In Shadows
Page 26
Shelly was determined to change the subject. “There are two kinds of barbecue sauce. Mild and hot as hell. Mild is in the container with a clear lid. The hot is in the one with a red lid.”
They got the message and followed her lead. Muncy was almost as excited about the biscuits as he was the pork ribs. He was slathering butter and reaching for the hot sauce when the meal began. By the time they were ready for cake, Muncy was calling her sugar, Paul was calling her cutie pie and Lou was trying not to stare.
Jack caught a look in Shelly’s eyes and grinned. Told you, he mouthed.
She blushed. “Who wants Italian Cream Cake?”
All of the men, including Jack, held up their hands because their mouths were too full to talk. She hid a giggle and got up to get dessert plates, then cut the cake.
Just listening to all their chatter and laughter was the best medicine she could have asked for. It was wonderful—and so normal.
Paul quit on his third beer and was drinking coffee with dessert.
“Because I’m the driver,” he said, and winked at Shelly as she refilled his coffee cup.
Jack had already spilled the beans about their move to Hawaii, and their reactions had been surprising.
Paul all but threw himself on the floor at the news. “No! Are you freakin’ serious? That’s my dream, to live on one of the islands, have myself a charter boat and take tourists fishing.”
“Right, Captain Paul. And I’m going to be your first mate,” Lou added.
Muncy frowned. “Well, hell, don’t everybody go off and leave me behind. I think Dwayne would enjoy the islands.”
“Who’s Dwayne?” Shelly asked.
Muncy whipped out his phone and pulled up some pictures.
Shelly gasped. “Is that a dog or a horse?”
“Mastiff,” Muncy said. “I raised him from a puppy.”
“Is he friendly?” Shelly asked.
“He’ll lick you to death,” Jack said. “It’s best to come bearing gifts...doggy gifts...big doggy gifts.”
Shelly laughed out loud and, in that moment, sealed her forever in their hearts as one of the boys.
* * *
The next morning, Adam Ito was handcuffed to a gurney to take an ambulance ride through the city streets of Houston on his way to a long-term care facility for prisoners.
He was on oxygen now, with a future that wasn’t looking too bright. He wondered after he’d had the stroke if they’d notified his parents, but people had quit talking to him. It was as if he no longer deserved information, since he couldn’t respond. And then a day later, he overheard Dr. Grimley telling one of the nurses that his parents had been notified but refused to accept responsibility for him in any way, and left him to the state of Texas.
It was daunting to know that he, a natural citizen of Japan, would be buried in a land so far away. They had taken Yuki home and left him here to rot. Again, he had no concept of guilt for what had happened to Yuki, and being abandoned continued to fuel his anger, which was the only emotion he had left.
When they finally reached their destination and began pulling him out of the ambulance to wheel him into the facility, he caught a quick glimpse of blue sky, seagulls and the top of one tree, and then he was inside the building. Unless a miracle occurred and they put him by a window, he’d just gotten his last glimpse of the world.
Twenty
The next morning, Jack McCann made one last trip to the Bureau to officially resign, and he took Shelly with him because she asked.
When they walked in, they created their own level of chaos. Every agent on the floor came to say goodbye and wish them well. This was the one place Shelly didn’t feel self-conscious. Everyone here knew what had happened and didn’t judge her. She got more apologies than anything, and when they went on through to the deputy director’s office, she was beginning to relax. She knew these men. She knew this world. But she had no words for how grateful she was that Jack was leaving it.
When they reached Wainwright’s office, Jack took her hand and smiled.
“Let’s do this, baby.”
Shelly nodded.
Jack knocked, then heard Wainwright’s voice.
“Come in!”
And so they did.
* * *
Adam Ito cheated justice by dying two days after his transfer. They buried him a couple of days later in a pauper’s grave. Ironically on the same day Yuki’s body was flown out of Houston.
In life their worlds could not have been farther apart, and in death, so were their final resting places.
When Jack was notified of Ito’s passing, he breathed a sigh of relief, then went to find Shelly. Her response surprised him.
“It doesn’t matter. I wrote his name on a sheet of paper the other day and then set it on fire. He’s in hell now. Right where he belongs.”
“I just love you,” Jack said softly. “How about that flight to Oahu?”
She put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
No stitches between them. No ribs too sore to squeeze.
“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”
“No more living in shadows, my love. We’re moving to paradise.”
Epilogue
The breeze off the ocean was particularly nice today, Shelly thought, as she shut down her computer. She worked for an accounting company on the Big Island of Hawaii, but she worked from their home on Oahu.
She walked out onto the lanai with a glass of pineapple juice, set it down on a little side table, then eased into the chair swing beside it and rubbed her tummy. Two more months and Miss Poppy would be here.
She loved the little mountain house they’d chosen on the island. It was far enough away from the city to escape the tourists, and just high enough that the daily showers that came with the afternoon weather had become one of her favorite things. They had a vegetable garden, flowering bushes and birds wearing feathers in colors more vibrant than any flowers on land, or any fish in the sea.
In the distance, she thought she could see an approaching helicopter, but it was so far away that right now it looked like a bug. Jack must be taking another group on an island tour. Every time he started out, he flew over their place just to let her know he was thinking of her.
From where she was sitting, the vastness of the blue water surrounding the island was drenched in sunshine, while the waves rolled in to shore, dumping the riders and their boards into the shallow surf.
There were fishing boats, and charter boats, and outrigger canoes dotting the water as far as she could see.
Paul and Lou were out there somewhere. She’d hear all about their day when they came over for dinner. Muncy was on ambulance duty until late, so he’d had to take a rain check on the meal. Driving the ambulance was a rush that never got old, and being a full-fledged paramedic made him proud.
He’d brought Dwayne with him, but they’d had quarantine to deal with before he was officially home, sleeping at the foot of his master’s bed.
The massive size of the dog had been of concern to every neighbor Muncy had, until they got to know him. Now neighbors made excuses to stop by.
The breeze felt so good, and the shade was just perfect. Shelly was almost asleep when she realized that the chopper was finally close. She opened her eyes and then smiled when she recognized the colors.
It was Jack.
She got up from the swing and walked out from beneath the lanai to wave.
* * *
The quartet of men Jack was chauffeuring about the island saw Shelly wave.
“Hey, look. That lady is waving,” one man said. “Wouldn’t you love to live in a place like that?”
Jack’s heartbeat jumped a lick as he saw her step out into the grass. The breeze was lifting her hair and at the same time plastering her clothes against the bulge of her belly.
>
Jack grinned. “Uh...sorry, guys, but that’s no lady. That’s my wife.”
* * * * *
ISBN-13: 9781488095191
In Shadows
Copyright © 2018 by Sharon Sala
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