Protecting Her Heart (Seals Security Book 3) (16 page)

Luke rolled over grabbing his buzzing cell from the bedside table. As he sat up to answer, he rubbed at his eyes.
Why the fuck was Wyatt calling him at two am?

“Hello,” he grunted into the phone, scratching his chest as he let his feet land on the floor next to the bed. If Wyatt was calling him this early in the morning, the news wasn’t good. Ever since eight months ago when a bomb had gone off in the garage, Wyatt had been trying to locate Terrence, his former teammate from the Navy, who was trying to kill Wyatt and his team because he blamed his wife’s suicide on them.

Terrence left the Navy because of his wife. He’d removed her from a mental institution against doctor’s advice and she’d killed herself. The note she left had said that she just couldn’t get over her brother, a part of Wyatt’s team, being killed while on a mission. Terrence now blamed Wyatt and his former Seals team for not saving Freddy. It wasn’t their fault but his wife’s death had sent him over the edge. Terrence had set off several bombs, one of which nearly killed Wyatt and Monica at Seals Security last year.

Luke would be glad when they finally put the man behind bars and they didn’t have to worry that another person might be killed by the man’s vendetta. It was sad when a formerly decorated officer became a menace to society.

“We found his hideout but it looks like he hadn’t been there in at least a week, but from what we found he’s equipped with at least six bombs. We’re going to search the place. We already started and we found six casings were missing so we’re assuming that he made at least that many bombs to take with him,” Wyatt informed him solemnly and without any pleasantries, his voice hard.

Fuck, that wasn’t good
.

“We have any idea where he might be headed?” Luke asked, rubbing his eyes as he woke up fully.

“No, but I can promise it’s not going to be good. We might have to get Homeland involved. Not sure if he’ll go off the deep end because he can’t get at me and what’s left of my former team or not. We don’t want him bombing random targets. Derrick and I are looking into finding his trail but it’s not going to be easy. He was always a slippery fucker, which was great when we were in a jam but not when we’re looking for him,” Wyatt said and Luke couldn’t help but agree with him.

They’d been following leads for months and found little other than a few hotels that he’d stayed at once or twice. This discovery of his workshop was a huge win for them in their race to find him before he could hurt anyone else. Maybe if they found something in the hideout it might help them break this case wide open but Luke wasn’t holding his breath.

“Where’s it at?” Luke asked, getting up and heading to his dresser to throw on some clothes.

“At a warehouse on 5
th
street. I’ll text you the address. Craig is already on his way and Eric said he would be by later, he’s busy with the Copeland job still. We can use any eyes we can get because we want this shit over with and him found,” Wyatt muttered.

Luke could hear the frustration in Wyatt’s voice and he knew that his search and the time it was taking were working the man’s nerves.  “All right, I’ll be there in about half an hour or so. Shouldn’t take me longer than that. Call Brent and Lawrence in too, they might be able to pick up on something we miss. Brent’s always been good at spotting things others miss.”

“Sure thing. Like I say, we want this over with and finding him before he kills someone else is our only goal.” Wyatt hung up after that and Luke pulled on a pair of jeans and a polo before grabbing his keys and heading out.

Luke pulled up to the warehouse forty minutes later with coffee and some bagels. He’d stopped by the local all night coffee shop because he figured they’d all need something to keep them going since it was three in the morning. Brent’s SUV was parked outside and Craig was pulling up behind him. Luke got out, lifting the carrier for the coffee out of his passenger seat.

“Need help?” Craig asked, coming to stand beside him.

“Yeah, here, take these and I’ll get the other one and the bagels,” Luke said, handing him the carrier he was holding before grabbing the second one and the bag of bagels.

“Damned glad you thought of this because I was dragging ass coming over here. We didn’t get to sleep till late last night and I wasn’t prepared for a two am call about this asshole,” Craig muttered, his voice tight.

“Yep, wasn’t too happy about it myself but at least we’re getting closer to finding this douche before he hurts someone else. Richard, his wife, and Marcus are enough people dead over a series of tragic deaths. I still can’t see how he snapped and turned on his own. It’s just too much and we might need to get the Navy involved if this escalates. Right now local law enforcement is leaving this up to us because they trust our judgment in this matter but if he is planning to hit civilians and not just his former teammates, this could get ugly fast.”

“Yeah, fuck. This whole thing is a mess and I wouldn’t put it past him to go even further off the deep end trying to get at Wyatt and his team,” Craig said as they began to head inside.

“I know. That’s part of what we need to assess tonight. Hopefully one of us can find something to lead us to this fucker before it’s too late,” Luke muttered as they were let in by Lawrence.

“Damn, I love you, man,” Lawrence croaked as he snatched a coffee from the carrier Luke was holding, almost making him drop the whole thing. Luke glared at him as he took a huge sip out of the paper cup.

“Dude, stop making the boss uncomfortable with your sexual desires. No one here is gay except you,” Brent grunted from nearby where he appeared to be searching through a desk.

“Fuck you, I’m not gay. I’m just damned glad the boss brought coffee,” Lawrence grumbled into his coffee cup. Brent spun around, moving towards him with a grateful look.

“Coffee, fuck, I love you too, man,” Brent growled as he snatched another one of the coffees.

“Yes, yes. I’m fantastic as always and you all have man crushes on me but I am beyond straight so all you fuckers are out of luck,” Luke told him. Luke set the coffee down on the table that sat nearby, dropping the bag of bagels next to it. He grabbed a coffee for himself, taking a sip of the rich dark roast and letting out a little sigh. Craig had set his own carrier down next to the other one and pulled one out for himself. Wyatt and Derrick came over, taking theirs as well. Merrick was slower and he was the last to get a coffee from the table. He lifted it to take a deep sip and choked.

“Yuck, where the hell’s the creamer? This shit is like mud,” Merrick complained.

“No, you’re just a pussy. Creamer? I know damned good and well they didn’t have creamer in the fucking Army, solider,” Wyatt said, his grin wide as he teased his partner.

“Fuck that. I didn’t have a choice in the Army but now I can drink this shit with creamer or milk so shut the fuck up,” Merrick growled, digging through the bag in search of the creamer Luke had told him was in the bag.

“Pussy,” Wyatt grunted.

Merrick shot him a bird and Luke snickered as he continued to sip his coffee. They ate the bagels and drank for a few minutes before Derrick finally spoke.

“We found about six tons of explosives and military grade triggers and parts. It’s likely this was a stockpile he created after leaving the Navy. Not sure how he got his hands on most of the shit he has though. It’s all high quality shit.” Derrick didn’t look happy about it either, not that Luke could blame him. He was curious where Terrence was getting this shit from too. It was never good when a huge stockpile of this sort was available to anyone, much less a crazy fucker who might try to blow up the city.

“We should look into finding information on the suppliers too. If we shut them down it will eliminate two problems. Terrence won’t be able to get any more toys and we get this shit off the streets,” Luke muttered, his hand tightening around his coffee.

“That’s the reason we started searching for invoices just before you showed. If we can have the police set up a sting and take them out, it would give us a leg up because he wouldn’t be able to make any more bombs,” Brent growled, his hand rubbing his jaw. 

  “Yeah, but it might be that he bought this shit and brought it with him. If we get another city’s law enforcement involved, won’t they call in the Navy? At which point this is going to be pulled out of our hands because they aren’t going to let us investigate it,” Wyatt said, his look grim as he stood up to pace a few steps away before turning and pacing back.

He looked stressed and Luke wanted to make this better for the man but knew he couldn’t. It was out of his hands if that happened and Wyatt knew that. Luke couldn’t promise him that he could keep this under wraps because getting this type of hardware off the black market was more important than losing this case to the Navy investigators or Homeland Security.

“Yeah, but we can’t sit on it, you know that.”

Wyatt still looked grim but he nodded in agreement. Luke knew that someone else taking over this case wasn’t what any of them wanted because of what happened when they’d bombed Seals Security last year. Wyatt had almost died from the injuries he’d received and Monica would have died if that bomb had been even five minutes later than it had been. They’d added explosive detection dogs to check every vehicle that entered the garage now because of the incident, as well as a guard who monitored the entrance 24/7.

“Fuck, I know, but this is personal. I want to be the one to take him down. He almost killed Monica and those two receptionists who were in the lobby. He was part of my damned team and I feel like this is all my fault, even though I know it’s not,” Wyatt growled.

Luke found it interesting that he didn’t mention his own injuries in his tirade. Wyatt had been in the hospital for a little over two weeks after that incident. Of course they were all used to being in mortal danger so maybe that was why he didn’t take his own injuries personally.

“It’s not your fault any more than it’s mine. We all made that call against his urging to call the chopper in. We knew what it meant but even if we had called for evac it wouldn’t have changed Freddy’s death and we all knew it, even Terrence. He was fine when we got back to the states. We even ran ten missions together after that before he got out when he found out Mary was in the institution,” Derrick said, shaking his head.

“I know. It’s just hard to come to grips with because I was the one in charge. I made the final call,” Wyatt grumbled.

“Enough worrying about this. Terrence is a disturbed individual and it’s that simple. Now let’s get back to work. We need to take this place apart,” Brent said, coming to his feet. Luke nodded and they all went to work.  

Each of them took a section of the room and went through it, piling anything important on the table where they’d eaten. About five am they were all gathered around the table looking at the pathetic pile of information they’d found. Luke wanted to slam something into the wall because not only had they not found much that was useful, they hadn’t found a clue as to where he was headed.

“Well shit, this is not much, is it?” Derrick sighed, his hand reaching out for the papers they’d found that looked like a bill of sale for some guns.

“No, but we knew he wouldn’t leave much if he didn’t plan to be back here,” Wyatt muttered as he sat down in one of the chairs.

“Yeah, but I was hoping he did plan on coming back,” Derrick finally said, his head tilted as he read the information. “This is a dead end too,” he muttered, shoving it aside.

“Yeah this is too,” Craig said, laying out the hotel information they’d found in one of the cabinets in the back. “Too many to guess which one he’d use and searching them all is impossible, there are at least fifty of them here. By the time we got to one, he’d be gone and on to one of the one’s we’d already checked, so there is no point in searching them all unless we had the manpower to check them all in a matter of hours, which we don’t.”

“This might be helpful. It’s a list of local businesses and it’s a lot smaller. Only twelve names,” Marcus said.

“Let me see that,” Wyatt said, holding out his hand. He looked it over with a steadily darkening scowl before he let out a loud curse. “Fuck that son-of-a-bitch,” he growled.

“What?” Luke asked, staring at the other man.

“These are all places your sister frequents, Brent. Every damned one of them. Fuck, that son-of-a-bitch has been following her,” Wyatt grunted.