Page 71 of The SEALs' Single Mom Baby Surprise

Taking a step back, I watch as she grabs all three of their attention, and tears threaten me again. Losing them is going to gut her.

I should have protected her from this.

Selfish. Stupid.

Grabbing my clipboard, I mumble about checking one last thing and slip into the warehouse without a tail.

A few steps in has me taking deep breaths to keep the tears back.

Was that movement down the rows? I thought everyone had gone home already. I follow it. A dark shadow that keeps creeping along the stacks.

The short-cropped, light brown hair… Edmund? What is he still doing lurking about? I swear he signed off and went home more than an hour ago.

Creeping closer, I pull out my phone to snap some pictures. I have to show some kind of proof that he’s up to something illegal.

He’s brought danger into my workplace, and I amnotokay with this.

It takes a minute to get a clear shot with his face and the crates, but once I do, he turns to look at me fully.

I’m more than ready to confront him, hands clenching at my hips as I march forward. “What are you doing?”

Edmund frowns and shakes his head, turning back to the crates. “Just go home, Sloane.”

“Go home? Isn’t that where you’re supposed to be?” I stomp forward. “Edmund, what are you doing? For real? This is serious shit you’re playing with. You know that, right?”

He glances to the left before I step into his view, forcing him to look at me.

“You have no idea how serious.” His voice is flat, and unease stirs through my muscles. Edmund is just watching me with a guilty expression.

I take a step back as I catch his muscles flexing. How easy it is to forget that he’s bigger than me. Stronger. I hate that he’s pressing on those fear responses when he’s always seemed nice and safe before.

Not a friend, but a friendly co-worker, at least.

What is he now? Dangerous?

“Why don’t you tell me, then? No one seems to think I’m smart enough to get it.” It’s a good thing that I’m fast. Fast enough to keep a good distance between us until one of the men inevitably comes looking.

Edmund laughs softly. It’s not friendly. “No, Sloane. You’re too smart for your own good. Too driven. You always have been. Not afraid to make the rest of us look bad. But I only ever wanted to get by. I’m not trying to draw anyone’s attention.”

My breathing grows shallow.

“Not like you. I knew once you got your teeth into this, you wouldn’t let go. I wish you would have.”

My feet shuffle me back further as he steps around the box.

“You have no idea what’s at stake here.”

I let out a weak laugh. “You mean like the lives of our men and women serving?”

“I’m thinking closer to home than that. I don’t have the privilege of thinking beyond that.”

Glancing around, I curse myself for letting him back me up this way. I can’t see the door to the office, and the lights aren’t on behind me.

A hand clamps over my mouth, a sweet smell covering my nose as a body solidifies behind me.

I hold my breath.

Panic throws my hands up to the arm confining me.

---