Carol Ericson - Locked, Loaded And Sealed

That’s when Sophia realized she was breathing in short spurts. The whole attack had gone down in a manner of seconds and she still couldn’t quite believe it had happened—except for her stinging palms...and the gun in the cup holder.

She rubbed her hands together, loosening bits of gravel into her lap. “What the hell just happened?”

“Are you absolutely sure you weren’t followed when you left the medical building?”

If she hadn’t fully absorbed the terror of the altercation in the parking lot before, it now hit her like a wall of water.

She gripped the edge of the seat, digging her fingernails into the nubbed fabric. “D-do you think that man had something to do with Dr. Fazal’s murder?”

“Of course. Could you have been followed?”

“I don’t think so.” She pressed her fingertips to her temples. “I watched, just like you said.”

He made a sharp right turn and her head bumped the glass of the window.

“Sorry.” He pulled the car to a stop along a side street near the MIT campus and jumped out.

With her head spinning, she tumbled out of the car after him. He was already on the ground, scooting backward beneath the car, propelling himself with the heels of his boots—cowboy boots. What kind of navy guy wore cowboy boots?

“What are you doing?” She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging Austin’s jacket around her body, noticing for the first time the fresh, masculine scent in its folds.

He swore and rolled out from beneath the car, clutching something in his fist. Hopping to his feet, he uncurled his hand. “They were tracking you already.”

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at the black quarter-size device cupped in his palm. “Why? What do they want from me?”

“I don’t know.” He tipped his hand and the object fell to the pavement, where he crushed it beneath the heel of his boot. “I don’t know what they wanted from Fazal. If it was just revenge they were after, they got that. They didn’t have to search his office. And why come after you?”

“Come after?” She fell against the back door of the car.

“I’m sorry, Sophia. Let’s get you home.”

“Home?” She shuffled away from him. “If they already put a tracker on my car, won’t they know where I live?”

“Not if they placed the bug at the office.” He kicked the pieces of the tracking device with his toe, scattering them into the gutter.

“Was that man in the parking lot going to shoot me?”

“I don’t think so.” He cocked his head to one side and scuffed the bristle on his chin with the pad of his thumb. “He could’ve taken the shot from farther away. When I saw the gun out of the corner of my eye, the guy didn’t have it raised and ready to shoot.”

“I suppose that’s something to be thankful for.”

“He could’ve wanted info from you.”

“But he wasn’t expecting you—or at least wasn’t expecting my date to be a trained...whatever you are.” She waved her hand up and down his body.

“SEAL.” He rubbed his hands on the thighs of his jeans. “I’m a navy SEAL.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a long way from foreign soil where you usually do your thing, aren’t you?”

“I thought I explained to you that’s why I can’t come in contact with the police. It’s—” he shrugged “—unorthodox for us to operate stateside.”

“Unorthodox or illegal?”

“Depends on who you’re asking.”

She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “And that’s why we sneaked away under the cover of darkness and extinguished our headlights back there when the cop showed up?”

“I don’t want to have to explain anything. That’s not my mission.”

“This is a mission?”

“Did you think I was just dropping in on my old friend Dr. Fazal?”

Her nose stung with tears and she squeezed her eyes shut. “He was my friend...and so much more.”

He dropped his hand where it lay like a weight on her shoulder. “Do you want me to take you home?”

“Will I be safe there?”

“I’m staying with you—for now.”

She studied his strong, handsome face, and the question echoed in her head. Will I be safe there?

He blinked. “I’ll keep watch over you.”

Sighing, she hoisted herself off the car. “I suppose I don’t have much choice. I have to go home at some point, might as well be now.”

When they got back into the car, Austin turned to her. “You can call the Boston PD right now and let them know you feel threatened—that you think you’re being followed. They might step up patrols around your house.”

She chewed her bottom lip and traced the scratches on her palm. Have this navy SEAL, who’d already taken out a guy with a gun, watching over her or the Boston PD, who’d made her life a living hell when she was a teen—easy choice.

“Let’s see how it goes before I call in the big guns.”

Austin started the car. “Where to? I know you live in Jamaica Plain, but I don’t know how to get there without a GPS.”

“Back across the bridge. I’ll be the GPS.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Should I look out for a tail?”

“I think I solved the problem, but it’s not a bad idea.”

She called out directions as she shifted her attention between the side mirror and the mirror on the visor, watching for headlights and suspicious cars.

Her life growing up had hardly been rainbows and unicorns, but it had just shifted into a strange kind of nightmare that didn’t quite seem real. And the man next to her? The most unreal part of it all. He’d literally popped up in the backseat of her car, spouting crazy theories and scaring the spit out of her.

She slid a gaze at his profile. Pretty much everything that had happened tonight, except for Dr. Fazal’s murder, had originated with this man.

Yes, she’d seen the stranger with the gun, but had never seen that gun pointed at her. Maybe he was a cop trying to rescue her from Austin. Of course, he had run away, too.

The tracking device on her car? That could’ve been anything. What did she know about tracking devices?

If Austin had never appeared in her rearview mirror, would she be home snug in her bed, oblivious of gun-wielding assailants and bugged cars? She scooted closer to the door and leaned her head against the cool glass of the window.

With or without Austin, she still couldn’t escape the reality of Dr. Fazal’s death. He’d seen so much in his life but had gotten to a place where he could appreciate the simple pleasures...and he’d been teaching her to do the same.

A sob escaped her lips and fogged the glass of the window.

Austin touched her knee. “Are you thinking about Dr. Fazal? He was a good man—honorable, courageous. We were both lucky to have known him.”

The sincere tone of Austin’s voice washed over her like a soothing balm, and a tear welled up in one eye. Only Dr. Fazal had been able to make her cry. Now if she let herself go, she’d never stop—and she already knew tears did nothing but signal your weakness to the world.

She clenched her teeth and dragged in a breath through her nose. Rubbing the condensation from the window with her fist, she said, “He was a great guy...and I’m going to have to find another job.”

She could feel Austin’s gaze boring into her, and then he removed his hand from her knee.

She tossed back her hair. Let him think she was a cold bitch. She’d opened herself to Dr. Fazal and he’d left her...just like everyone else had. Not that it was his fault. He never would’ve abandoned her.

“Next?”

“What?”

“Right or left?”

She jerked her head up. She hadn’t even been checking the mirrors. She bolted up and grabbed the visor.