Her Vigilant Seal

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “How long will you be gone?” She put down her fork knowing she wouldn’t be able to eat.

  “A week, maybe two, it all depends.” He bit in to the omelet and hummed. “My God woman, I love the way you cook. Did you sauté the peppers?”

  “Huh?”

  He reached out and stopped her from twirling her hair.

  “I asked if you sautéed the peppers. This is phenomenal.” He took another bite, savoring the flavor.

  “Uhm, yeah I did. I’m glad you like it.”

  He continued to eat and watched her. Finally he spoke again. “I’m sorry I told you about the mission that went to shit. We’ve been on three that went fine since then. Like I told you, we had some new recruits with us and now we’re going with just us it’s going to go like clockwork. You’ve met most of the team. They know what they’re doing.”

  “Who haven’t I met?” She looked down at the eggs and all she saw was a mass of congealed mess. She’d gag if she tried to eat.

  “Finn Crandall has been on leave. His granddad had to be put into a nursing home so he was home with his mother helping out.”

  “Oh, that’s so sad,” Sophia said on automatic pilot.

  Mason looked at his watch. “Come with me.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the kitchen. Leaning back against the counter, he pulled her between his legs and she rested against him. He didn’t kiss her. He just hugged her and stroked her hair.

  “I’ve never had someone to come home to before. Sure I’ve had my parents but you are fast taking over my every thought. I think about your sparkling eyes, your beautiful smile, and I just can’t wait for the next time I see you. I’m coming back to you. I promise.” He breathed the words into her hair. Just holding and rocking her.

  Once again making her feel safe and loved, which still scared the crap out of her. The idea of being loved by Mason Gault brought tears to her eyes. Because once he realized how needy she was, just like her dad and others said, he would want to leave.

  But more than that, so much more than that, was the overwhelming need for him to stay safe. He had to stay safe. She grabbed him closer, wincing as she pulled the stitches in her shoulder.

  “Honey, I’ve got to go.”

  “Wait a second.” She ran over to grab a big plastic container and a smaller one. Mason’s face broke into a greedy smile.

  “Cinnamon rolls?”

  “You have to promise to share. I don’t want you all tired for your mission,” she teased. “The bowl has the icing and it tastes better if you put it on right before you serve them.” He just shook his head.

  “Sophia, I’m not quite sure you’ve figured out who you’re dealing with, but okay.” He held the treats as she walked him to the back door, close to where he parked his truck.

  “I probably won’t be able to call you.”

  “I figured.” She felt hollow knowing how much she would miss him.

  “Depending where we are I might be able to access my messages. Would you leave me some?” he asked as he stroked her cheek. She turned and kissed his fingers.

  “Of course.” She couldn’t imagine what she would say but she would honor his request. He gave her a precious kiss and then was gone. She locked the door behind him not knowing how she was possibly going to get through the day. She didn’t know how she was going to survive until he came back.

  Please God, take care of him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Finn looked like he had been wrung through a ringer. They were due to leave in five hours. Mason took him aside to see if the man’s head was on straight before they went into the field.

  “It was awful, Mase. I was home just last year for Christmas and Grandpop was rock solid. But really it wasn’t so much him I was worried about. Seriously, he didn’t recognize Mom or me. He didn’t even realize he was going into assisted living. It was how it was tearing Mom apart that killed me.”

  Mason thought about his grandfather on his dad’s side. He might not get around well, but he had all his faculties and he was great to be around. He was in a nursing home, but he had his own apartment and he loved it there. He had tons of friends and it was close to where his parents lived. But Grandpa just becoming a shell? He couldn’t imagine it.

  “How is your mom holding up?”

  “Not good. I think I have her convinced to move out here.”

  “How about you?”

  “I just keep picturing it being Mom, and it’s freaking me out. I’ve been having bad dreams about it. As soon as we get back from this mission, I’m going to go see the doc.” Mason smiled. This was why he loved the men on his team. They had their shit together. Finn realized he had a problem and was going to do something about it.

  “So are you going to be good for this little outing?”

  “Yeah, my head’s going to be in the game. But I was wondering about you,” Finn said looking him in the eye.

  “What about me?” Mason asked genuinely puzzled.

  “I hear you’re pretty twisted up about some girl.”

  “I take it there has been some gossiping going on.”

  “Well what the hell else were we going to do while we were eating homemade cinnamon rolls?” Finn laughed.

  “Twisted up isn’t the right term. She’s amazing. Did they tell you what happened to her?”

  “Yeah, and how you came in like a knight in shining armor. Are you sure this isn’t some kind of rescue fantasy? I know you, you definitely want to go and save the western hemisphere.” Finn watched him as closely as he’d been monitoring him a few minutes ago.

  “Let me tell you something about her. There she was, in my arms, beaten and bloody, and she was asking about the other girl wanting to know if she was safe and sound. Then when we’re at the hospital, even though she’s in pain and made to wait, she’s cracking jokes. She’s not any bigger than a minute and she’s positive she can take care of everyone else including me. Hell, she can spot Stan Lee in a movie before I can.”

  Finn burst out laughing.

  “I’ve got to meet this woman.”

  “You’ll love her.” Mason paused and looked at his friend with the dimpled chin and rugged good looks. “You’ll love her like a sister.”

  “I’m hearing you loud and clear, buddy.” Finn winked.

  ****

  Sophia looked at her phone like it might grow tentacles. Why was this so damn difficult? Because I don’t like leaving messages. Sophia knew this was an old phobia leftover from the dad days. But Mason wasn’t like her dad and he’d asked her to leave a message, so she was going to grow a set and leave a freaking message. She still sat on her futon and stared at her phone.

  She took a deep breath and then her phone rang. It was an unidentified caller. But she’d talk to anyone at this point to get out of calling Mason’s phone.

  “Hello, this is Sophia.”

  Nothing.

  “Hello?”

  Nothing.

  “Can I help you?”

  She hung up the phone.

  “Okay, that didn’t work out so well.” She pressed Mason’s contact number and it went straight to voicemail. She had her message planned.

  “Hi Mason, it’s Sophia. Margie says hi and so does Billy. I saw him on Sunday and he really hopes he can go surfing with you again soon. I’m still looking for another job. I’m scouring the want ads but so far I haven’t found anything you and the DeLucas will approve. I uhm, I uhm. Well this is the part where I tell you I miss you. It’s really the truth dammit. How the hell do I know you for less than ten days and miss you so much. It makes no sense. So I miss you and you have to take care of yourself because I need you to come back like you promised. And now I have to be done with this message. Come back because I miss you. A lot.”

  She hit end fast and then burst into tears. She’d seen his body. He had a fucking bullet wound under his left arm. He said it was a flesh wound but it was an honest to God bullet wound! This man and
his friends did things people in movies did only for real. She needed him back home. She picked up the pillow he’d slept on. She hadn’t washed the pillowcase since doing laundry. She didn’t want to lose the scent of him.

  “Please, please be safe Mason. I’m falling in love with you but I don’t care about me. You’re too important not to be safe. Please be safe. Please be safe.” She kept saying it over and over again into the pillow.

  ****

  Another fucking jungle. It was the first jungle they’d been back to since Larry died. They’d already been there for three days. They were only four miles away from the target they’d been prepped to take out, and then he got word they needed to head thirteen miles due south and do a rescue mission instead. “Gather the team, will ya?” he asked Drake.

  “Jesus, is it that bad?” Drake asked.

  “Worse,” Mason answered. “Worse squared and then cubed.” Drake went to grab the men.

  As soon as everyone was circled, he looked at his men and felt a huge surge of pride. “Gentlemen, I want to welcome you to the jungle and tell you that all of your studies and briefings don’t mean jack shit.”

  “Cool, I forgot to do my homework.” Clint grinned.

  “How bad?” Finn asked.

  Mason flipped his satellite laptop around and started walking them through their new mission plan.

  “Christ on a cracker! I only packed my spinach. I didn’t pack Iron Man’s suit,” Drake muttered.

  “Tennessee boy has turned into a pussy while I was on leave.” Finn laughed.

  “Hell, on this one I want the suit and Thor’s Hammer. Instead I’m stuck with the four of you assholes.” Everyone laughed, just liked Mason wanted them to.

  Darius, ever the voice of reason, pointed to the screen. “It almost looks like nothing more than a shack. I’m only seeing two guards. Is that right?”

  “According to the e-mail this came with yeah, that’s the way I’m reading it too, but in about an hour we’re going to get more intel and another set of satellite photos.”

  “Okay, let’s get a move on.” Everyone hoisted their gear and started out on a good clip towards their new targets—a family who needed to be saved.

  In precisely three hours, they gathered because the new information came across and it wasn’t good. They had until dark before the family was going to be videotaped while they were being killed. Apparently the father worked for a drug lord and was an informant for the DEA. This public reprisal was to stop anyone else from wanting to do the same kind of thing in the future.

  Clint had things figured out down to the second. They would need to run flat out for the next forty minutes to make it there in time. Then they would have thirty minutes to scope out the situation. Darius would be allowed slack since he was the medic and they would need him more rested. He would also be monitoring incoming intel to determine if anything new was on the horizon.

  “Move out,” Mason yelled.

  They made it in thirty-seven minutes. There were still only two guards outside the shack. It was light, no infrared goggles were needed, and Clint, Drake, Mason and Finn each took a side of the building and closed in. Clint and Finn quietly took out the two guards. Mason and Drake made their way into the shack and found four people bound and gagged. There was an older couple and two women in their late teens or early twenties. All of them were in bad shape. By the time they had them untied Darius was coming through the door.

  “Darius, come over here mine’s bad,” Clint said.

  “I’ll be there, but we have to be gone exactly at sunset that’s twenty minutes otherwise we’ll be overrun.”

  Darius went over to one of the younger women. The back of her dress was shredded. She’d obviously been whipped. When they took off her gag she started screaming. Mason couldn’t blame her but they needed her to be quiet.

  Clint was talking to her in Spanish and telling her everything would be all right, that they were here to rescue them. But she wasn’t listening.

  Mason was working with the mother, and Finn untied the father who went over to the screaming daughter and got her settled so Clint could put her over his shoulder. It was going to be a long night. Hell, it was going to be a long five days to get them to the evac point.

  ****

  “So what’s with all the crank calls?”

  “What are you talking about, Margie? Nobody’s been calling the diner.” Sophia tucked her order pad into the waist of her shorts and made her way back to the kitchen.

  “Girl, I’m talking about the hang-ups you’ve been getting on your phone.”

  “Oh those.” Sophia dismissed her question as she handed Peter her orders. “Those are just wrong numbers.”

  “You’ve had the phone for how long?” Sophia placed plates on a tray knowing Margie would answer her own question when she didn’t she looked up. “Answer me, how long have you had the number?”

  “Since college.”

  “So for five years. How many wrong numbers have you had?” Sophia tried to remember. “For God’s sake Sophia, think it through. You’ve probably had as many ‘wrong numbers’ in the last week as you’ve had in five years.” Sophia put down the tray and stared at the woman. She was right.

  “You really didn’t notice, did you?” Margie’s tone gentled as she realized Sophia hadn’t been ignoring the issue.

  Sophia shook her head.

  “It’s Mason, you’re not thinking worth a damn. Have you heard from him since he left?” Sophia shook her head again.

  “That’s a good thing. You would have heard something if there’d been a problem. He’ll be back in no time. He said one or two weeks, right?” Sophia nodded. She was beginning to feel like there was a string attached to her head. She cleared her throat.

  “He’s been gone for nine days.”

  “Frannie, Tony, and I were talking about getting together for a game of cards tonight. You interested?”

  Sophia nodded but then caught herself.

  “That would be great,” she said in a husky voice.

  “Okay, let’s get these folks watered and fed and kicked the hell out. Are you much of a poker player?”

  “A couple of guys in college tried to teach me but I never really got the hang of it. It didn’t make sense that you would lie.”

  “Bluff, it’s called bluffing. You really need to learn.” The older woman laughed.

  It took them two more hours before the diner was closed and cleaned which was right when Tony and Frannie showed up.

  “What are the stakes?” Tony asked Margie.

  “Same as always.”

  He rubbed his hands together.

  “Does she know?” he pointed at Sophia.

  “You explain it to her.”

  Sophia looked around the table. Frannie was innocently shuffling a deck of cards.

  “Sophia, we play for food. I usually win. It’s great. I get the meals of my choice and these beautiful women have to cook for me.”

  “Seems like a lose/lose situation,” Sophia countered. Frannie looked up from dealing.

  “You’re wrong. His eggplant parmigiana is to die for. Occasionally he does lose and he makes that and cannoli and Margie and I are in heaven.”

  “Very impressive.” Sophia tilted her head at Tony with a smile.

  “They were my mama’s recipes. But I rarely lose. I’m looking forward to you baking me many treats. Do you know how to bake pumpernickel bread?”

  “Of course she does,” Margie said batting Tony in the back of the head. “If it can be baked in an oven then it can be made by Sophia Anderson. Deal the cards, Frannie. Sophia, we’re going to play the first four hands to teach you. These bets won’t count.”

  Tony gave each of them a roll of nickels. “At the end of the game the person with the biggest pile of nickels gets to request the food they want from the other people. Should I place my orders now?”

  “Shut up, Tony,” the two older women s
aid in unison. Sophia laughed. It was the first time in nine days she was starting to feel relaxed.

  It took the better part of three hours for Sophia to win the majority of the nickels on the table. It was easy. Everybody always assumed she was bluffing when she bet high and they never folded. However, she was really lucky that night and had good cards so she won most of the pots.

  After the game was over Tony asked her to lie to them.

  “I don’t understand.” He wasn’t making any sense.

  “It’s simple. We just want to see you tell a lie,” Margie explained.

  “I don’t lie very well.”

  “Try,” Tony coaxed.

  “Uhmm, Peter makes really good clam chowder.” She tried to say it decisively but it came out more like a hesitant question.

  “Okay then. Now we know to never assume she’s bluffing,” Tony said with a satisfied smile.

  “Tony, I know what I want from you but what should I ask for from Margie and Frannie?”

  “Margie’s brisket is out of this world and you have to make sure she provides baked beans and corn bread.”

  Margie beamed.

  “Now my Frannie is one fantastic cook but her best dish is not something I’m going to tell you all about.”

  Sophia was fascinated by how Frannie’s red dye job conflicted with the red that now suffused her face.

  “I cook Hungarian Goulash.”

  “She does and that’s the other thing she does that will make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven.”

  “Enough! I haven’t had a date in three months and her man is out of town. So you two love birds need to tone it down.” Margie turned to Sophia. “You’re definitely going to be gaining some weight, my dear. When do you want to come over to my son’s for dinner?”

  “I have a better idea. Can you do it all the same day and bring it over to Mason’s house and feed him and his team when they come back?”

  “Ah Sophia, that’s a wonderful idea,” Margie said as she leaned over and hugged her neck. Frannie hugged her from the other side and kissed her cheek. Sophia was sure she had a bright red lipstick mark on her face. She couldn’t be happier. At least not until she got the call Mason was home.