Page 13 of SEAL Ever After

“What did it look like?” Ryan asked, eyeing the gray car paused on his computer screen.

“A red convertible.”

Ryan nodded, continuing to play the footage. With the gorgeous weather, it was probably someone just cruising around enjoying the sunshine. “Did they stop at the house or do anything out of the ordinary?”

“Nope, she just mentioned it driving around. Are we tracking incidents?”

“Damn it,” Ryan muttered. “We’ll have to. Although I hope none of our families are in jeopardy, we’d be foolish to ignore anything unusual given the circumstances. I don’t like that your names were leaked.”

“Roger that,” Patrick said. “I don’t like a damn thing about it either.”

They ended the call, and crossing his arms, Ryan leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving the screen as he resumed reviewing the surveillance. He hadn’t even changed out of his uniform since arriving home from base, but something was niggling at the back of his mind.

He fast forwarded through the footage, finally seeing the same dark gray car slowly driving by his house an hour later.

It didn’t stop and continued out of the neighborhood.

The sound of the front door opening had him looking up, and a beat later he heard Sarah. “Hi baby, I’m home!” she called out.

He stood, walking out of his office to meet her, and a moment later she was throwing herself into his arms.

He pulled her close, kissing the top of her head as he held her. She smelled of salty ocean breezes, and he wondered if she’d met Morgan for a drink again at their favorite oceanfront bar. “Did you go back to base?” she asked, pulling away to look up at him. “I figured you’d be out there grilling or something since you were supposed to be off this afternoon.”

Ryan scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I’ve been home, but I wanted to go over the surveillance footage.”

Her face fell. “Is everything okay?”

Ryan immediately collected her in his arms again. “Everything’s fine, baby girl. I just wanted to make sure. Remember yesterday when I thought someone might be watching the house?”

“Damn,” she said, pulling back. “You’re serious?”

“I’m serious, but I’m just reviewing the footage as a precaution. I had some news on base that made me want to check on things.”

Sarah raised her eyebrows. “What kind of news?”

A beat passed, and he didn’t say anything.

“Ryan, come on,” she said. “You’re freaking me out here.”

“Let’s sit down,” he said, glancing at his computer screen once more and guiding her over to the small loveseat in his office. The footage continued to play on his screen, and he wanted to curse at the damn awful timing. He’d just proposed to Sarah this morning. He wanted to take her into his arms and make love to her all night, not tell her they needed to be extra careful.

She watched the footage from across the room for a moment and then looked up at him.

“Did you find anything?”

“One car driving slowly by the house, but nothing too out of the ordinary.”

“You should’ve told me you were worried,” she said softly, curling up beside him. With Ryan in his crisp uniform and Sarah in her scrubs, her hair pulled up in a messy twist of some sort, they looked as different as night and day. “I would’ve come right home after work,” she continued. “Last night you seemed pretty casual about it all—I mean, we were out naked in the backyard, not hunkered down inside the house or something.”

“Yeah. I should’ve texted you. There’re some things on base going on. The guys just got back from an op yesterday, as you know. They were working with the Mexican government. I can’t provide you with many more details, but the point is, their names were leaked.”

“Leaked?” Sarah asked, looking confused.

“There’s a dirty player down there. We were working with the Mexicans, and one of the officials leaked the names of the SEAL team to the bad guys.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?” he asked, crinkling his brow.

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