Page 28 of Seduced by a SEAL

“See anything suspicious?” Hunter asked, his eyes sweeping the area.

“Negative. Let’s keep alert as we move forward. The cartels are known to have IEDs. Seems unlikely they’d come here though.”

“Affirmative. The cartels won’t come out here looking for a fight. Doesn’t mean some lone wolf won’t see us and decide to shoot.”

“Game on,” Colton muttered.

Static crackled over his headset, and their CO’s voice from Little Creek filled his ear. “Delta team—we’ve received new intelligence while you were midflight. Miguel Rodriguez was spotted in a convoy of vehicles heading west of the city at 1700 local time. Coordinates are on the way.”

“Roger that,” Hunter said quietly into his headset. “We’re investigating what looks to be a buried body at the edge of the airfield, and then we’ll be on the move. The Colombians can investigate further and deal with it. We’re just making sure someone wasn’t buried alive out here.”

“Roger. Over and out,” their CO said.

Colton and Hunter approached the mound of dirt slowly, cautiously edging closer. Colton paused, looking at the ground. Dirt covered his combat boots. All the tire tracks left on the ground meant that it hadn’t rained recently. Which meant it would’ve been harder to dig a grave.

Someone could’ve dumped a body and then just piled dirt atop it, not even bothering to make sure they were six feet underground.

“It hasn’t rained recently,” Colton said. “Maybe that’s why whatever they buried isn’t very deep? A freshly-dug mound of dirt sure as hell doesn’t conceal the location at all though.”

“You think there are explosives buried around here?” Hunter asked.

Colton paused, glancing around. There were no tell-tale signs of a tripwire, but IEDs were generally well hidden because they were so small. “I doubt anyone would bury a large explosive device way out here,” he said, nodding in the direction of the mound. “If they wanted to target a plane, it would need to be on the runway. And with the military standing guard, it’d be difficult to get close enough for that.”

“Agreed. Maybe they dumped a body. It’s not exactly a great location to hide cash or drugs.”

The walked closer to the pile of fresh dirt, and Colton’s heart dropped as he saw a woman’s shoe abandoned on the ground. A sprinkling of dirt covered the pink sandal, and the delicate strap was broken.

“Shit,” Hunter muttered beside him. “Definite corpse. Looks like it was recently buried.”

Unable to stop himself, Colton stepped closer. He ground his jaw as he saw strands of blonde hair and realized that his heart had been thumping wildly. That he’d inadvertently been holding his breath.

It wasn’t Camila.

But another young woman had lost her life. Probably kidnapped by the cartels and then tossed aside. Accidentally killed, perhaps. Maybe left to send a message.

And now she was abandoned in the dirt.

“Strange to leave a body way out here,” Hunter mused, glancing around. “If they wanted the military to find it, past the end of the runway doesn’t seem like a great choice.”

“DEA has been flying planes in and out of this area for months,” Colton said. “It does seem risky to come all the way out here just to dump a body. Not when the U.S. has boots on the ground. Maybe this was as close as they could get and hope that the U.S. or Colombian military would find it.”

“All right boys, enough talk about the damn body,” Ryker said over the headsets. “The sat imagery we just received shows exactly where Miguel’s convoy stopped. No telling how long it’ll be before they move out again. I’m pulling up the specs, and we can be on our merry way.”

“Hell.” Hunter glanced again at the pile of dirt covering the woman before looking back toward their C-17 and teammates. The rest of the team was gathered around the Humvees, packing up the rest of the gear. Nothing like landing with their own vehicles ready to roll.

“She’ll still be here when we get back,” Colton said.

Hunter nodded, turning and walking toward the rest of the team.

“What’d you find?” their CO asked over the headsets. “Anything to be concerned about?”

“A woman’s body. Tell the Colombians to investigate further after we move out. Colton and I are headed back to Delta.”

Colton followed behind, uneasiness settling over him. Something didn’t sit right about a body being dumped here, in an area the U.S. Government was known to frequent.

Someone was sending them a message.

But what?

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