by Dale Mayer
“Food,” she said, rearing her head. “Oh, my God, do we get a meal?”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Beau said.
“So room service then?” she asked hopefully. Then she frowned. “I don’t have a wallet. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t even have a phone.”
“Yep,” he said, “we know. When I come back, I’ll see if I can get you some way to contact your father.”
She nodded, tears in her eyes. “This is the first chance I’ve had to contact him. Everybody else has had hours to do stuff like that. But, no, I was an idiot and had to go back to the compound.”
“And why was that again?” Asher asked curiously. He walked out of the elevator ahead of them, found her room, unlocked it, opened the door, and stepped in. Beau followed, still carrying her.
“You won’t believe her reasoning,” Beau said to Asher.
Asher turned a slanted glance at her and asked, “Why did you?”
“Because Beau was in trouble,” she said calmly. “And he didn’t know that Mackey was bad.”
“So you left the safety of the medic truck, and, barely able to walk, you went back into the line of fire, into the middle of all that chaos, to let Beau know that Mackey was bad?”
“Of course,” she said in outrage.
Beau set her down gently on the edge of the bed and stood to study her as she continued talking. Something was so very different about a woman her size, up against what she’d already faced, yet still doing what she did for him. Even Asher stared at her incredulously.
She finished talking, shrugged, and said, “Doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. I had to do what I had to do.”
“Oh, I get that,” Asher said, “because that’s what we do all the time. But not everybody thinks about anybody else at times like that.”
“Yeah, well,” she said, “that’s why I helped Nania escape in the first place. Now she’s in the hospital, I hope.”
“She is,” Beau said, “and, with any luck, she’s getting the treatment she needs right now.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Being with the cult had been a pretty rough time for her.”
“And why do you think that?” he asked.
“Just from what she told me, and I know she was really worried.”
“With everything that we’ve done, I’m sure she’ll get the best medical treatment here.”
“I hope so.” She sagged back on the bed. “God, I’m tired.”
“Have a nap,” Beau said as he headed to the door. When he turned to look back at her, she stared at him with a woebegone look on her face. He sighed. “I’ll return in a little bit.”
She nodded, but that didn’t put a smile on her face. Asher stepped out into the hallway, but Beau couldn’t do it. He looked at Asher, looked back at her, and groaned. He walked over to her, tilted up her chin, kissed her gently, and said, “I promise. I’ll be back soon.” When her smile flashed again, he turned and walked away.
As he stepped out into the hallway, Asher just looked at him, shook his head, and said, “Man, you’ve got it bad.”
“I know,” he said darkly. “What else am I supposed to do?”
“You’re doing it,” he said. “I wouldn’t worry about anything else. Just follow your heart.”
“Our hearts are something we’ve been conditioned not to even consider,” he said.
“Sure,” Asher said. “But you also know that doesn’t matter one little bit because we don’t work in the same place anymore. We get to do what we want to do and how we want to do it.”
Beau stopped to look at him; then he frowned and gave a quick nod. “You’re right. I’ll have to think about that.” It was a whole different way of thinking because he could pick and choose his jobs. He could pick and choose his location. It didn’t matter. He’d always avoided military romances with the thought that it would be too hard on a future wife for him to always be gone. And it’s not as though that would be any different this time because he would still always be gone, but he could also be home when he needed to be home.
“You don’t have to walk away from her,” Asher said.
“Feels weird,” Beau said.
Asher said, “Just think about it. When you find someone like that, you might want to take a chance to figure out exactly where you can take this.”
“Maybe,” he said quietly. “I have to readjust my thinking though.”
“Absolutely,” Asher said. “Just don’t take too long.”
“You think she won’t wait?”
“I know she won’t wait,” he said with a big grin. “But, if you don’t make sure that she knows you’re coming back, she’ll just follow you.”
At that, he stopped and looked at his buddy who grinned like a crazy man again, and then nodded. “She really will, won’t she?”
“Absolutely she will,” he said. “So make it a yes or make it a no, but she needs to know either way.”
“Damn,” Beau said. They walked into their room right beside hers, with two queen-size beds.
“Somehow I don’t think you’ll need your bed tonight,” Asher said, throwing himself full length down on the other bed.
“I’m a fool, aren’t I?” Beau asked.
“A lovesick one, yes. See? You’ve been looking in all the wrong places, and, just when you weren’t looking, this one popped up on you,” Asher said, his eyes closed. “So turn around, take a good look, and recognize just what she means to you.”
“Yeah, and what does that mean?” Beau asked, dumping his bag at the end of his bed and walking into the washroom to turn on the shower tap.
“Everything,” Asher said. “At the end of all this, she’s what’s important. She means everything.” And, on that note, he said, “I’ll have a nap.”
“And I’ll have a shower,” Beau said.
“Good,” he said, “because you’ll have to help her get out of the bathtub.”
At that, Beau laughed, but he figured Asher was probably right.
Chapter 18
The chance to have a bath—obviously not a shower given the condition of her feet—was way too promising to ignore, and she needed it before a nap. She slowly made her way into the bathroom, wincing at every step, yet it wasn’t as bad as she’d expected. Whether it was the numbing cream or just the awareness that she was alive, who cared about injuries?
She sat down on the rim of the bathtub, turned on the water, and dumped in some bubble bath from the little hotel bottles sitting on the side. She grabbed some towels. Her hair was covered in ash and dirt and whatnot, and she was really banged up and bruised, and not one inch of her didn’t feel the pain of the last few days. Oh, to be clean for once.
With her towels nearby, she stripped down, wishing she had clothes to replace these because they were in pretty rough shape. She didn’t know if she could get them washed or if they were even worth salvaging. But, without clothes, what could she do?
With her dirty clothes in a heap, she slowly lowered her sore body into the bubble bath, letting her feet hang over the edge, and the bubbles rose up to her chin. She sighed in relief as the water enclosed her aching body. She lay here without even moving for a long moment, and then she slid farther down, her feet still up on the edge so that her whole head went under. She couldn’t care less about the bubbles. Her head was so dirty it basically walked on its own, and so many leaves and bits of brush were in her hair that she knew it would take several washings to get it anything close to clean.
When she finally pushed herself up through the surface again, she brushed away all the bubbles and set about trying to find clean hair under all that nastiness. Then, with her hair washed, she worked on the rest of her. Her feet were still bandaged, and she kept them just above the surface of the water, but she really wanted to drop them in. Would it be so bad? She could at least then take off all the bandages and leave them in the open air for the rest of the evening.
Taking a chance, she pulled off the tension socks, but left both
feet wrapped, thinking the gauze would keep the dirt in her bathwater out of her wounds, at least directly. Then she gently put them in the water. Initially the soap bubbles hitting her raw wounds brought tears to her eyes, but, after a few moments, she realized what a great idea this had been. She let them soak while she scrubbed down the rest of her and then scrubbed herself all over again.
Just having those kidnappers manhandle her, carrying her and tossing her around, made her feel like she needed to scrub for the third time. With her hair finally washed, the conditioner rinsed off, and her body as clean as it could be, she lay here in the bath and gently dozed off.
She woke up as the water cooled. She pulled the plug, and, by this time, the bubbles were long gone. She used the showerhead and quickly rinsed off her body. She needed to this time just because the bathwater had been so dirty.
With that done, she sat on the edge of the bathtub and slowly dried herself off with one towel, another wrapped around her hair. She snagged the hotel bathrobe, happy to have that to put on, and slowly turned so that she faced the doorway. Using the sink like a crutch, she hobbled to the bed and slowly removed her bandages so her feet could breathe. With that done, she crawled higher up on the bed, stretched out with her head on the pillow, and promptly fell asleep.
She woke a little while later to Beau’s voice. She opened her eyes, gasped, and sat upright.
“Easy,” he said. He came in and closed the door behind him.
She looked at him and blinked several times. “I didn’t hear you knock,” she said, collapsing back down.
“I didn’t knock,” he said.
She stared at him. “Why not?”
He laughed. “Because I figured you’d still be in the bathtub.”
“No,” she said. “I made it in, and I made it out. Man, I feel 100 percent better.”
“Good,” he said. “I brought you a few things.”
She looked up curiously to see several bags. “Is it food?”
He glanced at his watch and said, “No, we’ll get room service in about half an hour.”
“Good,” she said. She twisted around, the robe sliding down one shoulder. She pulled it up and reached for a bag and then gasped in joy. “You bought me clothes?”
“Not much,” he said. “I didn’t really know your sizes.”
She held up a pair of simple cotton leggings and grinned. “These are perfect.”
He apologized and said, “I didn’t think about underclothes.”
“No worries. I can probably wash those and hang them to dry overnight,” she said. She held up a T-shirt that went with the leggings, then looked up at him and grinned. “Thank you so much.”
“Hey, I can’t imagine what you’ve been through,” he said.
“I was just looking at my clothes, wondering if they were worth washing or if I should just burn them.”
“You tell me,” he said. “They probably smell to high heaven.”
“They do,” she said. “I can put my underclothes to wash in the sink, but I don’t know about the pants and the shirt.”
She tried to get to her feet, winced, and he asked, “Should you be walking?”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but, if I can deal with this stuff, then I won’t have to worry about it.” She walked into the bathroom, quickly gave her bra and panties a quick wash and a rinse, then wrung them out as much as she could. She proceeded to hang them over the shower rod. Next, she scooped up her old clothes and dumped them in the garbage. “There,” she said. “I won’t be getting dressed for a while though, not until they can dry.”
She made her way back to the bed slowly, sat down, and took another look at her new clothes. “You can’t imagine how happy these make me.”
“Well, you didn’t check the second bag.”
She looked at him in surprise, grabbed the second bag, and upended it. Out fell a small box. She quickly opened it up. “A phone,” she said.
“So we can hook it up to your plan and whatever you had on your old phone,” he said, “because I presume that’s long gone.”
“I imagine,” she said. “Just thinking about the pain of getting all my IDs again and canceling credit cards …”
“Do you know who your phone company was?”
She nodded, and together it took them about fifteen minutes to get through to the carrier and to get her new phone set up.
“We can’t transfer your contacts, and, for that, I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” she said. “Anybody important, I can find them again.”
Then he said, “Maybe you want to call your dad.”
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, quickly opened the phone, and punched in her father’s number. When a voice came on the other end, she said, “Dad?”
And then she burst into tears.
Beau settled back in the single chair in the room and checked his watch. About twenty minutes until room service should arrive. He looked at the few pieces of clothing he’d bought, hoping they would fit. He never even thought about underwear, but, if she was okay to do without them for now, fine. Still she needed something for her feet. He leaned over, kissed her gently as she talked to her father, and whispered, “I’ll be back in five.”
He went down to the gift shop to see if they had any sandals or something for her to slip over her bandaged feet. Nothing here. He headed down onto the main street, where he’d seen a mall not very far away. With his long legs eating up the distance, he stepped inside what looked like a dollar store and picked up a pair of flip-flops, plastic rubber shoes that went over the top of the feet so she could keep them bandaged. He picked those up and a couple other things for her: candy, chocolate-covered nuts, some trail mix, and also a bottle of water. Back at the hotel room, she was just hanging up with her father when Beau walked in.
She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “Thank you so much. The phone call made my day.”
He nodded. “Let’s get these feet bandaged up again.”
“I was hoping maybe to leave them out in fresh air until tomorrow morning,” she said. She lifted one leg and twisted her foot so she could look at it. “It doesn’t look that bad.”
“It doesn’t,” he said. “If you’re sure?” He held up the flip-flops.
She laughed, and he slipped one gently over her bare foot, and she nodded. “You’re very good at knowing a woman’s size.”
“I am,” he said. “But then I’m a guy,” he said, “and it’s pretty easy to measure.”
She laughed. “I won’t even get jealous over that.”
“Good,” he said, “because there’s no need to be.”
Just then someone knocked at the door. She looked at him in surprise as he got up to let in room service. When he looked over, she sat like a child, her face wreathed in delight. “Food,” she cried out. He shifted her to the single chair, and they sat down at the table. “Oh my,” she said, “this looks delicious.” He handed her the mixed veggies, chicken breasts, and a salad that he’d gotten for her and then sat down to his own steak.
“Does Asher want to join us?”
“No,” he said. “Asher is sleeping.”
“Good point.” She looked at him. “You had a shower.”
“I did, and you had a bath.”
“True.” After that, she didn’t say anything. She plowed into her food with a ferocity that made him stop and realize just how short she’d been on food for the last few days. When she was finally done, she sagged backward and said, “I can’t believe I ate that much.”
“It’s just a sign of how starved your body was.” He cleared the dishes, brought over the coffeepot, poured them each a cup, and then brought over the dessert he’d ordered, a beautiful layer cake.
She stared at it in awe. “How did you know I love chocolate?”
“It was a safe bet,” he said in a mocking tone.
She winked at him. “All women love chocolate.”
“I think all people love chocolate,” he correct
ed.
She ate the cake slowly, sipped her coffee, and, when she was done, she said, “I can’t believe it. Food, clean clothes, a bath—it’s almost like my soul’s replete.”
“Almost?”
She got up, walked slowly over to the bed, cleaned everything off the top of it, and said, “Almost.” She pulled the bedding back so just the sheets showed and folded the blankets up at the bottom. Then she opened her robe and dropped it. She repeated, “Almost.”
And then she lay down on the bed and said, “Whenever you’re done with your coffee, you might want to come join me.”
Chapter 19
Danica had never really been an exhibitionist, but when she wanted something, like, really wanted it, then she did not mind. At that moment, Beau clearly saw that she had no intention of playing coy or shy and not going after this moment that they had. She knew she’d shocked him. When he bolted from the table and came toward her, she laughed, “You also have to strip off a whole lot more clothing than you’ve got on now.” She propped herself up on her arms, looked up at him, and said, “And you’ve got to be nice to my feet.”
“I wasn’t planning on touching your feet,” he said.
She shot him a cheeky grin. “Yeah, well, what part of me did you want to touch?”
Right then he grabbed his shirt, and, as he pulled it over his head, he kicked off his shoes. When his fingers hit his belt buckle, and as he shucked off his pants, everything went with them, including his socks.
She looked at him admirably. “That’s pretty fast undressing there, buddy.”
He lay beside her on the bed. “Well, hey, I had to catch up,” he said. “You were miles ahead of me.”
She gently stroked his cheek and whispered, “I thought I was miles ahead of you the whole time, but I figured you’d catch up eventually.”
“I’m right here with you,” he growled, and he leaned over and kissed her, very hard and deep, with a ferocity that left her gasping for air.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, held him close, and whispered, “Damn good thing. I didn’t think you were that slow.”
