Page 10 of Waiting for Him (Trident Security #3)

Chapter Six

T hey had about another half hour before they landed in a small airport outside of Norfolk , Virginia .

Boomer hadn’t been up this way in over a year, but his last trip had been a long weekend of catching up with people he hadn’t seen in a while.

Another of his old high school friends had taken the plunge and married.

They'd been dropping like flies these past few years. His mind drifted to Alex , and he wondered, if his friend had still been alive, would he have found some woman and put a ring on her finger? He doubted it. Alex had been worse than he’d been back in the day.

His friend had a new hook-up almost every weekend, going through girls as if trying to win a new Guinness world record.

At least Boomer had dated several girls for a few weeks before moving on.

But all that changed after his Kitten had “died.” He’d only fallen in love once in his life, and look how it’d ended. She was gone less than thirty-six hours after he professed his love. Yeah , it wasn't her fault, but it still hurt like hell.

He glanced over to where she was curled up on the plane’s couch, reading a book since her migraine had faded.

Damn , she was still the prettiest woman he’d ever met despite her recent weight loss.

She’d passed on the egg sandwich, letting him have it instead because she couldn’t eat with the headache.

He had Jake stop for a turkey and cheese sandwich for her to eat on the plane and had been happy to see her finishing it off about fifteen minutes ago.

In the recliner next to him, Jake was taking a power nap.

His teammate had been up half the night trying to find his missing informant.

He’d finally found the little punk in a local crack house, and Jake was pissed.

The kid had been clean for six months before this setback.

Jake dragged his ass out of there and into a hospital.

The next stop was an agreed-upon rehab facility.

Boomer had never met the informant, but if the former SEAL was putting this much work into trying to save him from the life of a homeless junkie, there had to be something there that impressed him.

Boomer hoped the kid was worth the effort.

He got up and sat down on the couch next to Kat .

Against his better judgment, he grabbed her ankles and pulled her feet into his lap.

She’d removed her slip-on flats earlier, and without conscious thought, he rubbed the arch of her right foot.

She closed her eyes and groaned as he dug his thumbs deep into the tissue. The sound went straight to his groin.

“ God , that feels so good. Please don’t stop.”

His mouth twitched, and he wished he was doing other things to her, which gave him the same response. “ So , tell me about Portland .”

Her eyes opened just enough for her to see him through the slits. “ What do you want to know?”

“ I don’t know. Everything ? Anything ? Do you have a job there? Friends ?” Boyfriends ? He was torn between wanting and not wanting to know the answer to that.

She shrugged. “ Only a few close friends, but I have a great job, which I love. When we first ended up there, our handler, Chris , sent me to see an old army buddy of his. Jeremy Pierce and his wife Eva own a canine training facility for protection and law enforcement. We clicked immediately, and he taught me how to train the dogs. I’ve been working for him ever since.

I train them in drug and explosives detection, as well as passive and aggressive tracking, depending on the dog and the agency.

Passive tracking is for missing persons, and aggressive is for suspects. ”

“ What differs?”

Groaning , she bit her lip when he dug into a particular spot in her arch. “ Passive tracking, the dog will lead its handler right up to the person. When you’re tracking a possibly armed suspect, you want some warning before he’s suddenly right in front of you.

“ There’s a funny story about one of our graduates.

His dog was a passive tracker and drug detector, but a few months ago, they had a suspect disappear into the woods, and they didn’t have an aggressive tracker available.

So , they put two officers on either side of the team, with their guns at the ready, because the handler’s eyes had to be on the dog, looking for tells.

This way, if the suspect suddenly appeared, they were covered.

“ Anyway , they were tracking for about ten minutes when the dog suddenly sat down in the middle of nowhere. The handler tried to get him back on track, but the dog wouldn’t budge.

It took a few moments, but they realized the dog was sitting on a pile of leaves, and one of them spotted the heel of a sneaker.

The suspect had buried himself under a pile of leaves, hoping they’d walk right by him, and the darn dog was sitting on his back.

” They both started laughing. “ The handler kicks the guy’s leg and says, ‘ Don’t move.

’ The suspect answers, ‘ Wasn’t planning on it. ’”

Laughing harder, Boomer couldn’t help but be impressed. It was obvious she loved her job. “ Wow . That’s awesome. Beau went through a training place like that in Florida . He was about six weeks old when Ian found him at the compound. His mother was a stray who’d just died, so Ian took him in.”

“ I noticed his training,” she told him while nodding.

“ Do they know where you are? Your bosses? I mean, do you still have a job after we find who’s after you?” Part of him wanted her to say no, but they would both be better off if she said yes.

She glanced out the window of the plane.

“ Yes . Sort of. I told them I had a family emergency.” At his raised eyebrow, she shrugged.

“ It was all I could think of at the time. Anyway , even though no one ever came out and told Jeremy I was in witness protection, he’s very astute, and I’m sure he figured it out.

He just told me to keep in touch and call him if I needed anything.

I should call him later to let him know I’m still alive. ”

“ Good idea. Use your pre-paid phone since they’re very hard to trace. Then we’ll throw it away and get a new one. Ask him if anyone suspicious has been snooping around asking about you.”

Kat nodded and tapped his hand with her left foot. It was a blatant hint to give it the same treatment he gave the other. He chuckled and swapped them. “ Better ?”

“ Yes , much.” She groaned as he worked his thumbs deeper. “ I can’t remember the last time I had a foot massage. I used to get them all the time when I treated myself to pedicures, but it’s been a while.”

He was glad it was a professional service where she had gotten the massages and not from a boyfriend. A pang of jealousy at her dating some guy hit him in the gut, and he forced himself not to question her about other men. Who she dated was none of his business.

Glancing down at her lap, he eyed the book she’d been reading, and .

. . oh, fuck . . . it was Leather & Lace , by Kristen Anders , soon-to-be Kristen Sawyer , Devon’s wife.

While Boomer hadn’t read the whole thing, he’d flipped through and read the steamy sex scenes after Devon mentioned how hot they were.

It was fucking hot porn in written format, plain and simple.

It also involved BDSM , and he was shocked Kat was reading it.

Did she just like reading about the lifestyle, or was she into it?

And if she wasn’t, would she be interested in trying it?

Did she fantasize about a man doing to her the things Master Xavier did to his submissive in the book?

He shifted uncomfortably and shoved his thoughts back where they belonged—in the gutter. She was a job and an old friend, nothing more.

You might as well give up trying to convince yourself, buddy, because it’s not working.

“ Prepare for landing,” CC announced over the intercom, and Jake’s eyes flew open. That was the thing about being in special ops—you got used to catnaps and waking up completely refreshed.

Boomer swung Kat’s feet to the ground so she could sit up and put her seatbelt on.

He then strapped his own around his waist. They would be on the ground and in their waiting car within fifteen minutes.

After he had the plane refueled, CC would get a room at the closest motel for the night, so he would be nearby if they needed him.

Meanwhile , Boomer , Kat , and Jake would head into the Norfolk residential area where the two childhood friends used to live.

There was a Best Western near the bank they needed.

From what Boomer had been able to access online, it was the ideal motel for them.

There were plenty of escape routes if things went south.

Next to him, Kat visibly shuddered.

“ You okay?”

She gave him a tiny smile. “ Yeah , I think so. It just hit me. I haven’t been here since I was seventeen with a bright and happy future ahead of me.”

Boomer reached over and squeezed her hand because he couldn’t think of anything to say that didn’t sound cliché. He just hoped when this was all over, she would have a happy life in her future, even if it wasn’t with him.

As Jake let himself into the adjoining room to the left, Kat followed Boomer into their motel room.

He tossed his duffel bag on the bed closest to the door and gestured for her to take the other one.

It wasn’t even one in the afternoon yet, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl under the covers and take a nap.

He saw the longing look on her face before he turned to unlock the go-between door connecting the two rooms. “ Take a nap if you want. Jake and I will be next door working on a few things for tomorrow.”

“ Okay .” Kat pulled off the blonde wig she’d donned before getting off the plane and scratched her itchy scalp. Reaching to pull the bedspread down, she kicked off her shoes at the same time. “ Don’t let me sleep past three, please. Otherwise , I’ll be up all night.”

“ Sure .” Boomer watched as she climbed into the bed, fully clothed.

She shifted a few times, trying to find a comfortable position, and finally settled on her side facing away from him.

Her long brown tresses fanned across the pillow, and his hands ached to run his fingers through the soft strands.

The longer he was around her, the more his old feelings for her pounded in his chest. But there were new feelings there too.

Feelings he didn’t know what the fuck he was going to do about.

Sighing , he walked into the other room and left the door ajar in case she needed him. Jake was exiting his bathroom and drying his hands on a towel. He raised an eyebrow at seeing Boomer alone.

“ She’s lying down for a while.”

“ Ah .” They sat down at the table for two, and Jake opened a folder with all the pertinent information they had so far. “ So . . . you want to talk about work or what it’s like to have an old girlfriend come back from the dead?”

Boomer knew his friend was being sympathetic despite how his words sounded. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the partially opened door behind him before returning his attention to Jake . “ How do you know she was a girlfriend?”

“ Ian keeps me around for my sniper skills and powers of observation. If she wasn’t your girlfriend, there was a time you wished she was.”

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and keeping his voice low so she wouldn’t hear him.

It’d been a long time since he’d told anyone about his Kitten .

“ She was my best friend’s sister and a year behind us in school.

I never thought of her as anything more than a good friend until I took her to my senior prom.

One minute she was my friend. And the next minute, I wanted something more. Hit me from out of the blue, you know?”

Jake nodded but didn’t say a word.

“ The night of my going-away party, a week before basic training, I found out she felt the same way. I asked her to be my girl and to wait for me. She agreed, and two days later . . . her entire family was gone.”

“ From what Ian told me, she didn’t have a choice.”

Boomer leaped from his chair in frustration and began pacing but kept his voice low.

“ Damn it, I know it wasn’t her fault. But too much time has gone by.

We don’t even fucking know each other anymore.

I’m not the same eighteen-year-old kid without a care in the world.

I’ve seen and done shit she could never imagine.

I’ve changed, and I doubt she’ll like the guy I’ve become. ”

Crossing his arms, Jake narrowed his eyes at his teammate. “ Close the door.”

“ What ?”

“ Close the damn door and sit the fuck down for a minute.” After Boomer eased the door shut and plopped back down in his seat, the harshness ebbed from his friend’s voice.

“ I’m a little confused here, Baby Boomer .

Are you talking about the Navy and the shit we’ve done, or are you talking about the club and the lifestyle?

“ Both , I guess,” he mumbled, staring at the floor.

“ Well , the SEAL shit is easy. You’ve served your country proud and followed orders like the good frog you are.

Yes , you’ve killed more people than anyone will ever know about, but what it boils down to is you killed because you had to.

You’re not a murderer. You saved lives—civilians,’ your teammates,’ and your own.

There’s nothing wrong with anything you’ve done in the name of Uncle Sam and apple pie.

I don’t think your girl in there would have any problem with that, especially since you can’t tell her most of it. ”

Boomer shrugged and kept his eyes downcast.

“ Now , about the lifestyle. You’re not the first Dom to question himself, and you won’t be the last. The point is .

. . which is more important to you? Can you love her without topping her?

Or do you need it like the air you breathe?

You said before you don’t know each other anymore .

. . maybe this is your chance to get to know her again.

Maybe she’s changed too. Maybe she wants to be topped.

Did you ever think about that?” He paused a moment to let the idea sink into the other man’s head.

“ Now , stop being an ass, and let’s get your girl out of trouble, all right?

Think about fucking her after this is all over. ”

Boomer snorted, then grinned. “ You’re a prick, Reverend .”

“ Hey , I tell it like it is. You want sensitive, call Polo .”