Read Carlie Simmons (Book 2): In Too Deep for Free Online

Chairman Mao.
I’ll help out when I’m asked. I already paid my dues dodging those
flesh-munchers back in Tucson.”
    “You ever heard the joke about the guy
who was so lazy that he married a pregnant woman?” said Amy.
    He lowered his fork and looked up at
her. “When properly motivated I have the energy of ten tigers, my good lady. I
didn’t get this far in life from being a slacker.”
    Jared got up and grabbed his tray. “Now,
if you’ll both forgive my sudden departure, I’ve got some socializing to do,”
he said, moving over to the table with the young ladies he had spoken with
earlier and resuming his conversation.

 
    Chapter 6
     
    Carlie was standing in a small room
beside the dining hall, poring over the documents and maps that General Adams
had provided her with while Shane scanned through files on a nearby laptop.
    “How you holding up over there?” Carlie
said.
    Shane arched his shoulders back and
turned towards her. “You mean in my data sifting or in how my future retirement
plans have gotten jumbled lately?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Ahh…I’ll be fine but it’s Matias that
I’m worried about. He hasn’t said much since we left Arizona but I know his
mind is far away, wondering what happened to his wife and two kids.”
    Carlie stopped reading the papers and
looked up at the ceiling momentarily. “Yeah, it seems like we all lost a part
of ourselves back there, didn’t we.” She glanced over at Shane, noticing his
tan neck and rugged hands. “At least the three of us still have each other.”
She admired Shane for his unflinching loyalty and strict adherence to his
personal code and wondered how compatible they would be, despite her physical
attraction to him. She worried that their alpha-dog natures would cause too
much friction in a long-term relationship.   
    “I never had much of a family growing up
until I joined the SEALs,” said Shane. “When I had to leave because of my shoulder
injury, I didn’t think I’d ever know that kind of camaraderie again. Matias and
the rest of my guys were like gaining another group of brothers.” He looked at
Carlie briefly and then back at his laptop. “And, of course, there was this
kick-ass lady warrior I met…” Shane paused, rolling his eyes and smiling. “But
she was kind of aloof, not to mention that she worked for a somewhat elitist
agency and thought she was soooo superior to us.”
    “Our agency was just different than
yours, and by different, I mean better,” she said, holding back a slight smile.
    Shane laughed and shook his head then
returned to the laptop, where a new image had pulled up, causing him to slap his
hand on the desk. “Found it. Carlie, come take a look at this,” said Shane, who
was studying Jared’s police record.
    “With the scattered satellite feed and
internet coverage, I could only pick up a little on him but thought you might
want to see who we’ve been sharing our space with.”
    “This is what you’re doing with your
time? I told you we only have until sunrise to prep for this mission.”
    “Alright, but aren’t you a little
curious?”
    Carlie tried to return to reading
through the manila folder but would digest two sentences and then impulsively
shoot a glance at the laptop.
    After three interrupted paragraphs, she put
the folder down and scanned the lengthy rap sheet, stopping momentarily at bold
headings that repeated themselves multiple times—Breaking & Entering, Grand
Theft Auto, and more.
    “Looks like he went into juvey at age
eleven and was in and out of foster homes until he was eighteen. This was all I
could pull up other than a three-year prison stint in Florida a few years back.
What he did between graduating high school, if he graduated, and when he got
busted recently, doesn’t exist,” said Shane, tapping his fingers on the table.
“He was a ghost during that time though there is mention here that he may have
been connected with the team responsible for the