Page 69 of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs 2)

Trina would have to live in the backcountry rather than closer to town.

"Why? We haven't even made contact with the only suspect we have. Why make a move this fast?"

"It's a setup." He glanced over at her, his chest tightening at her narrow-eyed surveillance of the empty road behind them.

She was cool as hell. He wouldn't have suspected that a week ago. Her expression was composed, determined. Her eyes sharp and intelligent, suspicious, but not frightened.

"Why is it a setup, Clint?" She still gripped the little pistol close to her thigh, her fingers curved around it easily.

But hell, he was still gripping his. He laid it carefully on the seat beside him.

"Relax. I have a friend I can borrow a car and some clothes from. It's time to get the hell out of Dodge, Morganna."

"I'll ask again. Why?" He glimpsed her from the corner of his eye, staring back at him suspiciously.

"This isn't just about the operation you're working," he told her then. "Remember the operation where Reno was shot a year ago?"

"I remember he was shot." Of course she did. She had nearly lost her brother. All of them had lost a good friend.

"We went against a man named Diego Fuentes in Colombia. Two SEAL teams, mine and Reno's, along with a six-man Ranger team and two six-man teams of government soldiers. We went in to rescue the daughters of three senators who had been kidnapped and were being held in exchange for the safe passage of a shipment of drugs. We killed Fuentes' wife, his son, and his brother; we were told Fuentes went down with the house when it collapsed."

"He didn't?" She settled back in her chair as the truck raced to the outer edges of town. Thankfully, Trina wasn't too far from the social center she loved so much.

"Fuentes' scientist developed the date rape drug." Clint wiped his hand weakly over his face. "I would have joined Joe's team a year ago, if my CO hadn't held me back. The DEA was working to find the supplier, but another group was working to track the distributors of the videos as well as the lab creating the drug. And possibly Nathan. They were using Joe to keep the suppliers distracted from the other group's work."

She was silent. Clint grimaced. This wasn't a good thing. He flicked a look at her closed expression, grimacing at the glitter of anger in her eyes.

"I had no idea you were involved in this until it was too late," he growled. "No one suspected Fuentes was actually alive."

"And what makes you think he is?"

"Trina. She was part of Fuentes' network two years ago. and evidently still is," he snarled, wishing he could wring Trina's neck for not telling him sooner. "We have to switch vehicles, then find some place to hole up where Merino won't be able to track us. I don't trust him or his crew now. Morganna. I'll call in the rest of the team tonight. We'll take care of it."

"Convenient," she muttered. "Why didn't you do this sooner?"

"I can't save the fucking world," he snarled as he rubbed at his neck in frustration. "I do my little bit, Morganna. Me and Reno. That's the best we can do, and we have to be content with that. I agreed with the operation as it was being handled. That drug is too dangerous not to track it to its source. It has to be eliminated. Taking out a supplier in Atlanta isn't going to help the problem growing in New York, or on the West Coast. And it is growing. Find the root and you kill the vine."

"What about the women dying in the meantime?" she cried out, furious, the pain in her voice slicing through his chest.

"The alternative is worse, Morganna," he bit out. "If we just take out a few suppliers here and there, and miss the lab while it's in one place, controlled by one hand, then it goes worldwide. It will become as popular and easy to find as crack or pot. Is that better? How does that benefit the women who have already had their lives ruined or taken?"

"You could have told me," she protested furiously. "You could have worked with me when you came into this instead of hiding everything."

"I wanted you out," he bit out, the blood thundering through his veins. "For God's sake, do you think I wanted you mixed up in this any deeper than you were already?"

"Do you think you could have stopped it?" She raked her fingers through her hair, glaring at him as he looked over her, pulling to a stop as the light before him turned red.

His eyes flicked between the mirrors, checking traffic, watching for the sedan.

"I wanted to stop it," he growled. "I would have stopped it, if you hadn't been so damned stubborn."

"Dammit, Clint, you promised to work with me. This is information Joe needed. Information I needed."

"Joe doesn't need anything more than he has," Clint bit out. "There's a mole on that team, Morganna; admit it. I didn't give you the information because I thought the danger you faced was the damned dealers or suppliers, not the head viper."

Morganna breathed in roughly. "What do we do now?"

"We have to get to Macey's." Macey was one of the few men Clint knew could help him now. The hacker from hell. "We'll get another car and head to the mountains-"

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