Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (13 page)

Before she could
continue, Wolf interrupted her. “Why’d you leave work so late? Why didn’t
anyone make sure you got home all right?”

Caroline hesitated;
she didn’t want Faulkner, Hunter, or Kason to have to hear about how she was.
“Matthew, I
told
you about me already. You
know
.”

Wolf gritted his
teeth. Dammit.

Abe broke in
before Wolf could say anything. “Caroline, it’s Abe. We might not have noticed
you in the airport before we knew you, but any man who’s any kind of man
would’ve made sure you got home all right.”

Caroline shook
her head. They just didn’t understand. They were
there
. They’d seen the
men on the plane leave with the pretty women and ignore her when she’d decided
to stay at the airport. Hell,
they’d
left her there too. She willed the
tears back. Now wasn’t the time. She had to get through this story.

“Anyway, so I
felt like someone was following me, but I didn’t see anyone. When I got home, I
heard someone at my door trying to get in. I opened the bedroom window that
leads to the fire escape in the hopes whoever it was would think I heard him
and went out that way. I then hid inside the shower in the bathroom and called
911. The lady that answered was so nice. She kept calm and tried to make sure
I
was calm.”

Wolf could hear
the way her voice wobbled as she’d talked about calling for help while hiding
in her damn shower. “You called me too,” he murmured in a low voice.

Forgetting she
was on speaker and all of his team could hear her, she admitted, “Yeah. All I
could think of is that if you’d been there, I’d have felt so much safer and you
would’ve taken care of it…me.”

Jesus. Wolf
tried to reassure her. He could hear in the tone of her voice how scared she’d
been. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. You’re right, I would’ve taken care of you.”
After letting that sink in he urged her to continue. “Go on, tell us the rest.”

“Well, the
police came and I told them what happened. The next thing I knew the FBI was
there talking to me, telling me I had to go to a safe house.” She lowered her
voice, “I don’t understand what’s going on, Matthew. The FBI wouldn’t really
say why they thought I had to be put here. I don’t know who to trust and I
don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think it had to do with the plane, but even
if it did, I didn’t tell the FBI anything. I swear I didn’t, Matthew.”

“Shhh, I know
you didn’t, hon. I promise we’ll figure this out. You trust us right? You trust
me?”

“I do, Matthew. Out
of everyone throughout this I trust you and Christopher and Sam.”

“Caroline, you
can trust Benny, Cookie, and Dude too. Don’t trust anyone else but my team. No
one. Understand?”

Caroline nodded,
then remembering that he couldn’t see her, said, “Yeah, I understand. But I’ve
never met your teammates, so I don’t know what they look like. How can I trust
them if I wouldn’t know them on the street if I saw them?”

Wolf hadn’t
thought of that. Abe spoke up.

“Ice, remember
the code you used to let me know on the plane that something was wrong?”

Caroline had
forgotten Christopher and the others could hear her conversation with Matthew.

“Yes,” she told
him slowly.

“When you meet
any of our team, we’ll use that signal in our handshake to you. So if someone
says they’re Dude or Cookie or Benny, and you shake their hand and they don’t
give you the signal, you’ll know it’s not really them. Understand?”

“Okay, but is
this really all necessary? You’re scaring me.” She said in a soft voice. “I’m
just a chemist. Why me? I’m not cut out for any of this.”

Cookie cut in. “Ice,
this is Cookie, first of all, thank you for saving my team’s sorry butts on the
plane that day. And I understand why you’re having trust issues and that’s okay
for now. But know while you’re deciding on whether or not you can trust us, we’ll
be figuring out what’s going on and we’ll keep you safe. Okay?”

Caroline took a
deep breath. “Okay, but
you
guys stay safe. I don’t know what’s going
on, but you’d better not get hurt or caught up in whatever this is. I’m sure
the FBI has it under control…Oh…someone’s coming. I have to go.”

Before she could
hang up Wolf said softly. “We’re coming for you, Ice. Stay strong.” The phone
connection was cut.

Wolf’s team sat
there for a moment looking at each other.

Finally Cookie
said, “We’ll figure this out, Wolf. We’ll keep your woman safe. We’ll stake our
lives on it.”

“I’m counting on
it Cookie. I’m counting on it,” Wolf responded softly, realizing again what his
team already knew. Caroline was his. And he’d protect what was his. His team
would protect her too. All because she was Wolf’s.

Caroline sat in
the room in the little cabin not sure what was really going on. She’d talked to
one of the FBI agents that was guarding her. He hadn’t told her much, but it
was enough for her to make some deductions.

Apparently the
hijacking attempt
was
part of a larger terrorist plan. The fact it
hadn’t succeeded and airline security was heightened pissed off the terrorists
and now they were after her. She wasn’t clear on how they even
knew
she
was on the plane, nonetheless what had happened since all four of the
terrorists on the plane were dead. That was the scariest part. Someone knew,
and that person had passed her name along to terrorists.
Terrorists
for
God’s sake.

Caroline felt as
if she was in a movie. These things just didn’t happen to people like her. She
was painfully ordinary. She wasn’t brave, she wasn’t a hero, she wasn’t cut out
for this.

She worried
about her job. She’d just started and now they were saying she couldn’t go back
to it until they caught whoever was behind the threats and caught the people
who were after her. Jesus, that could be any number of people. Caroline hated
to think she might have to give up her profession, her job and be stuffed away
into the Witness Protection Program. She had no idea what her new boss thought.
He’d probably written her off by now and was looking into hiring someone new.

The worst
thought about having to go into the Witness Protection Program was losing Matthew.
She was just getting to know him. She wasn’t naïve enough to think they’d end
up married or anything, they’d only started seeing each other and getting to
know each other, but the thought of leaving and never getting the chance to get
to know him better was depressing. Figures, just when she found the sexiest man
she’d ever seen, and he seemed interested in her, she’d have to disappear
forever.

She sighed. She
couldn’t even
talk
to Matthew because the FBI agent caught her when she
hung up with Matthew and his team and took her phone away. The FBI agent had been
mad, but she was mad too. It wasn’t fair. What was she supposed to
do
in
this stupid cabin? Why couldn’t she talk to anyone? How many times had people
been brought to cabins for their safety only to die because someone snuck up on
it? She didn’t know if she’d feel any safer in the city in an apartment, but
out here she felt exposed.

She’d heard the
phone ring a few times while she was in her room, but ignored it. It was the
FBI agent’s phone. Caroline stayed on her bed. She wasn’t sleeping, but she was
so tired. She wanted nothing more than to be able to fall into a dreamless
sleep, but every time she closed her eyes, she relived the hijacking and had
other dreams about faceless enemies shooting at her and trying to kill her. She
hadn’t had the nightmares since she’d been with Matthew in the hotel, but after
the break-in they’d returned with a vengeance.

It had been a couple
of days since she’d spoken with Matthew and his team. When she’d talked to him,
he’d said it’d take about five hours to get to her apartment, but she hadn’t
told them where she was now. She wouldn’t, even if she knew exactly where she
was. If anything happened to them because of her, she’d never forgive herself. Caroline
didn’t know what was going on, but she certainly didn’t want to bring anyone
else into it. And besides, she tried to tell herself, they’d just gotten back
from a mission and needed their rest too. She was on her own, just as she’d
always been.

Caroline didn’t
know how long she’d been sitting on her bed zoning out when she heard voices in
the other room. She didn’t get up. It was just the agents switching out. She
waited for one to knock on the door, introduce himself and to check on her.
It’d been what had happened every other time someone new had come. When she
continued to hear the voices she went to her door and opened it. She was
shocked. Matthew! What was he doing here? How had he found her? What was going
on?

Wolf smiled at
Caroline. She looked great…well, not really. She looked tired and stressed, but
he was so very glad to see her. He turned back to the agent. It’d taken his
team a while, with Tex’s help, to track Caroline down, and none of them liked
what they’d found out in the process.

Wolf had talked
to their commander back in San Diego, and convinced him there was something big
going down and that he and his team needed to be here. His commander agreed
there was a leak somewhere, in the FBI most likely, and promised he’d look into
it discretely.

His commander
told Wolf their actions wouldn’t be sanctioned by the Navy, but he’d do what he
could to keep the heat off of them. He also allowed them to stay in Virginia and
unofficially officially work the case. He’d greased some wheels with people he
knew in both the FBI and the Navy, and they were now officially working
together.

There was a
double agent in the FBI. That was the only thing that made sense. Someone had
leaked information back to the terrorist organization about what had happened
on that plane, and had told them Caroline had a role in the failure of the
mission. As a result, Caroline had a bounty on her head. The terrorists wanted
her dead. They figured if they couldn’t reach the SEALs responsible, they’d kill
Caroline. Wolf was furious. Unknowingly he’d been responsible for her being in
the damn safe house and being in danger.

Wolf was also
scared. Being scared was a new feeling for him. He wasn’t scared for himself,
he never was. He knew what he could and couldn’t do and he knew he could handle
anything the terrorists threw at him. He was scared for Caroline. He’d never
felt that way about another human being before in his life. He always could
take or leave women, but not Caroline. In the short time he’d gotten to know her
he was impressed as hell by her outlook on life and how she’d handled herself on
that plane.

Wolf knew there
weren’t a lot of people that could’ve done what she’d done.

So he and his
team, thanks to his commander back in San Diego pulling strings, were now a
part of the team protecting Caroline. They had no idea who the double agent
was, but at least this way they could protect Caroline while searching for the
bastard.

Abe, Benny,
Dude, Mozart and Cookie were currently checking out the lay of the land around
the cabin the FBI had stashed her in. They were setting up perimeters and
making sure that nothing could get to the cabin without first alerting them. The
men would take turns being on watch. There was no question about who would be
in the cabin with Caroline. That was Wolf’s woman in there, and they’d all
protect their team leader and his woman.

Caroline didn’t
know what the hell was going on, only that she’d been thinking about Matthew
and suddenly he was there. He looked wonderful. Strong, capable…and completely
out of her league. Caroline smiled back at Matthew absently then went back into
her room and shut the door. This was going to kill her. She wasn’t sure what he
was doing there, but obviously the FBI agent was expecting him.

After a bit of
time had passed, Wolf knocked softly on Caroline’s door.

“May I come in, Ice?”
he asked. When there was no answer he turned the knob and opened the door.
Caroline was sitting on the bed, her back against the wall, knees up to her
chest with her arms grasping them tightly. She looked heartbreakingly
vulnerable.

Wolf left the
door open and walked over where she was sitting. He sat down gingerly at the
end of the bed. It took everything he had not to take her in his arms and hold
her tight. She scared the hell out of him with her phone message and it wasn’t
until right now, seeing she was okay, that he could slightly relax.

“What are you doing
here, Matthew?” She asked softly.

“I’m here
because you’re here,” he answered honestly.

Caroline just
shook her head. “I don’t understand. You don’t really know me. I don’t
understand why you’d be here. You can’t be here.”

Matthew knew she
was confused. Hell, he was a bit confused himself. He tried to explain. “There’s
something between us, Caroline,” he said honestly. “I can’t explain it any
better than you can. The kisses we shared were the most honest and arousing
I’ve ever had in my life. You
know
how badly I wanted to lay you down
and love you all night long. You have no idea how you tested my willpower every
night when I tucked you into your bed. I wanted to join you there and show you
how much I liked you, being with you.”

Caroline sucked
in a breath, not believing what he was saying.

“Yeah, you heard
me right. I got harder just kissing you than any other time I’ve been with a
woman. But it’s not only sex. I like you. You’re intelligent, fun to be around,
and I want to know everything about you. When I heard you were in trouble,
there was no place I needed to be more than here with you. Protecting you.
Making sure you’re safe.” When she didn’t say anything, but continued to stare
at him with her big brown eyes, he asked, “Why did you really call me that day
in your apartment Caroline? Be honest.”

Caroline sighed.
He was right. Matthew deserved the truth. She didn’t know what was going on
with the two of them, but whatever it was, at least he seemed to feel it too.

Her voice
trembling with emotion and just above a whisper, she told him honestly, “I
called you because you were the first person I thought of when I was scared. I
called you because if I died, I wanted you to know I was thinking about you,
that I wanted to see you again. I didn’t want you to come back to Norfolk and
think I didn’t want to go to see you again. I wanted it more than you know, and
I thought I wouldn’t have a chance…” Her voice trailed off.

Wolf didn’t say
anything, just did what he’d desired to do the first time he saw her in the
room. He reached over and gathered her into his arms. She was stiff at first,
then she melted into him. She smelled of some sort of flowers. Maybe it was her
shampoo, maybe it was a lotion she used, but it went straight to his head. He
tightened his arms around her and Caroline lost it. She cried. She cried for
being scared on the plane, she cried for being hurt, she cried remembering how
alone and scared she felt in her apartment when only a thin piece of plastic
kept a killer from knowing she was in the bathroom, she cried in relief that
Matthew was back from his mission. Matthew rocked her and held her tight. He
wasn’t used to a woman’s tears, but there was no way he was letting her go.

Finally her
tears dried up and she only sniffed here and there. Wolf drew back a bit and
looked at her face. She wasn’t a “cute crier”—her face was red and blotchy. She
refused to raise her eyes. Wolf rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs and then
lifted her chin up so Caroline had to look at him. He didn’t say anything just
leaned down and touched her lips with his. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but it
felt right. It was a comforting kiss. It was exactly what she needed from him
at that moment.

He pulled back
and looked into her eyes. “You’re safe now. I’ll do everything in my power to
make sure you stay that way.”

Caroline
believed him. He was an honest to God hero. And for the moment, he was
her
hero. She tipped her chin up, reaching again for his lips with hers.

The second she
moved, he was there. Wolf had tried to hold back with her. She was feeling
vulnerable and he didn’t want to take advantage of her. But with the first
touch of her lips against him, he was lost.

He devoured her.
He stroked her tongue with his and she stroked his right back. He fell back on
the bed taking her down with him. He could feel every inch of her delectable
body against his. She was curvy and soft and he could feel her nipples harden
against his chest.

He wrapped his
hand in her hair and moved her head where he wanted it. He took complete
control of the kiss and rolled them until she was under him. Wolf felt her leg
bend and it opened herself up to him even more. He settled into the vee of her
legs and felt his erection burrow into the heat in Caroline’s center. Christ.
He had to stop. Now. Or there’d be no stopping. It was the thought of the FBI
agent in the other room that finally made Wolf stop. Hell, he hadn’t even shut
the door behind him. When he took Caroline it wouldn’t be in some crappy cabin
with someone who may or may not be a traitor to their country listening nearby.

Wolf eased back,
but couldn’t bear to break contact with her. He buried his head into her neck
and licked and suckled at her earlobe. The whimpering that came from her throat
made him grow even harder. She arched into him, trying to get closer. She was
sexy as hell.

“Jesus,
sweetheart. I’d give anything to take this where we both want to go, but I
can’t, not now, not here, and not while you’re in danger.” He hoped like hell
Caroline wouldn’t be offended by his words.

Caroline shut
her eyes tightly. God, Matthew felt so good against her. She was wet. She
hadn’t ever gotten so wet so quickly with any other man before. Just Matthew.
Only him. When she felt him shift above her she slowly opened her eyes. Jesus.
He was so sexy, and he was here, with her. That alone was a miracle. She saw
the hard line of his jaw and his kiss-swollen lips. She wanted nothing more
than to have him strip off all her clothes, but unfortunately, she knew he was
right.