Operation Zulu Redemption: Hazardous Duty - Part 3 Read Online Free PDF Page A

stalked toward Houston and thrust his jaw toward the monitors as if to ask if the guy had anything new.
    Wide eyed, Houston nodded as he stared at Caliguari.
    “You said she’s missing, but you know where she might be.” Sam’s gaze never left Trace. “Let me help.”
    Grinding his teeth made his jaw hurt, but it was nothing compared to what was happening in his chest. Trace stalked the hotel room, his mind a mangled mess of rage and panic. It’d been hours since Annie was taken, and now he had to deal with the SEAL, with letting the guy help them locate Annie. He knew it was an obvious solution. But he’d do anything to stop the inevitable, stop them from being reunited.
    “On the couch,” Trace barked at the Squid. He glanced at Houston. “Nothing?”
    “Not yet,” he said, glancing again at Caliguari.
    “Boone, check it out.” His head hurt from the exertion of keeping his rage below the surface. Trace stormed into the bathroom and washed the blood from his knuckles. He scrubbed and felt a pressure building in his chest. He gripped the sides of the sink and stared down at the red-tinged water swirling down the drain.
    That man represented an end to everything Trace had worked to build and protect. He was the epic sign of his failure. Annie wasn’t here. That jerk was. The one who didn’t deserve her. Who risked her life for his own pleasure.
    “You okay?”
    Trace’s gaze rose to the mirror, where he spotted Boone hanging back in the doorway, arms folded over his chest. “I want to kill him.”
    “You almost did.”
    “He doesn’t deserve her.”
    Boone’s eyebrow winged up, and only then did Trace realize what he’d said. What he’d allowed to slip out. Though he knew it wasn’t a secret to Boone what happened before Misrata between him and Annie, the truth had never been vocalized.
    “He put her life in danger. Exposed her to the very people trying to find her.” He straightened and dried his hands on the towel. “A man who can’t see past his own need for selfish desires doesn’t deserve the woman he endangers. Bringing him here—”
    “Why
did
you?”
    Trace threw the towel against the sink. “I don’t trust anyone else to keep his hands out of the fire.”
    “But bringing him
here
. . .” Boone scratched his jaw. “Trace, if you didn’t want them together, why bring him to Annie? Is this. . .?” He stepped in closer. “This is about what I said—about having him on our side.”
    Trace didn’t want to own up to it. Didn’t want to voice his intentions.
    “I thought you hated the idea.”
    “I do,” Trace breathed with a hiss. “But it’s better than having him gunning for us and exposing our locations and identities.”
    “Is it?”
    Trace leaned back against the sink, hands braced on either side. Quiet gave him room with his thoughts—too much room. There had been so many things happening, so many things going wrong, that Trace made a split-second decision to corral the SEAL and tape his mouth shut. Now, once they recovered Annie, the two would be together. And it’d gut Trace.
    “Why’d you let her go?” Boone’s question was quiet, respectful.
    Surprise jerked Trace up. How had Boone known?
    With a slow nod, Boone sighed. “Thought so.”
    Shame hung Trace’s head. The ache was fierce. And raw. And still bleeding. One drowning him in a sea of regret. He pushed to the surface, away from the truth, and came to his feet. “We’ve got work to do.” He left the bathroom and strode into the living room.
    Caliguari sat on the sofa with a bag of ice pressed to his cheek. He wasn’t watching Houston because the monitors were blocked from view. “You won’t get the answers you want,” Trace said.
    Carve a hole in his heart, because he could not—
would not
ask the SEAL for help
.
Hands fisted, Trace met Boone’s gaze, then pulled out of that silent dialogue before it could get started.
    “Great balls of fire,” Houston exclaimed, drawing Trace’s