Hudson: SEALs of Honor Book 27 Read online

  She chuckled, then stood and went to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Now that’s a hint if I ever heard one.”

  “Nope,” he said, hugging her back. “But it is a good idea.”

  She said, “I’ll do that. See you in the morning.”

  *

  He watched as she walked to the bedroom and closed the door partway. He listened to the quiet sounds of her rustling around in the darkened room before she got into the bed and turned out the light beside her. After that, he could slowly relax. Having her go off to shower while he was sitting here had struck him in a way that he hadn’t even thought about in a long time.

  Just the fact that they were talking about taking their relationship to the next level was a big deal. Then her to go shower—where he knew that beautiful body of hers would be standing, nude, under the streaming water—had his pulse tightening to the point that he sat here, uncomfortably trying to hide his lap. Then she came out dressed in what she would probably say was completely decent attire, but it was short silky shorts and a camisole with a very flimsy robe that teased as much as it hid and then gaped in spots. And all the damp spots in the material highlighted all the rounded curves, curves that he desperately wanted to spend time exploring.

  He stared across the dining room table almost blindly, wondering where all this sexual energy had come from. It’s almost like he had opened up a gate to something he hadn’t even recognized he had fenced off, and, now that he had, no way in hell he would put it back inside that fence again.

  When his computer beeped, he returned to the job at hand. Enough information flowed back and forth—from Mason, Dane, Markus, and a couple other team members—that it kept Hudson slightly more focused on the intel.

  But, damn, she was dynamite.

  Just watching her cute behind as she walked away had him struggling for deep breaths to calm down his hormones. All he wanted to do was join her in bed, but it wasn’t the right time, … for her or him. And they had to make sure that they were willing to do this before they complicated things even more.

  He turned his attention back to his laptop.

  The team was searching for other members of this group because any terrorist activity in a place like Vail was suspicious as hell. And what was the motive behind it? Dane came back with a note, saying that two other terrorist group members were in Colorado and had been seen in a different city close by. Now they started to piece together the locations on a map of where everybody in this terrorist group was—at least that they knew of at this time.

  Sixteen were in the country at this moment, according to their passports. And that was just enough to get the backs up of every one of his team members. There was absolutely no reason for them to be here, unless they were doing something that required a lot of manpower. And anything that required that much terrorist manpower meant multiple strikes at the same time, which was something Hudson didn’t want to begin to contemplate. But it was hard not to. Just then his phone rang. “Hey, Mason,” he said.

  “What are you up to?”

  “Trying to analyze data and to sort out why these guys would even be here.”

  “And that is a particular concern for all of us,” he said, “and you’re about to get your wish. I’ve been in contact with the brass, and they’ve contacted several congressmen. Nobody is happy.”

  “With good reason,” he said. “Nothing good can come of these guys congregating. We just don’t know what it means.”

  Just then Dane popped up on the Chat screen on Hudson’s laptop. Four have just bought tickets out of the country.

  When Hudson swore at that, Mason said, “What?” Hudson filled him in and said, “I wonder if it’s because we’re triggering something with our searches.”

  “Or they came to set something up, and now they’re done and are leaving.”

  “That’s also possible. We need the one still alive from the hotel,” Hudson added. “Because the one guy’s dead, and, for all we know, the other one killed him.”

  “Chances are he did. But whether it was out of self-preservation or because he failed or some other part of their deal, we don’t know.”

  “And we won’t find out if we can’t get a hold of him.”

  “Ideas?”

  “He’s gone to ground. For all we know, he left a long time ago.”

  “That would make the most sense.”

  “Yep.” With plans to stay in touch as he kept researching, knowing everybody was in the hot seat right now, Hudson hung up the phone only to get a message from Dennis, requesting a call. Hudson quickly called him back. “What’s up?”

  “We found another body.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Where?”

  “Two blocks away from the hotel.”

  “And?” Normally that wouldn’t be a concern for him, unless it was somehow related.

  “Looks like it’s your second military man.”

  He swore under his breath at that. “Are you sure?”

  “Nope. I was hoping you could come check him out.”

  “I can give a general visual,” he said, “but I can’t positively ID the body.”

  “I know that,” he said.

  “And what about the woman with the many IDs?”

  “We’ll get her to take a look too. But she wants something in return.”

  “Of course she does,” Hudson said, with an eye roll. “Everybody wants something, right?”

  “Yeah, and this woman wants her freedom without being charged.”

  “To return to her life of crime, huh?”

  “Yeah, and what crime is that exactly?” Dennis said in a dry tone. “We’re having trouble pinning that one down.”

  Hudson laughed. “You mean, you’re not concerned about the lonely old single men paying her for company?”

  “And that’s the problem, isn’t it? I mean, how much of this is even a crime? I’ll have to talk to the prosecutor in the morning. I mean, anything we have will more or less be centered around all those fake IDs.”

  “Does she have a record?”

  “No, not even a parking ticket,” he snapped.

  “In this state maybe, but what about other states?”

  “Well, it would be nice if we had better databases to draw on. I’ve sent out a request for information from anybody local.”

  “She’ll stick to places where there’s lots of money,” he said, “so you may want to check the other ski resorts.”

  “Believe it or not, I do know how to do my job,” Dennis said in exasperation. “I’ve already done that.”

  “Good,” he said, “and is she actually from Colorado? Because that would probably keep her local too.”

  “I have an address for her, but apparently it’s rented out.”

  “So where is her current address?”

  “She says she doesn’t have one.”

  “Is she living in hotels?”

  “Not sure about that either.”

  “Has she ever seen these terrorist guys before?” he asked curiously. “I wonder if she’s crossed paths with them at any other time. If she’s hoteling it all the time, it would be an interesting question. She’s not likely to help us out anymore,” he said, “unless you give her something.”

  “Unless I give her something is right,” Dennis confirmed. “But I don’t really have much to give her at the moment.”

  “No, I can see that. However, we do need to know what that old man’s death is all about.”

  “We should get answers tomorrow,” Dennis said. “But apparently he’s got a known heart condition.”

  “Where am I coming to ID the body?” Dennis provided an address over the phone. Hudson stood, looked at Avery’s bedroom door, and hesitated.

  “Don’t bring Avery,” Dennis said.

  “I won’t. Besides, she’s sleeping anyway,” he said, “I’ll leave her a note, in case she wakes up.” Even after writing the note, still, he hesitated. “I don’t want to leave her unattended.”


  “She’s been living here for how many years?” Dennis asked in exasperation.

  “I know. I know,” he said. With that, he picked up his wallet and keys and said, “I’ll be right there.” He walked over and listened at the bedroom door, but no sounds came from the other side, and he didn’t want to wake her. He walked to the front door, locked it behind him, and left a hair in place just to make sure. Just something about this scenario made him edgy.

  He didn’t want anything to happen to her, and it was foolish to even think she was related to this mess in the eyes of the terrorist group, but Hudson had been in this industry for way too long to trust anybody. As soon as he was outside, he hopped into his rental truck, started it up, and drove in the direction he needed to go. It wasn’t very far away, and, by the time he got there, he didn’t even need directions because plenty of traffic and sirens and cop cars were here.

  “Wow,” he said, when he found Dennis. “Is this all for the dead body?”

  “Well, it is, and it isn’t,” he said. “We had another 9-1-1 call right beside us.”

  He looked at him in surprise. “What was that all about?”

  “I haven’t heard the details,” he said, looking at Hudson. “Why? It doesn’t matter, does it?”

  “Unless it’s trying to divert attention away from this or away from something else.”

  Dennis swore at him. “This night needs to end at some point,” he snapped. “Now would you take a look, please?”

  Hudson walked over to where a sheet covered a body on the ground. “I gather the coroner’s not here yet?”

  “He’s getting dressed,” he said.

  At that, Hudson nodded because he had heard that before. In small towns especially, coroners were not always part of big city morgues. Hudson went to the shrouded area; a circle of people surrounded it.

  Dennis came up behind him and said, “This is against protocol. You know that, right?”

  Hudson just nodded and tilted back the corner of the sheet and studied the man’s face. Same brush cut, same type of jaw. He pulled the same package of tissues out of his pocket and wiped his cheeks and pulled up makeup. “Interesting,” he murmured. Squatting beside him, he flipped back his arm to check his hand. And, sure enough, there was the tattoo and the identifying ring. “Wonder why they left the ring on him?”

  “Probably not a team member who killed him then.”

  “Or they don’t care if the association is known or not, or it’s a warning for others,” he said quietly. He looked at the surroundings. “It’s a back alley, like a dumping site.”

  “That’s what we figured.”

  “Interesting. It’s been a busy town for you guys tonight.”

  “Too damn busy,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, this can stop anytime.”

  Hudson looked over where the 9-1-1 group stood around. “They look like they have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Well, if I ever had a spare moment, I could go check,” he said, “but we’re a little busy. And, of course, it’s a different department.”

  “Of course,” Hudson said. He looked down at the dead man again, pulled the sheet back to take a better look to find a cause of death, and it wasn’t hard. His throat had been slit. “So, a different MO.”

  “Exactly. But this one was up close and personal. What we don’t know is why they were here.”

  “You won’t know unless you track down one of these guys from the group,” Hudson said, “and, if they’ve done their job right, they’ll be out of town already.” He threw back the other end of the sheet as he stared down, then pulled up the dead guy’s boots.

  “What are you looking for down there?”

  “Just checking the boots to see where they might have been, what they might have done.” But the boots were clean. He sighed, as he sat back. “They sure didn’t leave us much, did they?”

  “Nope,” he said, “and I used to do big-city murders all the time, but I came home to get away from it.”

  “Ha,” Hudson said. “What you mean is that you came here to get some skiing in at the same time.”

  “Well, it does make the job a whole lot more palatable.”

  “It doesn’t seem to stop the murders from coming.”

  “Well, it did until this. We’re a relatively murder-free town.”

  “Relatively, yes. Anything else happen around here?”

  He shook his head. “Not really.”

  “What does not really mean?” Hudson said, “At this point, anything is important.”

  “But is it though?” Dennis said. “We had some high-profile robberies.”

  Hudson stopped, sank back on his heels, and said, “I don’t remember hearing about that.”

  “Well, we did as much as we could to squash it.”

  “What was stolen?”

  He stared at him and then said, “Some Nazi war memorabilia.”

  “Wow,” he said. “Wonder if there’s any connection to that.”

  “Terrorism is connected to the Nazis, is it?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Hudson said. “Whether it was for or against, you don’t know.”

  “I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Nine months.”

  “Any progress?”

  “Nope, nothing.”

  “The thefts could be to pay for their terrorist attacks.” Hudson shrugged, pointing at the dead guy. “Have you got an ID on this guy?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, I can probably get one faster.” He walked back up to the head of the body, flipped the sheet off again, took a photo, and sent it to Mason.

  “How do you figure that?”

  “Because my team is pretty concerned about these guys moving around. Did you know sixteen of them were in the country?”

  “Sixteen what?”

  “Sixteen members of this terrorist group,” he said, “and sixteen is a number that should make anybody uneasy.”

  “But what would they be doing?” Dennis asked, anxiously looking around.

  “With that many, they could conceivably hit multiple places all at once. I don’t know for sure,” he said. “Maybe they’re moving in for one really big op that needed a lot of people. It’s anybody’s guess at this point.”

  Dennis nodded.

  Just then, came a message back from Mason. “Huh,” Hudson said. “His name is Troy Magnum.”

  “Seriously?” Dennis said, dumbfounded. He quickly wrote it down. “And that’s from whom?”

  “My team lead.”

  “So, Mason?”

  “Yep,” he said, with a bright smile.

  “I don’t know what this means.”

  “It means, you’re in the midst of your worst nightmare,” Hudson said quietly. “And whoever was behind this was either cleaning up or taken out,” Hudson said.

  “I don’t understand what that means either.”

  “Well, I’m wondering if it isn’t partly because of that IT convention scheduled here for law enforcement types.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “These two dead military-looking guys, just like any team, they have an initiation. What are the chances that some of these guys were new? Maybe they were being tested or something.”

  “What, so they failed and got murdered?” Dennis scoffed. But, when Hudson turned that flat glare in his direction, Dennis turned pale. “Jesus, seriously?”

  “Look at hazing in a college,” he said. “How many times did we see that go too far, and somebody died? In this case, going too far is part of it. Either you make it or you don’t. No second chances with these people.” Dennis frowned as Hudson stood and continued his assessment. “They’re decked out right. But there’s no wear on his boots. His jeans still have a pleat in them, for Christ’s sake.”

  “Meaning?” Dennis asked.

  “Meaning, they’re wannabes. They’re new—or at least this one is. I never got a chance to really note the
other one, amid the smoke and sirens.”

  “Interesting,” Dennis said, “but it could just be new clothing.”

  “It could be. That’ll be for you to find out.”

  “And how will I do that?”

  “You’ll check out any of the local stores to see if this is something that they sell here.” He reached down and grabbed the shirt material on the sleeve and then shook his head. “No way, this will be European.”

  “Well, then I might as well stop right now,” Dennis said. “Even if we did find out where it was sold, nobody’ll give us any helpful information.”

  “Unless they are after these guys too,” he said. “I think this just became an international case.”

  “In which case I can hand it off to the Feds,” he said in delight.

  “Maybe, but you still have to answer to the public, if you want to keep your job.”

  At that, Dennis glared. “That’s a low blow.”

  “Just reminding you that you may not have a job next time.”

  “Great,” he said, “but, right about now, I’m not too sure I care.”

  “No, and, with these guys, you’ll have to watch your back.”

  “You’re the one who has to watch your back,” Dennis said. “Think about it. These two dead guys saw you.”

  “Yeah, and what about the older lady, our devious con woman?”

  “She’s sitting at the station.”

  “Still alive?”

  “Of course,” he said. “Why?”

  “Depends on whether she was seen or not.”

  “Then they would be after you too, wouldn’t they?”

  “Probably,” he said cheerfully. “I’m not quite the same deal to kill though.”

  “No, but a bullet will still take you out. Don’t ever forget that.”

  “No, I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “I’ve been up against more than my share already.”

  “I’m sure you have,” Dennis said, with a sympathetic smile. “Anybody in your line of work has a heavier death percentage than mine.”

  “I’m not sure about that either,” he said. “It seems like a hell of a lot more cops are dying these days.”

  “Yeah, I know,” he said. “My wife wants me to retire.”