“Is that your official statement for the record? Or would you like to give me a little more to work with?”
For the record.This woman was a reporter? Mae was lost.
“We’re a little busy, Laurel.”
“I heard.” She pulled out a notebook and pen. “Stone was shot in the middle of the night and left for dead on Main Street, Small Town, USA. What a story. The lady at the diner said he was in a coma. And your receptionist here confirmed that. It’s terrible. Such a tragedy.” Something about the tone in her voice made Mae want to jump over the counter and scratch her eyes out. Instead, she took a deep breath, trying to stop the nausea that was bubbling back up. Christ, she’d already thrown up that morning. Fucking stress.
“Gunner, who is this lady?”
“Laurel Lillienthal. She and your brother used to hook up back when we lived in Coronado.”
Recognition flashed in the woman’s eyes again as she turned back to Mae. “Oh, you’re Hawk’s little sister! What a small world. You know, I went out for a date with Stone first. But Hawk was just such a carefree soul… stole me right out of Stone’s arms.”
Sara and Rhett walked down the hallway from the elevator and turned into Montgomery Defense. Shit. She was supposed to ride up to the hospital with them. Mae turned to Gunner. “I need to get to the hospital. Do you have whatever this is covered?”
Laurel laughed. “What this is, honey, is a front page exposé I’m working on involving your brother and his Seal Team. Did you know, Mae, that they were involved in one of the largest cases of friendly fire cover up in the history of the Navy SEAL program?”
Her hand pressed over her heart as Gunner took a step closer to Laurel. “Excuse me?”
“Seal Team Four deployed two platoons together on a joint mission deep in the Spin Ghar mountain range of Afghanistan six years ago, and somehow, through paperwork so redacted and classified it looks like it was printed on black paper, four men died on that mission. I have a source that says friendly fire was involved. And that Sebastian Montgomery covered it up in his reports for his team.”
Gunner growled. The sound was so deep and so menacing that Mae fought the urge to curl into a tight ball under her desk.
“Get out, Lo. And don’t come back,” he ordered.
She chuckled, licking her lips before flashing her smile at him. “Aw, don’t be like that, Gunner. At least talk to the guys for me. If you go on the record, you can save face for that multi-million dollar training facility you’ve put so much time and effort into. This runs without your side of the story… and trust me, it will run… I can’t imagine how bad that’s going to be for your reputation. I’ve already got people in this community chomping at the bit to give their unfiltered thoughts on you guys for the article. Don’t let your side go untold.”
Gunner stared at her, his arms flexing as he crossed them over hischest.
“Fine. Here’s my card. Maybe you can convince one of the other guys to come talk to me.” She flipped the small card stock cutout between her fingers and held it towards Mae. God, she wanted to take it and light it right on fire in front of Laurel, but instead, she returned the sickly, sarcastic smile.
Laurel turned, but Mae couldn’t let her leave without answering the one question she’d been rolling over in her mind.
“Why do you want Stone to talk to you? What does he have to do with this… specifically.”
“Mae…” Gunner warned.
“I want to know.”
Laurel shrugged. “He’s been named by my source as the shooter. He’s responsible for those deaths.”
Mae’s stomach pitched, and she closed her eyes, slamming the card on the surface in front of her. The second she heard the door close, Mae slid onto her knees and hunched over the small trash can under her desk.
Somewhere behind her, Mae registered Gunner swearing, but she didn’t care. That was the second time that day she’d had her stomach try to kill her. She needed to get a grip. If she was sick, they wouldn’t let her be in the ICU with Stone.
Sara rushed around the side of the reception counter, her hand landing gently on Mae’s back.
“Just try to breathe, honey. We’ll get it all figured out.”
“Thanks,” she managed to choke out.
“Here,” Gunner grumbled as he set a ginger ale from the fridge in front of her. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Mae grabbed a tissue off her desk and wiped her mouth. “Sorry. I think I’m coming down with something.”
“It’s the stress, Mae. I was just like this during my first trimester whenever work would have me running around too much. Your body needs rest.”
Nausea was replaced by a sudden burst of dizziness.Because it was all too possible that she wasn’t coming down with a stomach bug. There had been that week, after everything happened with Nash and Lacy, and Embrie, that Mae hadn’t been careful with her birth control. Stone had invited her over for dinner… and he’d made her the main course. Fuck. Oh, double, triple,no way in hell she was pregnant while he was refusing to wake up from being shot fucking fuck.
