“As I said before—”
“Before the island came back under the management of the Navy? This time I’m taking your weapon.” He reached over and disarmed her, tucking the handgun in his belt. A place he knew she wouldn’t reach for it. “Now we’re even.” He offered her a hand in truce.
She refused to shake. Folding her arms, she tilted her chin. “If I were you I’d check the safety.”
He followed her gaze to the gun. He checked the safety, then tucked it behind his back. Taking a deep breath, he counted to ten. She’d had the safety off! “We’re going to have to figure out how to get along.”
Whether she agreed or not, he didn’t have the chance to find out. A commotion on the docks demanded his immediate attention. With all the excitement going on no one had noticed one of the equipment operators crash into a post, tearing down a pier. A steamroller had gone into the drink.
He rushed to the disabled dock.
From what he could understand the driver was still underwater. He made the split-second decision to dive in. Several of his men followed.
Tam rushed to the edge of the pier with the others. Heads bobbed as men came up for air. The lieutenant didn’t. Something was seriously wrong. She could see the outline of the steamroller in the clear and relatively shallow water.
Finally the lieutenant emerged. He had a crowbar in one hand and the unconscious body of a young woman in the other.
“Katie!” Tam screamed, rushing over. Tam grabbed the girl’s wrist and checked her vital signs, ready to help administer CPR before he even laid her out on the pier.
He rolled Katie’s limp body onto her side and got her to throw up water, but she remained unconscious. “Katie,” he said, patting the girl’s cheeks. “Can you hear me?”
No response.
He laid her back down. Tilted her chin. Pinched her nose. And administered a few quick breaths. Following those breaths, Katie coughed and sputtered and finally roused.
He helped her sit up. “You okay?”
She nodded, coughed some more, then finally answered, “Yes, sir.”
Tam helped Katie to her feet. “Are you sure you’re okay? Let’s get you home and dry. I’ll make some hot tea.”
Several of the young men crowded around to tease Katie about women drivers. Tam glared at them.
But it was the lieutenant who put a stop to it. “Which idiot let her play with his equipment?” he demanded.
Three hands went up. “Crap! Owens, Brown, Gonzales and Jones. Follow me.”
“What did I do?” Jones asked. “I didn’t raise my hand.”
“Master Chief—” Bowie continued to issue orders “—get a crane over here to get that ’dozer out of the drink. McCain, get a work detail busy on the pier. The rest of you keep off-loading on the other side.”
He turned his attention to Tam and Katie. In a calm, but cool voice he said, “Ladies, I think that’s enough excitement around here for one day.”
“You’re not holding us responsible for that?” Tam pointed toward the crane rolling into position.
When he would have walked right on by, she reached out and grabbed his arm.
He shrugged her off, then stopped. “No I don’t,” he said evenly. “It’s always the man’s fault and the man’s responsibility.” He picked up the birdcage and handed it to her. “Take the damn bird! In fact,” he said, whipping the gun from behind his back and handing it back to her, “take the damn gun. You may as well shoot me now and get it over with. I’m sure you’ll come up with a reason sooner or later. But you might want to clean it first. I’m afraid I got it wet.” He scooped up his long discarded hard hat and stalked away.
Tam was left holding the bird.
1600 Thursday
THE BRIG; NAVAL AIR FACILITY
Sand Island, Midway Islands
BOWIE STOOD BEHIND a dust-covered desk in the brig’s office, staring down the four men standing at attention. “I don’t want to know—”
“It was my fault, sir,” said a tiny voice from the doorway.
“Flynn!” The confession came from one of the only four women in his company and took him by surprise.
Owens snickered. “The Navy has a don’t-ask, don’t-tell policy, Flynn.”
“Shut up.” Brown elbowed him in the ribs.
She clicked her tongue. “Just ’cause I’m not easy—”
“Okay, enough of that. What happened, Flynn?”
“I got tired of waiting my turn to off-load just because these losers were acting all stupid and showing off. So I told the twit to get off the pier. And I got into it with her. I said something like, I didn’t learn to drive from a guy’s lap. And she said something like, any idiot could learn to drive a stick, but it takes a woman to know how to use it. So I said, if you think it’s so easy go ahead. Then I walked away, thinking I’d cool off, and she’d be gone when I came back. But—”
“I get the picture. And I’m going to let everyone off the hook this time. Flynn, see the master chief for a refresher course on safety.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re dismissed. Guys, same refresher course. I don’t think it would do any good to make Ms. Dewitt off limits. Just keep in mind what comes around goes around. Dismissed.”
“I think Brown’s got a hard-on for Flynn,” Gonzales said as three of the four males followed their female cohort out the door.
“Knock it off,” Brown said.
“Sir,” Petty Officer First Class Jones said. “I wasn’t messing around with Ms. Dewitt.”
“I know, but you’re their leading petty officer.”
“Yes, sir.” Accepting the responsibility, he turned to leave.
“Sit down,” Bowie invited. “Actually, there’s another matter I’ve been meaning to discuss with you. I understand congratulations are in order.” Bowie pulled a dusty chair behind the desk and sat down, as well.
“Sir?”
“You’re getting married.”
Jones looked around the room, everywhere but at Bowie.
“You are getting married to a young woman you met in Thailand, aren’t you?”
Jones finally met his gaze. He nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell the guys just yet. They like to tease me because her parents were strict and wouldn’t let us alone together, if you know what I mean.”
Bowie nodded in understanding, relieved that Stevens had turned out to be wrong about Jones.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about her, you know, when we went off to Laos. Then when we got back to the States…that first night some guy came up to us and said he was having trouble getting his cousin to the States, wanted to know if we could help him out. He needed someone to swear he’d met her in Thailand. He’d even pay.”
“None of the guys—”
“No, sir. We just blew him off. But the next day I checked into fiancée visas and there really was such a thing. So I figured why not bring her to the States and get married.”
That didn’t sound like solid reasoning to Bowie, but men had done stupider things for lust and love. “Thanks, Jones. That’s all for now. Let the guys know everybody came up clean on the drug test.”
“Thanks, L.T.” Jones left to spread the good word.
Bowie picked up the desk phone to call Stevens. “How’s your jaw?” he asked by way of greeting.
“Last time I counted I still had all my teeth. How’s your eye?”
“I can still use it, but I have a part in my eyebrow.”
“You were too much of a pretty boy, anyway. So what’s the scoop?”
“I just wanted to let you know Jones checks out okay. I also wanted to apologize for what I said the other day. Age aside, you really cared about her, didn’t you?”
“She didn’t seem so young at the time.”
Fall 1972
Somewhere in Laos
“DON’T GIVE ME THAT LOOK, Skully.” Tad Prince shook his head as if he already knew Skully was about to make an impossible request. “We�
��re going home,” he admonished softly. The word had just come down. They were to turn everything over to the South Vietnamese.
After eighteen months in this jungle hell those words should have been music to his ears. To Quartermaster Chief Petty Officer Robert Stevens, they were anything but. While the rest of his teammates whooped it up with 35 beer and blew entire bankrolls on boom-boom, he sat on a crate beside his tent. Home is where the heart is, after all.
His heart was about to be left behind in Vietnam. “I have to go.”
“The Navy has other plans for you.”
“Tad, I gave her my word.” He didn’t mind making it personal. As long as it got him what he wanted. “You were there when she saved our asses.”
“The Paris Agreement says we’re out of here.”
“The hell with the Paris Agreement. And all those fat-assed politicians. This war isn’t over…for us, maybe, but not for her. If I marry her, they gotta let me bring her back to the States, right?”
“Don’t you mean adopt her? Skully, she’s a baby.”
“That’s why she needs me.”
Tad Prince took one long breath and released it. “I’ll get my gear and go with you.”
“I can’t let you do that. You’ve got a wife and three kids waiting for you. This is personal. I’m going alone. But you can do me a favor. If I don’t make it back, get Bay to the States for me—he’s Lan’s kid brother.”
Prince cursed under his breath. “They’re going to think I’ve been smoking some of that wacky weed. Go on, get the hell out of here. If you’re not back in seventy-two hours—”
“I’ll be back.” He didn’t need to let him finish. Navy SEALs never left a man behind. He’d have a squad of pissed-off teammates after his sorry ass. And he couldn’t let that happen. Every last one of them had already earned their ride home.
“That seventy-two hours started thirty seconds ago.”
“Aye-aye, sir.” Skully pushed to his feet, shouldering the AK-47 he’d picked up on their last mission. The Russian-made assault weapon was less likely to jam in the humidity than the M16 and ammunition was easy to come by, but it had a distinctive pop so there was always a chance someone from your own side would mistake you for the enemy.
“Skully, where you going? Come join the party,” Chief Howard Thomas invited.
“There’s something I’ve got to do.”
“WHERE IS SHE?” Skully demanded.
The man stood in the doorway of the bamboo hut. He looked past Skully, refusing to acknowledge his existence. He could have been forty or four hundred.
“I asked you a question. Now, where the hell is she?” Skully grabbed the other man’s collar and forced him to meet his gaze. This was no way to treat his future father-in-law, but his patience had its limits.
It had taken him longer to reach Quang Tri than he’d anticipated. He’d only been able to catch a chopper for part of the ride. America had pulled out of the Vietnam Conflict. Only fifty advisers to the South Vietnamese Army would be left behind.
He’d wound up walking most of the way. Running, really. Entire armored tank divisions passed him on the road, heading in the opposite direction. He’d have to hurry to even catch the tail end of the retreat for the ride home.
He’d be damned if he let anyone stand in his way. He let go of the man’s collar and pushed his way inside. “Lan!”
Skully covered the entire three-room shack in as many minutes. She wasn’t here.
Lan’s mother screeched at him in Vietnamese, the words spewing from between betel-nut-stained teeth. Older women chewed the mild narcotic to relieve the pain of gum disease. That would be Lan in a few years, old before her time if he didn’t get her out of here.
Tears streamed down the woman’s weathered face. “Go home, Joe!” she said in mangled English. “We not want your kind round here no more. No more! You make big trouble.”
“Shh,” her husband admonished.
Skully turned on him once again. “Just tell me where she is. I can take care of her. Take her to the States. I’m taking Bay, I can take you.”
“Lan is gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?”
“Gone.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true.” Lan’s oldest brother, Than, the one serving the south, entered the hut. “Xang took her. He’ll kill her before he lets you have her. Now, get the hell out of here and leave my family in peace.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
0700 Friday
THE BEACH; NAVAL AIR FACILITY
Sand Island, Midway Islands
BOWIE WOKE UP IN A GOOD mood. First morning on the island and she hadn’t shot him in the back. Or even in his sleep. That had to be a good sign.
He decided to be bold and put on the sarong.
For Seabees a welcome party started at dawn—at least the preparations. They hauled empty oil drums out to the beach and packed them with ice and beer they’d had flown in from Hawaii for the occasion. They cut other drums down the center and welded them into makeshift barbecues.
He and McCain were on each end of a porcelain tub they were carrying down to the beach for mixing mojo, when Captain Harris arrived.
“Lieutenant Prince,” Harris said. “You’re late for morning muster. Have your men assemble down at the marina immediately. Don’t bother changing.”
“Yes, sir,” Bowie said, but Harris had already left. “Where did he come from?”
McCain shrugged. “Must have flown in with the beer.”
“He’s got my curiosity piqued,” Bowie admitted.
He rounded up the men with a series of calls via two-way radios. By the time they reached the marina, Bowie realized something was up. Two Coast Guard vessels were docked. The entire company had arrived ahead of him and were standing in formation, though with their nonregulation beachcomber wear, they looked like something out of McHale’s Navy.
“Lieutenant Prince,” Harris addressed him. “Since you couldn’t make it to the World Free-diving Championships again this year, we decided to bring them to you. Make us proud.”
The company parted and there sat Bowie’s gear on the dock in front of the bigger of the two boats.
When Bowie didn’t move, McCain slapped him on the back and said, “Let’s get it in gear.”
“Thank you.” Bowie shook his C.O.’s hand. Maybe he’d been wrong about Harris. Gathering his wet suit and flippers, Bowie started to climb the dive boat’s outboard ladder. “Hey,” he said over his shoulder to McCain, “would you—”
“I already sent Katie to get her.”
Trust had to be built. But today Bowie just wanted to show off.
“KATIE, I REALLY HAVE too much to do today to spend it down on the docks. And so do you,” she reminded the girl. “Besides, after what happened yesterday I think we should keep clear of the Seabees and just let them do their job.”
“Talk some sense into her, Will,” Katie said, lifting her hand up in exasperation.
They’d cornered Tam in her house before she’d even had the chance to get dressed. She stood in her pjs with her morning tea, wishing they’d leave her alone.
“You’ve heard of the Super Bowl, the World Series, boxing’s Heavyweight Champion of the World?” Will asked.
“Of course.”
“Well, in the world of free-diving this is the title fight,” Will explained.
“Really?”
Katie and Will both nodded.
“He wants you there,” Katie said. “Besides, we’ve declared today a holiday. Everyone’s taking the day off for the party. You wouldn’t want to be the only one not there, would you? What if he fails? It would be all your fault!”
Katie-logic, of course, but Tam probably would blame herself if he failed. Katie and Will would certainly blame her. And if the lieutenant didn’t fail, well, it wasn’t like she could take credit for that, but it would be something to see.
“Okay, let me get dressed. It’ll only take me a minute to put on
my uniform.”
“No!” Katie and Will both vetoed her intention.
“Let your hair down,” Katie suggested. “It’s a party.”
So Tam put on a plain yellow one-piece swimsuit and a sarong. She added a yellow ball cap and picked up her carryall. In truth, she hardly ever wore her uniform, but she’d decided on a change of policy with the arrival of the Seabees.
The marina was crowded by the time they got there. Katie was right. There’d be no work done today.
“Warden.” They were greeted by a Coast Guard petty officer in a dungaree uniform. “Lieutenant Prince asked me to make sure you had the best seat in the house.”
Bowie stood on deck wearing the sarong she’d bought him in Hawaii. Or rather he was discarding his, leaving him in a Speedo. Next to pinkie rings and gold chains, it was one item she’d always felt shouldn’t be worn by men. Seeing Bowie had her making an exception.
The petty officer directed Tam and her friends toward the smaller boat, but Bowie motioned her over as he scrambled down the ladder.
“Hold these for me?” He draped his dog tags around her neck, reminding her of the lei she’d given him in Hawaii. “Kiss for luck?” he asked, as if reading her thoughts.
“Don’t you have to keep your pumper under control, sailor?”
He chuckled. And she realized it was good to see that smile back on his face. She blew him a kiss and backed away. He still had the bandage above his brow but had unwrapped his bruised knuckles.
She, Katie and Will, along with the Coast Guard crew, were joined by Captain Harris and Master Chief Cohen. Safety and medical divers, a camera crew and the judges were all on the other boat with Bowie. Everyone else had found places in dozens of crafts of all sizes docked at the marina.
By the time the boats were positioned in a semi-circle around the dive site it was midmorning. It was only when Bowie was in the water that Tam remembered her camera and dug it out of her bag.
“Warm-up’s going to take about an hour,” the petty officer told her.
“I’ve never seen fins that long.”
“They’re a lot longer and more flexible than scuba fins. For strong kicks,” he explained. “The total weight of his gear is only about four pounds.”
Midway Between You and Me (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 12
