Page 21 of A SEAL's Protection
“No.” Her voice is firm. “I’m not giving up. The research is too important. You can go if you want, but I’m finishing what I started.”
The steel in her voice tells me there’s no point in trying to convince her otherwise.
“You’ve got no tent or sleeping bag. I have to tell your father.”
Her expression turns pleading. “Please don’t. He’ll come out to get me, and I’m so close.”
She presses her lips together and looks away. The determined scientist is suddenly a vulnerable woman. A woman determined to prove whatever the hell it is she’s doing out here.
Despite my better judgement, I unzip my pack and do a quick inventory check. I’ve got extra rations, and we can get supplies from the general store, although the produce is pretty limited.
“We’ve got enough for a few days. There’s a small town a three days’ hike away. I’ll get a supply box dropped to us.”
She lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
Her face lights up with a smile, and it makes my heart squeeze.
“But I’m checking in with your father, and I’m telling him about the supply box.”
“But not that I lost the tent?”
I hesitate. If I told her father we were sharing a sleeping bag, he’d probably have me strung up. “No.”
Her face relaxes.
“I’ll get a new tent and bag dropped off with the supplies.”
There’s a flicker of something across her face that may be disappointment, before she schools it into a blank expression.
“Thank you.”
I don’t want to be here longer than we have to be. “Get what you can from the store. I need to make a call.”
Allegra heads into the general store, and I find a quiet spot behind the store to put in a satellite call to Joel.
I give him a brief update on our situation and location and a list of supplies for the next town.
“You want another tent and sleeping bag delivered today?” he asks.
I hesitate. It would be the sensible thing to give us some distance. But the extra weight would slow us down. And I likehaving Allegra next to me at night, feeling her warm body as she softly sleeps.
“Nah, we’ll travel light. The next town’s fine.”
I roll my shoulder, easing the familiar ache. My mind churns over the week we’ve spent on the trail. The broken perimeter, the sabotaged gear, and now a missing box. Someone’s behind this.
“Can you get Hudson on the line; I’m going to need some help digging deeper into this.”
I wait for Hudson to come on the call, and Joel puts it on speaker so they can both hear.
“I need you to dig into something for me. I want to know all about Allegra and her father. I want to know about her research, her university, who was on the grants board. I want to know who stands to lose from her research.”
“On it,” Joel assures me.
He’s giving up time from getting Jake’s Retreat up and running, which I appreciate. But a man needs a team, and Joel and Hudson just became mine.
“We found the report Allegra showed you,” says Hudson. “It’s from a company called Green Metals.”
The name isn’t familiar. “What do we know about them?”
