Читать книгу Strategic Engagement - Catherine Mann - Страница 11

Her patience had worn thin.

Mary Elise wanted to call this day over. Now. The cargo plane had finally landed in Charleston, and they were seconds away from exiting the metal cavern that had grown more claustrophobic with each minute closer to the States.

Hitching the sleeping Austin higher on her hip, Mary Elise followed the loadmaster’s lead through the belly of the plane toward the hatch. The remaining hours of the flight had dragged, drawn tight by anxiety over what awaited her once she exited the front gate. What would she do with her life and how would she deal with the possibility that Kent might find her?

Moreover, how would she handle a week alone with Daniel?

She tried to shake off the jangle of emotions. The fear of the unknown had to be worse than reality. Surely once she had a good night’s sleep she could restore her boundaries and do away with the awful vulnerability pricking her insides.

The seal popped and swooshed as the hatch swung open. Her brief nap in the airplane barely made a dent in her weariness. Not that landing put her much closer to crawling into bed and sleeping away the exhaustion and frustration of the past hours. Trey still needed to check in with a doctor about his asthma.

The doctor. Kathleen. The woman who would drop everything just for Danny. Of course if he had someone else in his life, that would free her.

Yeah right, like she’d ever been free of this guy’s ghost. Surely it had more to do with him being her first lover that earned him a special spot in her memories.

Daniel stepped into sight from the stairwell leading up to the cockpit. She eyed the stretch of his shoulders as she made her way toward the exit hatch. What about her spot in his memories? How much importance did she want there?

Daniel pivoted to her. “Let me take the little slugger.”

Austin clung tighter in his sleep, his grip firm around her neck and growing dangerously tight around her heart. “I can carry him.”

“The steps are steep. A tumble will land you both hard.” He leaned to whisper against her ear, his warm breath scented with chocolate and the promise of passion. “Temporary truce. Everything doesn’t have to be a battle between us.”

Score one for Daniel. She passed over the sleeping child and forced herself not to smooth the boy’s tousled curls.

Or the stray lock brushing Daniel’s brow.

Steadying her hand on the metal rail, she descended the steps and inhaled the familiar Southern aromas in front of her mingling with Daniel’s bay rum behind her. The early afternoon sun crested over the band of pine trees and live oaks bordering the stretch of cement. Nostalgia nicked her, the low country of South Carolina so like her Savannah home. A hungry longing filled her to inhale greedy gulps of both the place and the man.

Rubistan’s isolation from temptation had merit.

Mary Elise steeled herself to move forward. The hum of engines from a distant bus, truck and ambulance mingled with the symphony of crickets and June bugs. Autumn in South Carolina resembled the summer heat in many Northern climes. Her silk shirt clung to her back by the time she cleared the last step.

A byproduct of the temperature, damn it, not the lure of home. She had to stop the past from dinging her control.

Guiding a groggy Trey to the side, she waited for Daniel and the others to clear the craft. She flipped a mental switch within herself, shifting from a too-vulnerable woman to analytical reporter mode. She would observe the world around her without getting involved.

One of the copilots, the young guy with a devilish twinkle in his eyes, strutted across the cement, guitar case slung over his back. “Need any help there, sir? I’ve got extra seats in my car.”

He tossed a wink her way, his flirting complimentary without a threatening edge. She allowed herself a smile. Detached, but participating, interacting in normal human exchanges. Something she hadn’t done in so long.

Daniel stepped closer. “No, thanks, Bo. My truck has an extended cab. We’ll be fine.”

“Okay, then. Take it easy, sir.” Bo backed away, morning sun glinting off the copilot’s jet-black hair and perfect features, increasing his fallen-angel air.

Actually more like an impish fallen cherub since the guy was probably all of twenty-five, making Daniel’s hundred-percent adult male hard lines vibrate tension through the air.

Jaw set, Danny cupped her elbow as he guided her toward the waiting crew bus. “Did you want to ride with him?”

Jealousy laced his words. Surprising her. Thrilling her.

“Of course I didn’t.” The answer fell free before she could think to say something that would put more distance between them. Instead she just stared back as the thrill tripped through her, all the while blaming the yearning on a weakness born of exhaustion.

Running footsteps jarred her back to the present. The copilot, Darcy Renshaw, sprinted by toward the waiting military truck. The passenger door opened and a man stepped out, a civilian if his unconventional clothes and spiked hair were anything to go by. His seafoam-colored windbreaker clashed with flowered, knee-length swim trunks. Darcy dropped her flight bag and flung her arms around his neck seconds before he kissed her. Really kissed her, like a man who couldn’t get enough of that one woman.

Screw distance. Analytical observations went up in flames as embers of long-dead dreams sparked. What would it be like to inspire that kind of passion? She and Daniel had been on fire for each other during those uninhibited weeks of lovemaking. But sometimes she wondered if years apart might have painted her memories a deeper shade of red as her discontent in her marriage grew.

Daniel cleared his throat.

Mary Elise glanced up. “They’re married?”

“Nah, still in the newly engaged stage.”

A rush of heat swelled through her. Yeah, she and Daniel had fallen well into that can’t-get-enough engaged state. “Oh. Uh, they seem well suited.”

He patted Austin’s head to soothe the yawning child back to sleep and charged forward, the path past the necking couple the only route toward the waiting ambulance. “They met last summer on a joint mission to Guam.”

“He’s Air Force?” She eyed the man’s nonregulation hair with curiosity, hair currently getting a finger comb from an amorous lady copilot who wasn’t overly concerned about public displays of affection.

“Was CIA. Now he’s a civilian employee with the OSI—Office of Special Investigations. Kind of like the Air Force’s own CIA.” Daniel cleared his throat and urged her forward, not even breaking stride as they drew alongside the embracing couple. “Thanks for your help, Spike. I owe ya one.”

Without slowing the kiss, the man pulled his hand off Darcy Renshaw’s waist and held his palm up for a high-five.

As they strode past, realization crept over Mary Elise. Wren’s spiky-haired boyfriend who looked more like a beach bum than an OSI Special Agent had played a role in the boys’ escape as well.

Had known exactly how much danger his fiancée flew into.

Mary Elise couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder. The air crackled. Desire derived from a day filled with life and death stakes licked the air, scorching her even from a distance.

She turned her back on the image and thoughts of partnerships it inspired. “Spike? A nickname because of his hair, I assume.”

“Yeah. Normally OSI guys don’t get their own call sign, but we made Spike an honorary member of the squadron once he and Renshaw hooked up.”

The air whirled with the dynamics of so many relationships, platonic as well as passionate. Her mind and body went into sensory overload after years of deprivation.

Kent had severed ties from people except in the working environment, later taking even that from her, insisting work-related stress caused the miscarriages. The past months in Rubistan she’d soaked up the teaching time with children like a healing balm after enforced distance from little ones. Even so, those relationships were superficial. She hadn’t been a real part of any community for years.

And then it hit her what bothered her so much about this homecoming, why she wanted distance as a buffer from pain.

Daniel had moved on, made a life for himself with new friends, new direction, ever changing and growing. But she’d allowed herself to stagnate, frozen in time. How telling that when she’d needed help running from Kent’s threat, she’d turned to someone from her past. Daniel’s father. Sure, she’d escaped the immediate danger, but she still hadn’t been able to lower the walls that sealed her from experiencing emotions. She’d focused on survival for so long, she wasn’t sure she really knew how to live anymore.

Entering a world full of feelings, like love—anything—again was a scary-as-hell proposition. And not one she intended to attempt with Daniel anywhere near her.

The man of the hour beside her paused, a new tension radiating from him in waves. She didn’t have to look to know. An instinctive understanding of him that had gone dormant over the years roared to life.

Mary Elise searched the windswept stretch of cement for the source of Danny’s tension. She didn’t have to look far. From behind the driver’s side of the truck, a man in a flight suit slid out with cougarlike stealthiness.

She didn’t know much about military rank gracing the shoulders of flight suits, but even she recognized this man’s air of authority. The adversarial vibes between them snapped along the air.

A shiver ripped through her. This sort of antagonistic relationship she had experienced and understood well. While she’d learned to haul butt in the other direction for self-preservation, she couldn’t squelch a driving desire to fling herself between Daniel and the man stalking toward them.

Time for the crap to hit the fan.

Watching the new Squadron Commander stride forward, Daniel passed Austin to Mary Elise and braced his shoulders. Not that he intended to let things fly now in front of the kids.

He saluted the higher-ranking officer. “Hello, sir.”

The last word bit on its way up and out, but he knew protocol. It was just tougher to swallow with some than others.

Damn he missed the boundary-pushing days of flying cutting-edge test missions at Edwards AFB. But he had to exist in a day-to-day flying job to fill time as well as maintain cover between the higher ordered, dark ops missions that periodically came his way. Like the one he’d just completed when the call came through to retrieve his brothers.

Yeah, he missed the freedom of his old job. But even the beginning of his transfer to Charleston AFB as Chief of Training Flight hadn’t been too bad. Until the new boss took over. Lt. Col. Lucas Quade was nothing like their old commander, Zach Dawson.

The past summer had marked the end of Dawson’s reign as Squadron Commander. While he’d opted to stay on at the base for another year for family reasons, Dawson had shifted to Assistant Deputy of Operations for the Wing. Quade had transferred in from the Pentagon to take his place.

Not a smooth transition in the least for the C-17 squadron. Quade lent a darker shading to the squadron motto, Anything, Anywhere, Anytime. This guy was everywhere, all the time, breathing down their necks. His ever-present scowl could melt the paint off an airplane.

Daniel stepped in front of Mary Elise and the boys, between them and the anger pulsing quietly from the commander. “I didn’t expect to see you back from your TDY to England for two more days, sir.”

At least he’d hoped not when he’d pushed this mission through in the commander’s absence.

“No doubt,” Quade answered, his low growl riding wind that didn’t dare disturb his close-cropped dark hair. “Lucky I was able to cut it short and meet you on the flight line.”

Daniel shot a pointed look toward the bedraggled children then back to his commander. “I’ll be in your office first thing tomorrow morning after I settle them in.”

“Yes, you will, Captain.” Quade nodded to Mary Elise. “Welcome back to the States, ma’am.” Spinning on his heel, he slid away as silently as he’d approached.

Mary Elise drew up shoulder to shoulder. Austin stirred, yawning, stuffing a fist against his eye.

“Crap,” Daniel mumbled under his breath.

Mary Elise cocked her head to the side. “Problem?”

There’d been a time when he’d shared everything with Mary Elise. Her insights had kept his wings level on more than one occasion. But opening that door to the past would invite a host of other issues better left alone when he needed objectivity to figure out what the hell was chugging through that brain of hers. “Normal red tape. No big deal.”

He should be covered, thanks to Spike’s CIA connections. Daniel shrugged off what couldn’t be dealt with until the next day. He’d take the fall in a heartbeat if Quade started gunning for anyone else on the crew.

Daniel tapped Trey on the shoulder and pointed to the ambulance. “You ready to get checked out so we can head home?”

Trey jammed his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Just wanna go to bed.”

More concerns. Where would he put everyone in his condo? A small condo with only one bed—a big bed that he could too well envision sharing with Mary Elise.

A headache started behind his right eye, like a tiny hammer rapping with irritating persistence. “Not much longer and we’ll hit the road. You’ll be in b— Uh, you’ll be tucked in before you can say Hershey’s chocolate.”

Austin pulled his thumb out of his mouth. “Crap.”

Daniel screeched to a halt. “What?”

Trey smirked. “I think he heard you say it.”

“Thanks. I figured that.”

Mary Elise tapped Austin’s mouth. “What’s wrong, hon?”

“Got no jammies. Want my sailboat jammies. Crap.” His thumb popped back in his mouth.

Daniel flinched over the curse, but couldn’t bring himself to reprimand his brother. Poor kid had lost his parents and everything familiar in the span of a couple of weeks. “You can both wear my T-shirts. I have one with an airplane on it, just for you, pal.”

“Mary ’Lise got no jammies, neither.”

An image he did not need, thank you very much. “She can borrow a T-shirt, too.”

Another image no less tormenting than the last splayed across his mind in a tangle of long red hair and even longer legs. In his bed.

“And a toof brush and shampoo?”

Daniel blinked back to the present and Austin’s latest question. “We’ll buy some.”

“For Mary ’Lise, too?”

Already he could see, smell her shampoo in his shower.

The little hammer picked up speed and force in his head, pounding in time with each thud of his boots across cement. “You bet.”

“And toof paste? Bubble-gum kind.”

“Yes,” he promised, rushing to add before the three-year-old question machine could preempt him, “for Mary Elise, too.”

Blessed silence echoed for four strides across the tarmac before Austin’s thumb popped back out of his mouth again. “Need my pull-ups.”

He turned to Mary Elise for interpretation. “Pull-ups?”

Trey snorted. “Diapers. For babies.”

“Am not a baby!”

“Are so.” Trey sniffed. “And no way am I sharing a bed with anybody who still wears a diaper to sleep. Yuck!”

The pounding behind Daniel’s eye morphed into a jack-hammer.

Mary Elise guided Trey alongside while explaining to Danny, “They’re like underwear.”

Daniel willed Austin silent. Please Lord, no mentions of Mary Elise’s underwear from the peanut gallery. “We’ll make a quick stop by the base shoppette for necessities and buy the rest tomorrow. No worries, boys.”

End of bedtime ritual discussions. Life back in control, Daniel forged ahead into the late-morning sun.

Yeah, order. Control. Gained from a logical act of the will.

He led them toward the military ambulance, his old Air Force Academy pal Doc Kathleen Bennett waiting as promised. His freshman year at the Academy, he and his classmate Tanner Bennett had both followed her around like lost puppies. Bennett had ultimately won. For the best, since those two were meant to be together, and he sure as hell hadn’t harbored any feelings deeper than a teenage case of the hots.

The flight surgeon braced her boot on the bumper, tucking a stray strand of wind-whipped red hair behind her ear. Daniel paused in his tracks. How damned strange he hadn’t realized something until just that moment. Every woman he’d ever dated or been attracted to had red hair.

Control spiraled into a nosedive.