Free Warrior (Navy SEALs Romance Book 5) by Rachel Hanna Page B

doorway, but the man shoved the girl’s feet down and stood up.
    “Uh… um, I’m Dr. Macmillan. Can I help you?”
    “You? You’re Macmillan! You’re the guy doing the research project,” Mike began, but something about the way the color drained from the professor’s face as his eyes darted to the girl. It was the telling look of someone who knows something, but is on the verge of lying about it.
    “I don’t really know what my research has to do with…”
    “You went out this morning with Dr. Stanton. I know you did,” Mike growled, his voice becoming even more menacing as he stepped towards the man. Macmillan instinctively backed up, another telling sign that he knew something.
    “I don’t… I mean, what would I be doing with… Look, I don’t know what you heard or who told you what. But it was just a joke.”
    “WHAT was a joke?” he demanded, his fists already clenching.
    “You know… our boat trip? Haze the new guy?” Macmillan said weakly, already feeling the stupidity of his words. “There’s just these pranks people play on each other in the department, and it helps to make them feel like they’re really part of the team. We thought it’d shake her up a bit, then we’d all have a laugh about it later. She’s the one who seemed like an outsider, like she didn’t want to belong with the rest of us. We just thought we’d teach her a little lesson, but all in good fun, you know? We were going back out this afternoon to pick her up, don’t worry. She’s wearing a diver tracker, we can find her again just by pinging her signal.”
    “Gimme the access to her signal and the coordinates where you left her… NOW.” Michael roared at both of them, casting furious glances as he waited for Macmillan to call up some data in his phone. The professor held out the phone for him to look at, but Michael snatched it and pocketed it.
    “Hey! You can’t take that. It’s department property! We’ll all get in trouble for it!” the snotty guy shouted in a whiny voice. Michael turned around so fast to face him that the professor faltered. “Look, I told you, it was just a joke. I don’t know why you’re getting so…”
    The next sound was the crunch of cartilage as Mike’s fist connected with Macmillan’s face. The girl finally looked up from her phone long enough to scream and press herself back against the office wall, sneering when blood poured out from between the professor’s fingers.
    “Hey! You can’t go punching people, you know. There are laws about that!” she shouted at Michael, pointing to the floor where Macmillan had crumpled.
    “Oh yeah? Do you know anything about the laws regarding attempted murder, Your Honor?” he fired back, leaving the girl to stare in surprise. He posted the coordinates to his own phone along with the GPS data from Emily’s tracker, breathing a tiny sigh of relief that the information went seamlessly to the app S&R used. When he confirmed the data was reading to his phone, he drew back his arm and threw Macmillan’s as hard as he could against the office window, smiling when it shattered the glass and crashed to the pavement below.
    “See? Didn’t take your phone. You should be good, right?” He laughed lightly and turned around, racing out of the office to get to Emily.

    * * *
    T he sun had already reached noon and was starting to head towards the horizon. Emily could feel the effects of the cold water on her limbs, but she willed herself not to panic. Someone would come near enough soon, and she would be ready to signal for help. The most important thing to do was to keep her spirits up and remain alert, and not give in to unnecessary fear.
    But that was easier said than done. Instead, Emily thought about the people who would never know what happened to her, who would just wonder why she hadn’t contacted them. Clark might learn somehow through the university grapevine, but who would check up on him and make sure he saw the doctor? Mrs. Romero