Page 19 of SEAL’s Paradise (Alpha SEALs Hawaii #6)

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S AWYER SPUN A PEN ON the table in the secure conference room the next morning, watching it circle around before finally slowing to a stop.

He’d had a late night, dropping Riley back at her place well after two in the morning.

The driver of the SUV had been a dead-end, and she’d quickly returned to his truck after realizing they wouldn’t get any new information from him.

The tattooed guy had disappeared into the massage parlor, and they’d both wanted to be out of sight if he’d made a reappearance.

Sawyer felt his teammates’ eyes on him now as they waited for their briefing with the CO to begin. The guys were pissed that he’d gone with Riley last night to investigate the address.

“You should’ve told me you went there,” Wyatt said, eyeing him. “I thought you were hanging out at the bar. We don’t know what other shady business this guy is involved with.”

“Think I had a pretty good idea as soon as I saw the women gathered outside a massage parlor and men arriving like vultures circling their prey,” Sawyer drawled.

“You don’t wanna get benched, Saint,” Aaron told him. “Sure, you may have been checking it out, but didn’t you say the commander is already on your ass? If you ended up questioned by police or arrested, none of us would’ve known what was going on.”

“Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t going to let Riley go there alone. And I wasn’t propositioning any women. I hung back while Riley checked things out. Her call,” he added.

Austin studied him, quiet. “You like her.”

“What’s not to like?” Sawyer quipped.

Austin chuckled. “Well sure, you like women in general, but you care about her. This is different. I mean, hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you spend so much time with the same woman before.”

Sawyer clenched his jaw. “I’m helping her.”

“Yeah,” Austin agreed, “but it’s more than that.”

Sawyer huffed out a frustrated sigh. “Seems like bullshit since I barely know the woman, but I’m having trouble getting her out of my head. Quiet little waitress Riley didn’t capture my attention, but this? She’s fucking spectacular.”

The rest of the room filled with the low laughter of his teammates.

“She was dressed to kill last night—sexy as hell in her tight jeans and little top, with a sidearm concealed under her jacket.”

“And you still haven’t slept with her?” Hudson asked in disbelief.

Sawyer shot him a look. “No. In between working at Coconuts, singling out the traitor from a sea of people at the bar, and chasing down a random address last night, we didn’t have time for that,” he said sarcastically.

“Doesn’t seem like you, buddy,” Hudson said. He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms, a shit-eating grin on his face. “You got it bad.”

“Maybe I want to find the guy selling out our country.”

“Nah,” Hudson said. “I mean you do, but it’s more than that. You must really like her if you haven’t gotten in her pants yet.”

“Very funny.”

Wyatt stood and moved across the room, shutting the door to the bullpen. They were still waiting for their CO, but he clearly didn’t want anyone to overhear their discussion. “We still don’t have a match as far as facial recognition.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Hudson assured him.

Sawyer sucked in a breath, feeling frustrated. No doubt his teammates realized he was pissed they didn’t have a name to go with the face yet. And as for Riley talking to the mystery man in the SUV? He was just the damn driver, paid to bring the tattooed man to the massage parlor.

“We damn well better figure it out. I didn’t like watching Riley walk right into danger last night.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows.

“It could’ve been dangerous,” Sawyer insisted. He briefly explained the original reason Riley had been here on the island—hunting the man who’d hurt her sister.

“No shit. He attacked Riley, too?” Hudson asked in disbelief.

“I wonder if that’s when she was out for a week,” Ryan assessed.

“Huh. I hadn’t considered that, but it’s possible,” Sawyer said. “I assumed at the time her child was sick—her fake child,” he added. “She got away from him, and the dick’s in jail now. Still, I could tell she was slightly wary last night. I think it jarred her more than she was willing to admit.”

“So, what’s the deal with the wedding plans? That happening or not?” Wyatt asked.

Sawyer eyed his team leader. “It might not need to happen. Ironic since I just got some of the paperwork as far as benefits yesterday. We have a lead now, and as soon as we ID the guy, we’re going to stop him.

Riley planted a bug on the SUV he was in, but that was hired help.

I put a tracker in his jacket. Looks like he left it at Coconuts, either accidentally or not.

When he goes back for it, hopefully we’ll have means to track him to his place. ”

“Nice,” Hudson quipped. “Riley brings you on board and shit is happening.”

“Some of it was just dumb luck,” Sawyer admitted. “She had an intercepted message about the meeting last night, and the idiot had a huge ass tiger tattoo on his arm. Made it easy to ID the perp.”

“Except we don’t know who he is,” Ryan said with a frown. “If Riley put a tracker on the SUV, couldn’t you follow it?”

Sawyer shook his head. “Tiger boy didn’t leave in the same vehicle. Riley and I watched from my truck, but he never came back out the front door. The SUV drove away without any passengers. Bro was suspicious no doubt. They know the messenger delivered the address to the wrong person at Coconuts.”

“I’m surprised he showed up at all in that case,” Wyatt said.

“It was gutsy,” Sawyer admitted. “I’m guessing he wanted to see who showed. Or he was ballsy enough to go anyway. Maybe he really wanted to get laid.”

“It seems weird,” Austin said with a frown. “Even if this guy is a total prick, Coconuts is crawling with women who want a Navy guy. I’m sure he could’ve easily found a woman to sleep with there.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what to make of it,” Sawyer admitted.

The door to the conference room suddenly opened, and Commander Harrison “Harley” Madden stormed in, looking irritated. “Let’s get down to business. We’ve got to go over the situation brewing in Syria. And you,” he said, pointing at Sawyer, “I need to have a word with later.”

***

“G OOD LUCK, SAINT,” Hudson said, clapping him on the back as he exited the bullpen. The other men filed out behind Hudson, and Sawyer remained, waiting to see where his commander wanted to meet.

“In my office. Now.”

Sawyer rose to his feet and followed him, striding down the long corridor. Commander Madden shut the door behind him once they were inside, eyeing Sawyer with a cool gaze. “What’s this about you getting married? Some type of stunt you’re pulling?”

“Yes and no, sir,” Sawyer admitted.

“Explain yourself.”

Sawyer assessed his commanding officer for a moment. At the very least, he should tell him what was going on. Sawyer trusted his CO just as he did his teammates—with his life. But would his commander then feel obligated to report it up the chain of command?

Biting back a curse, Sawyer gave him the rundown on what was going on. The commander listened carefully, a look of disbelief on his face when Sawyer had finished.

“And no one in Navy Command is aware of this? They don’t know that missiles have gone missing?” he asked incredulously.

“Not that I’m aware of, sir. This investigation into the illicit sale of weapons is coming directly from the Defense Department. They’ve hired a team to secretly investigate. Riley and her sister are former feds. They branched out on their own after separating from the government.”

“Who else is she working with?” Commander Madden asked.

“That’s a good question. Her sister is busy starting up with a new group on the West Coast. I don’t have the details, but she’s based out of Seattle. Riley is here alone. The women have contacts everywhere and take jobs that come their way.”

“God damn it,” his CO muttered. “I want to speak with her.”

“Seriously?”

“That’s an order, sailor. Bring her in here. I can’t have you running off investigating this matter, unauthorized, I might add. How the hell are you going to ID the guy from a photograph?”

Sawyer cleared his throat. “Facial recognition, sir.”

Commander Madden continued without missing a beat. “Exactly. And none of you were given authorization to do so. I’m not willing to risk the team’s ability to deploy if you’re benched. Does the rest of the team know about this?”

“Affirmative, sir.”

“I expect to see Ms. Moore in my office this afternoon. You two fail to show, and I’m going up the chain of command. It won’t go well for you,” he added with a glare.