SEAL's Embrace - Makenna Jameison Page 0,68
the parking lot. He looked around, looking for what, he wasn’t sure. Hailey was long gone. He didn’t know what this Black Howell guy’s car looked like anyway.
“Hurricane and T-Rex are heading to the front gate. They’ll know if Hailey and Black arrived. I’m going to speak with the commander.”
“Okay. Are Ethan and Jackson with you?”
“They’ll head your way,” Blake assured him. “You three can start searching the area for her. They couldn’t have gotten too far.”
Grayson clenched his jaw. Blake didn’t know that. They could’ve gotten in the car and headed to Mexico for all that he knew. “I’m going to try Hailey’s cell phone again. Call me when you get any updates.”
“Roger that,” Blake said, before disconnecting the call. Grayson climbed into his pickup truck, wondering what he should do first. Hailey’s phone rang and rang but went to voicemail. “Hailey, sweetheart, call me as soon as you get this.”
Cursing, he called another friend of his on base, Everett “Ace” Walker. He was part of a younger SEAL team but was a total computer whiz. The other guys had joked he was their “ace in the hole” because most people expected SEALs to have brute-force strength, not necessarily have the computer skills to hack into much-needed information.
“This is Ace,” his buddy said, and Grayson quickly explained what was happening.
“No worries, Ghost, I’ll ping her cell phone. If she has it with her, we’ll know in minutes where she is.”
“Shit, is that even legal?” Grayson asked. Not that he wanted to stop his friend. Hell, he’d take the blame himself if necessary. Nothing was more important than finding Hailey.
“Legal? Ehhh, I’ll plead the fifth on that one. Text me her number, and I’ll get back to you ASAP.”
Muttering a curse, Grayson hung up and did just that. He’d help out another SEAL, no questions asked, if their woman was in danger. He looked up to see Ethan and Jackson already pulling into the parking lot. They’d ridden together in Jackson’s large black SUV, and they hurriedly crossed toward him.
Ethan lifted his phone to his ear as they moved toward him. “Fuck. Roger that. We’ll start canvassing the area.”
Grayson’s eyes were on him the entire time. “That was Hurricane. They never showed up on base.”
“God damn it!” Grayson yelled. “Where the hell are they? Hailey’s not answering her phone. I’ve got Ace trying to ping it for me, but shit.”
“We’ll find her,” Jackson said, his dark eyes blazing.
Ethan looked around the lot. “They just left, right? Let’s see if we can get a description of the guy’s car. We’ll start searching around here, and the other guys can look near base.”
Grayson nodded, happy that they were formulating a plan. It didn’t mean much, but anything was better than standing around doing nothing. He talked quietly with Jackson while Ethan went back upstairs to see what they could learn about Black’s vehicle.
His phone buzzed, and he saw Raptor’s name on the screen. “I just spoke with the CO. Apparently they finally began checking into the IT staff in Bagram. One of the men on the team had been reprimanded before for not following all security protocols.”
“And they just let him keep working there?” Grayson asked in disbelief.
“It seems that way. They’re investigating it further. It seems fucked up they didn’t start with the guys who had access to virtually everything, but they’re reviewing things now. It sounds like they may finally be on their way to finding the traitor.”
“Shit. So he’s someone Hailey knew.”
“I’m willing to bet on it. I don’t have a name, but it stands to reason he might know the guy Hailey’s with now.”
“Jesus. Too bad they couldn’t look into this sooner. Now Hailey is fucking gone,” he spat out.
“We’ll find her,” Blake said. “It hasn’t been that long. I know it’s hell when your woman is in trouble, but I swear to you we’ll find her.”
Ethan came back down to the parking lot, and the men split up, ready to begin searching the surrounding area for a dark sedan. They’d be a dime a dozen around here, but Grayson needed to do something other than stand around a parking lot.
Jackson went back to his SUV alone, and Ethan climbed into Grayson’s pickup with him. “Let’s head east,” Ethan said, nodding. “The rest of the team will be searching closer to base.”
“This is nuts,” Grayson said. “We’re not in a little small town where we can easily find them. They could’ve gotten on the highway and headed anywhere.