Chapter 17
Seventeen
Mae watched as Stone walked out of the kitchen at Montgomery Defense with Gunner. The two of them were clearly talking about something serious, but as soon as he caught her eye, Stone patted Gunner on the shoulder and made his way over to her.
“Excuse me miss, I couldn’t help but notice you checking me out.” His smile widened, the small dimple in his left cheek popping out. God, how long had it been since she saw it? He looked so handsome, back in his work clothes for the first time since… Everything happened.
“Oh, I’m very sorry, Sir,” she answered. “My boyfriend works here. It’s actually his first day back after a long time away, so it wouldn’t be right for me to be entertaining other men’s advances.”
“Hmm. Gorgeous and loyal. Damn, your boyfriend is lucky.” He leaned against the counter, and Mae stood, quickly sneaking a kiss.
“Yes, he is.”
“Doc! You got a second to look at this schedule?” Gage called from the hallway.
“Better get to it.”
“Don’t push yourself too hard today.”
“We’ve already gone over this. I feel good. I’m ready to be back.”
“Okay. Go. Kick ass. Take names. I’m here if you need me.”
Stone nodded and disappeared down the hallway.
Mae spent the next hour lost in a sea of paperwork puzzles, trying to sort between Montgomery Defense and Trident issues Sebastian and Gunner needed her to fix. She barely looked up from her screen until the desk phone rang.
“Montgomery Defense, this is Mae speaking. How may I direct your call this morning.”
“Yeah, I’m wondering if I can talk to one of those assholes who killed their own brothers in arms over in Afghanistan.
I’d like to let them know they aren’t welcome back here on American soil.
They should be six feet under. Pretending to be heroes…
it’s fucking disgusting. And you’re a fucking bitch for working with them—”
Mae slammed the phone onto the receiver.
“Whoa. What’d that phone ever do to you?” Nash laughed as he walked over to her desk with steam rising out of his coffee cup. Her eyes bounced between the phone and Nash’s face, unable to think of anything to respond with. “Hey. Mae? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just a prank caller, I think.”
“What did they say?” Nash stepped behind her chair, picking up the phone and pressing a few buttons. She knew what he was doing, looking for the log of callers. But she’d looked before hanging up. Caller ID: Unknown.
“They just asked if they could talk to one of you guys.”
“Okay… why would that freak you out?”
“They mentioned something about friendly fire and how you guys deserved to be six feet under instead of the SEALs who never made it back from Afghanistan.”
Nash stared at her for a minute, standing so still she wasn’t even sure he was breathing. The elevator chimed and Lily walked down the hallway a second later, Sloane hot on her heels.
“Did you guys see the article?” Lily asked as she walked into the reception area with tears in her eyes.
“Article?”
“Here,” Sloane handed Mae her cell phone.
There, at the top of the top of the Texas Truth Chronicles website was a headline that made Mae’s stomach flip.
NAVY SEALS COVER-UP DEADLY FRIENDLY FIRE INCIDENT.
“Just great.” Nash groaned as he took the phone from Mae’s hand.
“That bitch. She actually did it.” Mae forced herself to take a breath, her blood pressure rising to the point that she felt dizzy.
“What are you talking about?” Lily asked, eyes wide.
“One of my brother’s bimbo ex’s came in here while Stone was in the hospital, saying she was going to run an article on the guys. Asking if they wanted to comment.”
“Oh god, I remember. Gunner came home and told me.”
“Apparently, Sebastian’s attempt to squash the story didn’t work.” Nash grumbled as he scrolled through. “All of this is just bullshit. This never happened.”
“Why would someone want to do this to you guys?” Mae asked.
“I don’t know…”
“I’m going to take this down the hall to Gage.” Sloane rocked on her heels before she took her phone back and headed off down the long hallway.
“And I need to see Gunner.” Lily was just a step behind her.
“I’m going to go get Lacy. Mae, can you call Hawk and tell him to meet us here in an hour?”
She shook her head. “I’ll call, but he’s on the schedule for the shooting range with a group of Rangers until four-thirty.”
“I completely forgot about that group. Okay… let’s just try and reach out to him. We’ll probably need to hold off anyway until Cap can get here. There’s no way we have this meeting without him.”
“Right.” She pressed her hand against her heart. “What do we do about Stone? He’s been completely out of the loop on this. Should I… should we go home for the day?”
“It’ll be worse if he’s left in the dark and someone says something to him outside of our group now that it’s out in the world like it is.” Nash knocked twice on desk. “Send out a group message with Seb and Hawk’s expected arrival time after you talk to them.”
“Got it. Go.”
Her nerves were frayed. Mae sat at her desk, chewing on her thumbnail, which was a habit she’d been meaning to break since childhood. Stupid stress. She should have gone upstairs with Lacy, Sloane, and Lily, but something inside told her to stay. To be there in case Stone needed support.
She’d read the article over, and over, and over again until the words started to sound like a foreign language in her own mind.
Four SEALs killed in a mission so classified it should never have made it into the hands of someone who could sell the story.
But they were there. Clear as day. Printed right alongside the allegations.
Friendly fire, ultimately determined to be from Stone Lawson’s weapon, was the cause of death.
And the report Sebastian Montgomery submitted, along with the tapes of the incident, had apparently been altered.
Changed so that Stone wouldn’t face repercussions for his mistake.
Mae didn’t believe a word of it. She couldn’t. Except that… he was so on edge before the shooting. Something had been eating at him, a shadow consuming him bit by bit until the darkness won. Until he ended things with her to keep her safe. What if—
“Hey, Mae. We good to sign in and box for a bit?”
Mae jumped, quickly smiling as Beau and Hayes Ford walked towards her.
“Yeah, of course. It’s good to see you both. I feel like it’s been forever.”
“This guy never has any time off.” Beau threw a punch at Hayes, catching him right in the upper arm.
“The firehouse is short staffed. I basically live there right now.”
“Well, I’ll speak on behalf of all the citizens of Silver Springs and say thank you for your sacrifice.”
Beau laughed. “Eating chili and lifting weights nine out of ten nights doesn’t really feel like he’s making that big of a sacrifice.”
“He’s still a bachelor, not like you.” Mae teased.
“I’m single as a Pringle, Mae.”
“Still? God, what the hell are you doing with Birdie?”
The sexual tension that rolled off of Beau and Birdie whenever they were together was truly unbearable. Mae had spent the last few months volunteering with Birdie at Beau and Nash’s youth soccer program, and the way they seemed to orbit around one another without effort tugged deep at her heart.
A flush hit the high points of Beau’s ears. “She’s just my friend.”
“Yeah, your best friend.” Hayes jabbed back. “We all know how it’s going to end. They seem to be the only ones unsure.”
“You got a problem with guys and girls being friends? Nothing’s going on between us. Besides, I barely see her anymore. She’s in her last year for her midwifery training. It’s all baby this and baby that…”
Mae’s heart sank. One of the things that kept rolling through her mind before the miscarriage had been where she’d choose to have the baby.
At home? In the hospital? Would Birdie have been there?
It was comforting to think that a friend would have been the one to deliver her baby… but it didn’t matter any more.
“Mae? You good?” Hayes’s question snapped her out of her spiral.
“Yeah. Sorry. It’s been a crazy day around here.”
“I saw the article.” Beau’s head tipped towards the hallway where the guys were tucked into the conference room having their meeting. “Everyone doing okay?”
“They’ll be fine. You better get to beating the shit out of each other, though. I’m not sure if they’ll want to just call it an early day or not once they’re done in their meeting.”
“Sure thing.” Beau tapped his fingers on the reception desk. “And for what it’s worth, we don’t believe what was written. This town will stand by them. We won’t let them get dragged for whatever this person is after.”
“You guys should have told me.” Stone grunted for the fiftieth time. He got it. They were trying to protect him. His recovery. But this? Someone was targeting him, and the whole team because of him. It made his skin crawl.
“For what it’s worth, we know that now.” Sebastian answered. “But your doctor was clear about limiting your stress, and we were just trying to follow orders.”
“You’ve always been a great leader, Cap. I’m not… I don’t think I’m mad. I’m just at a loss as to why someone would go to these lengths to discredit us. It doesn’t make sense.”
“This feels like something more than just running a juicy story.” Gunner said, his head shaking as he lifted his coffee mug to his lips.
“It feels like Pool Comp. Someone is fucking with our lifelines. They’re trying to make it impossible for us to come up for air. Are we drowning and we don’t know it?”
“Fucking Pool Comp.” Hawk shivered. “That shit was insane.”
“Did we fuck up, Cap? Should we have issued a statement?” Nash asked.
“No. Hell no. We don’t talk about specific missions. We don’t give those details to anyone. We did what we did, and it’s done. But we certainly don’t sit by while someone spreads false information about us and defames us and this business.” Sebastian stood, pacing at the front of the room.