Page 194 of Protecting Peyton

I hesitated, but I’d promised him. “Will you take me to hospital instead? The big guy banged my head against the asphalt outside.”

He felt the bump on the back of my head. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 48

Zane

(Five days later)

It was Terry’s day to cover SpaceMasters, so I was at my desk in the Hawk building, missing my woman, when Pete walked in.

Pete had been through hell as a prisoner in Syria. The Navy put him on a twelve-month leave to recover, and Lucas thought a job with us at Hawk would give him purpose and help him.

As a fellow SEALs, Lucas had tasked me and Duke with helping him find his way.

It wasn’t until Pete got close that I noticed the fresh cuts on his knuckles. “Get in a fight with your toaster?”

It didn’t garner the laugh I intended. “I saw her again.”

“Who?”

“Dana.” Twice recently, Pete had mentioned having caught sight of this Dana Miller he’d had a crush on in high school. “She ran off,” he added before I could question if it was really her.

“Really?”

He checked his hands. “She was being hassled by some guys.”

“That sucks.” It explained his wounds. Helping a woman in distress was built into our DNA as SEALs. “I take it you handled it?”

“Afirmative.” He looked down. “I’ve got to find her.”

After he walked off, I knocked on Lucas’s door and let myself in.

The boss looked up.

“Pete says he saw that girl again and he needs to find her.”

Lucas nodded slowly. “Maybe we can use that.”

Pete had been through hell in that Syrian camp, so we blew it off when Pete had first claimed to have seen Xavier, who we knew died in Syria. After the second time, Pete had wanted to devote himself to finding Xavier.

Lucas leaned back in his chair. “Let’s channel his drive away from Xavier and toward the girl. You and Duke can help him. It’ll be good for him to get a success under his belt.”

Now, Duke and I had the hot potato. “Copy that.”

“Keep me informed.”

Then someone knocked on the door, I opened it to find Wellbourne.

The lieutenant entered. “I have an update.”This was probably what Peyton and I had been waiting to hear.

“Boston PD searched O’Connor’s house and found some interesting files. He’d kept notes and recordings of five men who had engaged him to have their wives killed.”

That fit with what Peyton had told me.

Wellbourne twisted in his chair. “Now, this may not be what you want to hear…”

I braced for bad news.