They entered the elevator, and he looked at his phone.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he exclaimed.
The doors opened, and they were in the parking garage.
He grabbed her shoulders. Sirens blared in the distance.
“Jeremy?”
He shook his head
A card skidded near them, a black SUV with black-tinted windows.
“Trust me,” he said to her.
The door opened, someone pulled her inside, and they took off in the SUV, her inside with five men.
“Miss Brown, we’re special agents with the federal government. You’re safe now. We’ll explain everything once you’re at a secure location,” one of the men told her, and she couldn’t believe what was happening. She wondered whether it was real or not. What had Jeremy done? Why? What about Mateo and Deavan?
She didn’t know until four hours later when Jeremy arrived at the hotel looking like a dead man walking.
Chapter 1
Present Day
“Holy shit! It is so great to have you back,” Hal “Hollywood” McCurran said to his friend Cerdic.
“It’s great to be back. Six years was way too long,” Cerdic replied then took a slug of beer from his bottle of Bud.
“Your brother Andreas seems a little happier. I think I caught a smirk before from him,” Nate Hawkins added to the conversation, and then he took another slug of beer.
“Yeah, well, it’s nice to be back to civilian life and not dodging bullets in the field,” Cerdic replied.
“Treasure Town may not have people taking potshots at first responders in uniform, but you and Gideon will get your fair share of action on the water doing marine patrol,” Hal told him, and then Gideon walked over.
“Damn, the Station has not changed one bit,” Gideon said to them.
“Yeah, well, Dad and Jerome have a way of running the business,” Billy McCurran added.
“Yeah, they sure do have some good-looking bartenders. Especially that sweet-looking brunette right there,” Gideon told Bear.
“Watch it, Gideon, that’s our woman,” Hal said very seriously, and Gideon and Cerdic chuckled.
“We heard. Congratulations, guys. I can’t believe that Jake finally settled down. Where is your local sheriff?” Gideon asked.
“He’s around. Probably still shooting the shit with Lew.”
“How is Lew holding up after that gunshot wound? We had no idea he was even injured,” Hal said.
“He didn’t want anyone to know. That’s Lew. As commander for years, he runs things and always wants to be in charge. Thought he was damn invincible until that sniper got him in the chest,” Gideon stated.
“But since he can’t work active duty for the police department or marine patrol like me, Andreas, and Gideon can, he’s planning on running the maintenance on those two townhouses and the beach house we invested in. He’ll be the landlord, the service guy that gets called for any problems by the tenants,” Cerdic told them.
“Tenants better not complain much, or he’ll kick them out. That man still short in the patience department or what?” Bear asked.
“Still short, but if you guys know anyone looking, send them our way. Both places are still available for rent right now,” Cerdic told them.
“Will do,” Hal said, and they continued talking.
Cerdic looked around the place and truly felt at home in Treasure Town. Nights were still bad for the four members of his team. All Navy SEALs, all members of this community where they’d grown up as kids and best friends for life. They’d been inseparable from the start, and being in combat together, working secret missions, and sharing everything was perfect. He watched his old friends greet their women, who joined them. Each of them seemed to have landed pretty good-looking women, and they all seemed happy. It made him think that having such a committed relationship could work for him and the team, too. But not now. Not with them all having to adjust to working regular jobs, reestablishing their capabilities as marine patrol personnel, and following the rules of the land and not the rules of soldiers trying to survive with enemies everywhere.
Yep, they were back in town, back home where they belonged and in one piece somehow. He looked for Lew and spotted him still talking to Jake McCurran, along with a few other friends. His expression was hard, and he barely smiled. It would take some time. He’d been a prisoner behind enemy lines for over a week’s time before they’d found him and rescued him. Getting shot and nearly dying had taken its toll on Lew. He needed to feel safe, secure, and like his team had his back instead of him being the one to always have theirs. Cerdic was just fine with that. He could have lost him, and that just wasn’t an option any of them could have lived with.
“To Treasure Town and to the marine patrol,” Andreas said as he raised his beer bottle.
They all raised theirs, too, and cheered before taking slugs from their bottles and resuming their talk about the old days. Everything was going to be just fine. Cerdic was certain they’d made the right decision in coming here. No regrets, just opportunity for further happiness.
* * * *
Nate Hawkins and his brother Rye were working on putting a new deck on someone’s beach home near the channel. They had a couple of more days of work left, and they wanted to finish things up. They were ending their day and packing up the truck with supplies and tools when his cell phone rang.
“Is it Frankie?” Rye asked, knowing that she had gone to the beach with some friends today. Neither Nate or Rye, or their brothers Turbo and Mike, liked her out of their sight. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust her. It was how protective they were over her as their woman, especially after all they had gone through recently.
“No, I don’t recognize the number.” Nate answered it anyway.
“Nate, Jay Black.”
“Jay? Holy shit, how are you buddy?” Nate asked, shocked to hear from his old friend from the agency. They’d worked in one of the special units for years, and then Jay had been transferred. They’d lost touch.
“In a bit of a jam. I need a favor, bud. I know you’re retired and all, but it’s personal. I need a safe house for a while.”
“Shit. For you?”
“No. A woman.”
“Fuck.”
“Tell me about it. It’s serious. I’ve transferred her to several places. Can’t get into the details, but a raid backfired. The arrests fell through, and my cover has been blown. A two-fucking-year operation shot to shit, and I can’t resolve this while keeping her under my wing.” Jay finally exhaled.
“Sounds pretty serious. Will she need full security, armed and on lookout?” Nate asked, and Rye widened his eyes.
“This guy who is after her could be anywhere. He and his buddy dropped off the face of the planet. My hope is that he’s long gone, out of the country, but I doubt it. I’ll give you more info in a day or so. What you need to know is that this woman has been through hell. She’s only twenty-three, and I need to know that she’ll be safe until the agency can re-gather their evidence, collect some more, and locate these assholes who want her. The agency had a rat in it, and until I can figure out who that is, she and I are as good as dead.”
“What are you going to do? Where will you stay?”
“I think it’s best we separate. This asshole and his buddies believe Sophie is theirs. The main guy was obsessed with her, and he did things, Nate.”
Jeremy got quiet, and Nate knew it was bad. He didn’t want to think about all the possibilities from his own experiences with criminals and working cases for the government. He thought about his woman and swallowed hard.
“It’s a long story. I can explain more later on. Do you think you have a location and some people who can keep an eye on her for me until I figure this shit out? I know that town you live in is super special. She needs good people around her. People she can trust or, at least, learn to.”
“Sure thing. You know I’ll do my best to watch over her and keep her safe. When should I expect the package to arrive?”
“Thanks, buddy. By noon time tomorrow. I’ll contact you with more info. I owe you big time.”
Jeremy disconnected the call, and Nate looked out toward the development and the beach. He was already forming a plan in his head and coming up with possible locations.
“What’s going on? Who is in trouble, and what do we need to do?” Rye asked, and Nate felt the love for his brother fill his heart.
“That was a buddy of mine from the agency.”
Rye crossed his arms in front of his chest and gave him a serious expression.
“And?”
“And he needs help in providing a safe location for a young woman in trouble. I don’t know all the details, but it sounds pretty bad. Especially since my buddy says the men that are after her are after him. A raid went wrong, and his cover got blown. We need to provide a safe location for this woman.”
“Shit. Did he indicate how protected she has to be? I mean we have Francesca and our brothers to think about too, never mind friends and the community here.”
“I know that. Believe me I do. Jeremy wouldn’t ask me to provide a safe house for this woman if he thought the men looking for her would figure it out and come here. It sounds temporary. I’ll get more information from him later. Right now I need to figure out where I can place her and who could watch over her. I wouldn’t want to just put her in a rental or something with no one around. I need to think about this a bit and maybe call Jake.”