Page 7 of Protection for Nichole

Squat narrowed his eyes for a brief second, and then shock filled his face. “Fucking A.”

“Hey, it’s cool. I should say I knew her. We slept together long before I was a SEAL. We met at a resort and had wild sex. I haven’t had contact with her again.”

Squat narrowed his gaze. “I feel like you just lied to me again.”

“I received an email asking if I wanted to get together for a week or weekend. It had to have been sent just before the medical compound was invaded.”

A frown turned Squat’s lips down. “And you didn’t think to say anything?”

“Say anything about what?” Griz asked as he came over.

Jay groaned. He didn’t want everyone scrutinizing his sex life.

Squat shook his head. “Just tell them. It’s too late to pull back now.”

Worry slithered down Jay’s spine. He should have said something to Griz on the flight over, but he needed to go in and rescue Nichole. Now, he had no choice but to reveal the truth. “The woman they filmed giving the message. I know her. Wehooked up at a resort during a week of leave four years ago. We didn’t exchange contact information, so that was the extent of our relationship.”

Squat rolled his eyes. “Tell them about the email.”

“What email?” Griz asked.

“I got an email the night before we heard about them being taken. I didn’t reply, though. She wanted to know if we could have a repeat week.”

Griz grabbed his beard and squeezed as his eyes went unfocused before meeting Jay’s gaze. “Not a coded message?”

“No. Seriously, she just wanted to get together for sex, nothing more. We weren’t friends. We didn’t spend much time chatting that week. I honestly hadn’t heard from her since I said goodbye at the end of my vacation.”

Griz’s lips thinned, and he gave a sharp nod. “Next time, tell us. I don’t think your previous relationship with her plays into our current mission. Or it won’t have a negative impact. It might give us some insight into who she is.”

“Really, I don’t know her. We had sex, a lot of it, but that was it. She has no clue I’m Navy. I told her I drove a boat. I didn’t say what kind, and she didn’t ask.”

“She didn’t know you were in the Navy?” Squat asked.

Jay shook his head. “No. She had no clue.”

Griz held his gaze. “Don’t say anything else about this. It won’t serve any of us. Just keep your head about you as we move out. Once we are in the rescue phase, if anything goes wrong and you identify yourself, it might earn your trust with her. Hopefully, she has made friends with the people she’s being held with and can assert some influence over them when we need for them to move.”

“Got it.” Relief filled Jay. The guys could have been mad. Heck, they could still be mad, but they weren’t holding this against him.

Griz had a great head on his shoulders and could assess a situation quickly. Jay was glad Griz understood that he would never put the mission or his friends at risk. If there’d been anything in the email that made him suspect Nichole was working to ambush them, he would have said something.

They had about an hour before they would board a helicopter that would take them close to the compound. Nichole and the rest of the captives would be rescued by morning. He just hoped the ones holding them hostage didn’t do something stupid.

Chapter 8

Sleepingwhen the lights were turned up so bright it bled through her eyelids like they were open was nearly impossible. Humans were conditioned to wake up when the sun came up. In here, it was like the sun shone in their faces every second of every minute. Anger twisted through her every time she woke.

As a journalist who traveled for work, she’d learned to sleep almost anywhere, but she carried eye masks and earplugs with her to help her fall asleep on a plane, or at airports. This room was hell on her. She couldn’t get used to the blinding brightness that bled through everything.

Agitation hit her when she glanced over and saw that the other women seemed to be asleep. Nichole knew she was overreacting and should just calm the heck down, but the conditions were making her irrational. Then Cara opened her eyes and met her gaze. The other women were having just as hard of a time sleeping as she was.

Cara glanced toward the speaker and the door, then back to her. Could they talk openly now, or were they still being watched?

Was it the middle of the night or ten in the morning? Exhaustion ate at her, but that didn’t tell her the time. Her body was sore from whatever they’d done to her, and lack of sleep brought on exhaustion. She wished she could crawl into a comfortable bed and pull the covers over her head then sleep until next year.

Cara moved closer, so only a few inches separated them. “What are you thinking?” The whispered words felt illicit but sent a thrill through her.

Nichole shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t see how we can escape from this room. We need to get out of here. When they take us out to eat again, watch for anything you might think is useful.”

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