Special Forces Saviour

“Are you okay, honey?” Jon released her from his hug, but kept one arm around her. “When we heard someone from the lab was dead...”

“David Thompson. The new tech.” Sadness filled her again. Nobody that young should die.

“I’m sorry, kiddo.” Jon squeezed her before letting her go. “But I’m glad it wasn’t you.”

As she stood watching the firefighters put the last of the flames out, Molly knew how lucky she’d been. And although she was heartbroken over David, she was glad it hadn’t been her, too.

Chapter Five (#ulink_c7b00b53-cc33-5404-b111-94b20772f780)

Derek was listening to what Steve Drackett was saying while trying to force himself not to punch Jon in the face. Seriously, the man had been his colleague and one of his closest friends for over five years, but when he had snatched Molly out of his arms and into his own...

Derek reminded himself that Jon had no romantic intentions toward Molly. And even if he did, Molly was free to date whomever she wanted. Derek had no claim on her.

But damned if he wasn’t totally relieved when Molly stepped away from Jon. Derek pretended not to pay any attention to them whatsoever as he spoke with his boss. But he knew exactly where Molly was.

Of course, he always knew where Molly was if she was anywhere in his vicinity. It was as if he had an internal radar set solely for her. Not that he could do anything but keep a watchful eye on her. Anything else wasn’t acceptable.

“Based on the preliminary report, the fire department feels like it was definitely something from the lab that detonated. Not caught on fire. Actually blew up,” Derek told Steve. “One confirmed death. Protection walls came down, so it looks like other damage and causalities are pretty minimal.”

The director nodded, then turned to Molly. “You okay?”

“Not physically hurt. But sick about David’s death.” Molly’s voice was strained. Derek had to resist the urge to wrap an arm around her again.

The one good thing about the trauma of the explosion was that it seemed to have made Molly forget to be nervous around him. At least she wasn’t stammering.

“Can you give us a report? Do you know what happened?” Steve asked her.

“We were working.” Molly shrugged one delicate shoulder. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Our caseload had heightened, so I called David and asked him to come back in. But we weren’t working with anything hazardous or explosive.”

Molly ran a hand over her face, exhausted. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was shaky. “I’m trying to figure out what it could’ve been. But I don’t think it was anything we were working on. I—” She rubbed a hand over her face again.

“Molly, it’s okay,” Jon said to her, coming to stand close to her again. “We’ll get it all worked out. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”

Molly just shook her head, her hand still covering her face.

Jon looked at Derek and Steve, then tilted his head in Molly’s direction. He wanted to take her home. She obviously needed to go and really couldn’t help anything here.

But over Derek’s dead body was Jon taking Molly anywhere. Derek would take her home.

Derek walked over to Molly and touched her gently on the arm. The arm that had been covering her face dropped to her side. Her eyes seemed glassy, dazed.

“Hey.” He bent at the knees so they could be eye to eye. He tucked an errant strand of her long brown hair back behind her ear. “I’m going to take you home, okay? We’ll figure out what happened tomorrow.”

She nodded, swaying slightly toward him. Derek wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He looked back at the guys, ignoring both of their slightly shocked expressions at how he was treating Molly.

Maybe he’d made too much of a show out of never touching her over the past couple years.

“I’m going to put her in the car and will be right back. She needs to sit down before she falls down.” Both men nodded, their gazes flickering to Molly, where she was tucked under his arm. “I’ll take her home in a minute.”

Steve stepped up to Molly. “Get some rest, okay? We’ll work out what happened later. But I have no question that you will be totally exonerated of all blame.”

Molly nodded, but didn’t say a word. Derek walked her over to his car and opened the passenger door, thankful for the balmy May night that wasn’t too hot or cold. But Molly was shivering slightly, so he grabbed a blazer he had thrown in the backseat and put it around her. He knew her reaction was from shock more than cold, but she wouldn’t know the difference.

Once he had her settled in the car, he squatted down so he could look in her eyes again. Hers were still pretty unfocused.

“Hey.” He wrapped the jacket more securely around her, then grabbed it by the lapels to bring her in a little closer. “I’m just going to finish my conversation with Steve and Jon and then I’ll take you home, okay? Five minutes.”

She nodded.

Derek kissed her forehead, then closed the door, jogging back toward Jon and Steve who were walking toward his car. Both of them were still looking at him with odd expressions.

“What?” he barked when they didn’t say anything.

“Nothing.” Jon shook his head. “Just wondering how I can call myself a behavioral analyst and miss certain facts that are right before my eyes.”

“What are you talking about?”

Jon shook his head again. “Absolutely nothing. Is Molly okay?”

Derek glanced back at his car. “Exhausted. A little shaky. Not unexpected, given the circumstances.”

“I believe her when she says that they didn’t have any flammable materials out in the lab at the explosion site. Molly’s record is impeccable when it comes to safety. Hell, when it comes to anything,” Steve stated.

“But she’s been working long hours. Was tired. Could’ve made a mistake she wouldn’t normally have.” Derek’s grim expression matched the other men’s.

The director nodded. “And if that’s the case, we’ll deal with it. I share in that responsibility.”

Jon turned and looked back at the building. “But if human error or some other accident wasn’t the cause of the explosion, then we have to think about what is.”

“What are you thinking? That it was some sort of attack against Omega?” Derek asked.

“Maybe not so much attack as sabotage,” Jon responded.

Each man processed that for a minute.

“It seems a little extreme, I know,” Jon continued.

“Until you take into consideration someone killing himself rather than being questioned, and perps burning that house to the ground today to keep evidence out of our hands,” Derek finished for him.

“Exactly.”

Derek grimaced. “Whatever we took into evidence must have been pretty important to blow up the whole damn lab for it.”

Steve had been quiet up until now. “And if this is all connected, then we also have to think about who knew we had that specific evidence here.” He shook his head.

“Nobody really knew, but us,” Derek said. “Unless you think we have some sort of mole?”

There had been moles in other divisions of Omega Sector in the past. But the Critical Response Division was not a clandestine section of Omega. They worked out in the open, not generally undercover or in the shadows. And although they didn’t talk publicly about investigations, Derek had no idea why a terrorist would keep a mole inside the Critical Response Division. Information was pretty open there.