Free Swift Strike (SEAL Team 14 Book 2) by Loren Mathis

he’s gone and we can’t even bury him.”
    She’d known Steven since she was eight years old. As a close friend of her father’s, he’d spent a lot of time around their family. Even way back then, he’d been more approachable than the infallible Alfred Westlake.
    After her parents’ divorce, Steven, or Uncle Steven as she’d referred to him, became an ever-present force in her life. He’d always encouraged her to follow her dreams. He’d become a father to her when her own father had for all intents and purposes abandoned her.
    Steven had never married and he didn’t have any children, so there was no one left to fight for him. Lena feared that without this additional pressure, the authorities would just forget about him. He would just become another faceless statistic in the warnings of doing business in war-torn, perennially broken Somalia.
    “Lena, I know that you were quite fond of him—”
    “He was a very good man. One of the best men I’ve ever known. He didn’t deserve to die. Especially not like the way he did.”
    “No one deserves what happened to Steven.”
    “He was like…a father to me,” Lena admitted, using all of the willpower that she could muster not to let her voice crack.
    “I know. The two of you were very close. Steven was also a very good friend to your father and me. It’s a terrible loss.”
    “It just seems impossible that he’s gone, you know? I still keep thinking that he’s just going walk right through the door any day now. He was so full of life. So indestructible. Nothing could get him down, not even his bouts with cancer. And it’s not just him, either. Twenty-one people were killed at the plant. Twenty-one of my friends were killed. And for what? AnSawar didn’t even get a drop of the ransom money that they were asking for.”
    “This situation isn’t fair, Lena. But you have to find a way to move beyond this. It’s not healthy for you to continue to fixate on circumstances that you cannot change.”
    Moments passed by in vociferous silence until Lena spoke up again. “We still can’t bury his body. And the man who killed Steven wasn’t even found. How could that bastard have just escaped during the rescue operation? He could be anywhere by now. He knows my name, he could find out where I live.”
    Claire’s eyes darted from Lena to the fireplace and then back to Lena. “That’s just not possible.”
    “Of course it’s possible.”
    “Why would this group go to all that much trouble? The naval representatives that I spoke with assured me that most of the men who were holding you hostage were killed in their rescue operation. Granted, I do not know much about terrorist organizations, but I’ve never heard of them making repeated attacks on the same person, unless that person was a government official. I just think that you are worrying for nothing.”
    “Sure.”
    “You shouldn’t live your life paralyzed with fear. I think you should contact Kevin.” Upon hearing Lena’s drawn out sigh, Claire rushed on, “I know that the two of you left things on bad terms, but I spoke to his mother a couple of months ago and he hadn’t yet moved on. He still asks about you. There’s still a chance that he could forgive you, dear.”
    Claire was actually making sense this time—well, about everything except Kevin. She was probably worrying for nothing. Most of the terrorists had been killed. The few who hadn’t died were otherwise detained. She had never really thought of herself as a particularly violent person. She’d never wished death on anyone, but she couldn’t be particularly upset about the death of her captors. After all, AnSawar had murdered her friends—dozens of innocent people. So yeah, she was glad that these men weren’t going to get away with their crimes.
    The only real problem was that Hazel Eyes had evaded capture. And despite the Navy and FBI’s assurances, she just could not feel one hundred percent safe until the creep was caught