SEALs of Summer 2: A Military Romance Superbundle (45 page)

“You’re going to be okay,” she said the stranger. She hoped she wasn’t lying.

“Help me…” The stranger whispered, struggling to get up.

Her heart broke. “I will.” Gently, she smoothed his blond hair off his forehead. “I promise. I’ll take care of you. Please, lay still.” She used the edge of her blouse to wipe some of the blood off his cheek.

He let his head settle into her lap and closed his eyes.

“Go inside and make sure Deolina called an ambulance,” she whispered to Tico.

He shook his head. “Nu-uh. I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

She had a strong connection to this stranger. If not for the sirens, she would’ve been like him—lying in a pool of her own blood. She caressed his face. Poor, poor man.

Clenching her teeth, she whispered to Tico, “You promised me you’d quit the gangs.”

“I did quit. Until this guy showed up.” The hateful glare he threw at the man sent a shiver up her spine. She’d always thought of Tico as her little brother. She’d forgotten how dangerous he could be. “He oughtta be dead.”

That stole the breath from her chest. “Who is he?”

“I can’t say.”

“Tico, start talking right now—!” The sight of Deolina charging down the alley like a wild bull interrupted her thoughts.

Deolina yelled. “Eeya, Ysabeau! Don’t touch him. Quick, Tico, throw the body in the dumpster.”

“Deo! He’s alive.” Ysabeau said. Had the whole world gone crazy?

“I told you, I can fix that,” Tico said.

“Do it!” Deolina said.

“No! What’s the matter with you two? Tico, back off. And Deo, please tell me the ambulance is on its way.”

“Yep and it’s bringin’ the police with them. Tico is as good as caught if we don’t act fast,” Deolina said.

Panic seized Ysabeau’s thoughts. Tico deserved to be arrested for his part in hurting this man, but how could she let that happen? She was supposed to be protecting him, giving him a new start at life, as she’d promised his mother on her deathbed. What was she going to do?

“Um, jail’s not a safe place for me,” Tico whispered. “Too many inmates would like to see me dead.”

New sirens wailed in the distance. This was terrible. Ysabeau couldn’t lose another person she cared about. Her heart couldn’t take it. “Tico, get my car. It’s around back. We’ll take the stranger to my house.”

Tico took off at a run toward the parking lot.

“He’s not a stranger.” Deolina showed her the black business card she held in her hand. “This here says that he’s a Guardian.”

Ysabeau gasped. “Oh no. No, no!” She looked down at the man whose head she held in her lap. “Tico had better not have killed my boss.”

*

Ysabeau sat at
the kitchenette in her breakfast nook with her head in her hands wondering what she was going to do with the Guardian sleeping on her couch.

Deolina stood behind her, running water in the sink. “Ever have days when you see the future and still can’t change it for spit?”

Ysabeau sighed. “I don’t have visions, Deo. If I did, I wouldn’t have gotten up this morning.” Or maybe she’d have done something to stop what had happened in the alley.

She felt horrible for the poor, unfortunate Guardian. She’d given him a full examination and determined his injuries were not as bad as they could’ve been. No sign of internal injuries, or punctured lungs. His ribs seemed to be badly bruised but not broken. The cut on his leg was deep but the knife missed his femoral vein. She had stitched up his wounds, cleaned his cuts, and given him antibiotics and a painkiller. Now, she hoped he’d sleep for a long while so she could untangle this mess.

“That’s just it. You still gotta get out of bed and hope the world doesn’t go to hell,” Deolina said quietly. “Like you picture it.”

Ysabeau slapped her palm on the table. “Why’d Tico do it? He swore he’d stop the fighting.”

Wrapping a wet paper towel around her neck, Deolina turned her face up toward the ceiling fan. “After what happened with the bad man?”

Ysabeau’s heart did a little shiver. “I don’t talk about that. Ever.”

“So why’d you go and bring it up?”

“I didn’t…I mean…I’m just upset. What possessed Tico to think I needed protection from the Guardians?”

“I mighta said somethin’.” Deolina focused her gaze on her fingernails. “To Tico.”

She stared at the black magic priestess sitting at her kitchenette. Sometimes her godmother’s hit-or-miss future-seeing skills drove her crazy. “And?”

Deolina shifted her weight. “Maybe I foresaw the Guardian coming here, maybe I didn’t. I can’t say ’cuz Grann told me not to.”

Ysabeau pressed her forehead, feeling a migraine coming on. “What does Grann have to do with this?”

“I’m not sayin’ more on accounta that old woman’s gonna whip my ass.”

“I swear. You two are going to be the death of me.”

“Ysabeau!” Deolina spread two fingers and spit between them, muttering a take-back-curse. “Why welcome more badness into your home? Don’t you have enough of it already?” She cocked her head toward the living room.

“Saints save me,” Ysabeau mumbled and walked to the couch to check on her sleeping patient. A frown crossed his face, bunching up his forehead. Perspiration beaded on his upper lip. She used a cool cloth to wipe the sweat away. “What did he do to deserve this?”

Deolina followed. “Don’t get too close, girl. I’m warnin’ you.”

Ysabeau suddenly remembered how naked he was under her blanket. A muscular, golden and healthy male—all things considered. It had been a long, long time since she’d been this close to a man who wasn’t dying. And this one was beautiful. She touched his jaw, enjoying the prickle of his short beard under her fingers. He was physically fit, with strong arms and legs, defined abs. She leaned even closer and breathed in his manly musk. When was the last time she’d done that? She’d noticed a few peculiar scars on his arms and back as if he’d been in a fight or two before. One raised circular scar in his shoulder looked suspiciously like a bullet wound.

Carefully, she lifted the dog tags he wore on a chain around his neck. An American soldier? That didn’t fit with what she knew of the Guardians. She frowned. Who was he really?

As if reading her mind, Deolina huffed, “Watch yourself, girl. Evil is always good-lookin’. You know, like a Fudgecicle, all sweet and yummy on the outside, makin’ you want to lick and gobble it up. Makin’ you forget it’s nothin’ but ice and bad-for-you stuff that eventually stops your heart cold. It’s not too late to dump the man in the bay.”

She spun around to face Deo. “Your vision was about him, wasn’t it? Something terrible happens?”

“Nu-uh. If I tell, Gran’ll slice me up like a mango. No way. I’m not sayin’ nothin’.”

“Come on, you’re the most powerful Vodun of Petro. You’re afraid of little Gran?”

“Heck, yeah. That woman has always scared me, even when we were kids. Besides, I’m mostly retired. Up until last night I’d been restin’ my mojo—”

“Last night? You and Grann performed a Voodoo ceremony
together
? That hasn’t happened since…” Her heart sank. “What’s going on?”

Deolina blinked. “Ah, crap on a cracker. I done gave away the goose.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Talk, Deo. What did you foresee?”

“I’ve been seein’ some not too nice t’ings coming our way. Straight for us. You know the future is not sunk in stone, it’s liquid like the rolling sea. T’ings can change. But if I tell you too much, you’ll get involved, and Grann and I do not want that. No, Ysabeau,
that
we do not want.”

“You had Tico beat up this man so I
wouldn’t
get involved?”

Deolina’s dark eyes raked over the Guardian’s body. “Didn’t work out near as well as I’d envisioned it.”

Ysabeau sat on the edge of her burl wood coffee table. Suddenly she understood, or thought she did. “The trial results. Did the Guardians send this guy here to fire me? Is that what you saw, another research scientist working at the clinic?”

Deolina shook her head sadly. “Worse.”

“He’s not going to
close
the clinic is he?”

Deolina’s frown deepened. “Now Ysabeau, I can’t say more on accounta my ass is too pretty to get whipped and old Grann will be all too happy to do the whipping.”

“He is going to close me down!”

Deolina’s lips were sealed so tightly they’d turned white.

Slapping her hands on her knees, Ysabeau rose. “I can’t believe it! Here I was feeling sorry for him. How dare he? Who does he think he is?”

Deolina’s lips popped open with a smack. “The devil?”

Yanking a pillow off the wicker rocking chair, she pounded it with her fist while she paced. “I’ve worked too hard for too long. I can’t let him do this. He needs to give me more time. He has to!”

“You’re plannin’ on keepin’ the American locked up here until your serum works? Gran’s not going to like this.”

Ysabeau didn’t either. Not one bit. But what could she do? Eighty lives as well as her own future rested with the man sleeping on her couch. “Don’t you see? I’m this close.” She pinched the air between with her index finger and thumb.

“We could make it so the devil never wakes up. Tico’d be safe, and you’d have more time.”

“Don’t you dare! Promise me, Deo.”

“I’m not sayin’ we kill the man. Unless…” She shrugged. “…you change your mind.”

She shook her finger. “I know exactly what you’re saying. How’s he going to give me more money if he’s a zombie?”

“Oh. Right.” Deolina swiped at the sweat dripping into her cleavage.

“I need that funding. The last increment the Guardians gave me will last another month. Barely.”

“That’s bad.”

“But once I get the serum to work, all sorts of drug companies will want this medicine. The clinic will have more than enough money then.” Hope bloomed, faintly. “No one’s going to stop me, Deo. No matter what.”

“That’s good. I’ve got faith in you, girl. You never needed a man to save the world.”

That’s where Deolina was wrong.
I do need a man
. She stood over the sleeping Guardian. “I’ll convince him. Somehow.”

‡

January, 5, 2010. Seven Days…

L
uke fought as
hard as he could. Something held his head. Heavy tentacles wrapped around his ribcage, so heavy he could barely breathe. The weird visions wouldn’t stop. Faces of strangers. Arguing voices. The smell of fear and something sickly sweet, like blood. His screams joined the jumble in his head.

A cool cloth wiped his brow. “Shh, it will be alright.”

He couldn’t see the image that went with the sweet voice. His eyes were swollen shut.

“This will help with the pain,” the woman said.

Something bit him on the ass. The protest he yelled in his head came out as a garbled groan. Warmth flooded his system, spreading out from the bite on his hip, coating the pain, easing his mind.

Gently, the woman lifted his head and poured a sweet liquid into his mouth that smelled like mango juice. Luke drank it down greedily, wanting desperately to see the woman’s face.

“It will be okay, you’ll see.” Her voice was a lullaby. “I’ll take care of you. And you will save me.”

When his head was lowered again, soft, cool fingers gently rubbed his hot skin. They traced his cheeks and linger seductively on his bottom lip.

It had become a sweet dream. He chased it deeper into sleep.

*