Page 8 of Guarded By the SEAL
It was decided, then. Ralph would take his place on the Steele mission, and Wyatt would help the woman. Disappointment coursed through him like a physical pain. Of all the times for him to be called off course, this had to be the worst imaginable.
The woman’s voice echoed in his mind.
Ghost said you would help me.
And help her, he would—the mission to get Steele be damned.
CHAPTER5
Pouring rain ran down Wyatt’s windshield, the wipers clearing the surface only for a moment before it was obscured again. He was on his way to meet Teslyn, but he couldn’t help feeling he was driving in the wrong direction. Everything that mattered was in his rearview mirror, yet here he was, driving to a rental house while Hawk, Ralph, and Jax walked into the fire on the Steele mission without him.
He squeezed the back of his neck, the tension in his rigid muscles refusing to give way as his call rang and rang through his truck’s speakers. “Goddamn it.” He couldn’t get Ghost on the line. He’d even called Delta Force headquarters, but no one was able to tell him more than he already knew: Ghost was on a mission and could not be reached. Anything Wyatt was going to learn about the woman, he’d have to find out for himself.
Fortunately, Logan was already on it. “Teslyn McGregor, 28. Born Teslyn Gleason in Osprey, Mississippi, to Marilyn Gleason, a single mother with an arrest record the length of your arm, mostly drugs and prostitution. Teslyn moved to Austin when she was sixteen, and legally changed her last name from Gleason to McGregor on her eighteenth birthday. Worked as a waitress and put herself through college. Worked as an account manager at an advertising agency north of Austin, but she recently resigned and took a position in Atlanta.”
“Keep digging. Check out the mom in more detail, anything that might make her a target. I don’t want to have to rely on Teslyn for information.”
“You got it.” Logan hung up.
The orange lights of an AMBER alert sign glowed up ahead, and as he passed it he made a mental note of the missing perpetrator. Child abduction, red Jeep Cherokee with Texas plate EH5 7G3. He fixed the tag number into his memory. There was no worse kind of criminal than someone who would harm a child, and if he could do anything to aid the authorities, he’d be all too happy to oblige.
The closer he got to the safe-house, the more the storm intensified. He wasn’t one to believe in omens, but he had a nagging feeling in his gut that told him this woman wasn’t what she seemed.
Or maybe you’ve just become a cynical old shit who can’t believe there are still good people in this world.
Three tours in the SEALs would do that to you. He’d seen the worst of humanity and served with some of the best. He was honored to have fought for his country, but he was no longer a man who put much stock in the goodness of people. Most were a mixture of good and bad, light and dark, integrity and shame, himself included. He’d done things he was proud of and things that haunted his dreams in the depths of the night.
Still, he had a good life. A job he loved, a black Labrador Retriever puppy named Jett, who thought Wyatt was the best guy in the world. And if sometimes he felt like something was missing, he chalked it up to a life spent doing something more important than focusing on his own happiness.
He loved his country. He loved fighting for right over wrong, for protecting the underdog, for valuing freedom more than he did his own life. And if that meant he was a thirty-five year old guy who trusted no one outside the brotherhood, then that was alright with him.
And what about this woman Ghost had sent to him? His gut told him there was more to her story than met the eye, and he was determined to learn everything he could about her as quickly as possible.
He took the exit for the safe-house as lightning lit up a swirling sky. “Who are you, Teslyn McGregor?” He made the final turn on his GPS and pulled into the driveway of the safe-house, directly behind a red Jeep with Texas plates, the tag number searing into his retinas.
EH5 7G3.
He pounded his fist on the steering wheel and cursed colorfully. He’d just driven hundreds of miles to help this woman, and she was wanted for kidnapping. He pulled out his cell phone to call the authorities and turn her in, his finger hovering over the phone icon.
If he made this call, the police would be all over Teslyn and Ivy in a heartbeat. There would be no opportunity to take it back, no way to make sure he’d made the right decision.
He recounted what he knew from his brief phone call with Teslyn. The police were after her and her sister. Powerful people, possibly law enforcement. Someone set fire to her mother’s trailer. Was it possible that someone was Teslyn herself?
He frowned. Or, if her story about powerful people and law enforcement involvement was true, whoever set fire to the trailer might have reported the kidnapping as a way to track the sisters down, not because of any wrongdoing on Teslyn’s part. If that was the case, calling the authorities would lead them right to her.
Or she could be a liar.
Without talking to Ghost, he had no idea who he was dealing with, or of what she was capable. The cell phone rang in his hand. It was Logan again, and he answered it. “What’s up?”
“You’re not going to believe this.”
“Teslyn’s wanted for kidnapping her sister,” said Wyatt.
“And arson,” added Logan.
“They thinksheburned down the trailer?”
“Yep. Look online. It’s all over the news. They’ve got state police out searching for her, roadblocks, you name it.”
