Saving Zola (Sleeper SEALs Book 4)
Page 14
He shot her a glance. “I never intended to go to Chicago.”
She rolled her eyes. “I was just tossing out any city west of here.”
“Ah. Well, technically it doesn’t matter. But I feel more protected when we’re on the move. When we stop, we’re a bit more exposed.”
She took several deep breaths, trying to put her thoughts into words. “I don’t know why, but I feel nervous. I’m worried about my dad. I’m afraid this has more to do with him than with me.”
“I can understand that.”
She was pissed at her father, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t concerned about him at the same time. “What’s wrong with me? The man paid my boyfriend to break up with me. I should shoot him myself.”
Mike didn’t say a single word. Minutes went by.
Zola freaked out a bit at his silence.
Finally, he took the next exit and pulled into a gas station. He jumped from the car and set the pump up, and then he was back. He turned his body her direction and took both her hands. “Babe, your dad will always be your dad. I would never in this lifetime suggest that you harbor anger toward him. I’d be the last man to suggest that.”
She winced. “Because you don’t know your parents?”
“Exactly. I’d give anything to have a terrible relationship with my father. At least I would know who he was. I don’t remember my dad. He died when I was too young. Maybe he was a jackass.” He shrugged. “Maybe he was a good guy. I’ll never know. But he was killed, and I’d love to have an hour to argue with him if it meant I got to see him.”
“That makes sense.” It broke her heart that Mike didn’t have either parent.
“So, no matter what happens, I will always encourage you to keep an open mind and maintain contact with your dad. He made choices I don’t agree with. So did I. So did you. We all have to get past this. Maybe he’ll be more accepting of me after all these years. In either case, I would hope you would stay with me this time and not let him tear us apart, but that doesn’t mean I want you to stop speaking to him or seeing him.
“I will always encourage you to make every attempt to fix things. Maybe he’s genuinely sorry for his efforts when we were teenagers. Maybe he’s a new man. If so, great. If not, we’ll find a way to deal.
“I feel confident he’ll eventually come around. You’re his daughter. His only child. He won’t let you slip away over something as petty as being in a relationship with a foster kid with a master’s degree in biology who’s served two tours with the SEALs.” He winked.
She smiled and inhaled slowly. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being so damn supportive.”
He shrugged as if it were no big deal when he knew damn good and well it meant everything to her.
After a quick peck on the lips, he exited the car to remove the pump, and then they were on the road again.
She stared out the windshield for a long time before speaking again. “Do you really think we can make things work between us?”
He flinched, glancing her direction. “Of course. Why the hell not?”
She shrugged. “We’ve been together like three days. Under intense circumstances.”
He chuckled, startling her. “You gonna start quoting Sandra Bullock now?”
She giggled for the first time in hours. Or had it been longer?
He set a hand on her thigh. “If so, and you’re worried about a relationship based on an intense experience, we could base it on sex instead.”
She laughed again, harder. “Be serious, will you? I’m legitimately concerned. I mean, we haven’t seen each other for twelve years and then boom. You’re back. We pick up like we never separated, and then we live in crisis mode, having sex occasionally on the side. How is this a good way to start out?”
“First of all, you make it sound like we had nothing to begin with. I was in love with you when I last saw you. So, it’s more like the relationship has been on hold all these years. I never stopped loving you.”
She stopped breathing because she agreed with his assessment.
He continued, “And second of all, the sex is amazing, so you can’t possibly be flippant about that aspect. Unless all those orgasms you’ve screamed out under my control were faked.” He sent her a wide grin, his eyebrows lifted.
“So now we’re switching from Sandra Bullock to Meg Ryan?” She fought the urge to laugh. “I don’t fake orgasms.”
“Babe, apparently you haven’t even had any orgasms.”
“I never said that,” she teased. “I simply haven’t had any with a man.”
“Semantics. And I’m still trying to keep from pumping my chest out at that revelation.”
“How cocky.”
“What would you expect?”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay. You’re right. I pined after you and couldn’t bring myself to sleep with another man. Could we not dwell on that?”
“Sure. I mean I’ll try not to bring it up more than once or twice a day for the next seventy years.”
Several seconds of silence sobered her.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“That I live in Connecticut, and I don’t even know where you live.”
He sighed. “I don’t know either. Until I take my next assignment. I go where the FBI tells me.”
“For how long?”
“For as long as it takes to solve the case. I was in Chicago for over a year. Longest case I’ve been on. Some are short. Others seem to take forever.”
“And when you’re assigned to a city like that, can you travel back and forth to wherever home is?”
He winced as she stared at him. “No. Not usually.”
She continued to look at him. How the hell would that work between them?
“Babe, we don’t have to figure everything in the world out today.”
“Yeah, but this is a big one. You work for the FBI. I work for the district attorney. I love my job. It’s fulfilling. It changes lives.”
“I’d like to think mine changes lives too. Saves them,” he countered.
She nodded slowly. This could put them at an impasse. Under no circumstances could she visualize quitting her job, especially to become an unemployed wife always on the fringe, unable to work because her husband worked for the FBI and she needed to stay low.
Was it possible her dad had a point all along? Maybe he didn’t want her to fall into a situation where she gave up everything for a man. The problem was that she was smart enough to know that herself. She didn’t need him to tell her. Not a chance in hell would she give up her dreams for someone else.
Would she have felt the same way a decade ago? If she had maintained a relationship with Mike, would he have eventually worn her down until she left law school or even the state to follow him where his dreams led?
She shuddered.
“Zola, you’re worrying too hard. Don’t get so far ahead of things. We just got back together. Don’t dwell on the future yet.”
“So, you’re suggesting we ignore our differences and concentrate on the good sex for a while until it gets harder and harder to face reality?”
His face drew up in a frown. He pursed his lips, saying nothing else for a long time.
She leaned back in the seat, tipping her head toward the headrest and closing her eyes. Why did she pick a fight with him? It wasn’t necessary. They both had their jobs, their convictions. They weren’t so different from each other.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that if she’d stayed with him all those years ago, she would have given up her dreams for him, and they would have ended up torn apart. Nothing had really changed since then.
When they were sixteen and they first started talking, they’d been drawn together for the simple reason that they were both driven and hardworking. Those same aspects also made them incompatible.
After a few more miles, Mike pulled off the highway in a small town.
“Why are we stopping?”
She knew it was more than that, but she didn’t say anything.
Fifteen minutes later, they opened the door of their room on the third floor and locked themselves inside.
Zola dropped their bags on the floor next to the ones Mike dropped. “We’re going to need to do laundry soon or buy more clothes.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t meet her gaze. In fact, he hadn’t since things got tense between them. He headed for the bathroom. “Mind if I shower first? I feel like I walked here.”
“Of course. Go ahead.” Her heart fell a bit at the awkwardness between them, but she didn’t want to show it.
He stepped into the bathroom with the bag of toiletries and closed the door with a snick that made her jump where she still stood next to the entrance.
Damn. Why did she have to push things? They’d been getting along so well. Now she’d put a strain on their relationship. On the other hand, she hadn’t pointed out anything that wasn’t true. It might be hard to face, but sooner or later, they were going to have to admit they had serious life commitments that didn’t mesh.
The water came on, and she shuffled across the room to turn on the television. She paid no attention as she flipped from one channel to the next.
By the time Mike stepped out of the bathroom, she had the TV running on mute on a random channel, and she lay propped up against the headboard of the king-size bed.
“Nothing interesting on?” he asked.
“No. How was the shower?”
“Good pressure. The showerhead isn’t high enough, but I’m used to that.”
She watched as he rummaged through their bags, grabbing a pair of boxers and then dropped his towel to shrug into them. His firm ass was in her line of vision.
Damn, he was nice to look at. She admired every single ripple of muscle up his back and down his legs. From behind she couldn’t see the scars on his knee that told the tale of his injuries.
When he turned around, he stalked directly toward her.
She wasn’t sure of his intentions, but he didn’t take his gaze off her as he climbed onto the bed, kneeled in front of her crossed legs, and set his hands on the headboard at her sides. “We need to talk.”
“Yeah.” Should she put it off for a while longer? Go take a shower? She lowered her gaze to his chest, which was a mistake. It made her lick her lips, wetness pooling in her panties.
“Zola, look at me.”
She lifted her face, feeling the flush that raced up her cheeks.
“Not gonna give you up without a fight.”
She didn’t know how to process that. What did he mean?
“We’re meant to be together. I know it in my soul. I won’t let you go over something as petty as location. We will figure this out.”
She nodded, not believing it with as much certainty as him. She couldn’t imagine how they were going to work out their geographical differences. “I should shower.”
“You should talk to me.”
“I don’t know what else there is to say. I live in Connecticut, and you don’t even know where you live. But it’s not Connecticut.”
He frowned.
“The reality is that if either of us gave up our jobs for the other, there would be resentment that lasted a lifetime.”
“I think you’re putting the cart before the horse, babe.”
She shook her head. “I think you’re delusional if you refuse to face the facts.” She slid under his arm and padded toward the bathroom without a backward glance. She needed to be alone for a while anyway and intended to fill the bathtub and soak in it instead of standing in the shower.
The warm water should have been soothing, but arguing with Mike made her uneasy in a way that caused her heart to ache. She started this disagreement. And why? So she could be right about something? Was it necessary for her to be right about this topic? It would suck if her theory proved correct.
On the one hand, she couldn’t imagine how they would work out their living arrangements. On the other hand, she also couldn’t visualize a life without him now that she had him back.
After twelve years without a word, not knowing where he was or if he was alive or dead, in just days she was attached to him with a stronger bond than they’d had in their teens.
It would take courage and hard work to pull off a relationship with him, but was she willing to throw everything away without trying? Hell no.
She climbed out of the tub, dried off, and wrapped a towel around her body. With a deep breath, intending to apologize for her temporary insanity, she opened the door and stepped into the main room.
Her breath whooshed from her body when she found the curtains pulled to block out most of the late-afternoon rays and Mike on his side in the middle of the bed, completely naked. He leaned his head casually against his palm, his other hand resting gently across his thigh.
But more importantly, it was difficult to take her gaze off his thick length.
She swallowed. “I was going to say I was sorry.”
“Me too.” His voice was low. Sexy.
“My fault. I brought it up. You’re right. I’m getting ahead of myself.”
He shook his head. “No. You have a good point. We need to be open with each other and discuss our options. I know it’s only been a few days, but I know in my heart I want to make things work between us.” He lifted his hand off his thigh and reached out. “Come here.”
She eased across the floor toward him and dropped the towel when she reached the bed.
His smile grew.
“We haven’t even had dinner yet,” she whispered as she crawled onto the bed.
He lifted a brow. “Is there a rule that says people must eat dinner before having sex?”
She giggled. “No. I’m just thinking about how absorbed we get and what the chances are we would ever come up for air and eat later.”
He shrugged. “If I miss a meal, it will be worth it.”
She smiled broader. “True.”
“Besides, I’m more interested in eating you than anything else.”
A flush covered her face and rushed down her chest.
Mike’s hand snaked out, grabbed her around the waist, and lowered her onto her back next to him. He looked down at her face as he leaned over her. “So sexy. You take my breath away.” And those were the last few words uttered between them for several hours.
She was right. They ended up calling for Chinese takeout after the sun went down.
And she was not sorry.
Chapter Thirteen
“What time is it?” Zola muttered groggily as she lifted her head from the car door, wincing at the crick in her neck. “How long was I asleep?”
“About an hour. You must have been exhausted. It’s two o’clock.”
She rubbed her neck, feeling the twinge of pain as it raced down her back. How had she slept so hard in such an uncomfortable position?
She glanced out the window, trying to figure out where they were. They hadn’t spoken about it, but she noticed they were heading slowly toward Connecticut. They took backroads and moved in no rush.
Mike’s phone rang, startling her.
He connected through the Bluetooth. “Tex. Whatcha got for me?”
“You were right.”
Zola sat up straighter, her spine going rigid.
Tex continued, “The Johanssons aren’t quite right. They’re living under the radar, but they aren’t simply hiding from the press because they are regular grieving parents. They’ve have contacts with the extremists.”
“You’re sure?” Mike asked.
“Oh yeah. Most of their email correspondence is with a well-known terrorist organization operating in the Northeast. They want revenge for the death of their daughter and the incarceration of their son.”
“And they th
ink they will get that if they take more lives?” Mike’s frustration was evident in his tone.
“Would seem that way. They have been following the senator’s movements for months. And recently added Zola when they realized she was on the prosecuting team and hurting her could get to her father. Chances are they decided she was an easier target than the senator. Richard Carver isn’t as easy to attack.”
“Shit.” Mike slammed his palm on the steering wheel, making Zola flinch.
She reached across the center of the car and set her hand on his thigh. “This is good news,” she told him. “At least we know who we’re looking for and what we’re dealing with.”
Tex barked out sharp laughter. “Your woman has a point there.”
Zola smiled. Even though she hadn’t met Tex and possibly never would, she knew she liked him.
Mike groaned. “Thanks, man. I owe you one. I owe you several. Go back to your wife. I’ll turn this info over to my contact.”
“Wish I knew who that was. My curiosity is forever piqued.”
“Your safety is my primary concern,” Mike told Tex.
“Bah. I’ve been in tighter situations than you’ll ever see,” he joked. “And I only have one leg.”
Mike grinned. “Okay, let’s not get into which one of us is gimpier. You’ll always win. My bum knee doesn’t compare.”
Zola couldn’t help but smile. Yeah, she liked Tex a lot. The more she learned about him, the more she knew she would love him. Whoever he was married to hit the jackpot.
She glanced at Mike, knowing she too had hit the jackpot.
Mike ended the call and placed another call.
“Dorsen. I don’t have much to tell you yet.” This came from the voice of Mike’s contact.
“That’s okay. I pulled some strings, called in a favor. It’s the parents. They’re involved.”
“Shit.”
Zola personally didn’t believe any favor had been called with Tex. Instead, she could tell the two of them would do anything for the other and probably dozens of others simply because they had been active SEALs at one point. SEALs tended to stick together for life, even when they weren’t on the same team and had never met. Didn’t matter. If one of them needed help, they would all jump to the aid of their brethren.