Phantom Scars (29 page)

"Yeah, I'm just about perfect," she said in her soft morning voice.

"Just about?" I wanted to know how to make it perfect.

She nodded and pulled out of my arms, even though I pouted in protest. She smiled and leaned over, kissing me softly. "Give me a minute," she said grabbing her robe and walking out. I could either sit here pouting, or I could quickly go pee and try and beat her back to the room and revel in the feel of her in my arms the rest of the day.

I grabbed my robe and ran to the bathroom just off the kitchen. My momma called, "Morning, sugar," after me.

I hollered back, "Morning, Momma!" as I shut the bathroom door.

I peed as fast as I could and grabbed the toothpaste in the cabinet. I washed my hands and then scrubbed my teeth and tongue using my finger, so I didn't have morning breath. I started back to the bedroom, but my momma stopped me, smiling too big. Had she heard what we had done last night? I really hoped she hadn't. I knew Emma would be even more mortified than I was.

"Take this tray of muffins and milk for your girl, baby. You need to take good care of her," she smiled knowingly, pushing it into my hands. "Eat the fruit first, the muffins should last you the rest of the day. I assume you two are spending the day alone?" she asking grinning. I wasn't sure how to answer, but I didn't have to. "I'm going over to Warren's house, honey, so relax and enjoy the time you have left with your wife. I'll call and let you know about dinner," she said kissing my cheek and then walked out of the kitchen. I watched as she grabbed her purse and went out the front door.

I nearly ran into Emma, as she came out of the bathroom door. She giggled and smiled, as she saw the tray in my hand. "Momma said we can have the house alone today, she left for Warren's." I cursed the tray in my hands, wishing I could pull her to me.

She picked a berry off the tray and smiled, walking toward our room. She dropped her robe, as she stepped through the door and looked back at me over her bare shoulder. I wanted to throw the tray over my shoulder and run to her, but I figured I had better bring the food with me.

We were going to need it.

Chapter 55 - Leading the Lamb

I couldn't help but wonder just for a moment if maybe we should have waited until I came back to consummate our relationship, because now that I knew what I would be missing, I was going to be miserable, and uncomfortable. Making love to my wife was beautiful and sweet, not to mention addicting. I not only received the release of an orgasm, but I felt closer to her and accepted by her completely. I was totally hers, and she knew it. I knew she was mine as well. I had always heard that having sex was an intimate act, but I had always assumed that was because two people were naked together. I knew now that wasn't the case. It was intimate because of the emotions exchanged during the act and the level of connection that had been reached between us. She was beautiful when she fully surrendered to me. It amazed me. She was mine, and I wanted to keep her. I didn't want to go.

The shrill of the phone reminded me there was a world outside, and I would eventually have to leave her, going out into it. My momma called, telling me we were all going to be eating at the new Italian restaurant for dinner. She wanted to relax, and she knew that wouldn't happen in her place. I knew my momma, if we ate at our restaurant, she would end up in the kitchen, adjusting the recipes. Even if they tasted fine, she would just have to get in there and do something. That was just how she was.

I relayed the plans to Emma, and she gave me a sad soft smile. Tears were brimming in her eyes, and I knew she knew I would be leaving soon, and this dinner out was just the beginning of our goodbye. I pulled her back into my arms tightly, holding her to me. It was all I could do to keep from crying myself.

"I love you," I said with conviction. I hoped she never would forget that. Heck, that was the whole reason I was leaving. I loved her, and I knew we needed to care for her family. She sobbed softly into my shoulder for a moment, before she squirmed out of my arms and pulled me by the hand out of our room to the bathroom. She kissed me softly, holding on to me, while we waited for the water to heat up, and I held on to her, wishing there was more than tomorrow left.

What the hell was I thinking? I couldn't leave her. Maybe I could still get a job at the textile plant. I wished I could, but the truth of the matter was it was too late to leave Captain Towers without a first mate, and the textile plant hadn't been doing all that well. There had been rumors of it shutting down. They had cut everyone's hours back. Clayton had even been working more at the restaurant than at the plant since I’d gotten home. I think they had him down to less than four hours a day, but they were not firing anyone because of the union. Working for my momma at the restaurant would not be enough to sustain us and care for Emma's family. I had to go.

I gently washed her body, trying to memorize every inch of her skin, wanting to take the memories of it with me on the ship. The trip before me suddenly felt daunting and long. Before, I had always been eager to get out into the world and on the sea. Now, I was just a mess of want and loneliness, and I had yet to leave my girl behind.

I glanced at the calendar on the nightstand as we dressed. It was laid open to June, marked with the day her momma's C-section was planned, and her brother would be born and coming home. In a fit of panic, I had called Captain Towers, frantic after Emma had received the call from the OB/GYN. I knew she shouldn't have to go through that alone. She shouldn't have to lose her momma and gain the responsibility of a baby all in one day without me there to support her.

Captain Towers understood the dilemma and knew this was a unique set of circumstances. When I told him the day the baby would be delivered and then explained how her momma's funeral would take place not long after, he said he would do his best to move things around, so the ship maintenance and restocking was taking place during that time, and he would let me fly home to take care of my girl. Really, he was being more than generous, as I usually oversaw the maintenance and restocking of supplies. I wished there was something wonderful I could do for him to thank him. He was really going above and beyond for me.

"Devin!" my momma called to me across the restaurant, and Emma hid in my side a little more. "Oh, sugar, get you and your pretty little wife over here. You’ve got to taste this food. It ain't southern, but it's
good
. Those Italians know how to cook a feast!" she said enthusiastically and winked at the older woman running the place.

My momma had become good friends with Marie, the lady who ran the restaurant and controlled the menu. Her husband, Joseph, had given her the place to keep her busy according to momma. Apparently, he was into international goods shipping or whatever. Marie came over with menus for Emma and me. My momma stood up and proudly introduced us. "Marie, dear, this is my son, Devin Clemens, and his wife, Emma. Aren't they just the sweetest?"

Emma blushed of course, and I offered Marie my hand. "It’s real nice to meet you, Ms. Marie."

She seemed to glance at our ring fingers and smiled widely. "She's lovely, Abby," she said with a thick accent.

"Isn't she?" my momma gushed. "Can you believe he's leaving her behind to work on a ship with a bunch of stinky men?"

"Momma," I complained, "I’d stay if I could, you know that, but with the baby coming and all..."

Marie's eyes lit up. "A baby? How exciting!" she squealed, clapping her hands in true womanly fashion. Before anyone could stop her, she was shouting out orders in Italian, and large trays of food were brought out.

Finally, she grabbed an older-looking gentleman, who seemed to wander out to see what his wife was up to. "Joseph, beloved, you must come meet my friends. Abby, this is my husband, Joseph, and this is Warren." Marie added a little eyebrow wiggle, causing him to blush and Abby to giggle, taking his hand. "This is her son, Devin, and his beautiful wife, Emma. The Clemens' own the restaurant up the street. I brought you some cobbler from there last week."

Joseph's eyes lit up with recognition. "That was delicious, we're lucky you don't serve Italian, or we’d be out of business."

"My specialty is southern home cooking, I'm afraid I can't wield a pasta maker the way your sweet Marie can."

"You're just being modest," Marie said with a wave of her hand.

"Joseph, tell her that's nonsense," my momma implored. "You know her pasta is the best in this country and probably in Italy, too."

He smiled at my momma and then kissed his wife's temple. "You know, my dove, she's right."

His wife said something back to him in Italian that I believed was probably suggestive, because he pulled her closer and kissed her rather deeply. For some reason, this all seemed to make Warren uncomfortable.

"So, my dove, why are we imposing on this family’s gathering?" Joseph asked, as if he wanted to take her into the back room.

"Nonsense, you're not imposing. You should know by now, in this town, everyone is family," my momma said and winked at Marie.

Joseph reached over and kissed my momma's hand. "That's very kind of you."

Marie smiled widely, as her husband hugged her to his side. "Well, my dove?" he asked again.

"Young Devin has to leave his wife to go out to sea. Little Emma Clemens will be left behind until he returns. He goes to support their growing family," she said the last part with a grin.

Joseph smiled at his wife and spoke to her in Italian again. They exchanged a few words, and it seemed like she was trying to make some sort of point. What, I had no clue, but Joseph stood up suddenly. "That's it! Food is on the house!" he shouted and kissed his wife's cheek then strode off to the office or the restroom. They were both down the same hall.

"What a sweet man, you're really lucky with him," my momma gushed.

Marie cut her eyes at Warren and said, "I'm not the only one with luck, my dear."

Warren asked to be excused to go to the restroom and was gone for a while. I almost went to make sure he hadn't gotten sucked in, but I knew I couldn't leave my girl like that in a strange place. He finally came out, but you could feel the tension rolling off of him. He plastered on a smile and barely touched his food, feigning not feeling well and asked to have a doggy bag to go. My momma and Marie both coddled the faker, and we finally left the restaurant.

Once we got the women inside, and Emma disappeared down to the bathroom, Warren grabbed my arm. "
Sono venuti per
Emma
." I looked at him confused. "I speak Italian, Devin. I did a year abroad in Italy. They came here looking for the girl, they came for Emma. When I went to the restroom, I overheard one side of a heated conversation between Joseph and someone called Victor. From what I gathered, he and Joseph are Dante's brothers. They looked into his death and followed the trail here, and they've come to see what the fuss was about, why he came here looking for a young girl.

"The fire was sent as a message, but it was delivered on the wrong building. Joseph was actually thankful it happened that way, so Abby was able to collect the insurance payout and expand her restaurant. His wife, Marie, truly cares for Abby. Marie has him wrapped around her little finger, and he doesn't want to do anything to hurt her. His wife was fighting with him about 'the girl' over dinner. Something about how they had no file and no proof that Emma was ever Dante's property, and the dirty old fool got what was coming to him for trying to steal another man's wife."

I was trying to control my breathing. I had taken my girl right into the lion's den. Thank the Lord we had made it out! I was going to have to start attending church with momma, if my girl kept attracting this kind of trouble. We would need all the divine help we could get!

"This Victor fellow wasn't completely convinced that you didn't steal Emma from Dante, but Joseph insisted that if there was no paper trail marking her as his property, then they needed to leave her alone."

I remembered Emma said she had taken her file when she had run away. She had taken it to see who had sold her and maybe find out why she had been chosen. Having that file missing was the godsend that was saving her now.

"From what I could make out, Joseph will be closing the restaurant and moving on to other things in the next month." Warren rubbed his face. "I think it's for the best if the women don't know this, so they can continue to play sweet and dumb. If they start acting nervous now, the Italians might get suspicious."

I didn't like this, and I wondered secretly if I could squeeze Emma into my duffle bag. She was still pretty small, and it was rather large. I really didn't want to leave her now, especially with the Italian mob right at our doorstep, but what choice did I really have?

What was I going to do now?

Chapter 56 - While the Cat's Away…

Leaving went against everything I believed, with the very fiber of my being wanting to revolt against me. My body did not want to move toward the ship. I could not leave Emma. I didn't want to leave her, especially not while the Italians were still in town, but it was too late. We had put off our ship-out date as far as possible. Any later and we would hit storms on the other end of it. There was a risk early storms would hit us as it was.

Emma and I had spent our last night together wrapped up in each other, and it took all the control I had not to lose it in front of her. I knew doing so would do neither of us any good, and it would make my departure all the more difficult. So, we just held on and made love until we both passed out from exhaustion.

I had spoken with Warren and Jessup, making sure both would keep a close eye on her. Jessup went so far as to suggest putting up surveillance cameras. Warren was about to nix the idea, but I agreed. I wanted my girl watched every moment of the day. I slipped Jessup my house key and made him promise to look after Emma. He took his job protecting my girl very seriously, since I had helped save his.

Jessup didn't tell me all the measures he would take to protect Emma, because he said I might be compromised. I was going to disagree with him, but I remembered he wasn't quite all there still. The crazy thing was that fact made me feel better. If anything, she would be too safe, if that were possible.

Warren and my momma came to walk Emma and me to the ship. I hoped she would be alright. Warren had given her a little something extra, to help her keep it together as she watched me leave. Most of the men didn't have serious girls, so my family was the only ones there to say goodbye. Captain Towers came to say hello and offer condolences to my wife on her momma. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her deeper than was probably polite for being in public, but no one complained or said anything. Captain just patted my shoulder and promised to get me back to my girl as soon as possible. As I boarded the ship, I left my heart there on the dock with my wife.

I called that night and found out from my momma that Jessup had let Vivien take over his duties at the post office. My momma was pleased, because Vivien would accept stamped mail and sell stamps as well. I had a feeling the change had been made, so he could look after my girl. When I spoke with Emma, she broke down in tears, and my momma reassured me she would be having Emma staying in her room with her, so she wouldn't be alone at night. She didn't know it, but that made me feel like Emma would be was a whole lot safer.

I knew my momma had a couple of guns in her nightstand courtesy of Warren. I just hoped they didn't accidently shoot Jessup. I pulled up the secure website link Jessup had given me. I let him know I would take the first shift, so he could get some sleep. I would call him before I retired that night.

I was going to go nuts, when we ended up out of range. The delay of the satellites would not be safe. I would have to turn it all over to Jessup and Warren. July would not be coming fast enough. I wanted to get home and see for myself that the Italians were gone.

I spent the next several nights watching my girl sleep. My momma complained about a raccoon outside the window. I had Jessup look into it. Turned out it was him. He had taken to sleeping under their window just to be safe. "If something were to go down on your watch, it’d be over by the time I got across town," he explained. He was right, and I was thankful he'd thought of it.

Warren was covering for him with the women. Vivien had been talking to my momma about a new therapy that had been keeping Jessup up overnight to help with the night terrors. I watched the cameras the next morning, as Warren walked my momma and Emma from the car into the restaurant, and I shifted cameras to watch them enter the building. My breath caught, as I saw Marie and Joseph were there enjoying breakfast with another man. I didn't like the way he was eyeing Emma and quickly called Jessup. I could see their mouths moving, and I knew they were speaking Italian by the way Warren tipped his head to listen in. I wanted to call him and demand to know what was being said, but I knew I had to wait. I didn't like this. Not one bit.

"If you come back now, you'll blow the cover," Warren explained.

"Can't we lie and say there was something wrong with Emma's parents?" I asked.

"She’d have to go along with it, and I don't think she could handle this right now, Devin. She's in a very fragile state as it is. You're her support, her rock, and you're out of reach. To expose such a threat so close to her with you being so far away, it would send her into a catatonic state."

"Well, at least tell me what the heck they were saying! I know you were listening."

He let out a sigh. "The other man was Joseph and Dante’s brother, Victor. He's the one who didn't believe she was nothing. He wants to look into it more. He’s spoken to the men who were originally sent after her, and they let him know she really was Dante's, but they don't know why there’s no record of her. They pointed out that this was the girl they’d had to hide from ‘that rogue, Detective Declan.' Marie had a fit and insisted they'd made a mistake, because her father was nowhere in sight. They tried to bring up the marriage certificate and the use of her name, but she insisted it could be a misspelling. Marie is doing everything in her power to save your girl. I'm going to have to try and come up with some other version of her name that would look like Declan. Do you have a copy of the certificate?" he asked.

"I do," a voice broke into our conversation. "I’ve got it in my files. I can doctor it up and bring it by, as if it’d gotten caught up in the mail. I'll set it right in front of them, so they can all see it was a mistake," Jessup said.

I didn't know how he had gotten in on the conversation, but I was glad he had.

"Maybe I can say something, and Warren can remind me her name isn't Deutschen anymore but Americanized, so they can see where the mistake was made. Do you know if anyone you've seen there ever saw your girl living in the kidnapper's house?" Jessup asked.

"No, they were all brought on as extras after the explosions killed most of Dante's crew. We lucked out on that one," Warren confirmed.

"That wasn't luck, but at least it played into our favor," Jessup added.

I just hoped Jessup was wrong, and luck was on our side, or God. Yeah, we definitely needed God right about now.