Page 5 of Her Noble Protector

He smiled when he got to the back room. It had taken more than a month to do the renovation, combining two bedrooms into one big room, so that it could actually fit enough equipment to work as a gym. First, he needed to spend time with the punching bag. He knew he needed to be more Zen about it, but his little cousin had gotten under his skin. After about a half-hour, he felt his shoulders and back loosen up and he grinned. Now it was time to get down to business.

He hit the rope fit trainer. He put the thing on the highest resistance and let loose. It still burned that he wasn’t the fastest up the ropes on the team obstacle course. This piece of equipment had cost a pretty penny, but by God, it was going to be worth it.

Raiden was an hour into the training when his cell was ringing. He had a separate ring tone for team members, family, and his lieutenant. Call him anal, but it made life easier. He grinned when he realized it was Nic Hale calling. He’d been wanting to hear how young love was going. God, he couldn’t be happier for him, especially now that Cami had started going to counseling. He was glad that talking to Carys had helped. Yet another special woman. His teammates were lucky.

He picked up his cell on the third ring, while he wiped sweat off his brow. “Yo, Nic.”

“Hey. How you doing?”

Raiden smiled. Even Nic’s voice sounded different—more relaxed, more tranquil, and if Raiden had to guess, at long last he was hearing and seeing the real Nic.

“Doing fine,” Raiden responded. He was too, now that he’d let loose the Leif stuff and focused on the good family stuff. “What’s up?”

“You know Cami started back up at William Mary, not full-time yet.”

“Yeah, was really happy to hear that.”

“Well, she started seeing students in her office. A lot of the kids from Mexico have been stopping by, and those that haven’t, she’s been reaching out.”

Raiden thought about the last mission his Night Storm SEAL team had been on. They’d rescued a bunch of college kids from kidnappers in Mexico, seven weeks ago. A lot of them from William and Mary, Nic’s high school sweetheart, Camilla Ross, being one of them. It had been hairy for those kids; he was happy that Cami was looking out for them.

“Not surprised.” Raiden threw the towel over his shoulder and headed to the kitchen for a Gatorade.

“Here’s the problem. She’s been trying to get ahold of Lisa too.”

Lisa had been the tour guide on the bus that had been captured by the kidnappers. She and Cami had stepped up to protect the younger students. They’d also taken the worst the kidnappers had to dish out.

Raiden stopped in front of the fridge, no longer thinking about a drink. “And what about Lisa?” he asked.

“Cami can’t get ahold of her. Not a word. Kane’s given her all the contact information, and nothing. Cami’s even reached out to her old boss at the Wilderness Trekkers, and she won’t say a word. You met her, right?”

Yeah, he’d met Paula Flood, the woman who operated Wilderness Trekkers. Raiden remembered her with wild red hair and the nicotine-stained fingers. She looked like she ate rocks for dinner. It had taken a half-hour in the waiting room outside Lisa Garcia’s room at the hospital in Miami before she and Raiden had come to an understanding. Paula was fiercely protective of Lisa, even though she hadn’t seen her in two years. He’d hated it when Lisa had been so adamant that Paula travel with her from Miami back to Lisa’s home in Tempe, Arizona.

“Yeah, I met Paula,” Raiden acknowledged. “Let me get this straight; Cami’s worried about Lisa and she thinks that Paula has the info on how she’s doing?”

“She’s hoping that she’s up in Alaska with her. According to all of Lisa’s neighbors in Arizona, they haven’t seen her.”

Raiden took that in and realized that Kane must have been doing some super-sleuthing to get that information.

“I’ll talk to Paula. I’ll get her to talk.”

“Thanks. Cami’s really worried. She has a gut feeling.”

And now Raiden did too. He had been worried about Lisa back in Miami. She was shut down. He’d seen that over in Syria and Afghanistan. Women who just weren’t there anymore. But part of what Paula had said was that she had Lisa covered, and the Lisa she knew was a fighter and would bounce back. Nobody who’d volunteered on the Juneau Alaska Mountain rescue crew could ever be stopped. Raiden prayed Paula had Lisa under her wing.

* * *

“What do you mean you haven’t talked to her in five weeks?” Raiden said softly. He worked hard to keep it together as his hand damn near crunched his phone into pieces.

“My daughter ended up leaving again, I’ve got my three grandkids living with me.” He could hear the struggle in the older woman’s voice. He tried to care, but he was having a hard time.

“Why didn’t you call her family?” Raiden demanded to know.

“She doesn’t have any. Nada. Zilch.”

Raiden struggled with that answer; he just couldn’t imagine it since he was surrounded by family.

“How about other friends? Colleagues?”