Free Fatal Heat: A Navy SEAL Novella by Lisa Marie Rice Page B

outside the country. One in India, one in Thailand, and one in Argentina. Finder could be in any of these.
    Was he capable of running a rogue cover-up operation?
    If she only had something she could take to someone. Even an incriminating email, something . If she could go to the section head, Larry Pelton, with something other than wild conjecture, maybe she could stop Finder. Larry definitely had the authority to block Finder, especially if Finder were using GL resources to hunt Silvia down.
    It was true that she and Larry had an unfortunate sentimental history, but she was sure he would overlook that.
    She’d had no desire for a two-night stand. One night had been enough. She and Larry had avoided each other ever since that disastrous date when he’d tried and failed to stuff what felt like a marshmallow inside her, and they both ended up staring at the ceiling.
    That was nothing compared to what was at stake. Her main worry was how to help Silvia right now. How to get her to a safe place and then get her back to the States. She had no idea what to do, who to turn to.
    Then she thought of Max. Of course! He was a former SEAL. He’d know what to do, or at least who to contact. The legal implications were something she could think about later, but right now, the most important thing was to keep Silvia safe. Surely he’d know how to do that?
    His cell phone number was programmed into hers. She felt a huge surge of relief as she pulled out her phone, checking her watch. 5:00 pm. He’d be on the road. It was dangerous to call someone while they were driving. A text message would be better. It gave off a signal, and he could choose to pull over to the side, and then they could talk.
    The message was simple.
SOS – P
     
    There. She felt better already.
    He’d help her, and he’d know what to do. Together they’d figure out a way to save Silvia. Now she needed to put that file in a safer place. Where? Max had given her his cell phone but not his email address.
    If there was a conspiracy inside the company, who to trust? It was entirely possible that people in the upper echelons knew the truth, and frankly, Paige didn’t trust any of them.
    There seemed to be a career point above which sce=”ove whiience started mattering less than profits.
    She’d send the file to Larry and to… the police? It was a police matter, but no one was hurt… yet. The FBI? Silvia had mentioned the FBI. That made sense. Certainly the FBI would know what to do, who to turn to. There must be an FBI office in San Francisco. She logged on to the FBI.gov site and found the link to the San Francisco office, copied the address, and opened her Gmail account.
    The drumbeat of anxiety over Silvia’s fate was beating in her head as she typed. Max sensed her anxiety and scrunched close to her, leaning against her leg and laying his muzzle across her feet. He always sensed when she was upset.
    Paige dropped a hand to briefly scratch his head, then bent back over the keyboard.
    Suddenly, to her astonishment Max scrambled to his feet, hunching his shoulders and growling low in his throat.
    “Get your hands off that computer,” a male voice said.
    Paige whipped around, wide-eyed. Two men were in the doorway, one tall and thin, the other stocky and shorter. The tall one had a gun pointed straight at her. She froze, utterly incapable of movement, trying to process these two men who’d appeared from nowhere.
    “I said, hands off the fucking keyboard!”
    She jerked her trembling hands up as if the keys were on fire. Oh, God! What now? Another minute or two and she could have sent the file to the FBI and to Larry. As it was, the only copies of Silvia’s file were on her hard drive and her thumb drive.
    The two men came forward. The man with the gun kept it trained on her. The unarmed man came around to stand beside her. He bent forward to see the screen, and Paige got a horrifying whiff of sweat, suntan lotion, and some awful cologne. Instinctively she