Her Sensual Protector: A Navy SEAL Romance (Night Storm Book 5), Caitlyn O'Leary [uplifting book club books TXT] 📗

Cullen asked. “If she was such a ballbuster, why would she be willing to sit down and talk to you?”

“All I know is she left all those guys eating her dust, but as she was leaving the conference room, she winked at me.”

Every man in the tiny room groaned. “Heartthrob does it again,” Asher Thorne said with disgust.

“And don’t you forget it. I know you all think it’s the Italian Stallion with his curly hair and soulful eyes, but it’s me. They love us Latin Lover types.” Leo buffed his nails against his dusty T-shirt.

Again the men groaned, all except Ezio. “What, Ezio, you’re not going to disagree?” Leo looked over at his Italian teammate. “You don’t want to fight for your Italian Lothario status?”

“Hell no. I have Samantha, I already know I’ve won,” Ezio smirked.

“Okay, boys, can it. I want to hear the real stuff. What did you find out when you got Daisy alone?” Max asked.

“She told me that if her old man has been in countries where it’s been necessary to deal with the local terrorist organizations to get the people the care they needed, he wouldn’t have batted an eye. The problem here is that a lot of the clerics aren’t real down with his approach, which riles up the terrorists, so it makes him a target. She knows this. She’s not wearing rose-colored glasses where her father is concerned.”

“So he’s all about the medicine. How do you think he’s interacting with his captors? Did you get a read on that from her?” Max nodded.

“He’d be a stubborn asshole. There’d be no give,” Leo answered.

“Great, just great. So that means the Haqqani Network will be chomping at the bit to kill him as soon as Siraj gets back from Pakistan,” Kane said disgustedly. “The man doesn’t have the sense God gave a gnat.”

“That about sums it up,” Leo agreed. “I worry what Daisy’s next move is going to be.”

Max’s head shot up and his eyes pinned him. “What do you mean by that? She did her thing. She went to the embassy and demanded they act. What other play does she have?”

“I don’t know. She’s smart and determined. She couldn’t have built up her charity the way she has without being willing to go over, under, and around any and all obstacles to get what she wants. She’s not going to let the ambassador stop her from trying to get to her father.”

“But she knows there is a rescue being planned, doesn’t she?” young Nic asked. “I mean, it’s kind of obvious that you’re special forces.”

“It better not have been,” Max growled.

“Nic’s right, it was to her. I told you, she’s smart. She put it together by the time she was done shaking my hand. I didn’t confirm nor deny any of her questions. She was adamant about knowing what our timeline was. That’s what worries me. She’s going to do something.”

“Fuck,” Max said as he ran his hand through his dark hair. “We don’t need this. Kane, call Tom and have someone put a tail on her, in case they haven’t already. I want her watched in case she does something stupid. Okay, onto our next order of business.” Max motioned for Kane to open up his field-grade laptop. That thing could withstand bullets and some minor explosions. And one time it had withstood Kane throwing it thirty yards in frustration.

“Hold on.” Leo looked over at Raiden and grinned. They watched as Kane went into his duffel and pulled out a bulky sack. He loosened the draw string and took out a bunch of bubble wrap, which he carefully unwrapped until he got to his mini-projector. He might be brutal with his laptop, but his projector was dealt with like fine bone china.

He plugged it into his laptop, and images appeared on the far wall.

“Lights, Nic,” Kane said.

Nic gave out a long-suffering sigh. Again Raiden and Leo grinned at one another. Even though Nic was closest to the light switch, in his opinion he was told to turn out the lights because he was the youngest. Max was going to have to pound some sense into the kid pretty soon and get rid of that chip on his shoulder.

“Aw fuck, caves.” Cullen groaned.

“Oh for God’s sake, Lyons, what else did you expect?” Asher demanded to know. “We’re in Afghanistan. Of course, the terrorists would be hiding out in caves.”

“They have bugs,” he whined.

Everybody in the tiny room laughed, which is what Cullen had intended. Leo saw Max rubbing the back of his neck.

Shit, this was worse than he thought. Usually, Max didn’t give away the game like this.

“Cut the crap, guys,” Leo commanded. “What are we up against?” he asked Kane.

“Right now we know he’s in the Pushtun Region of Afghanistan, we can extrapolate that their bases are in caves, which means the Hindu Kush mountain range,” Kane explained. He used his laser pointer to show the most likely area.

“It’s not going to be easy for Siraj Haqqani to get from Pakistan over to some cave in the Afghan side of the Hindu Kush mountains,” Leo noted.

“There’s always helicopters,” Nic said. “But how often do they use them?”

“Not often, Nic,” Kane answered. “But we can’t rule it out.”

“Nope, don’t think so,” Max said decisively. “Haqqani’s going to know we’re going to be carefully monitoring airspace because of the good doctor’s kidnapping. He won’t want to risk it.”

“That’s good news,” Leo said. “Gives us three or four days to find and rescue Dr. Squires.”

“Bad weather,” Kane said. “So closer to four or five days. It gives us more time.”

“Leo,” Max pointed at him.