Protecting Caroline (SEAL of Protection Book 1) (4 page)

“Well, it
depends on the day and the project, of course,” she told him, losing her
self-consciousness since she was talking about a topic she loved. Caroline had
no idea her enthusiasm made her prettier and that Wolf thought her excitement
was a turn on.

“Sometimes I
analyze substances, trying to figure out what’s in it, how much of something is
in it, or both. I can create substances too. Sometimes we make synthetic
substances, trying to copy something that’s in nature, and other times we work
from scratch to create something new. And, sometimes I have to do boring things,
like test theories.”

They both
laughed, Wolf knew she was probably never bored. The flush on Caroline’s face
as she spoke about what she loved was sexy as hell. Wolf couldn’t believe he’d
ever thought this woman plain.

It was during a
lull in their conversation they both heard the man sitting by the window snort
in his sleep. Caroline put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too
loud and waking him up. She couldn’t contain her giggles though and loved
sharing a laugh with the big bad SEAL sitting next to her.

Caroline was
pleasantly surprised with the conversation with Matthew, who was even more
appealing now. Too many times good looking men thought they were God’s gift to
women and acted that way as well. She’d met some SEALs when she lived in
California that were obnoxious because they thought every woman should be
throwing themselves at them.

Matthew was
interesting and he’d actually listened when she talked. God, she had to get
herself together. They were two strangers on a plane. Once they landed in
Norfolk they’d go their separate ways and never see each other again. He was
just being polite. It was disappointing, but it was just the way it was.

Continuing to
talk while waiting patiently for the flight attendant to come by their row with
their complementary drinks, Wolf and Caroline shared how they were both sad to
leave the nice weather of San Diego—Caroline for good, and Wolf for whatever
time he’d be on his new mission.

Finally the
flight attendant made it to their row. Caroline was thirsty and was glad to see
the drink cart. The attendant still seemed to be a bit sullen and didn’t engage
people in conversation. Asking the people in the row ahead of them what they
wanted to drink and silently serving them, he did the same when he got to their
row. The man next to the window had woken up and asked for vodka on the rocks. Caroline
ordered a diet soda and Wolf requested an orange juice. Each were given a cup
filled to the brim with ice and their drinks, while the flight attendant moved
past them to continue serving the rest of the plane.

Caroline poured
her drink into the cup and lifted it to take a sip. Suddenly, she stopped. What
the hell? She brought the cup to her nose and inhaled deeply. Quickly placing
it back on her tray, Caroline saw Matthew was about to drink from his plastic
cup. Without thinking how intimate or odd it might seem, Caroline reached over,
grabbed the top of Wolf’s cup and lowered it to the small tray in front of him.

Wolf twisted in
surprise as Caroline lowered his drink to the tray. What the hell was she
doing? He’d thought they were getting along, but damn, he didn’t really know
her well enough for her to be touching his drink and invading his personal
space like that.

He looked over
at her, ready to question her, and was surprised to see she was quite pale.

“Don’t…,” was
all she said at first. Wolf could tell Caroline was trying to get her thoughts
together.

Wolf’s senses
went on alert. Whatever was going on had this woman on edge. Feeling bad about
thinking she was overstepping her bounds a second ago, Wolf looked at Caroline more
closely and saw goose bumps up and down her arms. Shit. Whatever she was
thinking was serious.

Matthew gave her
the time she needed to gather her thoughts, which Caroline appreciated. Without
him asking again what was wrong, Caroline leaned close to him and cautioned in
a soft urgent voice, “Something’s wrong with the ice. I can smell it. It smells
off, like something’s in it.”

Wolf picked up
his drink again and raised it to his face. He could see Caroline wanted to stop
him, but she didn’t. Pretending to take a sip he smelled it as she had… nothing.
He couldn’t detect anything but the orange juice that was in the cup. He looked
at her and said softly, “I don’t smell anything.”

Caroline was
frustrated. She could tell Matthew wanted to believe her, but when he hadn’t
noticed anything off about his drink, he was having a hard time. She looked
away. Great, now he thought she was nuts. But she wasn’t. She was a chemist dammit,
and this is what she did for a living. There was some other chemical in with
the drink, she knew it. But how would she convince him without sounding crazy?

She turned back
to Matthew, only to see him still looking at her.

“What is it?” he
demanded softly. “Explain, so I can understand.”

Caroline’s
respect for Matthew rose. He wasn’t sure he should believe what she was saying,
but he was smart enough to give her time to convince him, and she knew she’d
have to explain it in a way he could understand.

Caroline knew
she had to get through to him and did her best to convince him she knew what
she was talking about. Lowering her voice even further so the people around
them wouldn’t hear her, she leaned into him and looked him in the eyes as she
spoke. “I don’t know, but as a chemist I’m trained to pick up on the different
chemical smells of compounds. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not natural.”

“Is it in mine
too?” he asked her just as softly, passing his cup over to her.

She sniffed it
and immediately nodded.

“Shit,” Wolf said
under his breath. He believed her. He wasn’t a person to trust easily, but this
woman didn’t have any guile in her at all. She’d have no reason to lie to him. Caroline
had too much pride as a chemist to pretend something was wrong, he could tell
that just from talking to her for the last hour. Besides he couldn’t think of
what she’d get out of it even if she was lying, and she was obviously freaked the
hell out.

His next thought
was what the hell was going on with the plane? If Caroline was right, who was
trying to drug the passengers on the plane? Who was in on it? Was it all the
passengers or just him and Caroline? Was he targeted? Were Mozart and Abe
targeted too? He thought about his teammates for the first time after he’d
started talking with Caroline. How far back was the flight attendant with the
drink cart? Had they drunk anything yet? Shit, he had to warn them.

Leaning in to
avoid the possibility of being overheard, Wolf whispered, “Stay seated. I need
to warn my men.”

Caroline watched
as Matthew put his drink on her tray and secured his tray back into the seat
back. She didn’t ask any questions as he stood up and reached into the overhead
bin. He reached for his bag, took his time looking through the small duffle he’d
placed up there, then latched the compartment and sat down again.

Wolf felt a bit
better after settling back into his seat. He’d signaled to Mozart and Abe that there
was danger and not to eat. They’d come up with the signal after being holed up
while on a nasty mission and found that the food they were being served was drugged.
His men would know something was up, but how to get word to them for sure?

Caroline was
watching him closely. Could he use her? No, not use her, but have her help him?
He hadn’t refastened his seatbelt, so he turned in his seat so he was angled
toward Caroline. He took one of her hands into his own, absently rubbing his
thumb over the back of her hand as he thought about how he wanted to approach
her with his plan. Finally he sighed and looked into her eyes. Caroline was
watching him intently. Her big brown eyes were wide and slightly dilated. Her
grip on his hand told him she was more scared than she looked.

Wolf’s
protective side was fighting to come out. He felt and could see the quivers
taking over her body. He wanted to stuff her under the seat and tell her not to
come out until they were on the ground safe and sound, but he also,
unfortunately, knew that wasn’t an option. He needed her.

“Caroline, I
need your help,” he admitted to her softly. He watched as she nodded
immediately. Jesus, she didn’t even ask what he needed help with, just
immediately agreed. He felt something inside shift, but wrestled it down. Now
wasn’t the time.

“My men are
seated in seats 18C and 24D. I need to tell them what’s going on, but since we
don’t know what’s really up or who’s involved I need to keep it quiet. Will you
help me?”

“Of course,
Matthew,” Caroline told him, her voice only shaking a little. “Although I’m not
sure what I can do. I’m just a civilian…”

Wolf squeezed
the hand he was still holding, “That’s why this’ll work. No one will think
twice about you walking in the aisles. If I suddenly got up and went back to
talk to my teammates, I would definitely be noticed. I’m going to write a short
note, if you get up and go to the restroom in the back of the plane, you can
pass it to Mozart, who’s in 18C.”

“Mozart?” was
Caroline’s comment.

Wolf smiled a
bit, chuckling inside that in the middle of a serious scary situation, Caroline
still had the presence of mind to question Mozart’s name.

He explained
quickly, “It’s his nickname, we all have one.”

Caroline nodded,
she wanted to know what his nickname was, but knew this wasn’t the time or the
place. Maybe someday she’d pluck up the courage to ask him about it…if they got
out of this…whatever
this
was. Remembering there were two of his friends
on the plane she questioned, “What about your friend in row twenty four?”

Wolf put his
other hand over where their hands were still clutched together. “When you pass
him, grab his shoulder instead of the seat and press your second and fourth fingers
down hard.” He demonstrated on the back of her hand he was holding. “He’ll know
what it means.”

Wolf expected
Caroline to ask what the gesture meant, but she didn’t. She only nodded her
head and demonstrated the hand signal back to him. “Like this?” she asked.

Wolf nodded with
approval and couldn’t help himself. He lifted her hand that was still clutched
tightly in his own and kissed the back of it, holding his lips there for a
moment longer than was socially acceptable, before letting go.

“That’s all you
need to do, then come right back here after you go into the restroom,” he told
her seriously, looking into her eyes, willing her to understand the danger she
was in, that they were all in. “Don’t try to be a hero. If something goes
wrong, don’t worry about it. Just continue on as normally as you can. Don’t
bring any undue attention to yourself. My guys know something is up and will
look out for you. They can see you’re sitting next to me so when you get up
they’ll be on alert. Do you have any questions?”

Caroline shook
her head. She was nervous, but she could do this. She wanted to sit and digest
the kiss Matthew had planted on the tender skin on the back of her hand, but
she didn’t have time. She knew if she
did
have the time, she’d probably over
analyze it, and besides she had to concentrate on not chickening out of what
Matthew needed her to do.

Matthew quickly
scribbled on a piece of napkin. His writing just looked like gibberish to Caroline,
so she knew it was in code, but it didn’t really matter. She knew he’d probably
summed up the situation in a way his friends would be on alert and would be
ready to do…whatever. Hopefully it made sense to the man in row eighteen. His
other friend wasn’t getting an actual paper message, but hopefully whatever
pressing her fingers into his shoulder meant, he’d understand. There were so
many “hopefullys” in what she was about to do, but they had no other choice. Matthew
tucked the napkin into her hand and squeezed it closed gently.

“You can do
this, Caroline,” Wolf whispered.

It was time. Caroline
stood up and flattened herself as much as she could to squeak past Matthew. He
didn’t want to get up again and bring too much attention to himself. She felt
his hand on her waist as she squeezed by. The heat from his hand was intense,
but she tried to ignore it. But holy hell, if they were anywhere than here, in
this particular situation, she knew she’d be a complete mess. As much as she
wished Matthew was touching her in a sexual way, he was just trying to be
reassuring; he wasn’t putting the moves on her. She had to force her brain to
concentrate though. It just wanted to replay his hands on her body.

18C, 18C
, Caroline
repeated to herself as she made her way down the aisle toward the back of the
plane. She vaguely noticed the other passengers enjoying their free drinks
without a care in the world. Caroline had no idea if their drinks were drugged
as well, but she had a bad feeling they probably were. She had to make sure she
delivered the note to the right person. The last thing she needed was to trip
into the wrong person and have someone get the napkin with the weird code. She
looked at the seat numbers as she passed them, concentrating hard on making
sure she didn’t screw up.

She knew right
off who Mozart was. She shouldn’t have worried about counting the rows. He
looked as big and hard as Matthew. Just as she got near him she “tripped,” and
reached out with her hands to stop her fall, right into Mozart.

“I’m so sorry,”
she cried out apologetically as she extricated herself from his arms, taking
her hands off of his chest where they’d landed. “I’m so clumsy!”

The man simply nodded
and helped her right herself. He didn’t actually say anything to her, and
Caroline found herself blushing, as if she hadn’t fallen into him on purpose.
She had to get herself together. Sheesh. These sexy men were going to be the
death of her.

She straightened,
brushed herself off, and continued on her way to the restroom. She took a deep
breath. One message delivered, one to go. She’d pressed the note into Mozart’s chest
when she fell, and she’d felt him grab it when he’d steadied her. She wanted to
laugh; it seemed she was pretty good at this cloak and dagger stuff.

Caroline figured
she might as well actually use the restroom while she was in the back of the
plane. Who knew when she might get another chance with whatever was happening. The
practical side of her mind never turned off. She arrived at the restroom in the
back just as the flight attendants were finishing up the drink service. Squeezing
past the guy who’d served their drinks with an apologetic smile, Caroline
closed the restroom door, quickly got down to business, and washed her hands
once she was done.

Just as she was
going to leave the bathroom, Caroline heard two men talking right outside the
door. She paled after hearing their conversation and waited until they’d moved
away. Jesus. They were pretty dumb talking about their plan like that where
people could overhear them. Caroline supposed they figured soon everyone would
be passed out, so it didn’t matter. She had to get back to Matthew and tell him
what she’d overheard. Crap.

She left the
bathroom and didn’t look back at the galley; she just walked back toward the
front of the plane, grabbing the seatbacks as she went down the plane. When she
got to row twenty four, without missing a beat, she nonchalantly grabbed the
shoulder of the man sitting in the aisle seat with her right hand as she walked
by, then continued up to her seat. Matthew was waiting and again, assisted her
to her seat with a hand on her waist, looking at her questionably. Caroline
nodded once and sunk heavily into her chair. She reached for her seatbelt, but
Matthew stopped her.

“Leave it off,
just in case,” he told her. Caroline nodded again. Crap, she should’ve thought
about that. She wasn’t thinking straight. She had to get herself together.   

“Matthew,” she stated
urgently, “before I left the restroom I heard two of the flight attendants
talking. They said everything was in place and as soon as the passengers were
out, they’d start.”