Chapter Four
Colton grabbed Elise’s arms to steady her.
What was that? The whole cottage had quaked. Pictures rattled. The soap dish vibrated.
“Stay here.” Moving quickly, Colton darted into the living room. He glanced around. Everything appeared to be intact. But he didn’t relax yet.
Instead, he ran out onto the screened-in porch and scanned the area. He sucked in a breath at what he saw.
Elise’s car.
A ball of fire surrounded it.
There was only one thing that could have caused an explosion like that.
A bomb.
Someone had left a bomb in Elise’s car. Colton felt certain of it. She was fortunate that she hadn’t been inside when it went off.
Had the device been on a timer? Or had someone chosen this moment to detonate it? Either way, he didn’t like this.
“Colton?”
He looked over and saw Elise standing at the door, a knot between her fear-filled eyes.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said.
She stepped outside and stood beside him, staring at the carnage of her vehicle. Colton slipped an arm around her, and she seemed to sag against him.
“Was I . . . was I supposed to be inside?” she muttered.
“I don’t know.” Colton pulled out his phone. “We need to get someone out here, though. They’re probably already on their way. I’m sure everyone within a quarter mile heard that.”
Elise still stared at her vehicle. The initial blast had died down, but flames still shot from every part of the car.
“That could have been me . . .” she muttered.
“Let’s just be thankful it wasn’t.”
She nodded but looked unconvinced. Looked in shock, for that matter.
Whatever was going on, it was serious. Dead serious.
The police came five minutes later, along with the fire department. The flames around Elise’s car were extinguished. Investigators were examining the vehicle and the police had taken a report. Colton and Elise had been dismissed to go back inside for now.
After the bomb—or what remained of it—was retrieved from the carnage, maybe they’d have more answers. Colton was thankful no one had been hurt and that the car was far enough from the house that there was no further damage.
As Colton led Elise back inside, memories hit him. Memories that he’d tried desperately to forget. Memories of the battlefield, and the battlefield was what he’d come here to get away from.
That last black ops mission he’d worked had nearly destroyed him. It had nearly destroyed them all. In fact, Blackout had formed as a direct result of that day. This subsection of Colton’s platoon had needed a break from the military after things had gone terribly wrong.
Daniel was dead, and Elise was a widow trying to navigate life by herself.
Not only that, but now she apparently needed to navigate danger as well.
Guilt pounded at him. If Colton had been more on top of things that day, Daniel might still be alive. Elise might not be a widow.
Even worse, she still didn’t know the whole story about how her husband had died.
More guilt nipped at Colton.
Elise had already been through so much. She didn’t need this on top of everything else. But whatever she’d found must have made someone feel threatened.
Was the person who’d attacked her the same person who’d sold them out before their last operation? His higher-ups had believed that person was Daniel, but Colton knew that wasn’t the case.
To the day Colton died, he would never believe that Daniel had done the things he was accused of doing. Daniel was the type of guy Colton trusted with his life, not the kind who would have sold his soul to fatten his wallet.
As they lowered themselves at the table, Elise looked like she was beside herself. If her trembling hands were a reflection of her inner turmoil then she was a mess. He poured her a fresh cup of coffee before sitting down beside her.
Colton couldn’t stand watching Elise like this. He reached for her hands. Two of her hands easily fit within one of his. He pressed them together, trying to calm her trembles.
“Just take a deep breath,” he coached. “When you’re ready, tell me, where did you find this information?”
Slowly, Elise breathed in, then out, before nodding and beginning. “In Daniel’s office.”
“He had an office at your house?”
“That’s right.” She looked out the window, her gaze hooded. “He spent a lot of time there. I’m sure you know that the past two years of our marriage were hard. Daniel and I talked about separating. We might as well have been separated as much as we saw each other.”
Colton bit down. Daniel had alluded to those facts, but Colton hadn’t wanted to bring them up. Instead, he nodded, trying to remain neutral. Their marriage wasn’t his business.
“You know what the statistics are,” Elise continued. “Ninety percent of marriages within the Navy SEAL community fail. I was determined that Daniel and I weren’t going to be one of those statistics. But he hadn’t been acting like himself. When he was home, he was distant, like something bothered him. Something he wouldn’t acknowledge.”
Colton knew what Elise was talking about. He’d seen the shift in Daniel also. Some people assumed those changes indicated he was guilty, that he was involved in things he shouldn’t be. But Colton knew the speculation wasn’t true.
Based on what Elise had just told him and what he’d just seen . . . the mystery surrounding Daniel and his death was far from over.
And now Elise was caught in the crossfire in a battle she’d never signed up to fight.
Chapter Five
Colton waited for Elise to continue.
“When he returned home from this last deployment, we were going to really try to fix the broken parts of our relationship. But we never had that chance.” Elise looked down at her hands—the ones Colton still gripped—as her voice trailed off with grief.
Colton gave her a moment to compose herself, even as his heart twisted inside his chest.
“Anyway,” Elise started again, “I decided that I needed to do something different with his office. Honestly, I wanted to forget the fact that we’d even had our problems. The place had almost become like a war room to him. Daniel was in there all the time, wanting to be by himself, working on things he couldn’t tell me about. I know the office wasn’t the cause of our problems, but I’ve always associated the two together.”
“And?” Colton waited for her to continue.
“I decided I would replace the flooring. He’d always hated that floor anyway—it was ugly tan carpet. I decided to remove it myself.”
Colton felt the start of a smile at the corner of his lips. Elise had always been a go-getter. Once she got an idea in her head, she didn’t let it go.
That was probably the reason why her marriage to Daniel had lasted as long as it had. It was also the reason why she was able to get her doctorate in psychology while her husband had been serving overseas. She was one determined woman, and Colton had always admired her for that.
“As I was pulling up the carpet, I noticed a section of the subfloor had been cut out. I knew that the carpet in that area was a little loose, but I didn’t think much of it. Out of curiosity, I pried the wood up, and I was surprised to see a metal box stashed beneath the floor. I found all the information there.” Her gaze swerved up to meet Colton’s. “I thought the only people who hid things like these were CIA operatives. That’s the way it happens in the movies, at least.”