by Lara Sweety
“Seth, why is the other drivers seat empty?”
Seth dismissed her question with his hand and ushered in the serving staff for the first course. A crisp green salad laden with sweet vinaigrette was served, capturing everyone’s attention. The water was clear and refreshing from deep red goblets with clear stems. The bartender delivered mixed drinks and American brewed beer.
“I like to keep my friends happy! To good friends, family, love and happiness! Cheers!” Seth raised his glass in toast.
Lifting her glass, Laurel realized Jen Delaney was obviously uncomfortable.
“For Pete’s sake, Adam! Uncuff and ungag the girl!” Adam reddened at the laughter all around.
“She won’t shut up and she keeps trying to run off!” He protested, grinning.
A very muffled noise came from his beautiful captive, “_uh_ _ew!!” The room erupted in laughter; even the guards in the room lost their composure. No one had mistaken her response; “Fuck you!” was pretty clear, even through a gag.
Laurel sought to quell the situation, “Captain Delaney, please stay for dinner.” She took a sip of water and then added, “...actually you have to, because you ain’ getting off of this damn island any sooner than me!” Laurel turned a warm smile toward the young lithe blonde.
Jen’s stomach growled and she slumped, looking up at her captor.
“Undo the lovely Captain, my dear,” Laurel commanded.
Jen’s eyes shot daggers at Adam MacClain as he leaned over to whisper to her, his lips accidentally brushing her ear, “No one here will hurt you. This is for your own good.”
He cautiously removed the silk scarf gag and unlocked the cuffs. She rubbed her wrists, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and adjusted her seating. She was red-faced, partially from embarrassment, partially from being so uncomfortable in the presence of Adam MacClain. Looking at the table, she identified her goblet and grabbed the drink.
She chugged the icy water. Emptying the vessel, she set it down with a tap on the wood table and surveyed the exits. Laurel noticed.
“Jen, dear, forget it. There are more guards here than Custer had horses. Enjoy your dinner. I know these guys. You are here for the duration, honey.”
Adam replaced Jen’s glass with his full one in an apologetic gesture. Adam caught her gaze for a moment. Unaccustomed to being restrained, Jen was seething.
Chapter 10
Jen Delaney was just as turned on, as she was furious. Her captor was as gentle as he was handsome. He had to chase her down more than once, but was never rough. His touch was exciting. Calm down girl, Jen thought to herself. Good grief, it had been a while.
She considered it and couldn’t remember the last time she had even had a date. She didn’t have time for that. Her emotional side had her thoughts scattered and she needed to refocus. She met Laurel’s eyes and relaxed a bit. Dinner. That is what she needed to focus on. Sit tight, eat. Her self-preservation instincts took over.
Laurel, not wanting to press the perched Jen Delaney into bolting and disrupting dinner, redirected the conversation. She was used to taking the hostess’s role and took over naturally in the absence of the mystery guest, whose seat of honor was still empty. “Seth—our main course?”
With a nod, the serving staff quickly filed in and out, removing empty plates, replacing them with a delicious, tender steak, and steamed vegetables—American cuisine in the islands. She loved it.
As the group was nearing the end of the main course, conversation and laughter filled the room. Family, politics, real estate, horses, and ‘SEAL talk’ dominated the conversations. Laurel was enjoying being together with all of them. More drinks came, and each guest finally seemed at ease.
Just as Laurel started to relax, the doors to the sitting area opened and the guards snapped to attention, as did the rising Navy personnel. Captain LaGrande had entered the room with an authoritative countenance. He took his position at the end of the table.
“At ease, men.” It took a millisecond to register in Laurel’s mind who the mystery guest was.
Laurel wasted no time letting Jake LeGrande know just how she felt about him. Twenty-eight years of bottling up the pain he caused her, made the tectonic plates of her conscience shift; the result was violent.
“Jake, why am I here?” Laurel’s rage was obvious.
“Sweetheart, we can discuss the details later.” He took a deep breath.
Aimed at Jake LeGrande’s head, a sharp steak knife sailed with deft precision, and a whoomph, over the center of the table. It stuck with a reverberating thud in the wall post behind his head. He had ducked just in time.
Jakes voice was deep, stern, and remarkably calm.
“Study. Now.” He pointed through the French doors and she got up from the table to follow him with a storm of questions. What the hell was the meaning of all this? Why was the bastard in charge? Did he think a son of a bitch like him could keep her here? She has hurling insults and décor at him at the same time.
Seth closed the doors behind them and nervous chuckles rose from the guests hearing the heated exchange. More laughter came as they heard the sound of a vase shattering.
“Dessert anyone?” Seth smiled nervously.
__________________________
“Laurel, calm down, please,” Jake pleaded with her, ducking the vase. “Give me a chance to explain.” He knew she would be mad at the way things had been handled, but he had no choice. When she was tired of throwing things at his head, she quieted, but was still mad.
“You bastard. You have an explanation, now? Do you think I trust you now one iota after what you did to me? You intolerable fuck!! Have it all figured out now, just like then? Ugh! I hate you!”
“I know I hurt you. I was a kid for God’s sake! It was twenty-eight years ago. I didn’t have the balls to tell my father to go to hell, that I lov....”
She cut him off. “And so you suddenly have grown a pair and you think you know what’s best for me now? You intolerable fuck!”
“You said that once already,” he chuckled softly.
“Uuhhh!!” She turned her back to him, attempting to compose herself. It didn’t work. Jake had to duck to his right this time.
He shook his head, “You never could hit the broadside of a barn,” he grinned softly and crossed his arms.
Hot tears streamed down her weary face, exhaustion had taken any sense of reason and calm away from her. Interrupted only by her sniffs, a long silence filled the room.
Jake uncrossed his arms and stepped toward her. “Laurel, please, this is for you, to keep you safe. I couldn’t live with myself if something happen to you.” Emotion gripped him, his normal cool demeanor replaced by anguish that contorted his face.
“What do you give a shit?” She quivered, upset and exhausted. Eying the Ming Dynasty vase on display to her left, Jake strode up quickly and quietly behind her before she had a chance to grab it. She tried valiantly to escape his grasp as he snaked his arms around her. Her resolve floated away, and she surrendered. His arms felt so good, tight around her. Her body’s response made her mad at herself.
Laurel’s voice wavered, she barely whispered, “Jake, let me go.”
Letting out a deep sigh of regret, he relaxed his arms. “Can we talk about this quietly now?”
She shrugged as if to shrug off the invisible hold he still had on her. “I want to know why I’m being held here,” she said quietly. “What does this have to do with you or any of them?” She waved a hand toward the dining room. “A good number of people I love are sitting in that room, probably in some kind of danger, and I’m even more worried for the ones that aren’t here.”
He took a deep breath. “It’s classified.” Jake was aggravated and losing patience.
“Bullshit!”
Jake, growled. “I can’t tell you any more, maybe later, but not now. The barn fire and you losing your brakes are not coincidental. Laurel, somebody wants you dead. It’s what I can do. I can control this situation
; I don’t have the same security measures available to me in the States. I did this so I can protect you and them.” Jake gestured back over his shoulder to the dining room.
Laurel looked around the huge study with its wall-to-wall bookshelves, large bar, and extensive collection of expensive artwork. The leather chairs made her think of home.
“What about the farm? The horses, the cattle?”
Jake attempted to reassure her. “We have a trained team of people that are taking care of everything. Adrianne and her family are guarded. Believe me, everyone you are even remotely connected to has protection.”
“So how is it that I am suddenly a matter of ‘national security’, hmmm?”
He shook his head knowing he couldn’t explain everything to her yet.
“Sweetheart, I’m going to do everything I can to take care of you. Just think of this as a grand vacation, please.”
Jake did want to protect her and see her happy. He loved her, why couldn’t she see that? The twist in his stomach made him feel like he’d taken a nine-inch blade to his gut. She’d said it. She hated him. He couldn’t stand the ache. He looked at her once more, turned, and walked out the door toward the beach. He had to distance himself from her so he could think.
__________________________
If only he hadn’t bowed to his father’s demands. If only he’d had the balls at eighteen that he had now, no one would have been able to sway him. For the first time in a long time, Jake LeGrande gave in to emotion. Big ole’ tough Navy SEAL, yeah right. Yeah, tough, except when it came to her, only her.
Why he let things go so far as to walk away from Laurel, he would never know. The only good thing about that was his son, Jess. Jake sat in the sand and buried his head in his hands, elbows propped on his knees. How could he have let his father convince him that Laurel wasn’t for him, that he should marry a “good girl” like the preacher’s daughter, Sue?
Seven years of his life, he had wasted trying to make that woman happy, just to come home from a mission and find her gone, his son left with his parents. She didn’t say a word when she ran off with the Pentecostal revivalist that she later wrote, “moved her”. The note on the kitchen table had said, “I don’t love you,” and that was all. Their divorce had been quick and uncontested. She got nothing. He’d given up everything.
Jake walked down the beach to get some air and lit a stogie. Not a habit he partook of much, but when things twisted him up, it helped him feel in control again. Thoughts of Laurel crashed into each other. All those years he had watched over Laurel and Adam to make sure they were taken care of. She’d said she hated him, and it stung hard.
He’d been mesmerized by her from the first time he’d sat behind her in high school Algebra class. Her long, golden brown tresses falling on his desk when she leaned her head back, made it difficult to leave class on more than one occasion.
Here she was, together with him, more beautiful than the last time he’d kissed her. But she hated him. He wondered if he would be able to make her see, what he had done, he’d done for them.
__________________________
Laurel sat alone in the study. She’d never had an explanation from Jake and she didn’t think it was going to make a difference now. Jake had never shown up that afternoon at the ice cream shop on Fifth Street. The red and white 1950’s décor style restaurant, with its chrome-trimmed tables, would come to hold some of the best and worst of her memories.
The whole town knew before she did that Jake was going to marry Sue. The pain had outweighed the humiliation by a mile. She smiled to herself. That was, of course, how she got together with Jahn.
She’d driven her sister, Addy, to work at Summer Dairy and then picked up feed and supplies for her dad. Addy’s shift was short so Laurel waited for her. Addy was on break when she had told her what she had heard about Jake getting married. No wonder she hadn’t heard from him in days. Laurel sat in a booth alone to wait for Addy to finish, tears streamed down her cheeks making hard splats on the flat, red surface of the table as she stared into space.
Jahn had come in with a rowdy bunch of friends, but she hadn’t noticed any of them. Jahn always thought Laurel was beautiful. He talked to her at school whenever he got the chance, but he knew she was seeing Jake. Respectful of another man’s territory, he had kept his distance for the most part. Jahn MacClain wasn’t going to stand by and watch the girl cry her eyes out, though. She tugged at his heart.
She was buried in painful thought and staring through a veil of hot tears when Jahn slid into the seat across from her. He pulled out several napkins from the holder and placed them in front of her. She slowly looked at him, her mind questioning why he was there.
“Umm, you got a little ...uh....” He took a napkin and cleaned her face, snot, tears, mascara and all.
“That’s better,” he said and took her chin in his hand. “Why so sad?”
“Sue fucking Treese,” she said barely audible.
“Huh?” He wasn’t quite sure what she said.
“Sue Treese,” she slammed her fist on the table and the words came louder.
“Sue fucking Treese, he’s marrying that BITCH!”
“Whoa there, cowgirl,” Jahn shot up, slipped an arm around her and guided her out of the booth, moving past his buddies with an apologetic shrug. By that time, she had a full head of steam, and the whole restaurant knew about “Sue fucking Treese”!
When they stopped outside Laurel was nearly catatonic.
“Hey pretty girl, let’s get out of here and get you some air. What do you say?” Jahn was in front of her, hands on his knees looking up at her red eyes.
“Huh—okay.” Her reply was dull, void of emotion or expression. “Take Addy my keys.”
Jahn picked her up, carried her, placed her in the passenger side of his pickup, and ran back to the restaurant giving Addy the truck keys before he took Laurel home—the long way—she remembered.
He drove and talked about farming, his future, his dreams, country music, cattle, horses, even dogs. Finally, with a note about his best roping horse, she broke her silence and a conversation began that lasted for hours.
She told him what Addy had said about Jake and that he hadn’t met her like he said he was going to. Not wanting to dwell on it, she moved on to talk about graduation, college, and Siddy Creek. When they talked about the farm, and his family’s farm, the discussion went on and on.
Walking her up to the house, he finally deposited her at home long after the stars had come out to twinkle brightly. He walked her to the door, “Hey, if you need somebody to talk to tomorrow or the day after—or whatever—I’ll come get you and we can get out of town for a while.” Jahn would have gone to the moon and back for her, at that point. He had figured this was his chance, and he was going to take it. He hugged her and kissed her forehead before turning to go.
The two became inseparable. When the time came, they joked about being each other’s “rebound sex”, but the joke faded away and they couldn’t get enough of each other.
“I want to be the one who gives you good memories,” he told her one night in the loft of the big red barn, kissing her softly.
With that, she had melted into him and he took her as only he could. They got tangled up every chance they had after that—in his truck, down by the creek, in the pasture on a blanket, in a horse stall, almost anywhere. Jahn knew early on and they were married that fall, baby bump and all. Only when she looked at her son in a certain way, would she think of Jake.
__________________________
Why now? She had spent nearly twenty years with a man she loved dearly and the last several struggling on her own. Now? Now he wants to be a hero. Asshole. Why then, when everything else felt wrong, did having Jake’s arms around her feel right?
Laurel felt like she was in the middle of a tornado that was not slowing down. She picked at her nail polish, a habit that only showed up when she had too much to juggle. She walked out the back door of the study a
nd down to the beach, in the direction Jake had gone. She didn’t find him.
Returning to her room, she noticed more guards, everywhere, including outside her bedroom door. She felt like a prisoner, despite her posh surroundings. The bedroom was beautiful. Jahn would have liked it, even if he had hated the plane ride.
The bed and armoire could have been Hemmingway’s; the view would have inspired him. The sunset had been extraordinary. Brilliant hues of red, orange, and blue, leveled against the ocean horizon. The full-glass doors were open to afford Laurel access to the same ocean breeze that softly swayed the island’s palms in a gentle dance.
The bedroom floor was an earthy travertine. The bathroom was bathed in granite that mirrored the colors of the island landscape, aqua blues, deep greens, black, sand, and amber. The sitting area was comfortable, with rustic combinations of leather and wood. Running a hand over the polished teak bar top, Laurel soaked in the exotic elegance of her surroundings. Maybe being stuck here with Jake wouldn’t be so bad.
She poured a drink from the well stocked wet-bar. Whiskey straight seemed like a good choice—earthy. She needed grounding.
A hot shower and sleep had beckoned her. Laurel couldn’t think straight and she knew sleep deprivation was taking its toll. She was toweling her damp hair when she heard voices in the hall outside her room. There was a sharp rap at the door.
She slid the door open to the end of the brass safety latch, “Yes?”
“Laurel, I need to talk to you.” Jake’s tone was firm.
“Can’t it wait, Jake?”
“No. Now,” he persisted.
“Fine.” She knew he’d come in, anyway, if he really wanted to. She opened the door just enough for him to slide in and then locked it, thinking to herself that it was a false sense of security with the full-glass doors open behind her.
She sliced the air between them coolly. “What do you want?”
“I need you to know I did this for you. I need you to be okay with being here. You have to know I would never do anything to hurt you or put you in danger.” He ran his hand over his closely shaved head watching her reaction.
