Nelson, page 18
part #21 of SEALs of Honor Series
A voice called from the hallway, “Did you mean to leave your door open?” His neighbor poked her head in his door. Frizzy red hair from her shoulders to the top of her crown and a bright flashing grin. Midge.
Taylor hopped up and walked over, rolling his shoulders and his neck. “It’s so good to be home.”
“You do travel a lot,” she said with a smile. She was in her uniform, heading out to work.
He glanced at his watch. “Are you on night shift?”
She shook her head. “Nah, just got called back for a meeting. I hadn’t even made it home yet, and now I’m ordered back.” She wrinkled up her face. “And you know how we all love that.”
“As in not,” he said with a laugh. “I’m back from a crazy-ass trip, and I’m glad to be home.”
“Rough?”
He smiled. He couldn’t help it. She was more of a pixie type but always had a bright smile. He didn’t know if she was sweet on him or if she just had that kind of personality, but he never would be mean to her because she was so friendly. “It was rough,” he said. “No clue why, but there’s something about coming home with two people who just hooked up, and they’re suddenly crazy in love with each other.” He shook his head. “Not what I expected, though I should have.”
She laughed. “Hey, you often have women over, so if it’s jealousy, just go and find another one.”
“I’m not that bad,” he protested. “I haven’t had a relationship in months.”
She gave him a mock look of shock. “Wow,” she said with a chuckle. With a finger wave she headed down the hallway.
He stepped out and watched her stride away. She was short, maybe five feet, and always had a smile for him. He looked the other way down the hall and across at her apartment, realizing that her door was open a hair too. He would have called out to her and said something about it, but she’d already disappeared down the stairs.
With a groan he stepped down the hall and across to her apartment and went to close the door when he caught the odd smell. He frowned. His heart raced. He still had his weapon. He pulled it out and nudged the door open. With the gun up and ready, he checked around the corner. The place had been destroyed, but that still didn’t explain the smell. He kept going through the rooms until he got to the bedroom. And there, lying on top of the bedding, was a nude male. One Taylor recognized.
The guy worked in the supply offices. Taylor had seen him several times … but not like this. Taylor raced back out to the hallway and down the stairs, moving as fast as he could to catch Midge. He didn’t know what the hell had gone on, but no way was she walking away from a dead guy in her apartment.
She had just opened her car door when she saw him. She stopped, turned, looked up at him and smiled. “What’s the matter? You missed me already?”
Her manner was so nonchalant and casual, he was flummoxed. He pulled up to a stop in front of her. Her brain registered the gun in his hand, and her hands shot up.
“What the hell?” he said. “Did you just leave your apartment?”
She shook her head. “No. I was coming home and got the call at the top of the stairs. I had to turn around and come back in again. I never made it to my apartment. So I was turning around when I saw your apartment door was open.”
“Did you go into your apartment?”
She frowned at him. “I just told you I didn’t.”
He took a deep breath. “Did you touch the doorknob?”
She stopped, looked at him and shook her head. “No, I didn’t even make it to my apartment. Remember? I was pissed. I didn’t want to head back out again.”
“Well, you can’t go to your meeting. Call your boss back and tell him that you can’t make it.”
“Why?” she asked. “I’ll just get in deeper shit for that.”
“Because you left your door to your apartment open. I went to go shut it for you.”
She looked up at him. “I didn’t get to my apartment. Didn’t you hear me?”
“Your apartment door was open,” he enunciated clearly. “Did you hear me?”
She stared at him, and he saw the comprehension finally click. She swallowed hard. “Was I broken into?”
He reached up, touching her shoulder. “Are you in a relationship with Gary?”
She stared at him. “I don’t have a boyfriend. Gary who?”
“Gary Sims. He works in supply.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have a clue who or what you’re talking about. I work in staff records. That’s not even close to his department.”
“I get that,” he said. “Do you know him?”
Frustrated and angry now, she stomped her foot. “No. What’s this about?”
He reached out again and grabbed her hand. “He’s dead in your bed—and the only thing he’s wearing is a bullet hole in his forehead.”
This concludes Book 21 of SEALs of Honor: Nelson.
Read about Taylor: SEALs of Honor, Book 22
SEALs of Honor: Taylor (Book #22)
Murder is a deadly way to start a relationship …
Finally back in Coronado and his own apartment but still tired from traveling, Taylor helps a neighbor by closing her apartment door as she dashes back to work. But, as he does so, a smell he’s all too familiar with permeates the air. And he’s plunged into a multiple homicide with no meaning or end …
Midge doesn’t understand what’s happened to her life, … but now her home, her workplace, her neighbors are all in danger and are all suspect. … Taylor is the only piece of normalcy in her world-gone-crazy right now.
But even he can’t keep an eye on her all the time …
Book 22 is available now!
To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Nelson: SEALs of Honor, Book 21! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.
Dear reader,
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Cheers,
Dale Mayer
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About the Author
Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).
She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!
To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.
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NELSON: SEALS OF HONOR, BOOK 21
Dale Mayer
Valley Publishing
Copyright © 2019
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1-773361-17-8
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Dale Mayer, Nelson
