Page 15 of Peace Under Fire

“He’s a SEAL, for God’s sake. He probably went straight to Naval Intelligence when your warning came true.”

Mandy shrugged. She’d been fully aware that was a possibility before she’d picked up the phone.

“I couldn’t sit back and let him die. Not when I could warn him, try to stop it.”

“And in the process, you exposed all of us. The organization that experimented on us is almost certainly of military origin. When Jacob reported your phone call, it could have been passed on to them.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “For God’s sake, Mandy, as soon as you told him, you made yourself vulnerable. What are you still doing over there? You should have come home immediately.”

Mandy grimaced. She wished she’d never told them Jacob’s name. But she’d passed that information on long before he’d joined the military. By the time his dreams had shifted toward joining the elite SEAL program it had been too late. Her sisters knew his name and enough specifics to give Kaylee the means to investigate him.

His occupation had led to the biggest argument of their lives when she’d decided to leave home and find him.

“Regardless of what you apparently think, I’m not stupid. I left the Pattersons’ condo as soon as I called him. I’m hiding out in a different condo. Nobody knows I’m here.” She paused to smooth the edge from her tone. “Nor has anything I’ve done exposed you and the others. Even if I’ve been located, nothing they discover will track back to the compound. I haven’t told anyone, not even Jacob, about you or the others. There is nothing for anyone to track.”

“It will certainly blow back on us if you’re captured, “Giulia snapped. “They have ways to make you talk.” Her voice suddenly broke off. Her next question was slow. Thoughtful. “Back up a second. You said you called him. You didn’t speak with him in person?”

Mandy let the window blind go and eased into the armchair next to the window. “He’d already left for his mission when I had the dream. So, I called him and left him a message.”

“You left him a voicemail?” Giulia’s voice turned ominous.

“Yes, but I got rid of the phone immediately afterwards. Moved to a different condo and went into hiding.”

No need to tell her about her trip to San Diego once she’d realized that he’d been badly injured and admitted to the hospital there.

“But you left a voicemail, proof of what you’d told him. There was a chance—admittedly a slim one—that nobody would believe what you told him. But you left a message, something he could play for proof.” There was clear censure in her voice. “When did you leave the message?”

No sense in keeping the rest of it from her. “Almost a month ago. When you never called to say the safety protocols had been triggered, I figured he’d deleted the message without listening to it.

“Why would he do that?” Giulia’s voice rose slightly in surprise.

Mandy fiddled with the curtain edge. No doubt Giulia would celebrate this news. “Things between Jacob and me have not exactly gone according to plan,” Mandy admitted. “During our last conversation, he said some hurtful things and made it clear he isn’t interested in me whatsoever.”

Not as a friend. Not as a lover. Not now. Not ever.

Her eyes stung.

“I see.” Giulia’s voice softened. “Then why are you still there?”

Well, at least she hadn’t started in with the ‘I told you so’s.’

Mandy swiped at her eyes. “Because there’s something wrong with him. In my dreams, he’s in such pain.”

“Mandy,” Giulia’s voice softened even further. “I know how much this man means to you. We all know. But it sounds like he doesn’t share your feelings. Chasing after him isn’t going to endear you to him. It’s time for you to come home.”

Mandy bit her lip and leaned forward to nudge the curtain aside. She stared down into the mottled shadows of the parking lot. Everything Giulia had said, she’d told herself—repeatedly.

Yet she couldn’t force herself away.

“But he’s hurt,” she whispered, her voice an aching echo in the silent room. “He needs me.”

She didn’t know why. It wasn’t like she had the ability to heal people. But something inside her, some deep instinct, urged her to stay, insisted she could help him. Wishful thinking, of course. What could she possibly do for him?

Still, the urge to stay persisted, making it almost impossible to tear herself away.

“He’s a big boy, Mandy. He can take care of himself. From what Kaylee’s dug up, he’d been hurt before and survived without you. It’s time to come home. Before they find you.”

CHAPTER 4

Squish scowled as he closed the door behind the delivery guy. A plastic cup of cola in one hand and a greasy brown bag in the other, he stalked over to his living room recliner.

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