SEAL for Her Protection (SEALs of Coronado Book 1) by Paige Tyler Page A

done right, on time, and on budget. According to them, the fact that every one of the subcontractors was apparently in deep with Nesbitt was purely coincidence.
    After a couple of hours of that, they’d changed tack, instead spending some time visiting those companies who’d lost out on their attempts to get on board the subcontractor gravy train. They’d ended up learning a whole heck of a lot more from the “losers” than the “winners.” According to them, the fix had been in from the beginning.
    “I know it sounds like sour grapes,” the manager of an electrical supply house told them. “But I heard guys from some of those other companies crowing about getting the jobs before I even put our offer in. The only way that happens is if Alpha One already knew who they were going to use before the process started. As the prime contractor, they have the right to use anyone they want, but they sure as hell went to a lot of effort to make it look like they were going to make it a fair and open competition.”
    Quite a few people told them similar stories, but at the end of the day, other than some interesting background data, they didn’t have anything solid to go on. Everybody might know that only companies with a solid connection to Nesbitt had gotten those jobs, but no one had any proof. Worse, not a single person could offer up even a theory on why a major contractor based out of Escondido would do favors for a councilman in San Diego.
    “Man, I wish we knew how to contact The People ,” she said in frustration. “I bet they know something.”
    Brad didn’t look like he thought that was such a good idea, but he was smart enough not to say anything. He knew she could get snappish once she started getting frustrated.
    She was about to take another bite of her quesadilla—kind of surprised at how much she’d eaten when she wasn’t paying attention—when she looked down at her laptop and saw the search screen she was sure she’d closed on Jack Yates was back open. She reached over to close it again, but the screen changed to the article she’d been reading on The People . Then, in quick succession, window screens started tiling across her desktop, the various drafts of her article on Nesbitt, her notes and timeline page, even the browser history.
    She tapped her on her mouse pad to close the windows, but the cursor on the screen didn’t even move.
    “What the heck?” she said, poking at the keyboard next.
    “What’s wrong?” Brad asked, looking across the table at her.
    “My stupid computer is going haywire.”
    He sighed then reached across and picked up her laptop so he could check it. “What the heck did you do now?”
    “I didn’t do anything,” she insisted. “It’s doing stuff on its own.”
    He nodded as he put her computer on his lap. “Right. Like that time you reformatted your hard drive because you thought it would fix the margins on your articles.”
    She winced at the memory. “They shouldn’t use any word that looks like format in relation to anything so destructive. Anyone could make that mistake.”
    “Uh-huh,” he said, handing her laptop back to her. “There’s nothing wrong with your computer.”
    She was about to tell him there most certainly was, but then she saw there was nothing on the screen but her open article. No jumping windows or Internet pages.
    “There was something wrong,” she said softly, picking up the last bite of her quesadilla.
    “Uh-huh.”
    * * * * *
    Hayley had unlocked the door of her apartment when her cell phone rang. She smiled when she saw Chasen’s name on the screen.
    “Hey!” she said. “You on the way over?”
    There was a slight delay, and a whole lot of noise in the background. “I wish. But our platoon has been called up for a training exercise tonight, so I won’t be able to swing by your place like planned.”
    “Do you think you’ll get done at all tonight?” she asked hopefully. “I could wait up.”
    “Don’t,” he