Free Saved by Lorhainne Eckhart Page A

for a pleasure cruise. Guys like Seyed were dangerous animals. Nothing they did was without an agenda. He’d have to talk to Abby again. He hated upsetting her, making her relive this horrible thing over and over, but it couldn’t be helped.
    “Captain, did you hear me?”
    Eric blinked a couple times. “Sorry, was just thinking.”
    “I said there are a number of boats, particularly fishing boats, sailboats, that have been reported as suspicious. Their activities are being monitored.”
    “Really. That’s quite interesting. So anything about Seyed and one of these boats?”
    “Apparently two nights ago a sailboat that was overdue was returned under rather suspicious circumstances at a sports club on Kish Island. The club manager, who was on duty at the time, filed a report of a missing dinghy. The lone occupant was noted as being rather disgruntled and uncooperative, saying the dinghy had been lost at sea, and he wasn’t willing to elaborate on the details.”
    “That sounds like our guy, does it not?”
    “The details are sketchy, but I think you’re right. I don’t have to remind you that this information is unofficial, and it came from a friend of mine at Intel,” Joe said.
    Eric shook his head and laughed. “So who exactly is this friend of yours?”
    The wide smile flashed a row of perfect white teeth. “Do you remember Edwin Harley?”
    Eric frowned, trying to remember where he had heard that name before.
    “Edwin is with the Marines, a lieutenant commander. He’s been doing some recon work with the Special Forces for the last eighteen months. We grew up together; his dad and mine are good friends. Remember Christmas dinner six years ago at my house? He was there with that young bombshell wife, Carlie.”
    A sudden shiver ripped up his spine as he swallowed a groan. “God, how could I forget? Shit, she was all over me when I came out of the bathroom. Her husband in the next room, unbelievable.” He leveled Joe with a sheepish look. “I couldn’t help feeling sorry for that poor guy. I couldn’t even look him in the eye. Woman like that, gives you a bad taste.”
    “Yeah, well, as my wife said, she always did go after all the hunks—she just didn’t like the same ones all the time. Anyway, she’s gone now. Took off with some guy to LA.”
    Eric closed his eyes for just a second and then shared a pitying look with Joe for the guy’s misfortune. “When did you talk to him?”
    “I put a call in to him after Abby showed up on board. I thought we could use his contacts.”
    For some reason, Eric felt the thread holding his temper unravel, and Joe must have seen something in his face.
    “I told him this was unofficial as well as confidential. He clearly understood that we didn’t have a conversation.”
    “Just be careful what you say, Joe.”
    “I always am.”
    Joe had more friends and contacts in the military than Eric had ever seen. But then again, Joe was a Navy brat coming from a military family. He was charming, tall, with a dimpled smile and looks that kind of snuck up on you and sucker punched you, as he’d heard from the women when they didn’t think he was listening. The men all wanted him around because he was fun, dependable, reliable and, to Eric, the best friend he could ask for.
    Eric remembered well how Joe always included him in family gatherings, Christmas and holidays, always dragging him along even when Eric said no. When Joe married his wife, Mary-Margaret, a short, cute, bubbly woman, she had never once judged Eric. She accepted all of him, including his chauvinistic views of women, and she was always teasing him and trying to fix him up with one of her friends, telling him that he was so damn good looking, so strong, with a body that every woman dreamed of. It was a shame to waste, and he grimaced every time she tried to take charge of his love life and fix him up on one blind date after another. But he loved her as Joe’s wife and didn’t have the heart to tell