Page 14 of Missile Strike

He’d had to take emergency leave from BUD/S training for the funeral, and he’d returned to Coronado the next morning. Twenty-four grueling weeks to prove he had what it took to become a Navy SEAL, followed by another twenty-six weeks of SEAL Qualification Training.

By the time he had the coveted Navy SEAL Trident pinned to his chest, the Stricklands had moved across the country to North Carolina.

“And it’s just Danny now, Sir. I’m glad we got to you in time.”

As Daniel Mayhew III, everyone back home called him Trip. The only person from his past who’d never called him by his nickname was Bella.

He’d always been Danny to her.

She’d always been Bella to him.

“I was impressed to learn you’d selected for DEVGRU,” the senator added.

A polite smile. Danny was damn proud of his rise to the tier-one SEAL team, more commonly known to the public as SEAL Team Six, but he wasn’t about to brag about it.

Now that he had time to inspect Bella’s father more closely, he saw the senator had aged. His thick brown hair had receded at the temples and turned gray, but his light brown eyes appraised Danny as if the older man could see beyond Danny’s surface and into a part of his psyche where he didn’t welcome visitors.

He forced himself to hold the senator’s gaze.

Bella had the same stare, and when he was younger, that look had made him want to both run from her and pull her to him so tightly she’d never escape.

He’d felt the same way when she faced him on the yacht. Shock, then recognition had widened her beautiful eyes, and a flare of…something…darkened the caramel color to toffee.

But he hadn’t had time to decipher the emotion. Having just taken out five terrorists in foreign territory without prior government authorization, he, Nathan, and the rest of their team didn’t stick around to iron out the messy details.

Admiral Dane and the senator worked their magic with the Greek authorities, who quietly took credit for a foiled plot by unnamed criminals against an American politician and his family, then swept it somewhere under a rug where the media didn’t know to look.

“Have a seat.” Lachlan gestured to the vacant chair next to the senator. “We were discussing the reason the senator wants close protection for his daughter and the role you’d play.” He nodded to Strickland. “Senator, would you care to explain?”

Senator Strickland rested his forearms on the table and addressed Danny directly. “I’ve spoken with my wife. We’re not going to let what happened keep me from running for re-election, but I can’t pretend that there aren’t foreign adversaries and their US-based sympathizers who could pose a threat to me and my family here in the States.”

Good. The senator was taking his security seriously. Probably should have done that before he traveled to Greece. Maybe the two guys from his security detail would have been better prepared and would be alive today.

Not that Danny would ever say that out loud.

Strickland paused, his lips thinning. “As if that isn’t enough, Miran Hassan is getting out of prison.” His expression hardened. “My involvement in the initial airstrike campaigns in Syria is in the news again.”

The back of Danny’s neck tightened.

The senator took a sip from the water glass in front of him and turned toward Lachlan and Ryder. “After I got out of the Navy, I ran for state office in California. The media wrote about my military service, highlighting my involvement in a high-profile bombing campaign against an ISIS training camp in Syria.”

He paused, gathered in a deep breath, then continued. “A Syrian immigrant living in Los Angeles abducted Isabella on her way home from a friend’s house. Claimed he’d lost family in those strikes who’d had nothing to do with ISIS.”

Strickland’s expression twisted in remembered grief. “She was twelve. It took the FBI and local law enforcement three days to find her.”

Lachlan uttered a low, but unmistakable curse. Ryder’s jaw went granite-hard, his eyes turning cold.

Danny already knew the sordid details, but it didn’t stop his hands from fisting beneath the table.

The senator’s head dipped in an implicit acknowledgement of the other men’s reactions. “Isabella’s mother and I have done everything we can to keep her past out of the news so she never has to relive that terrible time.”

Willing his fingers to uncurl, Danny asked, “Isn’t Hassan incarcerated in California? He’s been in prison for what—” he did a quick mental calculation “—eighteen years?”

“Yes, but I won’t take any chances with Isabella’s safety,” the senator answered. “She’s been organizing my re-election fundraiser gala, which takes place in Charlotte in two weeks. The renewed attention on my past could put Isabella in the national spotlight.” His gaze met Danny’s. “What happened in Greece was bad enough. I don’t want anything else to happen that will set her back.”

Danny frowned.

The Bella he’d known had been terribly shy. Except when she was around Jaynie, and eventually, him. She and Jaynie had gravitated toward each other in middle school, the wallflower and the girl battling leukemia becoming fast friends.