less than an hour and not only was she hoping that he reciprocated her ridiculous crush, which had gone on for far too long, she was also forgetting all her legal training.
Don’t say more than you need to. Ever.
“You got a pretty clear look from here. Too bad these things aren’t also a camera.” Officer Dade rested the binoculars against her uniform.
“Yeah, too bad.”
Please leave.
“That’s all you remember? You’re sure you’ve told me everything, Ms. Alexander?”
“Yes, that’s it. I’m sorry it’s not more, and that I bothered the authorities with this when you already have witnesses. I know it’s going to be a long day for you.”
“It’s fine. I mean, no one got hurt, right?”
“Did anyone? Get hurt?” Playing stupid was pushing it, but Brad needed to know what they’d found out so far.
“No, not that we’re aware of. It doesn’t make sense that there was an empty fishing boat out there, though. Especially one that caused such a huge explosion.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Her tension kicked into high gear. She was a JAG, not a SEAL, and she didn’t relish one second of her involvement in Brad’s undercover op.
Officer Dade sighed and handed the binoculars back to her.
“Thanks for your cooperation, Ms. Alexander. If you remember anything else, give us a call.”
“Will do.”
Joy walked the young woman to the front door and wanted to shout with relief once the door closed and she heard the police car drive off.
That had been too close—as well as too easy.
What did it say about her that she’d lied so effortlessly? And to a police officer, yet.
* * *
“YOU DID GREAT, JOY.” He leaned against the counter, his bulk making the kitchen seem tiny.
“Great? Lying to an officer, trying to manipulate her into telling me classified information about the investigation?” She poured coffee into his mug and took out the small bag of chamomile that was steeping in hers.
“Trust me.”
That was the problem. She did trust Brad. It was herself she was having trouble with.
“What do you need from me, Brad?”
His stare unnerved her but she’d be damned if she’d let him see it. She met his eyes and waited for him to blink. He didn’t. Instead, he glanced away and spoke as if transcribing an operational report or a court order.
“For right now, I need to stay put. I need time for things to settle. And I need to figure out why they’re after a certain high-ranking military official who lives here.”
“You know who they’re after?” As she asked, she suddenly knew who Brad was about to name.
“Is it General Grimes?”
“General Grimes.”
They said his name in unison.
General Grimes had been the Marine Corps Flag Officer in charge of the overall mission that Brad’s SEAL team had completed nearly five years ago. The same mission that had depended on Farid’s help. The same operation that had precipitated Farid’s arrest and incarceration.
Brad put his mug down on the counter. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t, but it makes sense. He’s the highest-ranking military person I know of on the island. He retired here.” They’d both relied on General Grimes’s testimony to free Farid.
“How do you know he’s here?”
She shrugged. “I ran into him at the commissary about two months ago. Or rather, I saw a man who looked just like him but he was in civilian clothes. I wasn’t about to go up to him and remind him that I was the one who’d forced him to testify—I pissed him off enough the first time around. I read in Navy Times that he’d retired to much pomp and circumstance. Go figure, he ended up here, far away from the spotlight he’d still be under if he’d stayed in DC.”
Brad must have heard the rancor in her reply. “He might have not appreciated you, Joy, but he respected you. He had to. You got the testimony you needed out of him, and Farid was released.”
“Farid’s free because he wasn’t guilty of anything. Even Grimes couldn’t scrape up a bad word about him without looking like an ass—or lying.” The memory of running into Grimes in the commissary flashed before her. “It was weird seeing the big, bad Marine Corps General put cans of baked beans in his shopping cart like a regular mortal.”
Brad snorted. “We all put our pants on the same way, Joy.”
A smile nudged her lips in spite of the serious issue.
“Why do you think they’re after him?” she asked. “There are plenty of active-duty admirals and generals who’d be easier to target, aren’t there?”
“Maybe, but three days ago one of the cell members let it slip that they were getting closer to their ‘objective.’ I didn’t know who they were after—I thought it was the base, or a Navy aircraft or even a random sailor. My team ran down every sailor who’s been over in their neck of the woods in the last decade and now lives here. They included all retirees. Grimes was the highest-ranking person to pop up.”
“You have to warn him!”
“You think?” His wit stung, and he tempered it with a quick grin. “My people have already told him. He’s had extra surveillance around his property for the past two days.”
“So why do you need me?”
“I need to find out who’s behind the SAM and who would want to harm General Grimes and why. I suspect it’s the same entity. Also, how did these local homegrown sleepers get a weapon into the country? I want to nail whoever supplied them, too. I think there’s a good chance it’s the same group of insurgents Grimes was fighting over there, but I can’t be sure. I need you to get that information. If I could call in to my team and have them do it, I wouldn’t have climbed a two-hundred-foot cliff to hide out at your place while you get the answers I need.”
He held her gaze, and she was grateful he couldn’t read her mind. Because a not-so-small part of her didn’t regret the extra time with Brad, no matter how bad the circumstances might be.
“I STILL DON’T understand why you can’t just borrow my phone and call in to your team. Wouldn’t that make things a lot easier for you?”
He hated to crush her complete trust in the system. Joy was a rule-follower. It was her job; she was a lawyer. But he lived in a world where promises were valid only as long as it took for the people who’d made the promise to get what they wanted.
Where every communication was vulnerable to eavesdropping.
“First, all the comms in the area are under surveillance at this point, at least until the LEAs figure out what caused the explosion. They have to rule out terrorism, which in this case, they won’t be able to do. Especially when they find out the FBI has an active antiterrorist operation in place. Second, I’m not the only undercover agent working this case—I don’t know everyone from the other agencies. I can’t risk calling in and having the comms intercepted. It would put the other agents at risk.”
“You think the terrorists are intercepting communications, too, don’t you?”
“I have no doubt, not after seeing that SAM.” He couldn’t tell her the classified