Unbroken Vows

by Frances Williams

  “What have I gotten myself into, David?” She twisted her hands together tightly in her lap. “More important, what danger have I placed you in? If anything should happen to you because of me, I don’t know what I’d—”

  “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself. But as I told you that first day, I’m not at all sure I can take care of you. You’d be a lot safer at home.”

  He turned to her on the sofa. The gentle hands he wrapped over her shoulders shivered an instant thrill through her body.

  “Haven’t you heard enough to make you want to give up this business and go back to Baltimore? By anyone’s standards, you’ve already paid your dues to Tommy. And more.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to quit before accomplishing what I set out to do. I don’t handle failure real well. I’m not accustomed to it—except for Tommy, that is.”

  “It’s not a personal failure if you give a mission your best shot, but it doesn’t completely succeed because you’re outgunned by superior forces.”

  “I’m not stupid, David. I know that if Tommy really is with this man Kane, he could be into things that would turn my stomach. But the fact that he’s been seen, well dressed and apparently rational might mean that he could be getting some kind of handle on his addiction. I owe it to what we once meant to each other not to convict him of being personally involved with the actual production and delivery of drugs until I have solid proof that it’s true.”

  “I hope Grant has enough sense to appreciate that kind of loyalty, assuming he ever finds out about it.”

  He raked his fingers angrily through his hair.

  “How in the name of all that’s holy did a woman as generous, as smart as you ever fall in love with a guy like that in the first place?” His voice rang with fury.

  “I’m not in love with him,” she blurted out. “I never was in love with him.”

  Her outburst left David looking blank.

  “I want to help Tommy mainly out of the guilt I feel about him. You already know that. But there’s more to that guilt than I’ve told you.”

  Cara took a deep breath. David set such great store by what he called her loyalty to Tommy. She wasn’t sure of his reaction to the confession she was about to make.

  “In a way I might have abandoned Tommy before he abandoned me. As I said, I love him, but ... I loved him only as a longtime friend. I was never truly in love with him. When he asked me to marry him, I said yes. It seemed the right decision at the time.”

  David looked completely focused on what she was saying, but he didn’t throw any questions into the pause she needed to take.

  “My whole life revolved around the study of medicine. I wanted more. I wanted to be married. I wanted to share the kind of strong relationship between a man and a woman that my parents, my sister and brother, enjoy. I was ready to start a family of my own. Showering my niece and nephews with love and affection wasn’t enough. I longed for children of my own. Of course, that dream is down the tubes now.”

  “Let me get this straight.” The flatness in David’s voice gave her little clue to his reaction. “You’re doing all this for Tommy because you’re not in love with the guy?”

  “I’ve never put my motivation exactly in those terms, but I guess it’s something like that. It’s true that I had so much on my plate when Tommy started to fall apart that I had little energy left to take on his problems, too. But I can’t get over the feeling that if I’d been truly in love with him, I might have done more. I would have knocked myself out for him.”

  “You’re doing that now.”

  “Maybe. But I didn’t do it back when it would have counted. Whatever my reasons at the time, I did make a commitment to Tommy Grant. If I don’t do this for him now, I know I’ll regret it the rest of my life.”

  David heaved a great sigh and fell back on the sofa. Staring at the ceiling, he threw up his hands and let them flop down on his thighs.

  “All right. That’s it, then. We’ll stay and hope that Manuel gets word to us before too long.”

  That was it? David wasn’t disgusted with her for not being as honest about Tommy, as loyal to him, as he’d thought she was?

  “Right now,” he said, “there’s not much more I can do for you.”

  “You’ve already done much more than I could have expected. More by far than you need have done.”

  “Don’t hand me any medals, Cara. This trip has done more for me than the little I’ve done for you. It’s good to feel that I’m doing something meaningful, contributing something important to someone. I didn’t realize it at the time, but maybe my need for that was another reason I volunteered to come on the mission.”

  She covered his hand with hers. Finally she allowed herself to look deeply into the gray eyes that always generated such a visceral effect on her.

  “I want you to know something, David. You’ve been a friend to me in a way Tommy never was. I’ve known him for years. I haven’t known you very long at all, but already I know that I can count on you. I have every confidence that you can keep us both safe.”

  “I hope that confidence is justified. Somewhere along the line we might find ourselves up against some very tough customers.”

  “Perhaps. But I doubt if a Navy SEAL will be any pushover.”

  “An ex-Navy SEAL.” David corrected her. “And only half a SEAL at that. I’m not exactly in top condition.”

  “Come on, David,” she scoffed. “You’re not exactly helpless, either.”

  “No. But I’m so disabled I couldn’t cut it any longer with the Navy.” He snapped his gaze away, as if he wished he hadn’t added that remark.

  “Is that how you see yourself?” she asked, astonished. “As weak? Helpless?” Hard to believe that could be the negative self-image of a man who exuded such an air of personal power.

  “In some things, no. In what I’ve managed to do since I met you, no. In terms of what I used to be able to take on, absolutely.”

  “Then maybe you need to get on with the things you can do.”

  A corner of his mouth hooked upward.

  “You sure don’t do a whole lot of sympathizing with a man, do you, Cara? But I already knew that.”

  “I save my sympathy for people who really need it,” she said flatly. “You don’t.”

  She smiled.

  “It’s good to be able to talk to you so easily like this, David. With Tommy I always had to be careful about how I put things. Sometimes I found myself having to talk down a little to him to avoid the appearance of criticizing him. Strange, considering that he’s smarter than I am.”

  “Book smarts, maybe. Life smarts? Forget it.”

  She could talk to David about most things, Cara allowed. But did she dare bring up what happened between them this afternoon? Maybe last night didn’t really count, since neither of them had planned it, but they were both in complete possession of their senses when they kissed this afternoon. He must know as well as she did that the kiss had jogged their relationship onto an entirely different level.

  She’d stuck her head in the sand about what was going on with Tommy those last terrible months. She refused to do the same about her feelings for David.

  “About what happened this afternoon at the church—”

  David catapulted from the sofa so quickly, he had to strunggle to maintain his balance.

  “That was a mistake on my part,” he said, limping to the darkened window. “I’m sorry. It should never have happened.” The back he held turned to her was rigid. His words delivered in a clipped, cool tone. “Don’t worry. What happened this afternoon won’t happen again.”

  His words cut her to the bone. He was sorry? He wished that the kiss that seared her soul had never happened?

  Shaken, she tipped her glass to her lips so quickly the ice tumbled against the tip of her nose and a little cold wine trickled down her chin. She dashed it away with her fingertips.

  At least the man was up-front with his feelings. He let
her know where she stood with him. Absolutely insane to give any thought whatever to embarking on a relationship with a man who’d done everything but carry a sign saying he wasn’t interested in serious commitments.

  If only she could remember that.

  “I guess if you can forget it—” she said, with as much dignified reserve as she could manage. “I can, too.”

  She pushed herself slowly to her feet and walked over to hand him his cane.

  “Good night, David.”

  He bit off a short hard curse and spun around to vise his hands just above her elbows.

  “Cara—” His eyes were angry dark slits. A nerve throbbed wildly in his clenched jaw. He looked as if he were about to jerk her off her feet and shake her the way he did Pereira.

  “If I ever meet Grant, I’m going to knock him senseless for what he’s doing to you.”

  She could feel the crushing strength in him, feel his trembling anger. Anger supposedly aimed at Tommy, but which felt as if it were flaring white-hot at her.

  As suddenly as he’d grabbed her, he let her go. Without another word, he snatched his cane from her and stalked from the room, his limp more painfully pronounced than ever.

  Even if he’d stayed, she wouldn’t have told him that what Tommy was doing to her was nothing compared to what David Chandler Reid was doing to her.

  Chapter 8

  “You’ll enjoy it,” David insisted. “People for miles around come to see the religious procession this town lays on.”

  “Frankly, David, I’m not much in the mood for a drive out in the country to watch a parade of any kind.”

  “After hearing what Pereira had to say last night, I don’t want us roaming around the city any more than we have to. Either we spend the day out in the countryside, where I hope we’ll be safer, or we wait around in the hotel for Pereira to get back to us. That could be days. It could be never.”

  Cara sighed. “You’ve made your point, Commander. We’ll take in the religious parade.”

  The town was located a two-hour drive from the city, on the shore of a narrow river winding through a mountain valley. David manned the oars of their small, rented boat. A powerboat raced noisily past them, showering them in its wake. They stared at each other, startled at the sudden sprinkling. Both of them broke out laughing at the same time.

  After what David said yesterday, how could it still feel as if some invisible bond kept her linked to him even when they weren’t together? Linked, that is, from her point of view. But she didn’t understand how a link could go only one way.

  Half a dozen boats belonging to visitors in town for the religious procession were strung prow to stern alongside the town center. Not only were the people from surrounding villages streaming in to take part in the ritual, but they were toting their wares to sell to the temporary influx of customers. A bevy of tiny shops and food stalls opened expressly for the occasion wafted delicious odors by Cara’s nose.

  The weather was cooperating. Bright sun smiled on boats, trucks and donkey carts weighted down with baskets of exotic fruits and vegetables. From a small stand on the bank, the local version of the neighborhood ice cream man busily doled out ice cream to eager young customers lined up on the path.

  In a scene that could serve as a movie set, forest jungle swept down to the riverbank. Through the trees she glimpsed a meandering line of dingy whitewashed mud-brick houses. The small dwellings looked like something left over from another time, but the TV antennae sprouting from their roofs anchored them firmly in the present of CNN and endless repeats of Lucy driving Desi crazy. In Spanish.

  Cara trailed her fingers in the water, hoping there were no piranhas or alligators around who might view her hand as an invitation to lunch. They passed under the arched branches of a palm tree dipping low overhead. She reached up to swat lazily at its dangling fronds.

  David drew their boat alongside a larger one almost buried under a wild rainbow of flowers. A little girl about five years old with bright black eyes waved and called out to them. Apparently bent on selling her mother’s wares, the child, her long black hair bouncing down her back, skipped surefooted from her boat into theirs. David greeted her in Spanish, and soon the two were laughing together and chatting back and forth as if they were long-lost friends.

  Man and child swiveled their heads toward Cara at the same time. She found herself the object of disconcerting scrutiny by two pairs of eyes. David’s expression mirrored the solemnity on the little girl’s face as she studied her customer, but amusement flickered in his eyes.

  “I asked Maria, here,” he said, “for her expert opinion on which flowers would best suit the pretty lady with me. As you can see she’s giving the matter some serious thought.”

  The youngster switched her attention from Cara to her mother’s boat and contemplated the brilliant pile of flowers. With an emphatic nod the child finally pronounced her judgment.

  “Sí,” David agreed, returning the nod.

  The girl trilled the order over to her mother. The woman immediately broke into a wide grin, evidently at the prospect of a lucrative business transaction. She gathered up an enormous cluster of deep yellow orchids and stacked them into her daughter’s outstretched arms.

  Chattering at Cara in Spanish, the child carefully laid the blossoms in Cara’s lap. Cara looked to David for a translation.

  “Maria says the beautiful golden orchids are a special gift of the Virgin to a beautiful golden lady.”

  Cara took the little girl’s tiny brown hand and smiled her thanks. “Please tell her for me, David, that I think the flowers are lovely.”

  The child scampered up to him and looped a long circlet of crimson blossoms around his neck. She clapped her little hands together and stood back to admire the effect. Apparently satisfied, she bowed to each of them in turn and danced back into her own boat. With a flurry of head bobs, waves and best wishes for their good fortune, mother and daughter waved goodbye.

  “By the time that little salesgirl gets through,” Cara laughed, “there won’t be a petal left in their boat.” She lifted the sweet-smelling sheaf of flowers to her nose. “Thank you, David. These really are beautiful. I’ve never enjoyed the luxury of receiving a whole bouquet of orchids before.”

  Settling back on the none-too-clean cushions the boat rental man had tossed in for her comfort, she twisted off one of the yellow blooms and threaded it into her hair.

  She wondered if David had even noticed that she’d taken off the ring. No point in encouraging any more thieves. Besides, for a long time the ring had served mainly as a symbol of her vow to find Tommy. Like the POW-MIA bracelets some people wore.

  David rowed them farther upriver, leaving behind some of the bustle at the town center. He faced her in the other end of the boat. She had little choice but to look at him hunkered down on the ridiculously small seat of the low-sided rowboat.

  His bad leg was stretched out in front of him, the other jackknifed up to his chin.

  He was enduring the uncomfortable position solely for her benefit. He’d showered her with flowers in a generous effort to please her. And he’d been touchingly gentle with the little girl.

  No matter that she was trying to maintain an emotional distance from him, a strong swell of affection for him flooded her heart. It was okay to like the man, she told herself. Stupid to let liking grow into anything more.

  “You’re constantly surprising me, David. I wouldn’t have expected you to have such a natural way with kids, but you certainly hit it off with little Maria. I think you’d make a very good father.”

  “I used to think so myself. I do like kids.” The lingering smile the little girl had left him with vanished. “But I had no more luck with my plans for a family than you did. Anita and I talked about it...” He stared off into space for a moment. “She never did get around to deciding the time was right.” He shrugged. “Just as well, in view of what happened. Divorce is hard enough on adults. From what I’ve seen, it’s murder on children.�
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  He pulled the oars inside the boat and lifted the floral necklace from around his neck.

  “Here. This will look a lot better on you than it does on me.”

  Lunging forward with a heavy awkwardness that made the little boat sway, he leaned over the mound of flowers in her lap to drape the delicate scarlet circlet over her head.

  Instead of drawing away, he lingered. His eyes locked on her mouth. His lips parted slightly, as if he planned to speak. But he said nothing.

  He wanted to kiss her. She exulted in the longing she could read in the darkening gray in his eyes. The deep furrow between his brows, though, betrayed his mental debate about doing that.

  Her pride came in a distant second to her aching desire to feel his lips on hers again. As if he could read her mind, David erased the distance between his mouth and hers.

  She forgot the flowers. Forgot the river. Forgot everything but the sweet thrill of David’s kiss, the perfect way his arms fit around her.

  Again and again their parted lips fused, their tongues darted to each other. His ranged over the soft, moist cup of her mouth as if he meant to assure himself that he hadn’t left one tiny bit untasted during his last inflaming visit there. She’d been kissed before. None but David’s kiss had ever fired up that wild undertone of need within her.

  A hard jolt of the boat jerked them apart.

  David whipped a barely focused gaze around in an effort to get his bearings. His neglect of the oars had bumped their vessel into a spit of land jutting into the river.

  David gave a weak imitation of a laugh. “I’d better keep my mind on my work instead of slacking off like that.”

  He tried to look completely composed as he regained his seat and rowed them away from shore. But she hadn’t missed the dazed look in his eyes that matched the way her own head was spinning.