SEALs of Honor: Dane Read online

  The gun tilted her way slightly. “I’m going to follow you to make sure you can follow instructions. As I said, it’s been a rough morning already – please don’t do anything stupid.”

  She slowly straightened, her gaze on the man who looked a little more unraveled than he had a few minutes ago, yet at the same time appeared to be a little more in control with that gun in his hand. It had been wavering but was now locked down on her.

  Nice. Not.

  What happened to the man she’d known for years? She barely recognized him right now.

  She snatched up her coffee and turned to go to the bedroom. In truth she hadn’t unpacked her belongings yet. She was an ultra-light traveller and had hoped to shop while here and fill out her wardrobe if necessary – and she’d hoped it was. She loved to shop in other locations as the fashions were so different. Wearing the clothes after she returned always made her smile.

  It was short work to collect her things.

  He followed her at a safe distance, not giving her an opportunity to get a message out to anyone or to leave any behind. She couldn’t stop thinking about the man in the garden. Was he still here? Would he hear if she screamed? She realized her shady professor had to be part of what was going on next door – had they realized he’d escaped? Or did they not know of his existence? Who knew what had sent them to the house in the first place. But if they did know of him, then they’d be hunting him now. Surely a man capable of vaulting that huge wall was capable of tracking this man to her house. But would he do it in time to help her?

  As she carried her single bag back downstairs, she contemplated her limited options.

  “Let’s go,” he snapped.

  Damn. Her time had run out.

  He motioned her to the front door. She nodded and opened it.

  Bag over her shoulder, she jerked the door shut on his hand.

  *

  DANE HAD SEARCHED the house – to find it empty. The owner had escaped somehow, even though all exits had been covered. They’d been waiting for hours for the right moment to move in. What the hell had happened?

  The light had gone out last night showing the occupant had gone to bed on time. And they’d seen him arrive earlier. No one had gone in or out since.

  “It’s on a timer,” Shadow, the quietest member of their team, said, holding up the light in question in his hand. Sometimes his actions were so invisible he was almost ghostly. “Right house but no one home.”

  “Yet set to look like someone is home,” Swede, the giant beside him, said. “It’s an old house, any chance there is a secret entrance?”

  “In these old farmhouses, quite possibly. Mason and Hawk are searching the lower levels.”

  “Shit.”

  Swede stared around the too clean room in disgust. “I wonder if Michaels ever lived here.”

  “According to our intel he was seen coming and going on a regular basis for the last year.”

  “Then where the hell is he?” Swede muttered. “This is bullshit.”

  Dane understood how he felt. So much time and work went into an operation like this. This was just one leg of a bigger operation. They needed this guy to find those behind it all. Dane walked to the office. He’d done one sweep through there already but figured a second wouldn’t hurt.

  Someone pounded at the front door.

  Dane and Swede melted into the background. The door burst open and the stunning blonde from next door raced in, a small overnight bag and purse over shoulder, crying out, “Help, is someone here?”

  She ran past Dane. He grabbed her and dragged her into the office, his hand slapping across her mouth. She dropped her bags. Swede covered the open door.

  “Mffmph.” Huge scared eyes stared at him.

  “Quiet…” he narrowed his gaze at her. “Do you understand?”

  Her hands were jammed up against his chest and she could barely move, but he watched her head nod. “Good. Now what the hell are you doing here?”

  In a clear concise voice she explained what had happened. Dane was already on the move even as he tried to understand why a beautiful young woman would run to an obviously dangerous man when she was in trouble. It was counter intuitive. When he whispered that question to her, her gaze was clear, her tone concise as she explained, “I figured you were the more dangerous and might save me from him.”

  He shot her a disbelieving look while he moved toward the front door, Swede following into step beside him. “Like that makes any sense,” Dane snapped. “You’re then stuck in the clutches of the more dangerous man.”

  “True,” she replied calmly. “But you won’t hurt me.”

  Both Dane and Swede studied her face for a long moment. Dane said, “Stay here.” And they bolted out the door after her crazy professor.

  “Besides,” she called after them. “It worked.”

  Chapter 3

  SHE SAT DOWN in the chair at the front entrance, an old Victorian red velvet looking thing, and stared at her trembling hands. She wasn’t out of danger yet. And until the professor had been caught, she wasn’t likely ever to be. How had a simple intellectual holiday turned into this shit? If Michaels had been trying to get her to work for the same company he was, then why the gun? What was he mixed up in? Was it just research they wanted? And if so, who was the company he worked for? Or was it a shadow company pulling these strings from behind? She had no idea what kind of chaos he was involved in. And was her research being stolen right now? How could she stop it from happening? Or as he’d implied, was it already too late? She had copies herself but hated to think that all the years of her hard work had fallen into the wrong hands…

  How was it she hadn’t seen this side of him before? And if the men hadn’t pulled this raid on his house this morning, would she have seen it today? Would he have remained kind and courteous and probed to see how far her research had taken her? Would he have made a move then?

  And what was with these military men in the professor’s house? They were Americans, she was sure from the look of them and their accents, but she could be wrong, she was a chemical specialist not a linguistics expert. Then again would Americans be involved in a raid here in Germany? Maybe with a joint task force?

  She was grateful they were here because by doing what they’d done, they’d forced the professor to show his hand and thus saved her.

  She really did owe them her thanks.

  At the same time, her gaze landed on an open door beside her. It looked like an office, probably Professor Michaels’ office. Should she look? She had no business looking – really, but after the professor’s actions… Curious and perturbed, particularly after the morning events, she entered the office and she opened drawers and cabinets, looking for clues as to what had been going on.

  Everything was empty.

  How was that possible? Unless the house was a front. She frowned considering the size of it. That was a very elaborate front then. She leaned against the wall full of books, her gaze caught on something odd. The wall wasn’t symmetrical. The one she was leaning against was too close.

  That triggered a memory from a class she’d attended where Professor Michaels laughed about the old house he inherited with secret rooms. It had been used to hide Jews during World War II. Was it this house?

  She turned to study the wall.

  There were a series of bookends that looked possible. She started pulling, tugging and generally moving anything moveable to find a mechanism to open a hidden door.

  The last bookend made a creaking sound and shuffled under her grasp.

  “Ah hah.” She gasped as the bookshelf opened to show another room. This one, a well-used office.

  “Well, isn’t this interesting.”

  She spun around to see two more men dressed in black, the same as the first men, suspicion on their faces. She flushed. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist looking for a secret room.”

  “Really?” the first man snapped. “Who the hell are you, and why would you even consider that there�
��d be a secret room?”

  “Oh,” she said, realizing they didn’t know anything. She filled them in on her morning, another two men arriving midway through her explanation. The big blond she’d met outside shifted past the other men and moved into the secret room. “What else did he say in that class?” he asked.

  “I’ve been trying to remember but my memory is sketchy. I know he said the house was full of secrets.”

  At a glance behind her to the others, he made a motion and everyone scattered. “We’ll have to see what we can find.”

  He turned to look at the well-used office space she’d found and added, “This is a great place to start.”

  “I can help,” she said, walking to the desk. “What are you looking for?”

  “Anything…” but his voice was odd.

  She turned to face him and read the suspicion on his face. “You don’t trust me?”

  He snorted. “I don’t know you.”

  “True, but then again, you were the one in my garden not the other way around.” She smiled and held out her hand. “Marielle, Stanfield. Chemistry Ph.D. student at UCLA and Tenesco.”

  He shook her hand and said, “And your relationship to the owner of the house?”

  She gave him a brief explanation including when she’d arrived and where she’d come from.

  He nodded. “We’ll have more questions later. But first, do you know anything about this office?”

  She studied the books on the shelves in front of her. Chemistry books. “He worked in here. Not his lab of course, but this was his office.” She pointed out the books. “All chemistry books.”

  And a huge selection. Interesting. She wandered the shelf and back again. Her own professional curiosity peaked. There were some really old tomes on this shelf. As in expensive collector items.

  Her fingers itched to open them up and see what gems lay inside. On the other hand, she didn’t dare do anything to arouse more suspicion directed her way. Walking back to the desk where the big man was opening drawers at a rapid rate, she asked, “Is there something specific you’re looking for?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Where he’s gone? Who he works with? What he’s really doing here?” He snorted. “I’m not looking to find out how he takes his coffee.”

  There wasn’t much to say to that. There was an odd panel on the other wall. She walked over and studied the mechanism in the front of it. And pushed the largest of the buttons. Instantly, a panel opened up and showed a big monitor behind it. She could hear humming as the computer flared to life.

  “How about this? Does this interest you?”

  He was at her side in an instant. “How did you know this was here?”

  “I didn’t.” She motioned to the tall desk. “I’ve just started using a standing table myself and wondered at its positioning here. Then pushed that big black button.” She pointed to it.

  “So it’s built into the wall. Why do I think he really meant house of secrets?”

  “Yeah,” she said dryly. “There’s likely to be a lot of other things like this.” The monitor flashed up and active. Asking for a log in.

  “I don’t suppose you know what the password is?” He stared at the screen.

  “You know…maybe.” She typed ChemistryRocks into the password request box. And didn’t the damn screen start scrolling.

  “You know his password?” Now the suspicion was truly directed her way.

  “Yeah, see in class he had this phrase he repeated over and over again. ‘Chemistry Rocks.’ He joked that he should use it as a password because he’d never forget it.”

  “That’s not normal to tell people things like that.”

  “But I doubt he expected any one of his students to actually be at his computers. And besides, we don’t know that anything important is here.” She gestured to the clean desktop screen now showing. “He doesn’t keep much on his desktop.”

  “Move over,” he said in a hard voice.

  She stepped aside willingly for him to make his own discoveries and take the heat off of her. She had no intention of getting mixed up in any more of this. Her cell phone went off.

  She glanced at the number and gasped.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “It’s him. He’s calling me.”

  The man spun around and stared at her. “Answer it.”

  Hesitantly she hit answer and said, “Hello?” She held the phone out so the man could hear the conversation too.

  “Hello, Marielle. Sorry we didn’t get a chance to chat this morning. I was a little more concerned with getting away.”

  “I don’t understand what’s going on?” she cried. “I came here to see you and you pulled a damn gun on me.” In truth, righteous anger was getting the better of her. She’d spent a horrible day travelling, looking forward to the visit and a short holiday and look what had happened.

  “Well, if those men hadn’t come and ruined my morning, then I wouldn’t have had to ruin your holiday, would I? We could have had a nice visit, and I might have been able to persuade you to come and work for us.”

  “And do what?” she asked. “You knew I wasn’t looking to change jobs.”

  “No, but we didn’t get a chance to talk terms now did we? And my employer is paying great wages.”

  “I’m not interested in money,” she said wearily. “I never was.”

  “No, I understand that. It doesn’t matter now, the game has changed.” His voice turned ugly. “You see, you will work with me now and you won’t get paid. But if you’re lucky, your mother will get to live.”

  He hung up.

  *

  SHIT, TALK ABOUT a game changer.

  Dane stared at the regal looking blonde and knew she was trying to hold the tears back. A threat against family was never easy.

  He grabbed the cell phone and realized there was no number showing on the caller ID. Of course, it would be a throw away phone anyway. As he watched, she slowly collapsed into the closest chair and whispered, “Oh my God, what have I done?”

  He couldn’t be sure what she was talking about. He’d already contacted the other team members about the call. Now with his phone safely away, he needed her to open up. To see what was going on.

  “Have you done something?” he asked in as gentle a voice as possible.

  She shot him a fulminating look. “No. I haven’t. I came here to have a professional visit with a colleague. And see his work. Talk about my studies.” She threw out her hands and said, “Apparently he was wanting to convince me to work for his company. Likely adding my research to his. I had a suspicion of something similar but…”

  “Yours?” he pounced on her words.

  “Yes, my latest study has chemical weapon applications. I didn’t intend for that to be the direction of my work, but it appears to be heading there regardless.”

  She ran a hand over her face. “My mother, I have to warn my mother.”

  “I need your full name, her name and both your addresses and we’ll get on it,” he said. “Chances are he’s not interested in hurting her as much as using her for leverage.”

  “If I could get her away safe, I’d just tell to him leave me alone.” She pulled out a notebook and wrote down the information then ripped the page off and handed it to him. “Can you stop him from going after my mother?”

  “If it isn’t her it will be someone else close to you.” He shot her a hard look. “This isn’t the time to hold back. Honestly, your excuse for being here sounds a little thin.”

  The broken sound that came out of her mouth made him wince. “I work. That’s what I do in my life. I work all day and do research and paperwork all evening – and look after my mom.”

  He waited, hoping there was more of an explanation coming.

  “When he offered me this place for the week as a holiday and a professional opportunity I grabbed it. I was burning out,” she admitted. “I needed to get away. So what seemed like a too good to be true opportunity…was.”

  �
��And your mother? Is there a reason he’d know about her?”

  She nodded. “I’m an only child and my mother is sliding into dementia. She’s not full blown yet but is not fully functioning either. She lives in an apartment beside me and has a part-time caregiver. She’s perfectly fine some days and then other days…” Marielle stared off into space and never finished the question.

  “You’re not married?” He was willing to admit he wanted the answer for both his own sake and professional reasons. “Anyone else in your life these guys could pick on? A child? A half-sister/brother?”

  She shook her head. “Just Mom and me.”

  “I’m sorry, that has to be tough.”

  “Dad died a few years ago and she hasn’t been the same since.” She lifted her hand then let it fall away. “I don’t know what I’m going to do when she’s gone.”

  “You’ll bury yourself in work like you do now,” he said. “You need to change that.”

  She sent him a mocking look. “Your world is so different?”

  “Well, I do have lots of entertainment on my days off.” He grinned. “And my name is Dane, by the way. Pleased to meet you.” He winked at her.

  Heat flashed in the room.

  She blinked.

  And blushed bright red. “Of course you do. Being gorgeous and all,” she muttered. “I prefer to work, thanks.”

  “Then you’re in need of a serious loving if you think work makes up for sex.”

  In spite of herself he could see the curiosity moving across her face. She really had no clue. Damn he’d like to change that for her.

  But he was on a mission. And she was possibly as guilty as the man they’d chased to his lair in Germany. He didn’t want to believe it of her, but…

  Just listening to her made his heart ache. She looked so lost. So forlorn. So in need of that damn holiday that had blown up in her face.

  He’d love for her to have a real holiday.

  But it was not going to happen.

  Chapter 4

  WHAT HAD HAPPENED to her life? “I need to protect my mother.”