“Rosetti, I’m starting to understand why you don’t take leave because it sounds damned exhausting to be you,” the senior said. “But can you skip ahead to the part where someone is trying to kill her? Is this a stalker situation?”
“No, Senior,” Rio said. “It’s all about her fuckup of a brother. He’s just out of a lockdown rehab program, which he went into mostly to hide, because he was muleing for this dealer and he managed to lose seventy thousand dollars worth of drugs. Now that he’s out, the guy’s after him. Jon went to the police, and I think maybe the drug syndicate suspects that. Because Casey and I went to Werewulf’s last night, and someone tried to run her down in the parking lot and I think it was a message to Jon. Don’t fuck with us, or you’re next. I was hoping to get one of the guys—Dave or Thomas or maybe even Mike Lee—to come and keep an eye on things here while I go find Jon and figure out what the fuck. I’m outside of Casey’s house in LA, and she definitely doesn’t want me here—but everyone’s still OCONUS.”
“Not everyone,” the senior chief said.
“Really? Who’s still in town?” Rio asked, narrowing his eyes slightly, hardly daring to hope. Most likely the senior was going to give him a list of SEAL officers whom he’d pissed off, royally, in the recent past. Come to think of it, that was pretty much all of them.
“I am,” the senior said. “Chief Taylor, Chief Skelly...”
Oh, perfect. Just Rio’s very own top-three personal heroes in all of the SEAL teams on both of the coasts. “Uh, Senior,” he said. “I really can’t ask—”
“Yeah, you’re not gonna,” the senior said. “I am. I’m not free until later tonight but let me check with Bob and Wes, see who’s got a little time right now.”
A little time...? To drive up to Los Angeles...? “Senior,” Rio started.
But, “Text me the address,” Becker said in his most clear don’t argue with me, Rosetti tone. “And hold tight. I’ll call you back.”
Chapter Twenty
“Petty Officer Rosetti’s gone,” Ella announced as she came back into the house, and surprise made Casey’s stomach lurch a little.
He’d actually left...?
Of course he’d left. She’d freaking called him stupid, right to his face, so that he’d leave and leave fast.
Still, she was a little surprised that he’d left her allegedly unprotected, although his leaving sure seemed to confirm her theory that the whole someone’s trying to kill you thing he’d had going on was just another game of pretend, so that was good, wasn’t it?
That’s you being, well, stupid. Pretty fucking stupid, if you ask me.
God, his face, his eyes, when she’d said that...
Apparently her intentionally cruel words had done exactly as she’d intended—gotten him to leave and to take his face and his eyes with him. That was a good thing. And this feeling—that she’d made a terrible mistake—was exactly why she’d absolutely needed him to leave. “A person who lies so easily, so effortlessly is absolutely going to lie again,” she said. That much she knew for damn sure.
Ella blinked at the seeming non sequitur, but rolled with it. “That’s my experience, too.” But then she added, “Guy out there says his name is Bob Taylor. Another Navy SEAL.”
And Casey realized that Rio hadn’t left her unprotected. He’d gotten one of his teammates to stand watch for him.
“Crazy hot, wedding ring.” Ella was still talking, describing the SEAL outside, and she made a sad trombone sound and her words registered. Hot, but married. “Waa-waah. He says he’s glad I’m here—he knew who I was, someone already gave him my name as your head of security. But he also says he’s not going to leave until he gets the official word from Rosetti and-or someone named Senior Chief Becker.”
Casey went to look out the front window where, sure enough, in place of the bright yellow VW that Rio had driven up from San Diego was a small SUV, with a rather large, dark-haired man leaning up against it.
“I flashed him my firearm and told him I was former NYPD,” Ella continued. “He was very respectful but he still wouldn’t leave so I’m not taking it personally.”
With her black hair worn short, her warm smile, and her generously curvy figure, Ella looked more like a contemporary of Casey’s mom than the topnotch security specialist that she was. Although whoever said a security specialist had to look like James Bond or Lara Croft was an idiot. Obviously. Because Ella was the best.
Her father had greatly improved, plus her latest step-mother had tearfully returned to sit by his side, so Ella had headed back to California on an early AM flight, coming to Casey’s straight from LAX. After hearing about what was going on with Jon, Ella believed that the incident in the restaurant parking lot might’ve been connected—at least it warranted further investigation—which was not what Casey wanted to hear.
None of this was what Casey wanted to hear.
She hated the idea that Rio had gone and left a friend to take over his protective surveillance as much as she’d hated thinking that he’d left her completely on her own. Although if he was still sitting out there, she’d hate that, too. She was, for sure, in the hate-everything phase of this debacle. With her self-hatred front and center.
God, his eyes, when she’d said...
And, shit, she missed him. But Luc was gone. Forever. She’d made sure of that.
“Rio’s just trying to get me to call him,” Casey whispered now.
Ella shrugged. “Give me his number. I’ll call him. Make it clear he’s done here. Plus I really want to hear what he has to say about the parking lot incident. Although apparently murder face is a real thing. Taylor said in the SEAL Teams it’s called warrior face. Apparently SEALs use every tool in their kit to succeed, and certain facial expressions help psych-out their enemy. It’s not just theatrics and war paint, it’s actual psychological warfare. People make certain expressions, unconsciously, when they’re down to fight or kill. So SEALs learn to mimic those expressions, because we all recognize them subconsciously, even without training. It’s pretty smart. Imma start working on mine. You see someone coming at you, wearing that face? Time to run away. Anyway, I would absolutely trust Rosetti to recognize a murder face when he sees one.”
