Page 43 of Her Forever SEAL

Kayla swallowed. “Is it about Bree?”

Mandy’s head shot up. She opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again. “Yeah, I’m worried about her, but that’s not the biggest thing.”

Kayla nodded. That made sense. Mandy had been freaked before Bree had supposedly gone to visit her grandmother.

“What’s the biggest thing?”

“To begin with, I just thought it was Mom getting ready to leave Dad. Divorce. Everyone goes through that, right? I mean, I hated it, but what are you going to do?”

Kayla nodded for her to continue.

“But then she started acting really weird. Really nice to dad, fixing him all of his favorites. She stayed up until he got home. When he’s working really crazy hours and getting home sometimes past midnight, she never does that. It seemed like she really cared. But during the day, when me and Brady were home, she was different.”

“Different how?”

“She wouldn’t let us go out, unless she was right there with us. And she was whispering on her phone. She never did that before. She always used to put her phone on speaker so she could have her hands free. She’s a multi-tasker.”

“My mom too.”

“And there was her purse. She didn’t leave it on the counter anymore. She put it in her bedroom when she got home.”

“Damn, that’s a big red flag.”

Mandy looked up at Kayla with wide eyes. “Exactly.”

“What did you do?”

“I snooped.”

Kayla nodded. She loved her mom. Trusted her. But if all those things were happening she would have snooped, too.

“What did you find?”

Mandy pulled her cell phone out of her backpack and started swiping through her photos. I took pictures of what she had in this envelope.”

“What was in the envelope?”

“Pictures. Pictures of me and Brady.”

Kayla took the phone out of her friend's hand and started swiping through the photos. The first ones were of Brady playing in the park like any normal seven-year-old. He was on the jungle gym. The first picture was from far away. Each one got close, and then closer, until finally the last one was closed in on his face. Brady was smiling his gap-toothed smile that Kayla normally adored, but that wasn’t what she was focused on. No. Because centered on his forehead, sharp and unmistakable, was the red dot of a sniper's laser sight.

“Holy fuck,” Kayla breathed out. She blinked back tears of horror.

“Kayla, I don’t know what’s going on. But after that I figured out that mom’s actually terrified, and I don’t blame her. All I can figure is that it has something to do about dad’s work. I stay up late and listen to her talk to him. I’ve never heard her ask questions about what he does like she does right now.”

“You mean she hasn’t shown these pictures to your dad?”

“No, I’m sure she hasn’t.”

A tear dripped down Mandy’s face. “I’ve called Bree’s cell phone at least twenty times, I’ve texted forty times. At least. It says her phone is on Do Not Disturb. She’s not at her Grandma’s.” Mandy’s voice shook as she said that last sentence.

“She’s not dead,” Kayla said with absolute conviction.

“You can’t know that,” Mandy practically sobbed. “Bree’s dad and my dad work on the same project. They always work together. Mrs. Bowman has been over to our house a lot, and mom goes out with her on the deck to talk. I try to listen from my bedroom window, but they whisper.”

“Mandy, listen to me. They have to want some kind of information on whatever your dads are working on. If they kill Bree, they lose their leverage.”

“Leverage?”