“Yeah.” Joe rubbed the back of his neck. “You pounded that home to me. To all of us. So not only is this guy following me and following Isabel, he—”

“Has a stake in this. He cares for some reason,” Metal said.

“That’s the thing that has me worried.” Joe looked at his friend who was looking as grim as he felt. “Someone is watching us who cares. And reaching out and touching me. So, yeah, he’s saying I need to protect Isabel but how do I know he’s a friend?”

Felicity’s pretty face was scrunched up in thought. “I’m not too familiar with tactics, not like you guys are, but didn’t he just show his hand? For what purpose, if not to focus you on Isabel?”

“And you’re already pretty focused,” Metal said, jabbing Joe with an elbow. Metal was a strong guy and his elbow jabs would knock over a lesser man. Joe wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of budging.

“I mean, what does he have to gain?” Felicity persisted. “So I think we’re going to have to take this message at face value.” She held up a slender hand and started counting the points off her fingers. “One, he’s probably not in town. He’s at a different location and can’t make it in time if she needs immediate help. Two, he’s on Isabel’s side. I think we need to simply assume that. Otherwise the message makes no sense. Because if he wanted to hurt her, he wouldn’t have alerted you to his presence. Three, he’s been able to peg Joe as a good guy and as someone who has a stake in Isabel’s safety. To reveal himself like that to Joe, he has to have done some digging. Though Joe’s military history is probably heavily redacted as to specific missions, the facts are publicly available. He’d know you were a SEAL. And he trusts you. So I guess in a way we’re starting to get a picture of him.”

“Okay.” Everything Felicity was saying made sense. “So now what do I do?”

Felicity cocked her head and smiled.

“Uh-oh,” Metal said. “I know that smile.”

“We do two things.” Her fingers moved on the keyboard. “First, we answer the guy.”

“Okay.” Joe sighed. “So, what am I going to say?”

“You already said it,” Felicity declared, showing him the message she’d sent.

You bet your ass I’m going to protect Isabel.

She stood up. “And now I’m going to go visit our mystery woman.”

Joe’s eyes widened. “Wait!” he said but it was too late. Felicity moved fast when she wanted to. In a second she’d grabbed the pot the beef stew had come in, and which they’d washed, and was out the door.

Joe and Metal looked at each other when the door closed.

“She doesn’t take no for an answer,” Joe finally said, glancing at his friend.

“Nope.” Metal shook his head. “She doesn’t. And she usually does exactly as she pleases. But living with her, I have learned one thing and that’s that she’s usually right. So I’ve learned to stop worrying.”

And he had her back. That went without saying. Metal was always there for her and always would be.

They sat in the silence of the house and simply waited. As SEALs they’d been taught patience the hard way—through pain. So they were perfectly capable of waiting anything out. Because clearly, Felicity wasn’t just dropping off the pot. She was staying at Isabel’s, God only knew for how long.

“So,” Metal finally said, looking at him keenly. “Isabel.”

“Isabel,” Joe nodded.

“She’s pretty.” Metal had seen her when he’d tended her knee.

“Yeah,” Joe sighed. “Very.”

“Pretty women can be dangerous.”

“Can be,” Joe agreed. “But she’s like Felicity. Nice, not nasty. But she’s also...damaged. Something’s happened to her, only I don’t know what and she isn’t talking. It’s like there’s this huge no-go zone she’s created and I don’t have the courage to step into it.”

Metal gave him a sidelong glance. Joe had courage in battle. He’d proved that time and again. He’d spilled blood time and time again, once in saving Metal’s ass. But it was true. Squeezing info out of Isabel that she didn’t want to give—he just couldn’t go there.

“What?” He met Metal’s eyes. “You’re not gonna make a crack?”

“Nope.” Metal zipped his lips. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned lately it’s the power of women. She doesn’t want you to know something, you’re not gonna know it until she wants you to.”

Joe nodded. Man, yeah.

He’d been present when CIA agents interrogated jihadists and their methods had been brutal, even the psychological ones. Necessary, but nightmare inducing. Joe was down with breaking terrorists. The thought of coercing Isabel in any way, however, made him nauseous. But damn, he wanted to know her deal, find out what happened to her.

Because the truth was, there was that really ugly suspicion rolling around in the back of his brain. He couldn’t get it out of his head that she’d been abused. It wasn’t something he wanted to think about but it stuck in his head like a nasty burr. That first day—she’d been hollow-eyed and terrified. Joe knew that look. None of his teammates had had it, of course, they bent but were never broken. But Joe’d spent the better part of a decade in war zones and he’d seen shell-shocked civilians. They had that same look.

Actually, it drove him bugfuck crazy, the thought of someone hurting Isabel. He could picture it in his mind and it was almost more than he could bear. Isabel’s skin was delicate, incredibly fine. The idea of her covered in bruises made his heart beat faster with rage.

Of course, he couldn’t go anywhere with these thoughts. Who would he talk to about it? Metal and Jacko would just look at him funny. And he couldn’t ask Isabel because she wasn’t talking.

Because if Isabel was on the run from some man, if that cryptic message was from someone who wanted her to be safe, well whoever sent it had sent it to the right guy. Joe had never backed down from a fight and never would. And to protect Isabel? He’d go to the wall.

“What are you thinking?” Metal asked. The guy looked like a WWE wrestling champ, a big slab of meat and Joe had seen people treat him as if he was a few sandwiches shy of a picnic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Metal was sharp—he just had nothing to prove and he liked being underestimated.

So Joe knew better than to lie to Metal. But he could put a little Vaseline on the lens and misdirect.

“Trying to figure out what’s wrong with Isabel. What happened to her.”

Metal narrowed his eyes. “You figure she’s running from some guy who hurt her.”

There it was, out in the open. Joe sighed. “Yeah. I think about it all the time. Drives me nuts.”

“I hear you,” Metal said. “Every time I think about that fuckhead slicing Felicity open, I can’t see straight.”

Felicity had been coming to visit her friend Lauren and instead she’d been met at the airport by a guy who wanted to kidnap her for what was in her pretty head. Felicity had escaped because she was Felicity, but not before getting a nasty knife wound. Metal said it still gave him nightmares.

“Men who can do that...” Joe trailed off. Men who could do that weren’t worthy of being called men.

“Yeah.” Metal looked grim. They both got sick at the idea of men abusing women and children.

“So, suppose a guy like that is after Isabel?” It was his worst nightmare. “How would I know about that if she’s not talking? This guy could just show up one day...” He shuddered.

“Like the email said—protect Isabel.”

Fuck, yeah. Joe opened his mouth to answer when the front door opened and Felicity came in together with a gust of cold air. She was carrying something big wrapped in tinfoil and set it on the kitchen counter.

Felicity started slowly taking off her gloves, picking at each finger, enjoying the attention. One glove, the other...

Joe couldn’t stand it. “Well?”

“Well?” she echoed.

“What did you find out? Did you guys talk?”

“Yes, we did. We chatted. And she said absolutely nothing about herself. But she didn’t have to. One look at her and I knew. I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out yourself.”