computer tower, and widescreen monitor. He didn’t have anything against the set-up at her house, except it wasn’t exactly what you would call secure. Meanwhile he, and every other special forces person he knew, might be somewhat paranoid. However, nobody was as bad as his teammate, Alan.
Alan had been shopping at a big box store and paid cash for his transaction. By the time he was out in the parking lot, there was a coupon from that same store, on his phone for a shop-vac. Which was crazy scary, since he had been considering buying one of those the week before. Alan made everyone in his family get new phones and he quit that cell phone provider. As for him, now he only used a satellite phone. Clancy couldn’t convince him it was a coincidence. He told Alan that if it had been for a big-ticket item like a riding lawn mower, then he should worry.
“The guy I’m asking for help will get us answers a lot sooner than the cops can. What’s more, Kane will be focused only on your problem,” Law assured her.
“Doesn’t he have a real job?”
“Yeah. But when one of ours is in trouble, he’ll make time.”
Jill stopped looking around his makeshift office and looked him in the eye. “And I’m now one of you?”
Shit. He hadn’t meant to just come out and say that. They hadn’t even slept together. He hadn’t made his claim yet.
I guess I just did.
He reached out his hand for her, and she stepped toward him. He drew her down onto his lap. “Jill, I don’t know how you feel, but I got to tell you, you mean a hell of a lot to me.” He pushed one of her strands of dark hair behind her ear and stroked his finger along her cheek to the corner of her lip. “I want to protect you.”
Her eyes dilated.
“You do?” she whispered.
His thumb slid along her bottom lip as he wrapped his arm around her back and held her closer.
“Oh, yeah. Taking care of you has become one of the most important things in my world.”
Jill shivered. Everything that was feminine inside her melted at his words, but her brain worried.
“Lawson, you know you can’t be responsible for another person, don’t you?”
He clutched her closer. “I can damn well try. I can do it right this time.”
Jill closed her eyes and rested her forehead on his chest as she snuggled closer. Her heart was close to breaking for this good, strong man. He hadn’t told her the story of Xavier, but she’d known he’d harbored guilt, and this proved it.
“Ash tried to tell me that he was the one who should have seen the signs. That he should’ve been able to stop him.” Law’s low laugh sounded anguished. “He’s so wrong. It was me. I was the last one to talk to Xave.”
Jill curled her hand around the back of Law’s neck. It was warm and damp to the touch. God, she wanted to bring him solace, but she knew the best thing she could do was to get him to talk and then listen.
“You’ve never really told me about Xavier.” Jill didn’t say anything else, she just waited.
“Xave never talked about it. It wasn’t until after he was gone that Ash and I dug it up. We had to figure it out, ya know?”
Jill nodded. When he didn’t continue, she realized he didn’t see her because he was staring off into space. “I know. So, what did you find out?”
“The mission was classified, so nobody was supposed to know exactly what happened for him to get the medal, but Ash’s SEAL team buddy, Kane got the file. Xavier was recce. He liked it that way. Hell, that’s what he did for Ash and me whenever we pulled some prank as kids.”
“What’s recce?”
“Reconnaissance and surveillance. He would scout out ahead for his team. Keep them safe. He’d take care of any problems so that the rest of the team could have safe passage.”
“Got it.”
“They were tasked to take a hill. Goddamn hills will get you killed because the enemy has the high ground. But Xavier had his buddy, Tom. They’d been together since boot camp, and they were up for the job. But it ended up being a trap. They didn’t know it, but they’d been sold out by one of the Afghan fighters. He’d arranged for the Taliban to take the team’s flank, so while Xavier and Tom were hundreds of meters ahead of the rest of the group, the Taliban
