Page 8 of Protection for Asher (Safeguarded By The SEAL #4)

Squat couldn’t believe a whole month passed since Asher had been taken.

He hated every second of her being gone.

They might have a lead, but the chances it was her were slim.

Thario knew a guy who lived in Dubai who said he would check out some information and get back to him, but Squat doubted this was the real deal.

Every day that passed lessened his hope.

He wasn’t sure if he had any faith that she would be found alive anytime soon.

Everyone had been helping out, but now that they were a month into searching, the other guys were getting busy with their lives.

He knew life had to go on, but he wasn’t ready to give up on Asher yet.

On Saturday morning he headed to Thario’s place, knowing this would probably be the last time he spent the entire weekend searching for Asher.

Thario had other people he had to find. It wasn’t fair for him to monopolize all his time.

He didn’t want to admit it, but searching for Asher was probably a lost cause.

Thario sent him a note telling him to come in when he got there.

Squat called out when he entered the house and Frog came running over, his mouth open with his big teeth flashing.

If he didn’t know Frog was his buddy, he would be scared of him.

Frog was a German Shepard who had come to live with Thario after the bomb went off that killed SEALs and changed Thario’s life forever.

Now Frog was an integral part of his life and an incredibly sweet dog.

“Good morning, Frog. How are you doing?”

The dog sniffed Squat's hand, then turned around and took off back to Thario. Squat moved to the desk where he'd been working. Depression threatened to take him down, but he wouldn't give in yet.

“Hey, how’s it going today?” Thario asked as he came in.

“Ugh. I don’t know how long I can keep doing this. How about we go out for lunch today?”

“Sure. That would be fine. I don’t have much on my plate right now other than what we’re doing.”

He spun in his chair and faced Thario. “I’m sorry I’ve been taking up so much time with this.”

“No worries. It has been nice having someone else involved with searching.”

“I should have been doing this before a friend went missing.”

“No, man, you're good. Few people even know how to search. Look at how much you had to learn on the fly. I mean, you're doing great, but taking the time to teach you stuff would have derailed me before. This last month, you did a lot of learning on your own.”

He nodded. “I have. I just can’t believe she is still missing.”

Thario blew out a breath. “It’s not uncommon. Few women who go missing are ever found. If they’ve been missing for more than a few days it’s almost impossible to find them.”

“Fuck.” Squat clenched his fists, anger at himself growing inside because he hadn't done more.

“Hey, I didn’t say that to make you mad.

You just need to be aware of the realities.

There are thousands of women buried across the western part of the USA because shit like this has been going on for centuries and we fool ourselves into thinking we can find the lost people.

But the job is massive and it’s hard work. ”

Squat shook his head. “It’s all so depressing. Have you heard back from you dude in the FBI?”

Thario nodded. “It took a while, but he finally tied her disappearance to two people but they haven’t arrested them yet.

The state police know about them and the FBI know, but even with that information, it may take a while to get all the evidence in a line.

It sucks, but now they know about it.” Thario’s phone buzzed, and he picked it up.

“It’s a message from my guy in Dubai. He thinks he found something. ”

Squat moved to Thario, not wanting to be too obnoxious about staring at his phone screen but wanting to look. He waited patiently, though that was the last thing he felt. He needed to know what was going on.

Thario read through the notes on his phone and then nodded. “It's good. He has information that the group is into trafficking narcotics and that they are involved in supplying funds to one of the terrorist organizations.

It wasn’t enough to move on, but it was something. “Okay, so what next?”

“The information will be fed to the military. We'll get the CIA and some other organizations to listen. It will get out there and then hopefully someone will want to act.”

Squat blew out a breath. “This is good, right?”

“Yes. Very good. As long as the right people know, maybe something can happen.”

“How can we get the government to take this seriously and act on the information?”

Thario shrugged. “You know as well as I do that they may not act even if they have all the information.”

Squat drew in a deep breath. “What about going in on my own?”

Thario looked up from his phone, his eyebrows raised. “Dude, I know you’re strong, no disrespect, but get real.”

He squeezed his fists together, knowing Thario was right. “It’s a stupid idea.”

“I'll send this information to everyone I can think of, even contacts in England and France. We'll see if we can get interest in shutting them down. If the USA won’t go in, maybe France will.”

Squat ran his hands through his hair, frustration still hanging on tight. “Thank you.”

“You know as well as I do, even if the military goes in, that doesn’t mean that everyone liberated will come home alive.”

Squat nodded. He didn't want to think about Asher dying over there. She deserved better. Years had passed since the last time he'd seen her; she'd had other lovers and may even have someone waiting at home right now, but at this moment, that didn't matter. He just wanted her safe.