“I am, I will, I’m… sorry. And thanks. Really. For making sure she was safe.” Because that’s why the guard had stopped. She’d seen Ashley getting angry at Jim, and recognized, just as Ashley had said, that doing so might put her in danger.
The woman nodded, and then dug in her pockets and handed him a little packet of tissues. “Keep ’em,” she said, and walked away.
It was only then Jim realized that he was crying, too.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jim picked up his truck from the lot on base, and headed out to grab a burger and a beer for his second dinner.
He was exhausted—it was barely 1830, but that was 2130 in Florida, and he’d been on Eastern Time long enough to feel it. He also hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Still, he knew the best way to combat jetlag was to move as quickly as possible into the biorhythms of the new time zone, so instead of driving home and crashing into his bed, he was gonna eat another meal and force himself to stay awake, at least until the sun was fully down.
He wasn’t up to socializing with any SEAL teammates, so he headed back over the bridge to his favorite mom and pop place called Werewulf’s. He’d just sat down at the bar and caught the owner’s eye—a woman named Greykell Perks who tended bar while her three kids cooked—when his phone buzzed with an incoming text.
Meals-at-the-bar at Werewulf’s weren’t meant to be eaten while staring at your phone. No, the burger experience came with sci-fi movie gems playing on the bar TV—tonight wasEscape from New York, which deserved his full attention. Still, he pulled his phone partly out of his pocket just to see who he was going to ignore. He was betting it was Thomas King, checking in on him.
But the name on his phone’s screen wasAshley, and Jim’s heart actually pounded with hope as he broke his rule and took his phone out to read her text.
But then her words make his heart pound for completely different reason as he read them:Sweetie, sorry to cancel last minute, can’t do dinner tonight, must reschedule, maybe tomorrow?
Sweetie?Jesus… He looked at his watch and did the math. Her trip to San Felipe from the airport would’ve brought her home to her condo right about…
Now.
This was an SOS message if he’d ever seen one.
It didn’t take much to imagine what had happened. She’d gotten home, and whoever had broken in was there, waiting for her. She’d given her attacker some made up some story about her “boyfriend” coming over for dinner, and having to send him a text to cancel—in hopes that upon reading that text, Jim would realize that something wasverywrong.
“What can I get you, Jim?” Greykell asked, but Jim was already on his feet and heading for the door.
“Sorry, Grey, gotta run.”
As he fast-walked, he searched his phone for the security app that was attached to the hidden cameras that Bobby Taylor and Wes Skelly had installed at Ashley’s condo. He’d signed out last night, and when he tried to sign in now, the password failed. Of course it did. A stickler for internet security, the first thing Chief Taylor would do was change the password.
So now Jim full-on ran for his truck on knees that burned, threw himself inside and started the engine with a roar. Fastest way to San Felipe would be via back roads at this time of evening, so he headed roughly north and east as fast he could, even as he called Taylor through his Bluetooth.
The Chief picked up on the first ring, cheerful as always. “Hey, LT. You’re on speaker! I’m in the car with Colleen. Rumor has it you came back early.”
“Chief, I need Ashley DeWitt’s home address.”
“Uhhh…”
Colleen’s voice came in. “Hi, Jim, how are you?”
“Kinda desperately needing Ashley’s address. She just t—”
“She sent me an email this morning,” Colleen spoke over him. “She didn’t say what happened, other than thatsomething happened with you, and that it was over. I’m sorry to hear that.”
Bobby cut in. “With all due respect, sir, I’m gonna ask you to get that address directly from Ashley…? I mean, if she wants you to have it—”
“She just texted me,” Jim said. “She’s in trouble. Bob, I need you to check the security feed. She called mesweetie, and said she had to cancel plans for dinner tonight—”
“Hang on, I’m pulling into a parking lot so I can check the app,” Bobby said, even as Colleen misunderstood.
“Jim,” she said, “whatever plans you had with her, it’s not… well, if I’m reading that email right, it’s likely that she never intended to meet you in the first place.”
“We didn’t have plans for dinner,” Jim said as clearly as he could. “She told me she didn’t want to see me anymore. She made it very clear. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, because suddenly I get a text where she’s canceling the dinner that we weren’t going to have unless pigs started flying…”
Bobby swore pungently. “You’re right, LT. Recorded video footage shows her being accosted outside of her front door by a man with a handgun.”
