Cold Spite (Cold Justice: Most Wanted #5)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

C as felt ill as he looked up at the white-painted, wooden exterior of the iconic Victorian Hotel del Coronado that rose up in front of him. The American flag planted on its red-roofed rotunda snapped briskly in the ocean breeze.

In any other circumstances, he’d go down to the beach and walk barefoot in the sand, feel the heat of the sun on his skin after months of cold, damp weather. But not these circumstances.

Delilah obviously detested him, and that was no surprise. He’d earned every ounce of animosity she threw at him. What he wanted to earn next was her forgiveness, and if that wasn’t possible, then the least he could do would be to protect her from this dangerous threat.

He strode over to the valet and handed the guy his ticket. He didn’t miss the man giving Delilah the once-over as she moved to a nearby bench to wait. She had no idea what she did to men, even Scanlon who’d almost tripped over his tongue when he’d met Lacey Reed—Ricky Alonso’s pretty, junky girlfriend who regularly came to visit him across the border to get high and to get fucked.

The FBI’s plan for her to catch a ride back across the border with the SEAL as he transported a large shipment of coke in his nice, shiny new truck had worked brilliantly. She’d caught him on camera doing the deed, not to mention propositioning her and then assaulting her during the arrest.

Cas had hated that plan, hated the danger it put her in, but he was a small cog in the wheel of justice, and orders were orders.

He still hated the plan, even all these years later.

Cas had no doubt the bastard would have pulled over to the side of the road and raped her if she hadn’t pretended to go along with the idea of having sex with him. The fact she’d “belonged” to him—to Ricky Alonso—had been a big part of the attraction for Scanlon.

The guy liked flirting with death.

Scanlon certainly hadn’t liked taking orders from Ricky, but he’d had little choice after taking money from the cartel. They’d owned him. Until the FBI had shut it all down.

The defense had implied Delilah had led the guy on and entrapped him, but the video and audio were the final nail in that coffin—the jury of other military personnel had clearly seen that suggestion for the ruse it had been.

Cas snapped back to the present as his car arrived, a gray Jeep that Killion had arranged. He placed their bags in the back seat. Delilah strode to the passenger side, that roll of her hips as enticing now as it had been almost six years ago when he’d first met her.

His mouth went dry as he got behind the wheel. He had to force what they’d once been from his mind. She’d told him what she thought of him. He had zero chance of winning her back, and that was for the best.

His mood bottomed out.

But if he could help her then, perhaps, he could redeem himself for the wrongs he’d done to her. The pain he’d caused. And there was no way he’d ever leave her in danger. No way.

Tommy’s home wasn’t far, but they’d arranged to meet at a café on Orange Ave and Tenth .

Cas pulled around the back of the coffeeshop. “Want anything?”

“Besides my life back?” She looked at him over her glasses. “No, thanks.”

He hitched his chin toward the backseat. “I have weapons in the bag.”

“I’ll watch them.”

He hesitated. Handed her the keys but held on to them for a moment. It was the closest he’d come to touching her in five years. “Don’t run out on me, Delilah. I’m here to help.”

She shot him a glare and looked away, her throat rippling. Neither of them mentioned he was the one who’d run out on them both.

They didn’t have to.

He headed inside the busy café. He was early but then so was Tommy. They smacked each other on the back, ordered drinks and food, and then found a table near the window.

“What’s it feel like to be part of the old guard?” Cas asked with a wry smile as he sat down.

The instructors had been demons during their induction and BUD/S, but once they’d earned their tridents most of the instructors had turned out to be good guys—with a few exceptions.

“Not gonna lie. The power is heady.” Tommy leaned back in a chair that looked too small for the giant out of Arkansas.

You didn’t need to be big to be a SEAL. In fact, it could be a detriment when you were trying to complete the requisite number of chin ups after another grueling timed swim. But size helped when you were lugging around heavy equipment and munitions that weighed more than a full-grown Rottweiler.

“Have you screamed anyone into quitting yet?”

Tommy smirked. “A couple. Almost lost my voice with one guy.” He leaned forward so no one could overhear. “Maybe I’m sick, but it’s fun. And the ones who quit? I’m doing them a favor. They would never have made it through BUDS let alone any actual real-world deployments. ”

Cas nodded. He knew. It wasn’t simply about physical strength. It was about mental fortitude. Grim determination to prove to the instructors that they were a bunch of assholes and wrong about you. This was how team spirit was built. Push everyone to the limit, beyond the limit, reduce them to the basic components of human beings just trying to survive, and see how they reacted.

Did they fold? Or did they stand back up and finish the job?

“How’s the FBI treating you? Bored out of your skull yet?”

Cas smirked as he thought about the missions abroad, the serial killers, old Russian KGB agents, and deadly nerve gas he’d faced recently. “It keeps me busy. Hoping to keep at it for a few more years yet.”

The guy’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “Guys like you and me. They’ll have to carry us out on our backs.”

Cas took a bite of his croissant to hide the truth of that statement. He was nothing without his job. It was what he drew all his self-worth from. His pride. His arrogance.

What else did he have?

Certainly, no pedigree or over-inflated bank account. His job defined him, and he wasn’t about to fuck it up. He wiped his mouth.

“You heard Joseph Scanlon got early release?”

Tommy took a sip of his coffee and smacked his lips at the flavor. “I figured that’s why you suddenly decided to visit.”

Cas shrugged a shoulder. “I had a spare day, thought I’d come check out whether or not you think he might become a problem for me.”

“Hard to say.” Tommy used his tongue to clean the pastry off his teeth. “I hear he was a model prisoner at Miramar. But—” He shook his head. “He always had a look in his eyes I never trusted, you know?”

Cas nodded. It had been a glint of maliciousness and evil.

“Most people think he’s a waste of space and the Navy in general have washed their hands of him. ”

Most ? “He have any friends left in the Teams?”

“A couple of guys he deployed with on Team seven.”

“Names?”

Tommy’s eyes shuttered. “I’m not looking to mess up my fellow sailors, Cas.”

Cas wiped a napkin over his mouth, still hungry. “I don’t intend to mess with them. I just want to know who to watch out for.”

“Scanlon won’t come after you. He’d be crazy to do that.”

“The female FBI agent? The one who arrested him? They believe she died in a house fire last night.”

“That was her?” Tommy’s brows crunched together in a worried frown. “You think it was Scanlon?”

“Hell of a coincidence if it wasn’t.”

Tommy held his gaze for a long moment and then wrote two names on a clean napkin. “You didn’t get those from me.” He checked his watch. “I gotta go, man.”

“Involved in a joint training exercise by any chance?”

Tommy looked surprised. “How’d you know about that?”

He tapped his nose. “Friends in low places.” Killion’s intel, plus the fact the flight over here had been full of active-duty SEALs and equipment.

“That, and the fact Admiral Sagal is retiring. We’re having the ceremony this afternoon with so many active-duty SEALs being here.”

Sagal had been in charge of the SEAL teams for more than a decade. He was also the man who’d ordered Scanlon stripped of his Trident.

“It might be wise to review security measures—just in case.” Cas gave him a pointed look.

Tommy nodded thoughtfully. “Security is tight but always worth reviewing it from a SEAL point of view.”

Because you never expected an attack to come from someone on the inside .

The two men stood and shook hands. “It was good seeing you, man. Don’t leave it so damned long next time.”

Cas squeezed Tommy’s hand. “I won’t.”

He didn’t need to ask him to listen out for any rumors or news regarding Scanlon. Tommy would make discreet inquiries and contact him if anything came up.

Cas went back up to the counter and ordered two more coffees and four pastries to go. Delilah had always had a weak spot for sugary treats and maybe he’d earn himself some brownie points.

If not, he could eat them himself in a fit of despondency.

He walked down the avenue and cut back through the lane behind the buildings, checking his six to make sure he wasn’t being followed. No matter how much he trusted his old friend, Tommy, now was not the time to drop his guard. He had too much to lose to make a mistake.

He hoped Delilah was where he’d left her. The look in her eyes had said how little she trusted him or wanted his help.

Lucky for him, she didn’t have much choice.