Free Shooting the SEAL (Saving the SEALs Series Book 1) by Leslie North Page B

But…well, I just don’t know anymore.”
     
    “Well, don’t sit on your hands while you wait.” Lisa found a parking spot down the block from Anna’s building. She turned in her seat and fixed a stare on Anna. “You want to know why I broke my own rule—why I went out with that guy I met in a bar, even though I knew it was a bad idea?”
     
    Anna shook her head, and Lisa went on, her voice intense, “He’d been at the pub, drinking to the loss of a friend, a guy who’d been killed. He told me the guy was just shot for what seemed to be no damn good reason. Dead. Just like that. This friend of his left a wife behind. He talked about life being too short to leave things undone—and, you know what, he was right.”
     
    Anna shook her head again. “Gage said something like that.”
     
    Grabbing Anna’s hand, Lisa squeezed it tight. “Well, good. Means he’s not completely stupid. Life happens. I read someplace that how can you use your heart before it gets broke in. So go out and break a few things—just not our lunch date, okay?”
     
    They made a date to meet up at a local coffee shop, but by noon Anna had to call and cancel. Work was more than swamped. The move—and the new, cramped quarters, had left everyone on edge. Tempers soared. No one could find the right art for the latest covers. Two editors still preferred to work in hard copies—and the print-out galleys had gone missing. Entire boxes of files seemed to be gone, and everyone’s nerves were frayed.
     
    Anna tried to stay in her own tiny cubicle, but she had to go up to the studio to see what she could rescue from yesterday’s work. The answer was nothing. What smoke hadn’t damaged had been ruined by overhead sprinklers. She was glad she’d taken her Hasselblad with her when she’d gone, or it would have been soaked, too.
     
    She called down to the hospital for news, and found out that Linda had been released to go home. She called there and left a message. Marcella had been released, too, but had checked herself into nursing care—Anna read between the lines on that and figured Marcella would be at the best spa in town for at least a week.
     
    Trying to escape the chaos downstairs, Anna volunteered to help sort out Coran’s office. The elevators were working again, so she took it up and stepped out and headed into Coran’s office. The place was a total wreck. Scattered papers, furniture still overturned. Anna shook her head and started to sort out the worst of it.
     
    By the middle of the afternoon, she was exhausted. And she remembered she was supposed to go out with Gage. She wondered if she could call him and put it off—but then she thought about Lisa and the guy she’d met. Maybe Gage would think she was cooling things between them. And she thought about what Lisa had said—it was past time that life stopped happening around her and only to other people.
     
    Dammit, she wasn’t just going to go out with Gage, she was going to go all out.
     
    Grabbing her purse, Anna headed outside to hail a taxi. It was only four. She’d go home, grab a bath, change into something sexy and meet up with Gage back at the office building. Smiling and thinking about the evening ahead—maybe she could talk him into taking her dancing—she headed into her building.
     
    She rode the elevator up, humming a song. The song stopped as soon as she opened her door. It had been locked—but someone had been in her place. Someone had trashed her place. It looked worse than Coran’s office. Her face numb and hands shaking, she took a step back, and then she thought about Romeo.
     
    Pulling out her phone, she started to dial the emergency number, but she stopped. Was this an emergency? Should she just call the police instead? What if the person was still here? Where was Romeo?
     
    Before she could decide, a hand closed over her hand and her phone.

Chapter 11
    Gage put a finger to his lips so she’d stay quiet. He took Anna’s phone from her