Her Vigilant Seal (16 page)

“Since college.”

“So for five years. How many wrong numbers have you had?” Sophia tried to remember. “For God’s sake Sophia, think it through. You’ve probably had as many ‘wrong numbers’ in the last week as you’ve had in five years.” Sophia put down the tray and stared at the woman. She was right.

“You really didn’t notice, did you?” Margie’s tone gentled as she realized Sophia hadn’t been ignoring the issue.

Sophia shook her head.

“It’s Mason, you’re not thinking worth a damn. Have you heard from him since he left?” Sophia shook her head again.

“That’s a good thing. You would have heard something if there’d been a problem. He’ll be back in no time. He said one or two weeks, right?” Sophia nodded. She was beginning to feel like there was a string attached to her head. She cleared her throat.

“He’s been gone for nine days.”

“Frannie, Tony, and I were talking about getting together for a game of cards tonight. You interested?”

Sophia nodded but then caught herself.

“That would be great,” she said in a husky voice.

“Okay, let’s get these folks watered and fed and kicked the hell out. Are you much of a poker player?”

“A couple of guys in college tried to teach me but I never really got the hang of it. It didn’t make sense that you would lie.”

“Bluff, it’s called bluffing. You really need to learn.” The older woman laughed.

It took them two more hours before the diner was closed and cleaned which was right when Tony and Frannie showed up.

“What are the stakes?” Tony asked Margie.

“Same as always.”

He rubbed his hands together.

“Does she know?” he pointed at Sophia.

“You explain it to her.”

Sophia looked around the table. Frannie was innocently shuffling a deck of cards.

“Sophia, we play for food. I usually win. It’s great. I get the meals of my choice and these beautiful women have to cook for me.”

“Seems like a lose/lose situation,” Sophia countered. Frannie looked up from dealing.

“You’re wrong. His eggplant parmigiana is to die for. Occasionally he does lose and he makes that and cannoli and Margie and I are in heaven.”

“Very impressive.” Sophia tilted her head at Tony with a smile.

“They were my mama’s recipes. But I rarely lose. I’m looking forward to you baking me many treats. Do you know how to bake pumpernickel bread?”

“Of course she does,” Margie said batting Tony in the back of the head. “If it can be baked in an oven then it can be made by Sophia Anderson. Deal the cards, Frannie. Sophia, we’re going to play the first four hands to teach you. These bets won’t count.”

Tony gave each of them a roll of nickels. “At the end of the game the person with the biggest pile of nickels gets to request the food they want from the other people. Should I place my orders now?”

“Shut up, Tony,” the two older women said in unison. Sophia laughed. It was the first time in nine days she was starting to feel relaxed.

It took the better part of three hours for Sophia to win the majority of the nickels on the table. It was easy. Everybody always assumed she was bluffing when she bet high and they never folded. However, she was really lucky that night and had good cards so she won most of the pots.

After the game was over Tony asked her to lie to them.

“I don’t understand.” He wasn’t making any sense.

“It’s simple. We just want to see you tell a lie,” Margie explained.

“I don’t lie very well.”

“Try,” Tony coaxed.

“Uhmm, Peter makes really good clam chowder.” She tried to say it decisively but it came out more like a hesitant question.

“Okay then. Now we know to never assume she’s bluffing,” Tony said with a satisfied smile.

“Tony, I know what I want from you but what should I ask for from Margie and Frannie?”

“Margie’s brisket is out of this world and you have to make sure she provides baked beans and corn bread.”

Margie beamed.

“Now my Frannie is one fantastic cook but her best dish is not something I’m going to tell you all about.”

Sophia was fascinated by how Frannie’s red dye job conflicted with the red that now suffused her face.

“I cook Hungarian Goulash.”

“She does and that’s the other thing she does that will make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven.”

“Enough! I haven’t had a date in three months and her man is out of town. So you two love birds need to tone it down.” Margie turned to Sophia. “You’re definitely going to be gaining some weight, my dear. When do you want to come over to my son’s for dinner?”

“I have a better idea. Can you do it all the same day and bring it over to Mason’s house and feed him and his team when they come back?”

“Ah Sophia, that’s a wonderful idea,” Margie said as she leaned over and hugged her neck. Frannie hugged her from the other side and kissed her cheek. Sophia was sure she had a bright red lipstick mark on her face. She couldn’t be happier. At least not until she got the call Mason was home.

****

“She’s burning up with fever, Mason.” Darius sounded desperate. They were in the middle of a monsoon. The rain hadn’t let up for three solid days and the lacerations on Lydia’s back were now infected.

“The drug cocktail didn’t work?” Clint asked.

“To a point. If not for the antibiotics she’d be dead by now. She has two more days tops. We’ve got to move faster.”

“Dare, do you have anything stronger to give her? She’s in such pain, it’s killing me to hear her. It’s not that she’s screaming or anything. It’s just knowing she’s awake and trying to keep it in that’s making me want to kill somebody and then dig ‘em up and butcher them again.” His tone was brutally anguished.

“I’m sorry, Clint, I can’t. If I give her anything stronger than what I have she might stop breathing. I can carry her for a while if you want,” Darius offered. Clint gave him a cold stone look and Darius shrugged.

“Okay, her dying is unacceptable. We’ll move faster,” Clint said.

“Clint, if you can’t keep up the pace, we can help.”

“I’ll keep up. Hell, I’ll lead if necessary.” They broke their huddle and went back to the others intent to get back on course. Mason was carrying Elspeth. She’d been keeping up for the first three hours of the morning but after a while she slowed things down. So now he was carrying her.

“Mason, don’t let my sister die,” she said in perfect English.

“I won’t.” It was a solemn vow.

“I’m serious. Out of all of us she’s the one with honor. She matters. Those animals did that to her because they knew it. You leave the rest of us behind if you have to but don’t let her die.” He looked into the woman’s fierce black eyes and saw nothing but truth. Fuck, what was it about self-sacrificing women these days? How had he become so surrounded?

“Elspeth, you’ll all survive. You need you to keep calm so I can concentrate on getting us the hell out of here.” And like God was watching over them, the rains came plummeting down and there wasn’t a chance in hell he could have heard anything else Elspeth might have had to say.

Mason wasn’t sure how long he kept at it. He just kept staring at the foliage twenty feet in front of him intent on not tripping. Then Drake was there.

“Ease up, Lieutenant. I’ve set up a place for us to hunker down for an hour. It’s twenty minutes ahead.” Mason nodded. He ached. Elspeth was a dead weight.

“Tell the others.” The Hildalgo family were all either unconscious or too delirious to care what he and his team were saying.

“I’m stunned she’s still alive,” Darius said baldly. Finn clamped his hand down on Clint’s shoulder to keep him from going at Darius.

“Keep it together, Clint, he’s telling us what we need to know,” Mason bit out.

“When that fever spiked the night before last, I thought we lost her but she made it. I think we’re out of miracles though. This rain is killing her. We have twenty hours before we hit our extraction point. We’ve got to haul ass. We’ve been moving too slow by letting the mister and missus go under their own steam. We’re going to have to carry them the rest of the way.” Mason looked around and everybody nodded in agreement.

“I’ve got the mister,” Drake said. It made sense. He was the largest and he could hold the man.

“I should take point then,” Finn said. Mason nodded. After Drake, he was the next best scout of the group.

“I’ve got the missus. Before we go let me check everyone out. Make sure everyone has eaten,” Darius said.

“Men, let’s make sure we don’t fuck up on the obvious. Make sure our charges drink water. I’d hate to think in the middle of a monsoon someone is dehydrated.” They all nodded. “We’re out of here in five.”

Mason pulled out his phone and saw he still didn’t have a signal. He didn’t think he’d have one, but a guy could hope. Even after nine days of jungle green he was still missing Sophia eyes. It would have been nice to have heard a message from her.

****

“Mase, I didn’t feel her pulse.” Clint’s eyes were bright as the huey settled into the clearing.

“She was breathing during our last rest stop. Darius said she was going to make it, Clint. Darius is never wrong.” They were the last two in line as the civilians were loaded into the belly of the bird.

“In, in, in.” Clint and Mason were already climbing aboard when the door gunner was yelling at them to get on the bird. Clint skidded on his knees to the pallet holding Lydia. They had an IV in her arm. The corpsman working on her gave Clint a thumbs up. Mason could finally breathe. Everybody had come out of the jungle alive this time.

He looked around the belly of the huge chopper and saw men and women tending to the civilians as they took off for the aircraft carrier. Home. He was headed home. Home was now Sophia.

It was three in the morning. She was reading another one of the books she’d stolen from Mason’s bookshelf and trying to keep the nightmares at bay. The phone rang. She could hear it even though it was in her refrigerator. She stored it there because she wanted to get some sleep and didn’t want to be bothered with all of the crank calls she’d been getting. But she’d left it on in case Mason called. She knew she wasn’t making any sense but she was so tired she didn’t know what else to do. If it was possible to buy a clue she’d purchase four.

She got up and ran to the fridge. She checked the phone display expecting to see an unidentified caller and almost dropped it when she saw Mason’s number. She pressed enter.

“Hello, Mason? Where are you?” She was so excited she almost yelled the questions.

“I’m outside.”

“Where outside?” She was already running to her door, and throwing the deadbolt. Shit, she was in her sleepshirt, but she didn’t care.

“I’m at the backdoor.” She flew down the stairs and unlocked the door and there he stood. He looked haggard, but beautiful, in a light blue T-Shirt and cargo shorts.

“You really should have a security chain for this door,” he frowned.

“Are you for real?” she demanded as she launched herself into his arms. He caught her and lifted her up to his mouth. It was the hottest kiss she’d ever received. Sizzling. She struggled to keep up. She wrapped her legs around his waist. She heard the door close in a haze of heat. The rhythm of the stairs had her pussy rubbing against his belt buckle. Not at all what she wanted to be rubbing.

Another door, this one slammed shut. Her world tilted as she was lowered to the futon.

“Look at me.”
He had a beard. God, he looked good. She couldn’t help herself, she gripped his cheeks and stroked his beard. Then she scrubbed her cheek against the bristles and gave a deep moan. “I’m looking.”

“I can’t stop this time.”

She gripped his hair and looked him dead in the eyes. “I’ll kill you if you stop.”

“How’s the shoulder? The ribs?”

“I’m fine. I’m healed.” She stopped short and pulled his head back even more. She tried desperately to roll over, get on top. It was no use.

“What about you? Are you okay?” He smiled.

“I think you should take inventory, honey.” She loved the idea.

“Take off your shirt. Oh hell, just strip,” she commanded.

He shook his head. His hands pushed under her already rucked up sleep shirt and pulled it over her head. He looked at her breasts under the glow of the bedside light.

“I’ve missed your breasts. I thought of them often.” After the last time he touched them and kissed them, she’d been able to dress and undress without wincing at her reflection. She felt how hard he was. She saw the fierce light of hunger in his eyes.

“Baby, your nipples are so hard. Do they need some attention? Do they want to be sucked?”
A talker? He was a talker?

“Yes!”

“Tell me what you want.”

“I want your mouth on my breasts.”

He licked around her left areola while gently squeezing her right breast. Lick, squeeze, lick squeeze.

“More.”

“More what?”

“My nipple,” she whined. He grinned. He scraped his beard against the hard flesh of her nipple and she screeched. It almost hurt but it felt so good. His eyes lit up like fire crackers. The bastard knew.

“What honey, want me to suck? Want me to bite?”

She put her hand on top of his and squeezed hard but it had no effect. He was in charge and oh wasn’t that sexy?

“Please Mason, stop teasing.” She let go of his hand, and cupped his cheeks so she could lift his head and look into his eyes. “It’s been too long. I’ve dreamed of you. Tease later. Please?”