by Dale Mayer
“I didn’t say that,” he said, his tone grumbling.
She looked at him. “No, you didn’t, but you’re not saying anything in the other direction either.” She took another step back, shoved her hands in her pockets, and said, “Go on and save the world now. We’ll be fine here.”
She picked up her bag and placed it on the bed, ready to unpack her few things. Inside, she was shaking. She had been so damn sure that he felt for her what she felt for him that it had never occurred to her that he was completely flummoxed by it all. Or that he wasn’t in the same boat. She’d never felt lonelier in her life, as if everything in her world had just come crashing down. Yet she had no idea why. She’d never thought of him as a lover until this mess.
But he’d been the first one she would have depended on and the first person she’d call if she were in trouble. Even now, the thought of going back to California felt right because he was there. How much of what she wanted was because he would be there? She slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. When she heard his voice again, she looked at him, startled, because somehow she thought he had left. “What?” she asked.
“I said, I care,” he grumbled.
“I’m sorry. Of course you care,” she said. “We’re friends. We’ve been good friends for a really long time.”
“Exactly,” he said. “It’s not a good idea to change that.”
“That’s just old talk in your head,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “The bottom line is, if you don’t feel anything, then that’s just the way it is,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what good old friends we are or whether this is what I want or not. It has to be mutual. And, if that’s not the case, then nothing is here. So we’ll just go back to being friends. It’s not like we ever changed that anyway.”
She got up and resumed putting away her things. As she went back to the bed for the third trip, studiously ignoring the big stalwart presence in the small room, she was snatched into his arms and held against him. She looked up at him in surprise. “What brought this on?”
“You,” he said in despair.
“It’s okay,” she said. “We’re still friends. That’ll never change.”
“Yes, it will.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “It’s okay, you know?”
He shook his head, as if unable to speak, then his arms crushed her even tighter against him. She settled in, not sure what was going on, but willing to see where this was going—although she felt the hot tears inside, the tears of loss that he didn’t feel what she did.
Finally he let out a deep breath. “I have to leave,” he said.
“I know you do,” she said, immediately withdrawing.
He shook his head. “No,” he said, “I can’t leave it like this.”
“But you have to go. We don’t have time to talk out the whole thing.”
“I know,” he said. “So this will have to do for now.” He gently tilted up her chin, and he crushed her mouth with his, sending shards of passion and heat spiraling through her and shooting down to her toes. By the time he lifted his head, he looked at her with satisfaction. She could barely even keep her eyes open to see him. “Much better,” he said, and then he let her go.
She stumbled backward. “What the hell was that all about?” she cried out, reaching out a hand to stabilize herself in a world suddenly awry.
“I couldn’t say the right words,” he said, “so it felt like action was better.”
She stared at him mutely, still dumbfounded. “I see. Do you want to explain that?”
“I think you can figure it out from here. I’ll see you when I get back.” And, with that, he whistled and headed out the door.
As he walked away, Shane heard Shelly throwing things at the door, and he laughed out loud. Diesel looked at him, heard the items banging against the wall, the door, the floor, and asked, “What’s that all about?”
“We just have to clarify a few things,” he said with a big grin.
“Ah, so you’ll finally take my advice, will you?” Diesel said, beaming.
“I think I am,” he said. “I couldn’t find the right words back there just now, but I think I found the right actions.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Just then the door opened, and Shelly screamed down the hallway, “Stop scrambling my brain!” Then she slammed it shut again.
Diesel howled. “A perfect match, just like I said.”
“Well, better than I thought anyway,” Shane said. “I don’t know how, but I didn’t see it at all.”
“Well, it may not have been there before either,” Diesel said. “Maybe you both had to get to the same time and place.”
“Well, we’re there now,” he said. “Wow.”
“You sure you’re ready to head out and do some work now?”
“Yep, we need to make sure this place is safe, or as safe as we can make it.”
“And MI6 showed up?”
“Yep, three men.”
“And Gavin?”
“He says that two of the MI6 men he trusts. He doesn’t know the third one,” Shane said.
“Which means we’ll automatically look at him as a weak link.”
“But no guarantee that he is.”
“No, of course not,” he said.
“And just thinking about it will put us in the wrong spot.”
“Told ya,” he said, grinning at his buddy who found love.
“I guess,” Shane said. And, as they walked back outside, he turned and looked around. “Can’t even see anybody, so that’s good.”
“You want to just stand guard?”
“I feel like that would be way too obvious.”
“Well, it would also give you something to think about other than your family,” Diesel said. “And Shelly.”
“I would much rather be rescuing my sister right now,” he said with a growl.
“Can’t afford to be thinking about that. Come on,” Diesel said.
“I know, but only because they’re still in the US and I’m here in England.” They stepped off to the side into the brush, as Shane turned to look around at the small house, settled in a little bit of the countryside, a good twenty miles out of London. With little houses on either side but set on large properties, so they weren’t butted up against each other.
“We don’t know for sure that anybody knows about this location, right?” Diesel asked.
“No,” he said, “and that’ll be one of the issues, so we can’t slack off.”
“But waiting will be hard. We have to do it all at the same time.” Just then his phone buzzed. Shane pulled it out to see a text message from Gavin.
Op in progress.
He winced and put it away. “Well, that’s not helpful,” he muttered. “The op to rescue my sister is in progress, and now I just have to sit here and wait.”
As he stood in the shadows, a bullet soared over his head, nearly parting his hair. He swore and dropped to the ground, then turned to see Diesel on the ground beside him. They looked at each other; then they split up, going in opposite directions. Shane wasn’t sure what the hell was happening, but, as far as timing went, this one didn’t really give them a chance to adjust. He quickly sent a message to Shelly that they were under attack and to stay inside and away from windows. Then he turned off his phone and shoved it in his pocket and headed toward the shooter.
Three other men—MI6—should be out here somewhere, supporting their effort to protect the women, but, as Shane raced forward, his foot caught on something, and he hit the ground hard facedown in the shrubs. Pulling himself back up, he turned to see what he had tripped over to find one of the MI6 men dead—dressed in black ops gear, his own weapon still beside him.
Swearing, Shane grabbed the weapons and quickly melted into the shadows. He had no idea how many enemy operatives were here, probably more than they expected. Could be a large group. When a voice called out, he strained to hear it. But then he heard his name.
“Sha
ne, get your ass out in the open. You’ve got my daughter,” he said. “I want her now.”
“That may be,” he called back, “but you’ve got my family, or do you?”
“I said I wanted a peaceful exchange.”
“Maybe so, but you haven’t even taken out the asshole who did this to your daughter.”
“Well, he’s here too, as it turns out,” he said. “We’re on a peaceful mission together to make sure we get her back.”
“And how is that possible?” Shane cried out.
“The asshole who kidnapped her is the father of her child.”
What the hell? he thought to himself, in shock. That’s not at all what he had understood from Aleah. When there was no more word, he tried to wrap his mind around that and then shook his head. He didn’t believe it. “That’s bullshit,” he shouted.
The man laughed. “Well, it was worth a try.”
“Where’s the guy who kidnapped her in the first place?” he said.
“Dead,” he snapped.
And there was such a wealth of satisfaction in his voice that Shane tended to believe him, yet he knew he couldn’t really trust anything this guy said. Maybe the guy who pulled off the kidnapping was dead, but Shane didn’t think the perpetrator behind the kidnapping was dead. “Well, I’ll need proof of that,” he said.
“Well, you won’t get it,” he said. “I want my daughter.”
“I want my family.”
“Well, how about I leave your little girly here alive?” he said. “I could have killed her back in New York, you know? But I opted to leave you that one.”
“I want my family, and I want you to leave them and Shelly alone,” he snapped, sidling closer, until he noted where the voice was coming from. And damn if it wasn’t from the house beside him. He shook his head. “Did you kill the occupants of that house?”
“Roadkill,” he said.
“What if your daughter doesn’t want to go with you?”
“Too damn bad,” he said. “I’ve gone through too much to leave her in your care now.”
None of this made any sense. “Are you sure she’s even your daughter?” Shane asked. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here, but, considering how very little contact you’ve had with her over the years, this doesn’t make sense.”
Just then Aleah’s voice called from inside the house, “Yes, it does make sense now, Shane. My new baby daughter is the heir to a decent fortune,” she murmured. “The father of my child, his lineage, combined with my own, that’s what my father wants to get his hands on.”
“Aleah,” her father said, “get out of that house now. Come on. We have to go home.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said. “I’m staying in England, where Interpol is looking for you, so you can’t very well stay here, much less return.”
Shane heard silence, then grumbling.
“No,” he said, “you’re coming back where you belong.”
“Only to get kidnapped again by somebody else in your world? No,” she snapped. “I won’t.”
“I’m not giving you an option,” he said.
“I’m not a child anymore, Father. I can live wherever I please.”
As their discussion went back and forth, Shane watched in the shadows, as Diesel shifted his position, and Shane knew things would blow up here very fast.
“You can’t have her,” Shelly called out. There was a moment of silence and then an ugly response.
“You have no say in the matter, and you just earned yourself a bullet between the eyes.”
At that, Shane shifted and looked again to see Diesel coming up on the side of the neighbor’s house.
“That won’t happen,” Shelly yelled, “but you’ll get yours. You killed eleven of my coworkers, just to test Shane,” she said. “Well, he saved your daughter, and here you are, still being an asshole.”
“There are always assholes in the world,” the father replied. “You just have to make sure you’re the bigger one.”
“But you weren’t,” she said, “because somebody yanked your chain and stole your daughter.”
“Well, he’s dead,” he snapped. “And so are you.”
Immediately bullets were fired at the front of the house. As Shane went to step forward, a gun came up against his neck. He froze, dropped to the ground, then kicked and fired. Taken by surprise, his assailant went down without a struggle. At that, Shane noted complete silence surrounded him. Moving quietly through the brush, he headed toward the last sighting of Aleah’s father.
Just then came another shout.
“Well, you got one,” the father said. “But half a dozen more are out there after you.”
At that, Shane froze, then thought about it, and shook his head. He continued to move silently through the trees. At one point, he was almost back up to the road. He stepped in behind a particularly nice wide bush and grabbed the lowest branch of the tree beside him and crawled up. When he was up a good ten feet high, he studied the layout. The front of the house had been riddled with bullets. Lights were on in several neighboring houses, and dogs were barking everywhere.
As far as the father though, he stood in the front of the neighboring house, completely unconcerned about getting shot. Which meant that he either did have a number of men in the woods around here, or he was completely encased in something that would save him. It was too dark to see. He did have something over his face. Even taking a bullet to a bulletproof vest was a hell of a blow though. It could cause bruising and soreness for days.
Just then, as Shane watched, the man stepped back and called out to his daughter again.
“Aleah, come out. I don’t want to have to come in there and get you.”
“I’m not coming out,” she said, in a world-weary voice. “I’ll marry Renault, and we’ll move to London.”
“That won’t happen,” he said. “You’re my only blood, and you have my only grandchild,” he said. “You need to come home.”
“There’s no home for me with you, not like this,” she said. “And now that you’ve senselessly killed so many people, you know Interpol will seek you out for the Americans.”
“I did it to save you,” he cried out.
“Yes,” she said, “you did, but the end result is I can’t go anywhere now without knowing that’s what you’ve done. You didn’t have to kill those people.”
“I did,” he said. “There was no other way to make sure they knew I was serious.” There was silence at that.
Until, of course, Shelly yelled out, “You didn’t have to kill the people in my office. They were completely innocent. They didn’t deserve that.”
“None of us deserve anything,” the father snapped. “I didn’t deserve to have my whole life ripped out from under me when my daughter was kidnapped six months ago.”
“I’m surprised that you care,” Shelly snapped.
Shane winced, wishing she’d stay quiet, but she was as feisty in captivity as she was at any other point in time.
“I care,” he said. “Aleah is my cherished daughter.”
“Father, as you well know, we haven’t had anything to do with each other in a very long time,” Aleah cried out. “I don’t understand what’s suddenly changed.”
Just then a new voice entered the fray. “What’s changed is that you are owed to me,” the stranger said.
There was a shocked silence, before Aleah called out, “Owed to you? What are you talking about?”
“Yes,” he said. “You were given to me many, many years ago, when you were just a child. We have a contract, and your father was paid a handsome dowry. When he refused to hand you over, I took you myself,” he said. “But imagine how I felt to find out that you were not pure, and, worse than that, you were carrying another man’s child.”
“Well, since I didn’t know anything about this arrangement,” she said, “I can hardly be judged for having found somebody I love.” In the silence, Aleah’s voice cried out again. “Is it true, F
ather? Did you sell your cherished daughter to this man?”
There was still only silence.
“See? He can’t answer you to deny my claim. Not only did he receive money but he also received backing. Political backing, financial backing. He cannot step away from this,” he said.
“But you don’t even want me anymore,” she said, her voice angry.
“I don’t want some crying brat, but I will take you,” he said. “But you are certainly not what I expected, so you won’t be my only wife. But together we will have children.”
Jesus, Shane thought to himself. What the hell is this? But, of course, in these other cultures, particularly anywhere in the Middle East, the rules of family and marriage were very different, and difficult for women, who were little more than possessions.
As Shane listened, Shelly piped up, “She’s already made a choice, and you weren’t it. She loves the father of her child, and she wants to spend her life with him. You made a pact with the devil, so deal with the devil yourself.”
At that, the stranger gave a snort. “That’s not a bad idea,” he said. “If he can’t return the money and pay me back for all the other benefits he enjoyed, he might as well be dead.”
At that, Shane slipped down the tree and raced forward, until he came up on the other side of the house.
Aleah’s father called out, “We have an agreement, a pact. He’ll say whatever he can to get you out, but he won’t shoot me any more than I’ll shoot him.”
“Are you so sure about that?” The stranger’s silky voice permeated through the darkness once again.
“Yes,” the father said, “because I am privy to an awful lot of secrets that you don’t want revealed.”
“Just like the information I have on you,” the stranger said.
“Therefore, we protect each other as planned.”
“Or I just shoot you, and any secrets you hold stay hidden,” the man said.
“Aw, but then you have to trust that I haven’t implemented a plan to send the secrets out to the world upon my death,” he said calmly.
Such a sense of arrogant assurance filled Aleah’s father’s voice that Shane wasn’t sure who or what to believe. “They’re both nuts,” he whispered to himself. Nobody was around him in the darkness. Pulling out his muted phone, he sent Diesel a message. Anyone around you? I have one down.
