Her Loyal Seal (19 page)

“He’s currently serving time in prison for statutory rape.”

“What happened to wife and the other children?”

“The wife remarried. The foster kids are living with a single older woman. It’s not the best set-up, but at least they’re together.”

“We have to find her.”

“We will,” Clint assured him. “She’s going to make a mistake as she’s feeding us information, so we’ll get her. In the meantime, we have to get Lydia back to Orlando. I never felt good about having her here in Houston.”

Chapter Ten

Lydia didn’t know how she could be feeling nervous, happy and frustrated all at the same time, but she was. She looked over at Clint, and he seemed calm. Great, now she was pissed off too.

“Calm down baby, it’s going to be fine.”

“We should be there with them.”

“We’re exactly where we should be.” He waved towards the castle.

“Disney World? Are you out of your mind? I should have never let you talk me into going there.” They had spent the morning at the park, now they were lounging on the hotel balcony.

“It was fun. We needed to take a break.”

“But we weren’t doing anything.” And it was driving her insane. It was five days since they met with Rylie, and Clint hustled her back to Orlando. Okay, granted spending time with Clint was a dream come true. She loved getting to know him even better.

“Clint, you’re not listening to me. We need to help your team mates. Also, we haven’t heard from Rylie and it’s killing me.”

“Lydia, the plan was always to keep you safe. We’re hiding. We’re keeping you safe.”

“But we’re not helping. You said we were going to take down Guzman.”

Clint finally put down his e-reader and turned to give her his full attention.

“Weren’t we up until the wee hours of the morning doing a lot of digging on the net and dark web gathering intel?”

Lydia blushed. They
had
been up until the wee hours of the morning, but only partly because of the investigation.

“Baby, I love it when you turn that delightful shade of rose. It tells me you’re thinking of the wonderful naughty things we’ve done together.” He reached out and ran his hand down the length of her leg, since she was wearing a bikini.

“Don’t try to change the subject. We’ve been here for five days. We haven’t heard from your team in over twenty-four hours. What’s going on?”

“You know they’re running an operation down in Mexico City. The intelligence we got from Melvin about the shipment coming in tonight was phenomenal. The problem is, our guys don’t know who they can trust. Our captain was able to pull in another SEAL team, so Mason, Drake and Darius aren’t alone. They’re going to be fine.”

“But you said this bust won’t stop Guzman unless he’s there, or unless one of his people rolls over on him.”

“That’s true. But this will definitely put him on the ropes. This shipment is probably four months worth’s of production. He will make mistakes trying to recoup his losses.”

“But shouldn’t we have been in Mexico City to talk to the people they do take into custody? After all, I know his operation, I could–”

“Lydia, that’s out of the question. There’s a hit out on you. If they see you, they will kill you.” Clint’s eyes glittered gray and she knew he was serious.

“All right, all right.” She heard the computer ping in the other room. She got up from the couch.

“I can feel you watching me you know.”

“Watching you is my favorite pastime.” Lydia could actually feel his gaze on her, and he was definitely
not
looking at the scars on her back, he was looking at her ass. It was like his eyes were actually touching her there. She shook her head at her wayward thoughts.

She pulled on a sweatshirt and sat down to look at her computer. Apparently Rylie must have heard her talking about her, because she just got some information from the Sylvia Hessman account.

“Clint,” Lydia called out, “Rylie just downloaded some information. Do you want to try to trace it back or do you want me to?”

She admired how fast and graceful he moved as he picked up his laptop and sat down next to her.

“See if you can get her to engage in a conversation. I’ll track her.”

The little apartment was quiet except for the sound of fingers tapping on the keyboards.

“She’s sorry she worried us.”

“Keep her talking baby.” Lydia looked down at the words on the screen, imagining the young woman out there on her own. She’d been so scared when she saw the information she delivered. She actually had a name of yet another DEA agent who was compromised. It looked like this DEA agent had a junkie sister who was currently being held hostage by the Guzman organization. How the hell did Rylie manage to find this shit out?

“Do you have her?”

“I’ve got her IP address pinpointed to Oklahoma.”

“Hurry, she’s getting suspicious.” Lydia asked Rylie another question, but she ended the conversation.

“Fuck!” Clint slammed the palm of his hand against the back of the couch.

“What?”

“Not only did she stop sending e-mails, she shut down the account. Dammit!”

“What’s the problem, you said you had her IP address pinpointed.”

“Just to her provider, not down to her address.”

Lydia stared at Clint. “You’re scary, you could have done that?”

“Yes, if she hadn’t actually shut down her account.
Rylie
is scary.”

“Okay, we are soooo damn lucky. Somehow she is using one of the smallest service providers in the country. Not one of the biggies. This must mean she lives in the sticks.”

“Oh God,” Lydia moaned. “Call Mason, call him now.” Clint was off the couch and dialing his lieutenant before Lydia said anything else. He rushed back as she turned her laptop around. He scanned her screen as his phone rang.

“Mase, call me.” He pressed end, then dialed another number as he continued to read. Lydia got up and wrapped her arm around his waist.

Somebody must have answered, because Clint started talking.

“Drake, you’ve been made. It’s a trap.”

Clint looked at Lydia and then tapped his phone and it was on speaker.

“Are you sure? From our side, it looks good.”

“We got data from Rylie. It’s another video. Guzman uses those to warn his people against betraying him. The video was real and brutal. This guy admitted to having sold out the time and place of the drop.”

“Thanks for the intel. Gotta go.” The line went dead.

“Will he let us know what happened?”

“We’ll be his first call, I promise you.” He hugged her. Lydia couldn’t get close enough to him. Then she burst into tears.

“Oh baby, it’s going to be all right. They’re SEALs. Rylie’s a hero. She saved them.”      

****

They ordered a pizza. It tasted like the cardboard box that it came in. How long did it take for his team mates to back out of a situation? All they had to do was cancel the op, and then call him. Instead it had been four hours. What the fuck?

Lydia tried to offer him some comfort. She cuddled close to him on the couch, but it was as if his nerve endings were on the outside of his skin and her touching him felt like nails on a chalkboard. Thank God she understood. He couldn’t believe how much he loved her.

That had been an hour ago. Now she was dinking with one of the speakers from the stereo system. She had it apart and seemed to be doing something with the amplifier. He remembered when she asked to pick up some tools from the electronics store and he had said it would be cheaper to buy a new speaker.

“But fixing the speaker provides me entertainment.”

He couldn’t argue with her. He had an added of bonus of being able to borrow her tools.

His phone rang. He put it on speaker.

“We got them!” It was Mason.

Clint leaned against the wall, a silly grin on his face.

“Damn, Mase, I should’ve realized you were going to use the intel to your advantage.”

“What the hell? Have you been worrying about us the entire time? Come on, this hiding bullshit has messed with your brain. Of course we used it. It went even better than our original plan!” Clint heard the glee in his commander’s voice.

“There was minimal bloodshed and no deaths.”

“Who got hurt?” Lydia asked.

“Nobody from our side,” Mason assured her.

“So you should be able to turn someone.”

“I don’t know,” Mason’s voice turned somber. I got the video that the girl Rylie sent. That is some sick shit.”

“Yeah. I hated Lydia had to see it.” Lydia glared at him. “Well I do, so sue me.”

“Anyway, the men are more afraid of Guzman than anything the authorities can dish out. I really don’t know if they will roll on him.” With those words Lydia stopped glaring, instead she slumped in defeat. Clint held out his arms and Lydia walked into them. He held her close, her head tucked against his neck.

“How many did you capture?”

“We got five of his top guys. Fourteen in all.”

Lydia twisted so she could speak in the phone. “Mason, I’m so glad you’re okay. When do you get to go home?”

“Soon, probably tomorrow. Sophia’s birthday is Saturday, so I’ll be able to make it. I was worried I would miss it.” Clint could hear the relief in his friend’s voice.

“That’s good.”

“Hey, we’ve got some prisoners to process. Captain Hale is flying in tonight to help smooth things with the Mexican authorities. Despite the good news that such a big drug bust was made, they are
not
happy the US Navy was responsible.”

“I think Clint, Melvin and I can help.”

“How?”

“I’m not quite sure. But we should be able to leave a trail that you were contacted, and make it look like it was from internal Mexican sources.”

There was a long pause.

“That could work.”

“Mase, you go do what you have to do, and let Lydia and I get to work.”

“Roger that.”

His stomach growled. Lydia laughed, she kissed the side of his mouth.

“I’ll go heat up the pizza you didn’t eat.” He grabbed her before she had a chance to start towards the kitchen.

“Thanks for putting up with me.”

“Huh?” She looked genuinely perplexed.

“I was being an asshole earlier. You were trying to offer me comfort and I blew you off.”

“Geez Clint, you needed some space. I get that.” She squeezed him, and it felt wonderful. “I love you. You get to be snarly sometimes. I get to be bitchy sometimes. As long as we don’t make a habit of it, we’re good.”

“Let’s hold off on the pizza.” He bent down and brushed her lips with his. He loved her lush response. His hands traced downwards and cupped her butt. She felt wonderful. His stomach growled again, and she started laughing. The mood was broken.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Let’s get you fed first, okay big guy?” She was still giggling as she sauntered into the kitchen. As he watched her ass sway, he planned to make this the shortest meal in history.

****

Clint was feeling proud of himself the next day. Not for having provided the cover for Mason and the team, it was something he and Lydia accomplished together. No, what he was proud of, was having convinced Lydia to go to bed early.

According to the doctors, patients recovering from pneumonia should still be taking it easy for a couple of months after they left the hospital. She sure as hell didn’t do that. She was eating better and gained some weight, but all of the bullshit she had endured since leaving the hospital hadn’t been conducive to resting. So Clint was gloating that she actually went to bed before nine p.m.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he saw it was San Antonio. Beth was just going to have to wait to talk to her sister.

“Hi Beth,” Clint answered the phone.

“Clint, it’s me Jack.”

“What’s wrong?” There was something in Jack’s voice that had every one of his instincts on high alert.

“Beth was bit by a snake. It’s bad. She’s in the ICU.”

“Is she going to live?”

Jack cleared his throat. “It was touch and go, but as of now, yes.”

“Thank God. Why didn’t you call earlier?”

“I couldn’t get them to give me information. Those motherfuckers insisted that they could only talk to family. I’m now family.”

“Explain.”

“I’m Beth’s fiancé.”

“We’re going to talk about that, but first tell me how she’s doing.”

“She was bit five hours ago. It was a rattlesnake. I sucked out most of the venom, but it struck on her thigh near her femoral artery, but some of the poison got into her blood supply. It was touch and go. Now they’re worried about possible paralysis.”

“Fuck. That girl doesn’t deserve this. Thank God you were there Preston.”

“I should have been right by her side. I let her pick flowers in the field by herself. I should have been by her side.” Jack’s voice broke.

“Jack, it sounds like she’s going to live because of your quick action.”

“Clint, I can handle anything. I’m a SEAL. I’ve had team mates die. But I…I…”

“What hospital are you at?” Clint got a pen and was ready to write down the information.

“You know you can’t come. We need to keep the sisters apart. She’s going to live. If Beth needs Lydia, I’d tell you. Right now we’re keeping to her cover story. She’s Beth Ochoa, and she’s staying with me and my family at the ranch.”

“And the fiancé business?” But Clint knew. He didn’t need Jack to tell him. Beth had captured the man’s heart as surely as Lydia had captured his.

“Right now I said it to get the hospital to give me information. I went crazy when I didn’t know what was going on. But Clint, I have deep feelings for Beth. She doesn’t realize it. She’s still fragile. I’m taking this slow. But nothing will stop me from keeping her safe.”

“What if she needs to be protected from you, Jack?”

“Then I will do that too. I will never, ever harm Beth.” Jack’s sincerity came through loud and clear.

“How soon before you can arrange for Lydia to talk to Beth?”