by Dale Mayer
She smiled as she slowly worked some water over the stitches. She hadn’t asked the nurse if she could get them wet, but neither had the nurse said anything about it.
Just then the nurse called out, “You okay?”
“Hard to shampoo,” she said.
“Well, the stitches can get wet,” she said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have let you shower. Do you want a hand?”
With that, Shelly sat on the bench, and the nurse slowly and carefully massaged some shampoo in and around Shelly’s head. Then she used the handheld showerhead and rinsed off her hair. They repeated it once more, the pain actually easing with the warm water.
When they were done, Shelly asked, “How do the stitches look?”
“Nice and clean,” the nurse said. “Let me get a small towel, and we can pat that all down and then bundle up your hair and get the rest of you dressed.”
And that’s what they did. By the time Shelly wore a new hospital gown and was back in bed, she was shaky and teary. She’d only just gotten under the covers, when a knock came at the door.
“Come in,” she said softly, hoping her head wouldn’t hurt. A head poked around the corner. She smiled. “Hey, Shane. How are you?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “The question really is, how are you?”
“Well, I just had a shower.”
“How about a cup of coffee?” he said, waggling his eyebrows.
She stared at him. “You know how much I love you already,” she said, “but if you bring me coffee …”
He nudged the door open wider with his shoulder and stepped in, holding two big mugs.
She cried out in delight and slowly shifted her position, so she leaned up against the headboard. She accepted a cup from him gratefully. “There’s nothing quite like that first cup in the morning,” she said, “particularly after a crappy night.”
“How was your night?”
“I kept waking up from the pain,” she admitted, “but the doctor says I’m doing fine.”
“Perfect,” he said.
“How long am I here for?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “We’ll have to hear from the doctor first.”
“Well, I can hardly sit here at the US Navy’s expense,” she said, “when I could go home to recuperate.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” he said. “Until we actually capture this guy, you’re still in danger.”
She stared at him in shock and then sipped her coffee. Her mind raced, as she thought about the implications. “You know, if I still had a job,” she said, “I would have lost it by now.”
“Not necessarily,” he murmured. “These are extenuating circumstances.”
She groaned at that. “What about your sister?”
“No word yet,” he said, his tone grim.
“They’ll want to trade. You know that?”
“I know. In fact,” he hesitated and then said, “the kidnapper just reached out.”
“And?”
“They want Aleah in exchange for my family.”
“So, two in exchange for four. That’s hard too.”
“Very,” he said. “Of course her father has also reached out, with his utmost thanks, but now suddenly is getting cagey and denies having my sister. We can’t rule him out of any of this mess either, since he’s the one who has taken so many lives to get his daughter back already. The fact that Aleah wants nothing to do with him is telling as well.”
“No happy ending for her in this, is there?”
“It’s hard to see how,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure what the answer is for any of us at the moment, but I will promise to keep you safe. You and Aleah and the baby.”
She stared at him, knowing that he was making the promise to the best of his ability, but this scenario could be way past anything he could do. “I think we need to find the guy who kidnapped her,” she said, “and figure out how to get your sister back safe from whoever the hell has Prissy and her family. Then, at some point, you’ll have to deal with the father.”
“I know,” he said, “and I’m not looking forward to any of it, but—”
“But you will,” she said gently, “because it’s what you do.”
He laughed. “It is what I do. I just hadn’t expected it to become quite so personal.”
“That’s life,” she said. She looked down at the coffee that was almost gone and asked, “Any chance of some food to go with this?”
“I can go to the kitchen and see,” he said, hopping to his feet. “Finish that, and I’ll bring you another one.”
She beamed at him. “Thank you.” And then she stopped and said, “Oh, my goodness. What about Aleah? How is she? What about the baby?”
His expression changed into a look of wonder. “She had a little girl this morning.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she said, then frowned. “I slept through that.”
“Maybe that was one of the reasons you kept waking up,” he said. “Maybe your subconscious was figuring that out.”
“Have you seen her yet?”
“Not yet, she’s asleep,” he said. “I’ll stop by after this.”
“Well, go say hi to her and then see what you can rustle up for food and more coffee.”
He nodded, leaned down, kissed her gently on the cheek, and said, “Stay safe.”
“Am I in danger here?” she asked in a small voice.
He shook his head. “No.”
“You realize that’s what you said at the hotel too.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me. I’m really sorry about that. And don’t worry. MI6 is pretty upset about the whole deal. They’re scrambling right now, going through the cases that guy was on for the last ten, twenty years, wondering just how much damage he’s caused.”
“Can we find answers to some of the outstanding questions through investigating his life?”
“They’re looking into it, and our guys are as well.”
“Well, I hope so,” she said. “I’m pretty well done with all this.”
He looked at her, smiled, and said, “And what will you do when it’s all over?”
“I have no clue,” she said, “but it did occur to me that it’s a gift in a way. I get a chance to reset my life and to figure out what I want to do and to make a decision. It might even help making my new life happen.”
“In what way?”
“I wasn’t really that happy in New York,” she said. “I found it difficult to meet people. They weren’t terribly friendly. It’s superbusy, superfoggy, and I just wasn’t that happy.”
“So back to California?”
“Maybe,” she said, “but to one of the smaller towns back off the coast.”
“You tell me where,” he said, “and I’ll help you make it happen.” And, with that, he disappeared.
She stared in his wake for a long moment. He’d always been a good friend, and she was just starting to realize that what they had was actually way past good friends. Maybe it had been a case of not the right time for them yet, but maybe it was now.
Shelly settled back in bed and smiled at the idea of a little baby girl being saved at the same time. And Shelly closed her eyes and dozed off to sleep once again.
Shane walked to the nurse, still carrying the two empty mugs, and asked, “Any chance I can see Aleah?”
“I’m not sure if she’s awake yet,” the nurse said, bouncing to her feet, “but let me check.” She disappeared, in a much happier mood this time than the last time he had asked. She came back with a bright smile, so he figured he’d get the go-ahead.
“She’s awake and would like to see you.”
He expressed his thanks with a smile, then stepped into the room. “How’s Momma?”
Aleah beamed at him. “Tired, worn out, and very happy to be a mom right now,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough for saving me. Us, I mean. For saving us.”
“I’m glad that it all worked out okay,” he said. “You sure scared me when you
went into labor.”
She burst out laughing. “Scared you?” she said. “After everything I’d already been through, believe me. That was the last thing I wanted.”
“On the other hand,” he said, “it sounds like your daughter is healthy and doing very well.”
“She is,” she said, looking off to the side at the incubator. “I still can’t believe it really. After everything, plus thinking I would have to deal with those men and give birth in captivity on my own …” She shook her head and said, “This was definitely a much nicer experience and a welcome surprise.” She hesitated, looked up at him, and asked, “And your friend?”
“They did surgery to close up the wound in her head,” he said. “She’s recovering a couple rooms over, but she’ll be just fine. She was pretty lucky.” Aleah beamed at the news. “However,” he added, “there’s no sign of the man who kidnapped you, and we’ve had a missive from him and your father,” he said quietly.
“And?”
“Your kidnapper wants us to do a trade, you for my family, which indicates that he’s gotten them away from your father at some point, or something else is going on that we don’t yet understand. If the kidnapper is capable of having a career MI6 man doing his bidding, then he could easily have people in your father’s organization as well—or vice versa. Your father fired back saying that, if we turn you over to the kidnapper, then my family will never be safe.”
She winced. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I don’t know how to get either of us out of this mess.”
“I know,” he said, “and, to make it worse, now we have governments from several countries involved. I don’t know that there’ll be a happy ending.”
She stared at him soberly. “My father is responsible for a lot of deaths now, isn’t he?”
“Deaths on American soil, yes,” he said quietly.
She stared out the glass window on her door. “Any chance I could get asylum in the US?”
“Is that what you would like to do?”
“I’d like a new start somewhere,” she said.
“And what about your fiancé?”
“Well, as you know, I haven’t had news of him for some time. I would hope that he could join me, but I don’t even know—”
“Hopefully that will work out for you. So is the US where you would want to be?”
“Even asylum in England would work for me actually.”
“But both of them, your father and your kidnapper, could get you a little easier there.”
“Maybe,” she said, “it depends on how this all plays out and who’s left at the end of the day.”
He admired her pragmatism in a difficult situation, and, with a note of humor in his voice, he said, “I gather you’re not interested in being a captive again.”
She shot him a hard look. “Six months was long enough,” she said.
“I agree,” he said, “but I need to get my family back too.”
She sighed at that. “It’s just so awful to think that they treat people like chess pieces.”
“How much do you have to do with your father’s business?”
“I haven’t had anything to do with my father at all in a very long time,” she said. “I think the only reason he really seemed to care is the fact that I’m his only living relative. And, now that I have a daughter, the line will continue.”
“But he has no sons. Does that matter?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve never really felt that from him. The fact is that he doesn’t have a son. There is nothing I can do about that.”
“Let me see if I can find out what’s happening in terms of what the governments are willing to invest in,” he said.
“And find out,” she said, “if maybe I could stay in either one of them.”
“I will,” he said. “We’re not far off from British waters right now.”
“I do have friends here,” she said. “And access to money of my own. I just need to have a safe place to live and where my daughter can grow up without fear.”
“But if you have to look over your shoulder forever,” he said, “that’ll never happen.”
“You need to take care of that guy,” she whispered. “Both of them.”
“I hear you, but that won’t be all that easy. I need to know where my family is first.”
She nodded slowly. “In my country, I fear they would have just killed them.”
“But we’re not there,” he said, “and it’s your country that brought this to ours.”
“I’m so sorry about that,” she said. “And I’m really sorry for your family.”
“I am too,” he said, and, with that, he turned and walked out.
Chapter 12
When Shelly woke again, Shane walked in her room, pushing a trolley. She looked at it and laughed. “I hope you intend on joining me.”
“Absolutely,” he said.
She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. “Breakfast? Or is it brunch already?”
“It’s definitely on the brunch side,” he said. He looked exhausted.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m fine, but we’re still no closer to finding my family.”
“And you couldn’t roust out anything?”
“Our team was working to follow the traffic cams from her home, but we lost them in the San Diego warehouse district.”
“And what about the exchange that this kidnapper guy wants? Wait. The father and the kidnapper both want different deals, right?”
“Exactly. Regardless, the trouble is, even if we get my sister back, there is nothing saying that she or you or Aleah couldn’t be targeted again. By the father or the kidnapper.”
“So, you need to go on an undercover mission and take them down, right?”
“Right, but it’s easier to say than actually accomplish,” he murmured.
“Got it,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll do the right thing.”
He looked at her, smiled, and said, “Life’s easy if you have a Pollyanna attitude about everything.”
“After this week, I am very aware that life’s not quite so easy as that,” she said, “and I also don’t want you to get injured or hurt to the extent that I lose you.”
He looked up in surprise. “I have no intention of you losing me.” He added, “But I also don’t want to lose my sister and her family either.”
“So what’s next?”
“If we can track down where the father took my family in the warehouse district, and then how and where Aleah’s kidnapper got them and moved them,” he said, “we’ll get a team in to confirm they’re there and extract them,” he said. “But, at the same time, we need to get the boss, Aleah’s kidnapper, or it could happen again.”
“And Aleah’s father?”
“I think he’s on his way to England,” he said. “He wants his daughter back.”
“But,” she asked, “does the daughter want to go back?” Shane looked at her, smiling at her response, appreciating again how well she saw the larger picture and got to the point. “She doesn’t, does she?”
“I think she’s quite done with being a pawn in a man’s game,” he said.
She nodded. “And yet her father was refusing to do whatever this guy wanted,” she said. “So doesn’t that make him the good guy?”
“Until you realize that he was quite prepared to kill all those people at your job in order to find somebody who would get his daughter back. Not to mention, taking you and my family to force me to do it.”
“So why does he care so much? They clearly don’t seem close.”
“Well, she’s his only living relative for one thing,” he said. “And she just had a baby, which continues his line.”
“I guess,” she said. “Maybe when he realized he was the last of the males of the family, maybe that made a difference finally.”
“Well, you’d like to think so,” he said, “but I know she wants well out of it.”
“I do too,” she said.
“I definitely do too.”
“Well, let’s put an end to this mess,” he said. “Then I’ll help you go wherever you want to go.”
She smiled at that. “Why don’t you save Prissy and figure out how to get Aleah’s father to stop playing games with his daughter and get him away from whatever this problem is with the guy who kidnapped her.”
“That is a pretty tall order,” he said. And his voice turned even more somber, as he said, “Things like this generally don’t have a happy ending.”
“Meaning, there’ll be some more deaths before it’s over?”
As he nodded, she gave him a flat look. “Honestly I’m surprised there hasn’t been more already,” she said.
“But your coworkers were all innocent people who had nothing to do with any of this,” he said. “We can’t minimize those lives because we’re worried about more deaths.”
“Let’s get this finished, so at least their lives and their deaths mean something,” she said.
“I can get behind that,” he said quietly. “I’ll have to leave you here, you know?”
“Really?” she said, groaning.
“Really. You’ve been kidnapped twice,” he said. “I can’t have that happen again.”
“It was hardly your fault either time,” she protested. “And we can’t stay on the destroyer as the navy’s guests forever either,” she said. “I’m not ill, and I know that Aleah wants to get on with her life.”
“I’m sure she does. She plans to stay here in England.”
“Then let me stay with her,” she said. “Just think. The security would be much easier, if you were looking after both of us at the same place.” He hesitated, and she pushed her advantage. “We’d be together. I’d help her with the baby. She could get back on her feet and regain some strength,” she said. “And we’ll both be safe and have a new friend for support, and you’d only have to guard one space.”
“I’ll see,” he said in a noncommittal tone.
“Which means, you’ll go away, think about it, and decide I’m right and then come back,” she said. “Got it. I’ll plan for that.” He burst out laughing, shook his head, dropped another kiss on her cheek. Only this time she turned, pulled him down, gave him a real kiss.
