Page 19 of Dangerous Devotion

Lights glared from the heavy equipment on the dock, creating an inky shimmer on the water. May stood so close to Henner that she felt his body heat through the thin sleeve of her shirt. The warmth was welcome, but she didn’t know what to think about the source it came from.

He spoke in hushed monosyllables, the phone locked against his ear. The shadows rippled over his carved features,emphasizing the firm set of his jaw and twin frown lines etched between his brows.

She spent a lot of time in the field in her career, but this was her first time hiding behind crates on a dock with a Navy SEAL who looked strong enough to crush boulders. The glare he fixed on the crate they were supposed to follow grew darker by the moment.

Without any final word of farewell, he ended the call and stashed the phone in his pocket.

She stared up at him. “Well?”

“Con has no idea why that crate moved through customs so quickly.”

Frustration scudded through her, and she scrubbed a finger along her temple where a headache was starting to form. “Tell me again why you didn’t stop it from leaving that port in Turkey? Couldn’t you have intercepted it before it ever reached the US?”

The blue of his eyes seemed to shift with the shadows from navy blue to the same ink as the water.

He gave a short shake of his head. “No. We couldn’t touch it without bringing a shit storm down on us. It had to be intercepted here in the US.”

She racked her brain for what she knew from years of personal experience with explosives. But she also had a combined fifty years’ worth of knowledge gathered from her father, uncles and brother.

“Okay, let’s think about how it got pushed through customs so quickly.” The grind of crane engines and the beep of forklifts drown any other noises around them. She stared off into space, working through the problem.

After a long minute, a revelation struck.

“It would only happen if it’s a military package. But from what I know, the crate didn’t bear markings like that when it leftTurkey.” She spoke slowly, aware of Henner’s eagle-sharp gaze on her.

“The terrorist wouldn’t make it obvious, May.”

She arched a brow. “You mean Cipher?”

Dropping that name let Henner know that she did have the knowledge to back her up on this.

He cocked his brow at her in return.

She went on, “There must be some new marking on the crate. An invoice or—”

“Paperwork that it’s been cleared,” he interrupted.

Excitement hatched in her stomach and took flight with a flutter. “Right!”

He searched her eyes for a beat before roaming over the rest of her face. Why did the brush of his eyes feel like a soft caress? The same way his fingers had lingered on her spine back at the gala.

His focus shifted back to the crate. “There’s not a lot of protection on the crate.”

“No guards?” She peeked out but he was a little taller, which provided a better vantage point.

“One.”

The hum of more engines added to the growing noise on the dock. A parade of trucks trickled in to collect the shipments and haul them away.

Just then, a military truck rolled into view. Sucking in a sharp breath, she latched on to Henner’s arm. His muscle rippled in answer.

“That’s the transport.”

As they looked on, a forklift buzzed up to another truck with a massive shipping pallet on its forks and loaded it into the back. The driver spoke to the dock crew for a minute and then climbed into the high seat of the truck and drove off.

The next truck in line was the military transport. The driver did not get out.

“There would be two in the vehicle. There’s usually a backup.”

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