Chapter 15
Doc ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
As great as things were going with Ember, things at work weren’t nearly as good.
The SEAL team who’d been checking out the caves near the base in Afghanistan hadn’t found anything, so they’d been sent to another locale on a different mission.
And getting information from the base general was like pulling teeth.
Trigger and the team didn’t know if he was afraid of getting in trouble if he shared too much information about the contractors who’d gone missing, or if he actually didn’t care since they weren’t soldiers.
Grover wasn’t happy. Trigger wasn’t happy.
Commander Robinson wasn’t happy. The situation was impossible, and without good intel, their hands were tied.
They couldn’t exactly go over to Afghanistan if no one admitted there was an issue.
But ever since Grover had received that letter from Sierra, he was more convinced than ever she’d been taken captive.
Doc couldn’t disagree. Neither could the rest of the team. But they still had to sit tight until they had more concrete evidence that Shahzada was behind the disappearances.
Things with Ember, however, were going amazingly well.
Being with her felt right. Natural. Making love had never been as satisfying as it was with her, and he literally craved the woman.
Doc knew it would suck sleeping away from her and was somewhat dreading being deployed for that reason alone.
He’d gotten used to having her in his arms, and he couldn’t deny feeling a huge satisfaction every time she marked him.
The guys gave him shit when he’d taken his shirt off that morning and they’d seen the hickeys she’d given him, but he didn’t care.
She’d been right when she’d said he’d think about how he’d gotten them every time he caught a glimpse.
He was planning a special night for her later.
He’d bought cupcakes that spelled out “Congratulations” and had arranged to get dinner catered in.
This was opening day for The Modern Kid, and he was excited to celebrate it with her tonight.
He hated that he couldn’t be there, but she’d reassured him it was fine.
After all the renovations were done, and she had a bigger clientele, she’d throw a huge open house party to officially kick off the opening of the gym.
For now, she was happy to have her first day be low-key with the small number of kids she’d signed up.
It was three o’clock and the team had been over the latest information from overseas four times, looking for anything that would give them the opening they needed to be sent over to hunt Shahzada.
They were tired and grumpy, and worried about every single one of the contractors who were over there serving their country in their own way.
Doc was more than ready to change the subject. “Did you have a chance to talk to Ember’s parents today?” he asked Trigger.
“I did. And I don’t like what I heard.”
Doc tensed. “What?”
“Her mom told me there had been several bags of mail that hadn’t been looked through because of the Olympics, and everything that happened with Ember leaving when she got back,” Trigger said.
“She said nothing seemed odd at first. There were a lot of congratulatory letters and gifts from fans, as well as the usual negative letters. But when she and Cedric organized them, they realized there were several letters from the same person. Someone named Alex. The postmark was Los Angeles.”
“Shit. Alex again. What’d they say?” Brain asked.
“The first one, mailed before the Olympics, was overly enthusiastic. Gushing about how amazing Ember was and how proud he was of her. Afterward, the tone changed. They were more critical. Angry. The last one Alex sent was five pages long and full of rambling, accusatory shit about how she hadn’t tried hard enough.
How she’d let down all her fans and…” Trigger’s voice trailed off.
“And what?” Doc asked.
“He threatened her. Said he knew she’d left LA and there was nowhere she could hide. That karma would catch up to her.”
“Why does this guy even care? Did Ember’s mom mention if she’d had a bad breakup with anyone? Maybe Alex is an ex-boyfriend?” Lucky asked.
Trigger shook his head. “No. She hasn’t had a boyfriend in a couple years.”
“So all this hate is because someone decided they know her from her social media posts and they have a connection?” Brain asked.
“You forget that this guy’s been sending her gifts for months. So if he thought they had a connection, Ember not doing as well as he’d hoped in the Olympics, then moving and changing the entire direction of her social media, could’ve pushed him over the edge.”
“But it sounds as if the trigger was her performance in South Korea,” Doc said.
“What did Beth have to say about the background checks or the searches on the assholes who left nasty comments on her recent posts?” Lefty asked Brain.
“I talked to her last night, and again on our last break, and was going to tell you about everything we discussed when we had a second,” Brain said.
“She hasn’t done the background checks on Julio or Marie yet.
Since we prioritized tracking down the IP addresses, she spent the last couple days doing that.
And after Ember posted about opening her gym, she had a new slew of hateful comments, which increased Beth’s workload.
She’s looked at the most hateful of the messages and done her best to track the addresses, especially that Alex character.
” Brain shook his head. “I’ll never understand why some people have to be so horrible.
Why can’t they let others be happy? Anyway, Beth said last night that the IP addresses came back to cities all over the country.
Seattle, New York, Birmingham, Dallas…but also a few here in Killeen. ”
Doc sat up straighter. “Should we be concerned about those?”
“Absolutely,” Brain said. “I’d asked Beth to further narrow down the Killeen threats.
Find actual locations and real names, if possible, so those people can be investigated.
But that doesn’t mitigate the threats that came from outside Texas.
We all know if someone is seriously pissed off, they can find their way here and hurt Ember, no matter where they live. ”
Doc sighed. He understood what his friend was saying.
The fact that there were people right here in Killeen who felt the need to take out their anger through their keyboard wasn’t surprising.
But the target of the nastiness wasn’t just anyone.
It was Ember. The woman he loved. “Do we have any addresses of the people in town who said any nasty shit?” he asked.
“A couple, yes. She has a few more to go. Names are harder though, since it could literally be anyone in the house leaving the comments, and not necessarily the person renting the internet service.”
“Any of them named Alex?” Oz asked.
“No. That was the first thing she checked,” Brain said.
“What about any Alexes from LA?” Doc asked.
“Beth hasn’t gotten there yet. She said just getting what she has so far took most of the night.
She did say that was next on her list of things to do…
along with the background checks of not only Julio and Marie, and her former social media managers—especially this Alexis guy—but the other people who worked for the Maxwells back in California, as well. ”
Doc pressed his lips together. He knew Ember wouldn’t like hearing that. He’d wait until he found out what Beth came up with before breaking the news to her. Hopefully he’d be able to tell her everyone was in the clear.
“Do you want my opinion?” Lefty asked.
Doc immediately nodded. “Of course.”
“Keep in mind this is coming from someone whose woman was taken and almost killed…I would hire extra security for Ember. She lived in Beverly Hills behind the walls of her parents’ mansion, so I think she’s still somewhat na?ve.
I know she wants her independence, but I don’t think she fully understands what to look for in regard to someone who might want to do her harm. ”
Doc nodded. “She’s not going to like it.”
Lefty shrugged and kept his intense gaze on Doc’s. “Maybe not, but trust me, the alternative isn’t acceptable.”
“I’ll talk to her. Today was opening day, and while she didn’t have that many kids there, I know she was both excited and nervous. I’ve gotten a few texts from her, and she said it’s going well.”
“No problems?” Grover asked.
Doc was glad to see his friend participating in the conversation. He’d been quiet most of the day, except when it came to expressing his frustration with what was happening in Afghanistan.
“I guess Julio was in a piss-poor mood this morning. Ember had to reprimand him and tell him to get his head out of his ass.”
“How’d he react to that?” Lucky asked.
“He wasn’t happy.”
“I’ll make sure Beth gets that background check done this evening,” Trigger said.
“’Preciate it,” Doc said. “But I got a text from her during the last break, and she said he was better, that working with the kids seemed to make whatever he’d been upset about fade.
” Doc looked at his watch. “She’s got another hour before the kids should be picked up by their parents.
She wanted to talk with Julio and Marie to get their thoughts on how things went, then she’ll be heading home. ”
“The security she hired will stay until she’s gone, right?” Lucky asked.
“Yes. I also know putting in a security system is on her agenda too. She had it scheduled, but they had to postpone the installation for some reason.”
“Security is especially tricky because most of the sports, other than the fencing, will have to be done off-site, right?” Brain asked.