by Susan Stoker
“Jeez. The only other language I know is how to swear like a sailor when I smash my finger,” Sidney joked. “And this is the woman who saved your life, right?”
Gumby leaned forward and took her face in his hands. “She’s gonna love you,” he said seriously. “From what Rocco says, Caite doesn’t have that many friends either. I know you, Sid, and if I say you’ll get along, you’ll get along. I wouldn’t push this so hard if I didn’t think so.”
Sidney nodded. He kissed her on the forehead then sat back, letting go of her, but wishing he could hold her to his chest forever.
“What about vet visits? Does Hannah have any follow-ups?”
“Not really. The vet said to come back in a few weeks as long as she was healing all right.”
“I noticed that she was limping a bit today. How’re her paws?”
Gumby loved how much she worried about his dog. “They’re okay. Still tender, and the pads will take a while longer to grow back. Right now the new skin is pretty fragile, she still shouldn’t be on the beach, and she’s still got the heartworms, so staying inside and calm is on the agenda for while I’m gone.”
“And Caite knows all this?”
“Yeah, she knows.”
Sidney hesitated for a beat, then took a deep breath. “I’m gonna miss you,” she said softly.
“Oh, Sid, I’m gonna miss you too,” Gumby replied, and breathed out a long sigh of relief when Sidney burrowed into his arms once more.
“I might actually get a full night’s sleep,” she joked, then winced. “Sorry. That was rude when you probably won’t be, since you’ll be doing your mission thing.”
“It’s fine. And look at it this way…the less sleep I get, the faster this mission will be over.” That wasn’t quite true, but he’d say anything to make Sidney feel better. “Are you going to talk to Jude about the job with Max?”
“Yeah. I feel guilty though. Jude really helped me out when I first moved here. I was young and naïve about everything, and he even gave me a break on rent for at least two years while I figured out what I was going to do with my life.”
“And in that time, I bet you helped him out for free, or almost free, didn’t you?” Gumby guessed.
She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“It’s not like you’re going to move out immediately,” Gumby said. “I’m sure you can work something out with him. Like maybe you can keep working until he hires someone. Or you can work part time until the new person has the hang of things. Who knows…maybe the person Jude hires really needs a break…like you did when you got here.”
“True,” she said.
“So you’ll talk to him?”
“Yeah.” She snuggled in deeper. “I can’t wait to get an apartment or something. I’ve lived in that old trailer for so long that an apartment will totally seem like a step up.”
Gumby literally bit his tongue to keep from blurting out that he wanted her to move in with him. There would be time for that later. It wasn’t as if she was going to go out and rent an apartment tomorrow. No, Sidney would be cautious with her money and want to save up a little nest egg before she took that step.
He had time to make her fall madly in love with him and agree to marry him and move in permanently.
Thinking about marriage didn’t freak Gumby out as much as it might’ve a few months ago. Before he’d faced his own mortality in Bahrain, he hadn’t really thought about settling down. He figured he had plenty of time for that. But now he knew differently. Life was short. Too short. And having met Sidney, he knew he wanted to get started on his life with her as soon as possible, so he didn’t miss one minute of the time they could have together.
“What time do you leave tomorrow?”
“Early.”
“I should go then.”
Gumby hated to agree, but she was right. He had to get up at three in the morning to catch the transport out of the country, and he really did need to get some sleep before the shit hit the fan. There was never a guarantee of having any time to rest while on a mission. “I’ll call the second I’m back,” he told her.
Sidney nodded and sat up. “Be safe, hear me? I’m gonna be pissed if you come home with holes in you.”
Gumby smiled. “Of course. I know we haven’t talked about it much, but I work with some of the best guys in the navy. They have my back, and I have theirs. We’ve also been over and over this mission and have plans B, C, D, and E prepared, just in case, just like we do every time.”
“That makes me feel better.”
“Good.” He stood, and took her in his arms when she joined him.
“I’m not good at long goodbyes,” she informed him. “So I’m just gonna go.”
He could tell she was holding back tears. And he hated this. It was the first time heading out on a mission didn’t hold the appeal it had in the past.
He kissed her on the forehead, keeping his lips there for a long beat before stepping back. Gumby watched as she went over to Hannah and hugged her. The dog licked her face before Sidney could move out of reach. “Be good for Caite,” Sidney said quietly before straightening and heading to the front door. She grabbed up her bag and opened the door.
She turned around when she was standing on his porch, and the tears on her face nearly did Gumby in.
“I’m proud of you,” she said. “Kick some terrorist ass.” Then she turned and walked quickly to her car. Within moments, all Gumby saw were her taillights headed down the street.
Hannah whimpered at his side.
“I know, girl. I already miss her too.”
Then Gumby turned around, shut the door, and did his best to get his mind set for the upcoming mission.
Chapter Twelve
Eight days.
That’s how long it had been since Decker had left…not that Sidney was counting or anything.
She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes at herself. She was pathetic. She was an introvert. She liked being by herself. Had liked it until she’d met Decker and spent every evening for two weeks with him, either in person or on the phone.
She had a whole new respect for military spouses now. How in the hell did they do this all the time? And she didn’t have children. Sidney couldn’t imagine how hellish this would be if she had to be a single mother on top of everything else.
Looking at the clock, she saw it was five forty-two in the afternoon. She had nothing planned for the evening, and that sucked. She’d tried to keep busy over the last week. She’d had dinner with Nora a couple times, which was nice, had gone over and seen some new dogs Faith had received one night, and even told Jude she would be happy to work evenings, and he’d taken her up on her offer twice.
One night, she’d even gone so far as to go online and busy herself looking for posts from Victor.
And she’d found one. It was horrible. He’d made up some story about an older dog he’d supposedly had for years and years that he’d had to put down, and his little girl was devastated, and now he was looking for a puppy. That asshole didn’t have a daughter. She’d bet every penny to her name on that. The low-life scum was just trying to find more dogs he could train to fight.
She’d wanted to go to his house and make sure he hadn’t gotten his hands on any new dogs, but she’d promised Decker she wouldn’t. The compulsion had been there though. And it had been strong. Fuck.
Fingers twitching, Sidney paced back and forth. She was thinking about the post she’d seen a few nights ago, and it was making her crazy. She had to think about something she could do that would take her mind off Victor, and what he might be doing to a poor defenseless dog, as well as Decker, and the danger he was most likely in.
She could binge watch something on TV. But she wasn’t in the mood for anything.
She could read, but knew nothing would hold her attention, and a romance would probably make her sad right about now.
She couldn’t go back online because if she did, she’d probably end up breaking her promise to Decker and goi
ng over to Victor’s house.
Nora was out with one of her boyfriends.
Faith was busy.
And Jude had already told her that everything seemed calm for the night and he’d handle anything that came up.
“Damn it,” she mumbled. How long were Decker’s missions usually? She had no idea. Would he be gone a month? Two? She cursed. The least he could’ve done was given her a ballpark figure on how long she had to worry about him before he’d be back.
When her cell phone rang, Sidney practically leaped on it. Any distraction right now would be welcome.
Not recognizing the number on the screen, she answered cautiously. “Hello?”
“Sidney?”
“Yeah. It’s me. Who’s this?”
“Thank God! This is Caite. Caite McCallan. I don’t know if Gumby told you about me or not, but I need help!”
The woman on the other end of the line sobbed, and Sidney tensed. Decker had told her he’d given Caite her number. But why the woman was calling was a mystery.
“Calm down, Caite. What’s wrong?” Sidney asked.
Caite sobbed through her words and it was hard for Sidney to understand her.
“I got b-back to Gumby’s house a little l-late today and when I w-walked in, there was b-blood everywhere!”
“What? Shit, slow down. Have you called 9-1-1?”
“No, it’s not t-that.”
Sidney was confused. “Not what?”
“It’s H-Hannah! She’s hurt, and I don’t know what to d-do!” Caite wailed.
Every muscle in Sidney’s body went tense. She was headed for the door before she even thought about it. “Hannah? What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know! She won’t let me get near her. But there’s b-blood everywhere! I swear to God it looks like a serial killer was in here chopping up his victims.”
Sidney had no idea if Caite was being overdramatic or not because she didn’t know her. But the thought of Hannah being hurt, in pain, was not acceptable.
Images from Sidney’s childhood tried to overwhelm her, but she refused to think about anything but getting to Decker’s house.
“I didn’t know who else to call,” Caite went on. The more she talked, the clearer her words became. Obviously simply having someone to talk to was helping to bring down her panic. “Gumby said if anything happened to call the vet. I tried, but they’re closed. And I can’t get Hannah to come to me to bring her to the emergency vet. He also said if I needed help with her, I could call you. So I’m calling you. What do I do?”
“First, calm down. I’m on my way.”
“Thank God!” Caite breathed.
“Can you tell where the blood is coming from?” Sidney asked.
“No. It’s everywhere though. I think it’ll come up from the floors, but it’s on the cabinets in the kitchen and all over her dog bed. Oh! And his couch. Oh my God, I think it’s probably ruined!”
Sidney could tell Caite was panicking again. “It’s just stuff, Caite. Decker won’t care about it. Concentrate on Hannah. Is it coming from the wound on her back?”
She heard growling in the background and was somewhat surprised. She’d heard Hannah sound mean before, like the day she’d been over there when Max had come to the door, but she had no idea what the dog’s deal was now.
“I don’t think so. I mean, her fur is black, so it’s hard to tell, but it looks like it’s her paws or something.”
As Sidney drove like a bat out of hell toward Decker’s house, she nodded to herself. It was possible the pads of Hannah’s feet had become irritated and started bleeding again. Although it had been a week since she’d seen the dog, and it seemed to her that they should be well on their way to being healed now.
“Oh, no!”
“What?” Sidney barked out.
“There’s glass on the floor next to the couch! I put a vase of flowers there yesterday. Blake had them sent to me at work. I think Hannah must’ve knocked them over and the vase broke.”
That would explain it. Hannah’s paws were still delicate and healing, a piece of glass could’ve easily cut the pad of her foot, and those tended to bleed like crazy. And if she walked around the room, of course it would spread the blood everywhere.
Feeling a little calmer now that she knew Hannah probably wasn’t bleeding out or anything, Sidney took a deep breath. “Okay, Caite, you’re probably right. Can you clean up the glass so she doesn’t step in it again?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. Are you still coming?”
“Yes. I’m about halfway there now.”
“Thank you! I’m worried about Hannah. She’s never acted like this with me before. I haven’t had any trouble with her the entire time I’ve been here. She’s lying on her bed and growling.”
“At you?” Sidney asked. “Or just growling.”
“Oh, um… Now that you mention it, I think she’s just growling in general.”
“Right. It’s probably because her foot hurts and she doesn’t understand why. Just clean up the vase and don’t go near her. We’ll see how she is when I get there.”
“Okay. Sidney?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you again. I didn’t know what to do. I know you and Gumby just started dating and we haven’t met, but I appreciate you coming over.”
“I only met Rocco once, but I liked him. And trust me, I definitely don’t like everyone I meet. I’m glad you called me. I’ve missed Hannah.”
There was silence on the other end of the line before Caite said, “Oh, shit, you probably wanted to dog-sit her, didn’t you? I’m such an idiot! I should’ve thought about that. I just went along with it when Blake asked if I wouldn’t mind. I know he did it to get me out of the apartment while he was gone. Shit! I should’ve thought this through. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Sidney said, liking the other woman more and more.
“No, it’s not,” Caite countered. “Blake was being overprotective, which most of the time I don’t mind, but this had to be upsetting for you. I swear that I don’t have a thing for Gumby. I mean, I like him—what’s not to like—but I don’t like him, if you know what I mean.”
Sidney chuckled. “I do.”
“I swear it didn’t even cross my mind—because I’m an idiot—that Gumby might’ve wanted you to stay here instead of me. He was probably just being nice. Because he is nice.”
“Seriously, it’s okay,” Sidney said when Caite took a breath. She had a feeling the other woman would just keep apologizing over and over if given the chance. “I’ve been busy, and it’s good for Hannah to get used to other people.”
“Well, when Blake and Gumby get home, I’m gonna make sure they know they’re idiots,” Caite huffed.
Sidney couldn’t help but laugh. It was a release of tension more than anything, but Caite was amusing.
“Are you almost here?” Caite asked. “I threw away the glass, but I’m really worried about Hannah.”
“I’m about three minutes away,” Sidney told her. “Has she moved yet?”
“No. She’s just sitting on her bed, licking one of her paws and giving me the evil eye.”
“The evil eye?” Sidney asked. “Is that even possible?”
“Yes and yes,” Caite said. “Now that I’m not freaking out, and I can tell she’s not actually growling at me, she’s actually kinda pathetic and I feel really bad for her.”
“Just give her some room and I’ll be there in a second.”
“I’m going to the door to meet you.”
“Okay. I’m hanging up. I’ll see you soon.”
“Great. Thanks.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
Sidney clicked off her Bluetooth and concentrated on getting to Decker’s house. When she pulled into the driveway behind what had to be Caite’s car moments later, she saw a petite woman standing in the doorway of Decker’s house. She had on a pair of khaki pants and a light blue blouse. She looked to be a little taller than Sidne
y, but not by much. She had brown hair that was mussed, as if she’d run her hands through it in agitation.
But what made Sidney happy was the fact she looked so…normal.
She knew she was being irrational, but if she’d driven up and Caite looked like a freaking runway model, she wouldn’t have been happy. It was bad enough knowing Decker had a kind of special relationship with her because she’d literally saved his life. It would’ve been too much if she’d looked like she came off the pages of a beauty magazine.
Not to say that Caite wasn’t pretty, she was, but it was more in a “girl next door” kind of way than a “wow is she beautiful” way.
Shaking her head at how ridiculous she was being, Sidney turned off her car, climbed out, stuck her phone in her pocket, and walked quickly up to where Caite was waiting for her.
Without hesitation, Caite threw her arms around Sidney and hugged her. Hard.
Startled, Sidney returned the embrace.
“Thank you so much for coming!” Caite said.
“Of course.”
“Come on,” Caite told her, stepping back. “Gumby told me how much Hannah loves you. Hopefully seeing you will make her stop growling.”
The second Sidney stepped into Decker’s house, she stopped in her tracks. Looking around wide-eyed, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Told you,” Caite mumbled.
“Holy shit. I thought for sure you were exaggerating.”
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t.”
“I see that,” Sidney said. The house was exactly as Caite had described. There was literally blood everywhere. On the walls. On the floor. She saw there were even footprints on the door when it closed behind her. But instead of thinking about how long it would take to clean the house, she could only think about poor Hannah.
She followed Caite into the living area and saw Hannah right where Caite had said she was. Lying on her dog bed in the corner, licking one of her paws. She was so engrossed in what she was doing, she hadn’t even noticed or cared that Caite had opened the door.
“Hannah, girl, what did you do to yourself?” Sidney asked quietly.
