The Naughty One

by Michelle Love

  His dad gave me a pat on the back and a wink that told me he was happy with me. His mom smiled at me with a twinkle in her eye. And we all were on the same page—keep up Tatum’s spirits and keep the baby inside of me healthy. They might be all we would had left of a very wonderful man, so they needed to be taken care of.

  Everyone went that day. Troy’s father drove us all to a drive-through safari park and we had a day we’d never forget. The sadness and worry about Troy never left me, but I was able to put it in a place where I could visit it when no one else was around. Tatum needed me and soon so would the baby I carried.

  That night, when we got back, the cook was watching the television in the kitchen when we came in from the garage. She spun around to look at us, then went to grab the remote to shut it off.

  I grabbed her arm before she could do a thing. “Wait!”

  It was a news report about some dead American soldier who was found in a dump outside Kabul. We all waited for the name to come, but the reporter said the family hadn’t been contacted yet. They’d release his name after that.

  I had no idea if it was Troy or not, but his father knew for sure. “If it was him, they’d have come to us and told us. It’s not him. He’s still alive. I know he is. We cannot give up hope. Not one of us!”

  Mr. Sandoval hugged me. “It’s okay. I know how you feel. Believe me, I do. This brings back such tortuous memories about when we waited to hear about our daughter.”

  “I’m so sorry that you have to go through this again,” I mumbled, as that hadn’t even occurred to me. The Sandovals and Tatum had been through the same thing, only that outcome was devastating. Would they have to face such devastation again?

  It was then and there that Troy’s mother sat us all down at the dining room table as dinner was about to be brought in. “I haven’t lost hope about my son coming home. That said, I want you to know, Mr. and Mrs. Sandoval, that things will not change if he doesn’t come home. You still have a home here, as does Tatum.” She looked at me. “And you too, Blyss. You and the baby have a home here. We’re not going to split this family up. We owe it to Troy not to do that.”

  Silently, we all nodded, and Tatum clutched my hand. “You’ll always be my mommy, right?”

  “Always.” I kissed the top of her head. “You can’t get rid of me, Tatum Masterson.”

  Her grandfather cleared his throat. “This should be said. Her grandmother and I are no spring chickens. I know Troy is on her birth certificate now, but Tatum has no legal connection to you, Blyss. Would you like to adopt her?”

  “I’d love nothing more?” I smiled and kissed her cheek. Then I remembered that my last name wasn’t Masterson. Our marriage was fake.

  It was a thing that Troy’s parents knew, too, and the looks they gave me told me it was time to be truthful about everything. “Blyss, I think it’s time,” his father said.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Sandoval, I love Troy with all my heart. But he and I lied. We lied to you so you’d bring Tatum here. The stipulation of him being married made Troy feel he had no choice. He and I were seeing each other. We had been for a few months. But we weren’t married. The marriage isn’t real. My last name is Danner. But I would still like to adopt Tatum, with your blessing.”

  I could hardly stand to look at the people I’d lied to. And the way Tatum let my hand go hurt like hell. Had I lost all their support? Did Tatum no longer consider me her mother?

  “So what?” Tatum said as she stood up on her chair. “I don’t care ‘bout that.” She crossed her arms as she watched her grandparents shake their heads. “I love her. She’s my mommy. I don’t care what her name is.”

  With a weak smile, I took her hand and helped her sit back down. “It’s okay, sweetie. They have a right to be mad at me.”

  They did. Who was I to think they’d accept what we’d done? Of course they disapproved of lying to them to get what we wanted. What we did was wrong.

  “Well, I can’t speak for my husband,” Mrs. Sandoval said. “But I understand. That was a stipulation that should’ve never been made.”

  Mr. Sandoval growled, “But it was made.”

  “Yes, sir, it was,” I agreed. “It doesn’t change the fact that we both fell hopelessly in love with Tatum. And he and I were going to get married, for real, when he got back. We told his parents about that. You can ask them.”

  “They are going to get married when our son gets back,” his father said, then gave me a wink. “When, honey, not if.”

  I nodded, then said, “We will get married as soon as he’s able to do that.”

  “Let’s give him some time to get back to us,” Mr. Sandoval said. “If he’s not back in a year, then you can adopt Tatum if you both want that. If he comes back and you do get married, you can adopt her as soon as you’d like to.”

  Tatum clapped and giggled. “Yes! We won, Mommy! We won!”

  “Yes, we did. You’re going to stay mine, no matter what. And let me just say, I love the weight of that lie off my shoulders. It’s good to have the truth set free.”

  “I do have one more thing to ask you, Blyss,” Mr. Sandoval said.

  “Anything.” I wanted to be an open book with them now that the lie was over.

  “How are you going to take care of these children if Troy never returns? How are you going to make money?”

  “I have my own money. And I get a recurring payment from a settlement. Plus, I’ll have income from my career as a psychologist, once I graduate. There’s no need to worry about finances, sir.”

  Troy’s father added, “Plus, Tatum and the baby will be heirs to the winery and their father’s part of it. Money is no concern at all.”

  Tatum’s grandfather looked relieved. His granddaughter would end up a rich woman and never know the pain of poverty. His smile made me happy. The way they cared for their granddaughter was inspiring. To think that one day I’d have grandkids of my own was a thought that had never crossed my mind.

  I’d have worries over other people for the rest of my life. It was crazy how awesome that felt. It should’ve felt like a burden. Instead, it felt like a blessing. I was sitting at a table full of people I had never known before. I would’ve never known even one of them without knowing Troy. That man had shoved me right in the middle of an entire family.

  If I’d been able to see it all coming, I wonder what I would’ve done. Run away, I bet. Back before I knew how great love was. Before Troy forced me to accept it.

  Wherever the man was, he was and always would be my angel.

  Troy

  Before the men could get in to get me, I made myself puke all over the floor. Somehow, I managed to choke up more than I knew was inside of me. They were grossed out and stopped trying to get me. They had no intention of taking a sick man to trade for anyone. I’d figured out a way to get them to leave me alone. But I still had to wait for them to get one of my SEAL mates. And I couldn’t let them take him with them either.

  One member of our team had already died. I wasn’t about to leave without the other four members. I knew two men guarded the outside. They’d drop our food and water in the cells, then walk back out. I was the closest cell to the entrance; I knew that too. Three men were inside. They all had guns and knives. I had to take them out, maybe with the help of one more SEAL. If I waited until they got another one out, I’d have another team member to help me.

  Sliding through the hole I’d made, I took my shirt with me and put it on as I headed through the corridor. It was twisty as I made my way down it. I stopped as I heard the sounds of the men yelling at the man they were planning on taking.

  “You sons of bitches won’t get me out of here alive!” It was Sanders’ voice I heard.

  I made one sharp whistle to let him know someone was coming. He was quick to shut up as the other men kept shouting. Easing along the dark wall, I found them at his cell. Their backs were to me, and Sanders saw me. I gave him a thumbs up as he put his hands behind his head. The cell door was pulled open an
d two of the men grabbed him. Their guns were held over their heads with their free hands—a stupid thing for them to be doing.

  I was hidden in the shadows as they walked past me. They were so busy screaming, trying to intimidate Sanders, that they never saw me. Making swift movements, I slide the knife out of the holster that was on the hip of the man nearest to me. One quick jab in the side of the neck had him quiet and dead.

  “One down, two to go, Sanders.”

  “I got shorty here.”

  I made short work of the taller man as Sanders took the short guy into a choke hold, then gave him a quick snap, breaking his neck. Three down, no shots fired. We were good to go.

  Sanders and I looked at the three dead men in a pile at our feet. “Think OJ can fit in the short guy’s clothes?” I asked.

  “He’d better,” Sanders said. “They’ll be expecting only four people to come out of here. Three of them and one of us. Any ideas on what to do with the fifth man, Masterson?”

  “I think we’ll have to take out the men at the entrance. One of us can come up from behind after the other four walk out. I’ll do it.” I clapped him on the shoulder, then we began the arduous process of getting the clothes off the dead men. That’s never an easy thing to do, no matter how many times you’ve done it.

  A short while later, we had our guys and were heading out. CJ was the prisoner with his hands behind his head as they walked out, leaving me in the shadows behind them. Greetings from the two guards were answered with short bobs of their heads. It took no time for the guards to realize their comrades weren’t speaking back to them.

  One of them grabbed one of my men, spinning him around. I had no choice but to spring into action before a single bullet could be fired. The sound would alert others and we’d be shot down before we had the slightest chance to escape. I popped one of the men in the head, knocking him forward as I grabbed his gun. Using the butt of that gun, I knocked the other guard in the head while my team took them out quietly with knives.

  We’d pulled off another miracle. Now all that was left to do was to figure out which way to run. And the sun was beginning to come up. Time was against us.

  We took off to one side of the entrance, which looked like that of a cave. Sand was all we saw. The other side was sand too. “Fuck! There has got to be some kind of transport!” I said between clenched teeth.

  We stepped back and found an old car was parked on top of the cave. “Check your pockets for keys,” Sanders said to the men who’d changed into the enemies’ uniforms.

  “Got ‘em!” OJ said as we raced to the tiny car. “Man, these guys roll like clowns.”

  We piled in, and the shortest of us, OJ, drove, speeding out of there. We still had no clue where we were headed. We needed to get to a phone and make the call that would get us out of there. It felt odd. We were so close, yet so far away. Sure, we were free from the prison, but would we get to a rescue point before we were gunned down? The sun would be up soon. The guards were left looking as if they were sleeping in the chairs by the entrance. They’d be discovered in an hour or so. We had to hurry.

  It was silent in that car as we drove toward the only row of lights we could see. The chances of us finding a friendly were little to none. We’d have to kill a civilian to get our hands on a phone. It wasn’t ever easy to make that decision.

  Five lives or one. Which was more important?

  We all had reasons to get back home. CJ and OJ were married with kids. Sanders was divorced with five kids who he paid child support for and took care of as much as possible. Kevin was single and kid-free, but he had a flock of women who’d miss him. And I had Blyss, Tatum, and a baby on the way, not to mention the rest of my family. We had to make it home. And we’d do whatever we had to to get there.

  We arrived on the outskirts of the town. Chickens ran around and roosters crowed, waking people up for the day. And one old man walked out of his shack of a home.

  “Don’t look directly at him,” Sanders cautioned us. “OJ, drive by him very slowly, and Kevin, you open your door, grab him, pull him in here, and see if he has a phone on him.”

  I crossed my fingers that he would. He’d have to be killed. I didn’t want to take a life for no damn reason. I was on the lookout for anyone who might be watching and sound the alarm. I saw no one. This was our only hope.

  OJ slowed, and Kevin opened the door and tried to grab the old man. The old guy had moves like a ninja. He moved his body to one side, making Kevin miss him by a centimeter. “Fuck!” OJ shouted. “Sanders, help him!”

  Leaning over to grab the old guy before he turned around, Sanders got a hold of his shirt, and Kevin took hold of him too. They pulled him inside. Sanders snapped his neck as I rummaged through his clothing for a cell phone.

  I was coming up with nothing as I tried hard not to look at the dead, vacant, dark eyes of the man we’d killed. Maybe we’d killed him to get something he didn’t even have. “Shut his fucking eyes, Sanders!” I shouted.

  He reached over and ran his hand over his eyelids, closing them and stopping the horrible stare the old guy was giving me. “There,” Sanders said as he pulled up the man’s legs. In his old, holey sock was a small, very old cell phone. “Shit, I hope it works.”

  Sanders opened the phone and proceeded to make the call that would save us. We hoped.

  The car began to sputter as we drove slowly down the empty street. “We’re running out of gas,” OJ said as the car shimmied, shook, and died right there.

  We all looked around for another mode of transportation as Sanders got hold of our contact. “We have to get to open ground to the west of us.” He looked somber, not a good thing when you were expecting good news. “Five clicks on foot.”

  I got out of the car and began moving to the west. We left the car and the old man’s body right in the middle of the street and booked it as fast as we could to get away from the town before the man was discovered.

  We formed one line, so it wouldn’t be obvious that five men had gone walking in that direction through the deep sand. OJ came in at the rear with a piece of cardboard he’d found. He erased the footprints we left behind, just until we were far enough away from the town that no one would be able to tell which way we went.

  The sun wasn’t even up and it was already hotter than hell out there. It took an eternity to make the five clicks we needed to go, and when we got there, we found no one waiting for us. With no water, we were dehydrating fast. None of us had been well hydrated in the first place. It was a tactic that was used to ensure that, if prisoners did escape, the elements would end them before help could find them.

  We all sat on the hot sand as the wind whipped all around us, stinging any flesh that was showing. I closed my eyes and pictured my girls back home. All I could do was hope I’d get to see them again. I prayed Blyss had become stronger than I thought she was. I’d always thought of her as fragile. She did show me she had more to her when Tatum came to us. I held out hope that she’d stay strong for my daughter and our baby.

  Blyss had never wanted what I brought her into. She wanted to be alone. I smiled as I thought about the fact that I’d left her with an entire family. She had people who were her family now. I wasn’t sure if she hated me or loved me for it. It wasn’t a thing she’d ever planned. But it made me feel better that she wasn’t alone somewhere. She was with people who loved her, and she loved them.

  If I never made it back to her, at least I knew I’d changed her life for the better. She was going to have a baby and experience that first hand. Mom would be right there by her side if I never made it back. I could count on my family to help Blyss take care of my kids. I knew I could.

  But, damn it, I wanted to get back home and experience all that love too!

  Blyss

  Jerking awake, I found Tatum looking at me. “You were talkin’ in your sleep, Mommy.”

  We’d been watching a television show after dinner and it seemed I’d fallen asleep on the sofa. “Was I? I had
a dream about your daddy. It seemed so real.”

  “Daddy?” Tatum turned her full attention to me, leaving the movie about bees she was watching behind. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. They felt sandy. That was odd, because in my dream, Troy was walking through a bunch of blowing sand, calling out my name.

  I wasn’t sure what to say about that. It seemed like a bad omen to me. “I saw your daddy walking through a sandstorm. It’s just because I miss him so much. I dream about him a lot.” I pulled her to me and cuddled her.

  “I wish I could dream ‘bout him too.” She laid back on me, then giggled as the baby kicked her. I was six months pregnant. Troy had been missing for four months. Not many had hope his SEAL team would be found alive. The news no longer even reported on the missing men.

  But I still held out hope. No bodies, other than the one man they’d found from the team, had been found. Even though I didn’t want to think about him being tortured, I thought it better to be alive than dead.

  The dream, though, that scared me.

  Why would he come into my dreams like that?

  It was as if he was floating in the sandy air, calling my name over and over. But I couldn’t get to him. Was he dead?

  Was that his soul coming to say goodbye? Was that one last look at him?

  Tatum and I were in the sitting area of my bedroom. The door was unceremoniously thrown open, and Troy’s mother was there, shaking and crying.

  I knew it then. I knew the worst had happened. I looked down at Tatum and hugged her tightly. “Oh, God!”

  His mother was so distraught all she could do was shake her head. Then his father came up behind her. “They have him! They’re bringing him in!”

  Shock took me over. I couldn’t think, breathe—nothing Tatum was climbing away from me, going to her grandparents, and they were all shouting and crying. And all I could do was sit on that sofa and shake as my mind went blank.

  “He’s alive?” I mumbled as if asking myself the question. “How? How can he be alive?”