Carol Ericson - Navy Seal Spy

Katie had her doubts he ever left the compound.

She clicked her remote, and her horn beeped once. She went straight for the backseat, running her palms along the leather. Then she lay on her stomach and scanned the floor for the shiny button. She even slipped her hands between the seat cushions.

Her fingertips skimmed the edge of a long-lost nickel. She pulled it free and tucked it into the pocket of her slacks.

Blowing a wisp of hair from her face, she shimmied out of the backseat and slid behind the wheel of the car. She scooped a fistful of quarters from the cup holder to make sure she had enough money for Samantha’s soda and one for herself.

Then she tilted her head back against the headrest. When had she lost that button? She hadn’t been too many places after borrowing the sweater from Sam at the end of the workday.

She’d worked late in her cubicle after everyone had left to give herself time to do her weekly roaming of the hallways. She’d finally lucked out when she discovered Garrett Patterson’s door unlocked—at least she’d considered herself lucky until Ginger had murdered Garrett.

Could she have lost the button hiding in that closet?

Or was it worse than that? She pressed her fingertips to her lips as she recalled the sweater getting caught on Garrett’s chair as she wiped her prints from his desk.

No point in returning to his office even if she could get in. If she’d lost the button there, it was either hidden or someone had found it and disposed of it. A button was a button, and it could’ve come from anywhere.

She scooted from the car and deposited the rest of the change into her pocket. She slammed the car door and leaned forward to peer at her reflection. This dry weather wasn’t doing her hair any favors—not that she had cared about her appearance here at Tempest one iota until Liam had shown up on the scene. The man still caused her blood to simmer despite her resolve not to let him affect her. She couldn’t afford the distraction.

A movement reflected in the glass caught her eye, and she spun around. The blank headlights on the rows of cars parked in their orderly places stared back at her.

She cocked her head, listening for the beep of a remote or the slamming of a car door. Her own heavy breathing answered her.

Maybe someone had just come back to his car to get something or take a break. Nobody at Tempest had any reason to suspect her of snooping. Sure, Ginger and Meyers had caught her near the track, but she wouldn’t be the first female employee at Tempest to try to get a better look at the buff recruits as they went through their paces.

Wiping her palms on her slacks, she strode toward the parking structure’s elevator and jabbed the button. When the doors closed, she released a sigh and sagged against the wall of the elevator.

It had been a long time since she’d practiced this cloak-and-dagger stuff. She’d stopped hacking shortly after turning eighteen. Sergeant Liz Humphries, the cop who’d taken an interest in Katie while she’d still been in the foster care system, had undertaken the chore of teaching her right from wrong and more important at the time, the difference between a juvenile record and an adult record.

The same woman had encouraged a rebellious Sebastian to enlist in the Marine Corps. Liz had been a surrogate mother to both of them, creating an unbreakable bond between them at the same time—unbreakable until Sebastian’s death.

She blinked back tears as she crossed the courtyard between the parking garage and the office building. As soon as she had proof that Tempest was responsible for Sebastian’s death, she’d blow this organization sky-high. And if Liam was still with Tempest, she’d blow him sky high with it.

She swung by the lunchroom and fed her dollar bills and coins into the soda machine. With a can in each hand, she returned to her office on the first floor. She swiped her card and sailed through the free-standing desks at the front of the office toward the cubicles in the back of the room.

She leaned into Samantha’s empty cubicle and placed the can on the edge of her desk in the only spot not covered with papers.

Something gleamed under the lamp on Samantha’s desk blotter, and Katie reached out and smoothed her fingers along the edges of the square button.

She blew out a breath. Samantha must’ve found it in the office. Maybe it had fallen off the sweater in her cube before Katie had even borrowed it.

She returned to her own cubicle and popped the tab on her soda. She had one bug fix to take care of, and then she planned to do a little digging into Liam’s file if she could get in there. She’d hacked into other recruits’ files but had never found Sebastian’s. Of course, Sebastian had been a full-fledged Tempest agent and not just a recruit. She hadn’t discovered that database yet.

She laced her fingers and cracked her knuckles over her keyboard. “Just give me time.”

A gust of Samantha’s flowery perfume announced her presence. “Thanks for the soda.”

“You’re welcome. I see you have the button. If you want, I’ll sew it on for you.”

Samantha held up her hands, wiggling her fingers, topped with long, blue fingernails. “Despite these nails, I’m rather handy with a needle. Don’t worry about it.”

“Where’d you find it? I bet it was in your cube all along. It had probably come off even before you loaned the sweater to me.”

“No, it didn’t.” Samantha put her lips to the can and took a sip. “Someone found it and returned it to me.”

“Really?” Katie’s hands hovered over her keyboard. “Someone actually found a button and knew it was yours?”

“Said he’d noticed the sweater on me before because his sister had one like it.” She shrugged. “Maybe he’d been checking me out.”

“He?” Katie dropped her hands to her lap, threading her fingers together so tightly the knuckles turned white.

“One of the security guards.”

A muscle ticked in Katie’s jaw. “Which one?”

“The big guy with the tattoo of a bird on his hand—Meyers.”

Chapter Four

Katie took a quick swig of her soda, and the carbonation fizzed against the back of her throat, making her eyes water. “Where’d he find it?”

“Outside the ladies’ room.”

“That’s just weird that he knew it belonged to you.”

“I don’t know. The buttons are kind of distinctive—ugly but distinctive. Like I said, he said his sister had one like it. Whatever, I got the button back and you’re off the hook.” She raised her can and disappeared into her own work area.

Katie closed her eyes and wrapped her hands around the sweating can. Meyers had a tattoo of a bird. He’d been the one helping Ginger in Patterson’s office and the one who had held her at gunpoint on the track. Now he’d found Samantha’s button.

Was he pulling for employee of the month?

Pressing her damp fingers against her cheeks, she let out a long breath. So, Meyers found the button outside the ladies’ room, recognized it as Samantha’s and returned it to her. Nothing odd about that. He’d notice an attractive blonde like Sam, had probably been checking her out and maybe thought this was his chance to talk to her.

If he had found the button in Garrett’s office, would he really run around the company trying to find its owner? Would they be that obvious?

Her computer blipped and an instant message popped up in the lower right-hand corner of her screen.

What r u really doing at Tempest?

A trickle of fear crept down her spine. The usual name that accompanied an instant message read user . This could be anyone testing her. Someone had seen her with Liam at the track.

She typed where the blinking cursor invited.