Carol Ericson - Point Blank Seal

He mumbled under his breath, “C’mon, guys.”

A shift and a scrape behind his location had the hair on the back of his neck quivering. Before he had time to analyze this latest noise behind him, movement on the rocks below had him tightening his finger on the trigger. A light flashed behind the rocks and a pop echoed in the distance.

What the hell just happened? Miguel hissed into his mic, “What was that? Send me a signal.”

The only signal he received was another flash and bang. Had the SEALs come upon Vlad’s hideout? Were they taking him out now?

The crack of a twig behind him didn’t sound like a nighttime rodent or even a bat, but his mission right now was to protect those men down there. Breathing heavily, Miguel swept the rocky hillside, looking for anything that hadn’t been there before.

He hadn’t liked the look of those particular rocks from the get-go, but the team had to traverse them to get to Vlad’s cave—if that was Vlad’s cave.

A head rose above the highest boulder and Miguel’s gut lurched. A man, a keffiyeh wrapped about his head, waved his arms in the air, a weapon clutched in one hand.

Miguel swallowed hard as he recognized the weapon. Then he swore when he realized the man was gesturing—toward him...or someone behind him.

In a split second, he took the shot and dropped the man while he was still waving. Then he rolled to his side, hauling his rifle with him, but it was too late. As he tried to reposition his weapon to the target behind him, he heard the click of a gun.

A heavy boot crushed his arm holding the rifle and Miguel gritted his teeth. Someone else kicked him in the head, and the tinny taste of blood flooded his mouth.

A man growled in English, “Drop your weapon and get on your knees. Your team members are all dead.”

Instead of releasing his rifle, Miguel swung it behind him, making contact with someone’s leg. The target grunted and one of his cohorts kicked Miguel in the midsection.

The cold metal of a gun pressed against Miguel’s temple.

“I’m going to tell you one more time. Release your weapon and get on your knees.”

They seemed to have given up on the idea of Miguel releasing anything because someone began to pry his fingers off the rifle, bending them back and breaking a few in the process. They weren’t about to wait for him to get on his knees either, as he was yanked up by his jacket.

Miguel raised his eyes for the first look at his captors. Three men—one pointing a gun at his head, one rubbing his shin and the third assessing him through narrowed eyes.

Miguel cleared his throat and spit some blood out of the side of his mouth. “Was this a trap?”

His question earned him another kick to the gut, and he doubled over.

There was no way anyone could’ve known their position, even if those two boys from earlier in the day had ratted them out, which they probably had. This had been a setup from the start, and in the off chance that he got out of this alive, he’d make it his life’s mission to root out the mole that had been responsible for the deaths of those SEALs down there.

“We ask the questions, pig. How much do you know about the man you call Vlad?”

Since Miguel had no intention of answering any of their questions—now or ever—it looked like he wouldn’t get that chance to track down the mole.

He spit blood again, this time at his interrogator’s foot. “Go to hell.”

As the butt of his own rifle came at his head, Miguel had one thought before the darkness engulfed him.

Jennifer.

Chapter One

Two years later

Jennifer herded her fifth-grade students into the park and yelled at two boys straggling behind. “Chase and Noah, you are not in middle school yet. I can still keep you from walking at promotion this week.”

The two boys laughed and shoved at each other, but they caught up with the class.

Jennifer pressed the smile from her lips. She couldn’t help it if she had a soft spot for rambunctious boys. Her own son kept her on her toes and he was only eighteen months old.

When her class got to the picnic area with the other fifth-grade classes already there, she set them free and she joined the other teachers by the barbecue area, sipping sodas and drinking from water bottles.

Jennifer pointed to the parents grilling the burgers and hot dogs and setting out bags of chips. “Are we helping or what?”

Olivia Gutierrez, who had the classroom next to hers, shook her head and raised her can of soda. “Our wonderful parent volunteers are taking care of everything and told us to relax.”

“We have the best parents.” Jennifer stooped next to a cooler and pulled a bottle of water from the ice. She cracked open the lid and then tipped it toward a man at the edge of the parking lot next to the park. “Is that one of ours?”

Susan Burke, the other fifth-grade teacher at their school, shrugged. “I don’t recognize him, but it’s not like I’ve seen every parent in the fifth grade. Could be a parent from Stowe.”

The man’s attention seemed to float from the kids to the teachers, and a whisper of fear brushed the back of Jennifer’s neck. She called to Mrs. Garrett, one of the teachers from Stowe. “Mrs. Garrett? Is that man in the blue shirt by the parking lot one of yours?”

Mrs. Garrett adjusted her glasses and squinted. “I’ve never seen him before, and I don’t like the way he’s looking at the kids.”

Olivia smirked and elbowed Jennifer in the ribs.

“I’ll find out right now.” Mrs. Garrett, her gray, permed hair waving at the top of her head, marched toward the parking lot like an angry bird.

One of the other Stowe teachers laughed. “Once Pilar gets done with him, he’s gonna wish he never set foot in this park.”

Jennifer smiled, but her muscles tensed as she watched Mrs. Garrett confront the stranger.

Mrs. Garrett gestured toward the kids, waved her arms and pointed toward the barbecue area. When she was done with him, the man hightailed it back to his car.

Jennifer murmured, “Guess he wasn’t a parent.”

“What?” Olivia had turned around from her conversation with a parent.

Everyone else had lost interest in the confrontation. Nobody had watched Mrs. Garrett talk to the man...except Jennifer. She’d been very interested.

“The man at the edge of the parking lot. He left.”

Olivia snorted. “Even if he’d been a parent, Mrs. Garrett had probably scared him off. She scares me.”

Jennifer wiped her clammy palms on the thighs of her slacks and intercepted Mrs. Garrett when she returned to the barbecue area, her low heels clicking on the cement.

“Who was he?”

“Just an office worker from the area on his lunch break. He didn’t realize the schools were having our end-of-the-school-year picnic today, but I set him straight.”

Jennifer’s gaze shifted to the squat office buildings scattered across the street from the park. If he worked in one of those, why had he driven a car and come through the parking lot? He should’ve crossed at the crosswalk and come in the way the kids had entered.

“Ms. Lynch, Ms. Lynch!” One of the girls from her class was waving her arms. “Do you want to do the Hula-Hoop with us?”

“Duty calls.” She put her bottle of water on a picnic table and promptly forgot about the man in the parking lot as soon as she slipped that pink plastic circle around her waist.

After a few more games, a cheeseburger, a hot dog and enough candy to put her in a sugar coma, Jennifer clasped a clipboard to her chest and raised two fingers. “Anyone in my class leaving with a parent, check in with me before you take off.”

Olivia bumped her shoulder. “With any luck, all of them will leave with a parent and we can stagger back to the school on our own.”