He managed to wrestle the comment back, though. Rumor had it, the former SEAL had turned into a bit of a matchmaker. The last thing he needed was for Tex to turn those terrifying tendencies in his direction.
“Anyway…” Tex’s voice went distant for a moment, and Squish could hear tires on pavement. “You nailed it when you said she erased herself after she called you. She did a good job of it too. Such a good job I’d guess she had experience doing it before. This isn’t her first rodeo.”
Squish scowled at that news. “You think someone’s after her?”
The only reason a person would go AWOL from their life—at least an innocent like Mandy—was if someone was after them. Someone dangerous.
And he hated, he really hated that possibility.
“I haven’t found any evidence of that.” Tex’s voice strengthened, and the road sounds disappeared. “But that would be my guess. If she does have the ability to predict the future, well hell, that would be prized by a lot of people, people who might not care whether she wanted to help them or not. If she exposed her talent to the wrong people… Well, they could be after her.”
“Like we are.” Squish’s jaw tightened. He rubbed a tense hand down his face.
He hated the thought of Mandy on the run, in hiding, terrified. But even more so, he hated the realization that he was the reason she’d fled this time. That by exposing her ability in the hopes of saving his life, she’d made herself vulnerable. Again.
He, Tex, and Commander North were no better than the nameless, faceless someone who’d threatened her in the past.
“Like us,” Tex agreed, his voice as grim as Squish’s had been. “But we don’t have a damn choice. She may be the only one who can find Lucky. The only one who can identify the traitor in our midst. Her help could save dozens of spec op lives.”
True.
Fuck.
Squish grunted, rubbing a hand over his tight, achy chest. Without her help, Lucky would likely rot out there in the Amazon. And more of his brothers would fall beneath their traitor’s release of classified information.
They needed her. Yet that knowledge didn’t calm the guilt.
Tex’s voice smoothed out. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t protect her from whoever else is after her. I’ve got North’s okay to put a security detail on her once we find her.”
Squish’s lips twisted. Of course North wanted guards on her. They couldn’t afford to let Mandy give them the slip. Not until they’d extracted the info they needed from her.
Those guards would serve to keep her imprisoned as much as protected.
“And hell,” Tex’s voice brightened, “maybe I can even do her a solid while she’s in our care.”
Something in Tex’s voice set Squish’s teeth on edge.
“I was thinking,” Tex continued, sounding way too smug, “she may not be your type, but she is Gray’s. Her long brown hair. Her voluptuousness. She reminds me of Grayson’s fiancée. He’s finally gotten over her death. I heard he’s even dating again. Once we track Mandy down, I’ll ask North to pull Gray from rotation and put him on her protection detail.”
Squish jackknifed up in the recliner, the footrest dropping with a bang. What the fuck?
He thought of Gray, of the women he’d dated, the woman he’d planned to marry. A scowl broke out. Tex was right, Mandy was exactly Gray’s type. He could see the asshole falling for her—hard.
“Why the hell would you do that?” he growled, every muscle in his body locking in protest at the idea.
“Why not?” Tex sounded surprised. “After what happened with Kathleen, Gray deserves a shot at happiness. Sounds like Mandy deserves one too. They’re perfect for each other. They’ll have a chance to get to know one another while Gray is guarding her.”
“I’ll protect her,” Squish snapped. It was the least he could do. And he sure as hell wasn’t leaving her to Gray’s grabby hands.
A beat of silence followed.
“I thought you weren’t interested in her,” Tex said slowly, thoughtfully.
“I’m not.” Squish frowned uneasily and squeezed the back of his neck. “I owe her. That’s all.”
Fuck, he shouldn’t have reacted so quickly to Tex’s matchmaking, or with such force. He was giving the dude the wrong impression. The Imitrex hangover was obviously still messing with his mind. Although that didn’t explain his sudden, intense dislike of Gray.
But then, Gray wasn’t any better of a match for Mandy than Squish was. Gray had just as much blood on his hands. He had the same propensity for death and destruction.
Mandy deserved better than either of them.
“Your inclusion in any possible security detail will have to wait until your physician releases you from medical leave,” Tex said absently.
Which wouldn’t happen until he conquered these migraines. Squish scowled, slumping back into the recliner.
Not that his lack of inclusion in the security detail, and subsequent lack of proximity to cock block Gray’s potential advances, currently mattered. Mandy was still in the wind.
“I take it you haven’t found her yet?” Squish asked. Tex would have led with that.
“No. But I’m getting closer.”
The sound of children’s voices and laughter traveled down the line. Tex must have arrived at his daughter’s school.
“I checked the hospital phone records for the week of your stay. Managed to crossmatch all but one of the calls to your room. According to one of the nurses on duty that night, the unmatched call came from your sister. The nurse remembered the call because the woman was rather insistent on talking to you.”
Squish’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t have a sister.” He put two and two together. “Mandy called my room?”
“Yep. But you were out for an MRI, so the call got forwarded to the nurse’s station.”
“She called to check on me?” Squish’s throat went hot and tight.
“That would be my guess. But she used a different burner, one purchased in San Diego.”
Squish drew back in surprise. “She’s in San Diego?”
“She was,” Tex said beneath the sound of a car door opening and then slamming. “Seatbelt,” Tex said, his voice faint like he’d turned his head away from the phone. But then it strengthened again. “She’s probably moved on. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s back in Virginia Beach.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Just a hunch. She seems to be keeping tabs on you. So, when you booked it for Virginia, she may have too.”
“I haven’t seen her.”
If she’d followed him back to Virginia Beach, she wasn’t just avoiding him, she was avoiding all her old haunts as well. None of the places she’d volunteered at, shopped at, or eaten at had seen her in weeks.
“No surprise,” Tex murmured as a girlish voice chattered indistinctly in the background. “Hope, fasten your seatbelt,” Tex said before continuing. “I’ll be in touch again when I find her.”
“Find who, Daddy?” Hope asked just before the line went dead.
With a tired sigh, Squish dropped the phone on his chest and settled back against the recliner. The squirrely feeling of a headache was itching at his brain. Again. Time to pop a couple of Cokes and down a dose of Excedrin.