Tempted by a SEAL (16 page)

Weekends at college were for having fun. She was in her senior year. It was time she went back to acting like it, before she graduated and missed her chance.

Lydia rinsed out her mouth. “Are we going out tonight?”

“Definitely. Where do you wanna go?” Marissa asked.

“I don’t know. We can figure that out over lunch, I guess.”

“Sounds good,” Marissa said over the sound of the water.

Yeah, it did sound good.

Lydia grabbed her makeup case and turned for the door. It was way too steamy to attempt to see in the bathroom. The bedroom mirror would have to do.

She might not be able to take back her bathroom right now but it was more than time to take back her life from the memories of James MacIntyre. Starting now.

CHAPTER 17

Marissa rubbed one hand over her stomach. “Ugh. I’m so full I could burst. But, I’m not too full for this.” With a grin she picked up a huge gooey chocolate chip cookie from her plate.

Lydia shook her head, torn between hating her roommate and her overactive metabolism, and laughing at the sheer ridiculous amount the girl could put away and still not gain an ounce.

She settled on being happy with the belief that one day time and all those calories would catch up with Marissa. Until then, Lydia would have to be satisfied with the memories that Mack hadn’t seemed to mind the freshman fifteen she’d put on four years ago and had never been able to take off, only add to.

Mack.
Just thinking his name had her sighing.

“What’s wrong?” Marissa asked.

“Same thing as usual.”

“Your secret agent hottie?”

Lydia laughed. “Stop. He’s not.”

“How can you be so sure?” Marissa asked the question for what had to be the dozenth time over the past few weeks.

“Because . . .” Lydia was running out of new reasons why Mack was not—couldn’t be—some sort of special agent.

“Yes?” Marissa cocked one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

“Oh, hush up. I just know.”

Marissa smiled as if the victory was hers. Lydia decided to leave her to her delusions and focus on finishing the last of her Asian Salad, tasty even if it wasn’t a chocolate chip cookie.

She stabbed the tiny wedge of Mandarin orange and pretended she wasn’t drooling over Marissa’s cookie.

Lucky for Lydia, Marissa didn’t dally over finishing it. The tantalizing treat disappeared as quickly as the girl’s metabolism would probably burn it up.

Giving up, Lydia tossed her napkin and fork on top of her salad plate and pushed it forward. “Ready to go? I’ve got another class.”

“Yeah, I’m done.” Marissa planted her hands on the table to stand just as the door of the cafeteria crashed open, slamming against the wall with a loud bang.

Lydia jumped in her seat. “What the hell?”

Who would be such an ass as to act like that? She swiveled to look toward the noise but couldn’t see from her seated position.

It didn’t take long for her question to be answered. The rapid
pop-pop-pop
and accompanying screams had her blood running cold.

Marissa dropped low, crouching between her chair and the table. “Oh my God. Lydia, he has a gun. He’s shooting people. What do we do?”

Her best friend’s barely contained panic was worlds better than the screaming and gunshots and chaos surrounding them as the packed room erupted into Armageddon.

Somehow, Lydia’s brain gave her the information she needed to survive.

Run. Hide. Fight.

Mack’s impassioned words from what felt like so long ago echoed in her head.

As the sporadic bursts of gunfire and the constant screaming continued, Lydia grabbed for Marissa’s hand. “Come on!”

CHAPTER 18

Mack believed in few things beyond a shadow of a doubt. Following his instincts—believing in his gut feelings—was one of those things.

Right now his sixth sense was kicking in strong.

It had been for the entire last leg of the trip home. He couldn’t put his finger on what had him antsy and agitated. He also couldn’t ignore it any longer. The moment the transport hit the tarmac he had his cell out.

Powering it on, Mack stared at the screen, waiting for it to come to life. What he was looking for he couldn’t imagine, but he’d know it when he found it.

Finally, the phone connected him to the outside world, something he hadn’t been able to do during the past couple of weeks.

Nothing came up immediately. No texts. No phone messages.

There wasn’t a whole lot he could do right now anyway. Mack didn’t have time to investigate further at the moment. He had to unload from the transport, grab his bags, check in and stow his shit—all before he could leave.

The quicker he got it all done, the sooner he could satisfy this feeling of unrest. He’d call his dad. Hearing his father and Laurie and Lydia were all right would go a long way to helping to settle this restlessness inside him.

It had to be nothing. How much trouble could his family get into in the Virginia suburbs in the few weeks he’d been gone?

Had something happened with his old unit? That thought caused a rock to settle in his gut. If that were the case, there was nothing he could do from here to help, which only ramped up his agitation.

He’d just have to wait and see. With a sigh, Mack followed the rest of the guys.

Moving on autopilot, he went through the motions, queuing up with the others, following procedures his muscles remembered well even if his brain was distracted.

The bags were just being pulled out of the transport and tossed onto the tarmac for each guy to claim when Mack decided to check the cell he’d shoved in his pocket one more time.

This time there was one text message showing. It was from his dad. Mack hit to read the text.

Call when you can. Dad

The message didn’t seem incredibly urgent.

As itchy as he was to do as his father had asked, not to mention calling would do a lot to satisfy his curiosity, Mack saw his pack on the ground. He moved to grab it, promising himself he’d call as soon as he got his shit settled.

 
Time got away from him. It always did when there was a lot of procedural bullshit to deal with. It wasn’t until Mack was done on base and ready to get on his bike and head for home that he got around to pulling out his cell again.
 

Perched on the seat of the bike, he scrolled through the contacts list and finally hit to dial his father.

He answered quickly. “James. Where are you?”

“At base. Why?” The feeling of dread he’d managed to sideline while doing what he needed to hit him full force. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Liddy.”

For a second Mack feared he’d dump the bike as the world tilted.

“What about Lydia?”

“You haven’t seen the news?”

What the fu— Couldn’t the man just tell him what was wrong instead of playing guessing games?

Suddenly sick to his stomach, Mack swallowed. “No. I was in the air for most of the day. Dad, what happened?”

“There was a shooter at her college.”

Now he did fear he’d fall over as the blood drained from his head.

He remembered their conversation late that night. Her worst fear was an active shooter and it had happened at her own school.
 

More afraid than he’d been in recent memory, Mack drew in a breath and asked the question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to. “And Lydia? Is she—”

Christ. He couldn’t even finish the sentence. He gathered himself and tried again. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah.”

The relief was as overwhelming as the fear had been. Mack gave up trying to straddle the bike, even while not moving. He swung his leg over the seat and stood on two unsteady legs.

Pacing in a small circle, he asked, “Where is she now?”

“The hospital last I talked to her.”

“The hospital? And what do you mean, the last you talked to her? You’re not there with her? Is her mother at least there with her?”

“James, relax.”

What the hell?
Mack grit his teeth. “Don’t tell me to relax—”

“She wasn’t hurt. Liddy’s fine. She got out. Her and her roommate both got out safely.”

Still, whether she was physically injured or not, Lydia would be traumatized after that experience.

Christ, an active shooter in her own school. Her family should be with her. This kind of thing could cause PTSD. It had effects on survivors others who hadn’t been through it couldn’t even begin to imagine.

He should be with her too and he would be, as soon as he confirmed where exactly she was and could get off the damn phone. “If she’s not hurt, why is she at the hospital?”

“Classes have been cancelled. She’s at the hospital with the other students having some sort of prayer rally or vigil or something while they’re waiting to hear about the injured.”

“And why aren’t you and her mother there with her?”

“She told us not to come. She said she was fine and just wanted to be with her friends right now. And that she’d be driving home tomorrow to spend the weekend with us. You should come too. You can see her then.”

Mack would be seeing her, but he sure as hell wasn’t waiting until tomorrow. “Text me Lydia’s cell phone number.”

“Sure.”

“Thanks. Look, I gotta go. Don’t forget to text that number and send me her address too, if you have it.”

“I will. So you think you can make it this weekend?”

“Probably.” Mack didn’t have time or patience for making brunch plans right now. He needed to see Lydia. Needed to see for himself she was fine.

“Please try.”

“We’ll see.” Barring getting called in, Mack planned on being wherever Lydia was.

If she was with their parents, so would he. If not, there wasn’t anything barring the risk of being AWOL that would keep him away from her—and maybe not even that.
 

“I’ll talk to you later.” Without waiting for a response, Mack hung up the call and then navigated directly to the map app on his phone. He punched in the name of the college and waited without a shred of patience left for the map to load.
 

While he was searching, the text from his father came through. He hit to call Lydia’s number, but it went right to voice mail.

Pocketing the panic, he reminded himself she was fine. She’d gotten out. She might have her phone off for the prayer vigil or whatever was happening at the hospital.

Another search brought up the nearest hospital to the campus. He had no doubt he’d find her one place or another.

Before he put the phone away, he did a search for
William and Mary shooting
. The horror of the headlines that filled the screen had him clenching his jaw.

He needed to be with her now. That was impossible, but he’d get to her within the hour, if he didn’t get pulled over for speeding.

At the moment, an hour seemed like forever.