Page 4 of Protecting Maggie
It wasn’t as if he’d never been tempted. But every time he decided that his old-fashioned values were ridiculous, and he should just get it over with and fuck someone already…
He couldn’t do it.
He wasn’t ashamed of his beliefs either. But hewasbecoming discouraged by them. He was afraid he’d already missed her. That maybe he hadn’t recognized his soul mate when he’d met her in the past.
Or worse—that he’d never find her at all.
That was the dreaded thought going through his head when Kevlar called. But hearing the serious tone of his team leader on the phone had all thoughts of loneliness flying from his brain.
“What’s wrong?” he barked.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so dramatic,” Kevlar answered in a sheepish tone. “But I learned something disturbing tonight and wanted to run it by someone.”
“I’m listening,” Preacher said, feeling his heart rate slowly decrease. There had been enough “situations” latelywith Wren, Josie, and Remi that he couldn’t help his immediate battle-mode response.
“Remi went to and from the store today via one of those ride-share apps and?—”
“Wait, why didn’t she call someone? Is she okay? Did something happen?” Preacher asked, interrupting his friend.
Kevlar chuckled. “All questions I askedher. She’s fine. Nothing happened. And she said she didn’t want to bother anyone. That she wanted to surprise me with a chocolate cake. Believe me, I made sure she understood that it wasn’t a bother to call one of our friends to help her out. Anyone would’ve been happy to give her a ride somewhere.”
Preacher frowned. “Right, so…if nothing happened, what’s the situation?”
“Remi got along great with the driver—of course she did…she’s Remi. But she did what I’ve taught her to do, taking a picture of the driver’s info, just in case. The driver also encouraged Remi to call her if she needed a ride in the future. Here’s the thing,” Kevlar said, getting to the point. “The driver’s name was Adina Cornett. And that’s the info that was on the placard Remi took a picture of.”
“Isn’t Adina the woman who works in supply?”
“Yes—and she’s deployed, which is why we haven’t seen her around.”
“Shit,” Preacher said.
“Exactly. There’s someone driving around in what I’m guessing is Adina’s car, usinghername, and probably robbing her blind while she’s deployed.”
“So what are we going to do about it?” Preacher asked. “Are we calling NCIS?”
“I thought we’d see what we could find out on our own first,” Kevlar said.
Preacher smiled, feeling a surge of excitement flow through his veins.
“The fake Adina told Remi to call her anytime she needed a ride. I’m thinking we might need a ride home from work tomorrow.”
“Will Remi go along with this?” Preacher asked, sounding skeptical.
“She’s not happy with the deception. Told me that the fake Adina was really nice. That she liked her a lot. Warned me to go easy. Said she probably has a perfectly good reason to be using Adina’s name and car.”
Preacher snorted.
“That was my response,” Kevlar agreed. “She also gave this woman a hundred and fifty-dollar tip.”
“Seriously?” Preacher asked.
“Yes. She reassured me that she wasn’t pressured to do so. Just that she felt a connection to the woman and she seemed down. Oh, and the icing on the cake? Her stomach was growling almost continuously.”
Preacher wanted to roll his eyes, but it wasn’t as if someone could fake something like that. Yes, perhaps she’d held off eating in the hopes that her body would make its needs known audibly. But that wasn’t likely. And Remi wasn’t the kind of woman to be taken advantage of. She was one of the sweetest women Preacher knew, but she’dgrown up with money and was pretty good about recognizing someone who was only being nice to try to get some cash out of her.
“I’m in,” he told his friend.
“I’ll see if Smiley wants to come with us too,” Kevlar said.
