Page 4 of Her Delta Force Protector

Kade was her best friend, and if she had a little bit of a crush on him, that was her secret. She valued his friendship too much to ever act on it. Nor had he given her any indication he thought of her as anything but a friend.

A very dangerous friend, one she wished was here to go spying with her. She briefly considered waiting for him to return, but that could be two or three weeks from now, and Harper was only here for another week since she was moving back to Florida. Tomorrow was her last day in the Army, then she planned to spend a little time wrapping her life up here. Then a few weeks in Apalachicola with her dad before her scheduled pre-training for the Peace Corps.

Another concern... Lisa was changing right in front of her eyes, and how could she leave if Lisa was in trouble?

All she planned to do was follow Lisa, see where she went, see if she could get a glimpse of the boyfriend. Hopefully see something that would ease her mind. She changed into black jeans and a black T-shirt, and not sure how close she could get, she grabbed her binoculars.

Lisa’s bedroom door was closed, and Harper panicked, thinking she’d already left. She knocked on the door.

“What?” Lisa yelled, annoyance in her voice.

Good, she was still here. “Sure you won’t change your mind?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay. I’m going out. See you tomorrow.”

Lisa didn’t answer, and Harper went to her car. Not wanting to live on base, she’d found a rental in Fayetteville, a city on the east coast of North Carolina. It was a convenient twenty-minute drive to Fort Bragg and the rent in the area was reasonable, so this part of town was popular with soldiers living off base.

Harper drove down the residential street, parked in the driveway of a house that was for sale and empty, and waited. “Here we go a snooping,” she muttered when Lisa passed by.

Fifteen minutes later, Lisa turned into the parking lot of a warehouse. Harper stopped before reaching the warehouse and cut her lights. When Lisa went inside, Harper parked next to a semi in the lot across the street. Another car was already at the warehouse, and she took a picture of it with her phone, and then zoomed in on the license plate, and snapped another photo.

Why were they at a warehouse? She waited a while, but when no one came out, she decided to leave. She had a plate number and could look the person up, so it wasn’t a wasted trip. Before she could leave, another car arrived. A man got out and walked to the passenger door. He opened it, and a woman got out.

Harper took more pictures, then put the binoculars to her eyes. The woman appeared drunk or stoned, and the man was supporting her as they entered the building. Harper picked up her phone again and snapped some more pictures, including the plate number of that car. “Time to go.”

The next morning, Lisa was in the kitchen when Harper came out. “Morning.”

“Can’t talk. I’m running late.”

Harper narrowed her eyes at what she saw on Lisa’s arm. “Another bruise?”

“What is with you?” Lisa snatched her arm away. “It’s nothing. I bruise easy. Big deal.”

“You didn’t used to.”

“I have to go to work.”

Lisa was a receptionist at a doctor’s office. When Harper had advertised for a roommate to share the house she was renting, only Lisa had responded. They’d hit it off and over time had become friends. Until she’d hooked up with this new boyfriend, they’d talked about everything. Now it felt like Lisa barely tolerated her. Yet her friend wasn’t happy. If she was, Harper could accept that things had changed between them and move on with the next phase of her life.

After Lisa left for work, Harper dressed. She spent a few extra minutes staring at her reflection in the mirror. This was the last time she’d wear an Army uniform, and she had mixed feelings. She’d matured during her eight years in the Army, had experienced living in Japan and South Korea, had rescued a dog that had flunked out of military dog school, and had met Kade and made him her best friend.

It had been a very good eight years, and today was bittersweet. She was leaving a life she loved for a new life. Joining the Peace Corps was what she thought of as her last chance to travel and to do her part for making the world a better place before she settled down and checked off the next items on her bucket list...falling in love and having babies. She’d been an only child, her mother dying when Harper was a baby. She’d always wished for brothers and sisters, and that was probably why she wanted a household full of kids.

Harper loved her father, a man who had wanted to be surrounded by children but hadn’t found a woman he could love enough to replace his wife. For herself and for him, she would have those children and make him the happiest grandfather ever.

She was minutes from home, headed for the base, when she turned left instead of right. She’d just do a little drive-by of the warehouse, see if either of the two cars from last night were there. The lot was empty, and if she didn’t know better, she’d think it was an abandoned building. She circled around and drove past the back. What was going on inside there? Whatever Lisa was involved in, Harper knew in her gut that it wasn’t good. Before she could talk herself out of it, she parked down the street, then carrying only her car keys and phone, she walked back.

There was a window, but it was boarded over. Next to the window was a door, and Harper twisted the knob, expecting it to be locked. It was not. She opened it and leaned in. The first floor was wide open, and she didn’t sense anyone in the building. In the middle of the room was a bed covered by a red velvet bedspread. Two cameras on tripods were aimed at the bed.

What in the world? Harper stepped inside. A table was against a wall, and she walked over to it. Photographs of women in various stages of dress were spread out over the top. She shuffled through them, sick at heart when she found ones of Lisa naked and tied to the bedposts. There were also some of the woman she recognized from last night. She put that one, the ones of Lisa, and a few of some other women in her back pocket.

The place creeped her out, and she needed to leave before someone showed up. But first she took pictures of the room, the bed, and the cameras with her phone. It was time to have another talk with Lisa.

Harper was waiting when her roommate arrived home from work. “We need to talk.”

“Don’t have time.” Lisa blew past, heading for her room.

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