Finally Home (Home Series) Read Online Free

Lainey?  Riley always talked about her like she was a little girl."
    "She's not a little girl," Mike said, simply.  "I'll send you details on when the jet arrives.  Contact Coop if you want him.  I'll call Whit and Tessa."
    "Yeah, OK, Boss.  See you tomorrow."
    Gavin came back in, shaking his head.  "Ready?"
    Mike nodded, following Gavin out and watching him lock the front door behind them. He scanned the neighborhood but his eyes kept returning to the woods.  When the team was assembled, before they began installations, he was going to have them sweep every inch of those woods. 
     
    Lainey placed her phone gently down on her desk and closed her eyes.  Her dad was on his way there...with Mike Casiano.  Her nerves were shot, and her dad's and Riley's solution was to bring Mike Casiano in.  Mike. Freaking.  Casiano.   The man had haunted her dreams for the last ten years.  She ran into him a couple of times last month at Jenna Blackwell's house; the first times she'd seen him since the night she'd first saw him at the Founders Day Ball when she was seventeen years old.  He and Riley had been wearing their dress whites and he'd looked like a movie star to her. 
    When she'd seen him at Jenna's, she'd noticed scars on his face that hadn't been there all those years ago.  She'd seen a coldness in his eyes that hadn't been there back then, either.  Maybe that was because she'd been too naive to see it back then.  Maybe, at that time, the atrocities of war hadn't infected him yet
    .  Now, however, his eyes carried within them the horrors he'd lived through.  She'd seen the same look in Riley's eyes, just to a lesser degree.  From what Riley had told her, though, Mike had been through a thousand times more than the rest of the unit had.
    Her office phone rang, pulling her from her thoughts.  Taking a deep breath, she reached for the receiver.
    "Lainey Riley," she answered.
    "Why are you so sad, Miss Lainey?" that same voice from last night asked.
    "Who are you?" she asked , frantically looking around her office for hidden cameras.
    "There's no reason for you to be sad.  I would never hurt you."
    "You are hurting me.  By calling me and threatening my friends and placing surveillance equipment in my home...and apparently in my office.  THAT is hurting me!"
    Her raised voice brought Kacee running across the hall and into her office. 
    "Hang up the phone, Lainey," Kacee told her.  When Lainey didn't move, Kacee took the receiver from her hand and hung it up.  Lainey took several deep, calming breaths, trying to calm her racing heart.  Kacee embraced her, stroking her hand over her hair to help calm her.  "It's going to be OK," she whispered.
    "He has cameras in here, too," Lainey whispered.  "He asked why I looked so sad."
    Kacee looked around the room, alarmed, but remained steadfast.  "Your dad will take care of it."
    Lainey drew a deep, ragged breath.  "Riley called Mike.  He's on his way here with my dad."
    A slow smile spread across Kacee's face.  "Mike's coming here to look after you?"  Lainey nodded.  "There?  See?  Something positive.  High school crushes aside, Mike will take care of all of this."
    "I just want this all to stop," Lainey whispered. 
    They heard the front door buzz as someone stepped in, and then she heard her father's voice calling out to her.  She stood and she and Kacee walked up to the reception area of their offices...and she felt her heart momentarily stop when that piercing gaze settled on her.

    Chapter Two
     
    As soon as Lainey stepped into the reception area, Mike knew something was wrong.  Her eyes were as big as the moon and she looked like she was ready to snap.  She met his gaze momentarily, then looked up at her father.
    "He just called the office line," she told her dad, "he could see me.  My office is bugged, too."
    Mike immediately stepped forward, pushing past them and into her office.  They all followed him in and watched him pull his electronic