Free Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Maddie (Kindle Worlds Novella) (An Omega Team Crossover Book 4) by Desiree Holt Page A

Wonderful parents but nothing notable about them.” She gave a weak grin. “Maybe a little overprotective, but not the kind of people who would be involved in something like this.”
    “That photo of them was taken for some reason,” he pointed out. “Are they still in San Antonio? Maybe someone was looking for their address. Although they could probably get the same info by looking them up on the white pages online.”
    Maddie shook her head. “They don’t have a listed phone. In fact, since cell phones became so reliable and sophisticated, they no longer have a landline.”
    Hawkeye cut a quick glance at her. “But you have their phone number somewhere, right?”
    “In my cell directory. And I always have my phone with me.”
    “What about mail?” he persisted. “Envelopes with a return address or emails.”
    Maddie got that tight feeling in her stomach again. “We, uh, never write anything hard copy to each other. It’s a rule in our family. Just like scrapping emails as soon as we read them is a rule.”
    “And you don’t think that’s odd?” He grunted. “I’m in a secretive part of the military. Covert Ops. Yet my friends and I email back and forth all the time. We take our laptops with us even to the Forward Base Operating camps.”
    “But your connections are secure, right?”
    He nodded. “Because of who and what we are. Your parents aren’t in a classified environment, so what’s that all about?”
    Maddie chewed her bottom lip. “My dad has this thing. He thinks the government is always spying on us. When all that stuff came out about the NSA, my mom was sure he’d make us stop using our computers.
    “There’s something there, Maddie, and we have to dig it out. Maybe it has nothing to do with what’s happening to you, but my gut tells me differently. I always follow my gut.”
    “If you think you’re scaring me telling me how deep you plan to dig into my past, you’re mistaken. My life—my family’s life—is an open book.”
    “I hope you’re right. Of course, then we’d have to figure out where to look next.” They had left the interstate behind and traveled down the streets of a residential neighborhood. “Meanwhile, here we are. I’m coming in with you to do a look around. Then I’ll be across the street, waiting to hear back from Grey.”
    He walked her to her classroom, as he’d done the two previous days, engaging her in a casual conversation that barely penetrated her consciousness. Her family? Her parents? What could they possibly have to do with this? The thought left her unsettled, and she needed to pull herself together. She couldn’t let her students see her rattled or they’d walk all over her.
    “Okay.” He stopped at her desk. “Think you can break away for lunch today?”
    Maddie was amazed at how casual he sounded.
    “Uh, sure.” She gave him a tentative smile.
    “Good. Let’s meet across the street so you don’t have to use up your lunch hour with drive time.”
    He said it all so smoothly she was certain no one overhearing them would think it was anything but casual conversation.
    “Okay. That sounds good.” She made herself focus. “I’ll see you a few minutes after noon.”
    Then he was gone, leaving Maddie to pull in the frayed ends of her mind and focus on teaching her class.
    *****
    “Are you fucking kidding me?”
    Hawkeye was stunned. He had asked Grey to have Jacquie pull the Winslows’ Texas driver’s licenses so she’d have pictures of them. She could run facial recognition software in case there was something they were hiding. In case? There was no “in case” about it. His spidey sense itched, and Grey agreed with him. But what he’d learned moments ago wasn’t what he’d expected at all.
    “Not even a little,” Grey told him. “When we couldn’t find anything older than thirty years, I smelled something off.”
    “Maddie is probably going to pass out when I tell her.” He swallowed the last of his cold coffee.