Chapter 14
“Wait a minute—you’re telling me somebody smeared red paint on Paisley’s front door? And you just so happened to be staying overnight at her house because you have history with her?”
It was Ghost who’d spoken. It was Monday morning and the guys lounged around the conference table in the SCIF—the specially compartmented information facility where they usually discussed the top-secret Athena Project being built in nearby Huntsville and made plans for how to protect it.
They’d been sent to Huntsville on a secret mission—so secret they’d had to leave the military and take cover as a group of friends who owned a shooting range and training facility—and they were supposed to keep themselves to themselves.
That hadn’t exactly worked out so far. Blaze and Chance were engaged to local women and expecting their first children.
Seth was living with Callie Crowell at her place, and no doubt staring down an engagement of his own.
Kane had just admitted his feelings about Daphne Bryant, their capable assistant who was so much more than she’d seemed, and now they were living together too.
Ethan and Ghost—Alex—were the only two left who hadn’t technically broken one of the prime directives of the mission.
It wasn’t that having a girlfriend was bad.
It was that relationships—love—made them vulnerable if the wrong people came looking for them.
A man unwilling to talk about national security and top secret projects was presumably a lot more willing if somebody had a weapon pointed at the person he loved most in the world.
They all knew the risks, and yet his friends had been picked off one by one by Cupid’s arrow.
They weren’t making their relationships official yet, but they would just as soon as Athena was operational and safe from the foreign agents trying to sabotage or steal the technology.
In the meantime, they worked as security consultants and instructors both in the range and for defense contractors in Huntsville.
It was a far more rewarding job than any of them had thought possible when they’d arrived.
Ghost looked intense. The other men’s faces were carefully blank.
“Yes, sir. Paisley and Fern Carter had a run in at the library. Not the first time Fern has given Paisley grief, but this time was especially bad. Fern went to the mayor, who basically told her to pound sand, and she got pissed. Paisley got a text later from an unknown number telling her that she’d get what was coming to her.
Then the paint got smeared on her front door during the night or early morning hours between Friday and Saturday.
Colleen Wright is a neighbor and she came over to smudge the house.
That’s, uh, with sage apparently. She lights it and walks around with the smoke coming from the sage while she chants and waves it around. ”
He knew that because Paisley had told the woman to go ahead and do what she needed to do.
This was after Ethan had ascertained it was paint and not blood before Paisley fainted.
Colleen had looked slightly disappointed but she’d lit her sage and started waving it around while chanting something too low for him to make out.
Ethan had urged Paisley to call the local PD just to get it on record that someone had vandalized her door.
She did, and an officer came over to take pictures and a report.
After that, Ethan got to work cleaning the paint from the door.
It had taken hours because he hadn’t wanted to damage the wood.
Then he’d started installing the sensors and cameras for the security system.
It wasn’t the most state of the art system possible, but it was enough for what Paisley needed right now.
Violet had accepted his presence easily enough.
She’d asked questions—a million questions—about his life, his job, what he was doing, if he liked chocolate or vanilla, could she go ride his pony again soon, did he like cats, and so many other things he’d lost count.
Then she’d wanted to camp out with him in the living room when it was time for bed on Saturday night.
Paisley had said no, and Violet had started to cry.
Ethan somehow ended up promising to take her and her mom for a real camping trip one of these days.
He wasn’t specific but Paisley had glared daggers at him.
He’d forgotten that she wasn’t an outdoorsy girl.
She’d once told him she didn’t want to camp because it was dark and buggy—not to mention the potential for wild animals. Oops.
Ghost pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yep, got that. I’m specifically talking about that part you sped over—the one where you know Paisley Allen from a TDY assignment to Eglin five years ago. Details, soldier.”
Ethan rubbed the back of his neck. “Yes, sir. It’s a fucked up situation in so many ways.”
He launched into the story of his assignment to Eglin for training with the Green Beret detachment. He talked about meeting Paisley. Dating Paisley. And then the last minute mission when he’d had to deploy suddenly. When he mentioned Trey’s name, Ghost’s frown intensified.
“Trey McCann?”
“Yes, sir.”
Ghost’s brows arrowed down as a frown creased his face.
“That dude is bad news.” He scanned the room, fixing each of them with a hard look.
“You may have heard rumors at the time. McCann didn’t leave HOT of his own volition.
None of you were on his team back then or you’d know he wasn’t quite…
right. Only way to say it. He has a sadistic streak, and he was accused of willfully killing civilians on a mission to Qu’rim.
Barricaded them in a house and burned it down. ”
The shock roiling inside Ethan was reflected on the faces of his friends.
Joining HOT was a privilege. Being the best of the best, called on to rescue people from danger, helping those poor souls caught in conflict-torn areas, was an honor.
It was the best of what they did. The reason for all the training and hardship.
To help. To protect.
Ghost looked angry. “There was no proof. We had nothing to try him with because everything burned up with the house. He’d been sent to find an alternate route, and he’d been alone when he came across a refugee family hiding out.
Nobody saw him do it, but more than one of his teammates told us in depositions they believed he’d killed those people.
He had a habit of playing with fire and saying things that weren’t right—but that’s not enough to convict someone, nor should it be.
Though I wish it had been in his case.” Ghost swore.
“We still thought we had enough to get him thrown out of the military. But McCann got a good JAG attorney who fought to get him reassigned so he could finish his enlistment. That’s how he ended up in Florida.
Last I heard, he’d left the Army and started his own security operation.
He takes shit jobs for douchebags bigger than he is, or so I’ve heard. ”
Ethan’s gut twisted. It would have been fucking nice to know those things five years ago, but even douchebags had rights.
And Trey’s JAG officer had done a damned good job of making sure he kept all of his.
But what about the people who’d suffered at his hands?
Not just the civilians in Qu’rim, but Paisley and Violet as well?
Made him sick, and made him more determined than ever to make sure Trey never got close to her again. How the fuck hadn’t he known what an evil prick the man was? If he’d had an inkling, maybe none of this would have happened.
“Trey is Paisley’s husband,” he said, his throat a knot of despair and fury. “She’s divorcing him. Has a protective order and the court allowed her to take Violet out of state.”
“Jesus,” Ghost said. “How bad was it?”
“He hit her, but Paisley says he didn’t hit Violet. Yet. She found the courage to leave when she thought he was about to cross that line. Violet is four, and getting sassy.”
“Four?” Ghost said.
“Yeah.”
Ghost stared at him for a long moment. Ethan was starting to wonder what the fuck the boss was thinking when Seth started tapping his keyboard at lightning speed.
“I’ll see what I can find on Trey McCann.
Movements, business, any arrests or convictions.
And I’ll dig through the divorce proceedings if I can get access.
We’ll find out where he is and we won’t let him near Paisley. ”
“Amen, brother,” Kane said as the others nodded sternly.
A weight that’d been pressing down on Ethan since he’d learned Paisley’s violent ex was someone he’d trusted started to lift. It wouldn’t go away entirely, not until he knew Trey wasn’t a danger to her and Violet, but sharing the burden with his team gave him breathing room.
It occurred to him that she might be upset he’d shared their history, but he had no choice. Not after the threats she’d gotten.
He looked at the faces of his friends and told them what he knew.
“The blood on her door was only red paint, and the threatening text she got was from an unknown number. Fern Carter seems likely because of the incident, but I don’t think Trey can be ruled out.
Paisley says he doesn’t know where they are, but we all know we could find someone if we wanted to.
Unless they’ve had our training, people don’t know enough to erase their trail. ”