SEAL The Deal (21 page)

The sirens got louder and she could see a red flashing glow in the night sky as two fire trucks arrived at the scene. Devon had restrained Sophie from going inside the office, which was in imminent danger of a full collapse. Parts of the metal roof began to twist and curl like the dried pods of a pepper tree. Glass exploded out into the night air as, one by one, the windows gave up their defenses.

As the water began finding its way into the burning rubble, Sophie turned and buried her head in Devon’s shoulder. She bawled like a girl of ten.

“That bastard. That bastard,” she repeated over and over again, shaking as she gulped for air between sobs. “If I had a gun, I’d go over there and blow his fuckin’ brains out.”

“Stop it, Sophie. You need to shut up.” Devon hoped her stern countenance would bring Sophie back to her senses. A fireman in a rubberized yellow jacket and waders appeared through the smoke like an apparition from outer space, his shiny visor reflecting in the moonlight. Devon wondered if he’d heard Sophie’s remarks.

“This your place?” he asked.

“Hers. Belongs to Sophie, here,” said Devon.

“Anyone unaccounted for? Any pets inside?”

“No,” Sophie said between sobs. “Just everything I cared about in the world. Everything except the rest of the plants.”

“So you’re sure no one is inside?” he asked.

“Absolutely. Wait—nobody that
should
be there.”

“Where were you?”

“I was in my house back there,” she pointed to her own bungalow. “I closed the office at six. Then these two big guys came to the house. Next thing I knew I was being awakened by Devon here. She’s my realtor.”

“Wait a minute, what two big guys?” the responder asked.

“They’re gone now. Two big guys—”

“I saw them running down the field over there.” Devon pointed towards the vineyard.

“So where were you when she was—were you attacked, Miss?”

“I don’t know what they—” Sophie began.

“I arrived just a few minutes ago,” Devon offered. “I found Sophie on the floor, unconscious. But before I walked in, I saw these two guys running away over there.” She hoped the fireman would get back to his crew and stop asking so many questions. Devon had questions of her own, and she was afraid Sophie would start talking about guns and shooting people.

God, where is Nick when I need him?
 She thought about the SEAL, her boyf—was he her boyfriend? Yes, that’s what he was. He’d know what to do. She really needed to call him.

“Okay, I’m going to have our paramedics look you over.” He picked Sophie up and sat her down on one of her porch chairs. It had a perfect view of her burning nursery office. Upon realizing this, he immediately moved her inside the living room of Sophie’s house, laying her down on the sofa. He stepped outside while speaking into his radio.

“Sophie, not a word about the getting even thing,” Devon whispered.

Sophie was in and out of consciousness on the couch, her head lolling from side to side.

“Fuckin’ asshole—” she repeated over and over.

“Team is on their way. Hang on just a minute longer,” he said. Then two dark-uniformed medics ran past him. One was a woman, Devon noted.

Devon stepped back and watched as they checked Sophie’s eyes with flashlights, lay her down on the couch and examined a large bruise bulging just under her right eye Devon hadn’t noticed before.

“Holy cow. I didn’t see that—“ Devon said as she hovered over Sophie to get a better look.

“Excuse me, but you’re gonna have to stand back,” the woman said gruffly. “You the one who found her?”

“Y-yes. She was on the floor over there.”

The male attendant had tried to turn on lights. “Something wrong with the electricity?”

“It was off when I arrived,” Devon answered. “I don’t know what happened. Maybe the guys did it.”

“Guys?” The woman looked up at her, her face reflecting the red pulsations from the fire engine flashers. “What guys?”

“There were two men running away when I drove up. I think they did this to Sophie. She says they attacked her. Drugged her, it sounds like.”

The two paramedics whispered amongst themselves. Devon heard a blood pressure cuff. They’d unbuttoned Sophie’s shirt. With tiny lights held in their mouths, Devon got a view of Sophie’s face, which had turned gray. Her eyes were lifeless.

“She’s crashing,” said the woman.

“Ma’am, I’m going to ask you to step outside,” the man said.

Devon almost got hit with a gurney being brought in by two large male responders. She slipped outside, coughed in the smoke of the evening air, and walked to the back of the house where the air was clearer. She dialed Nick’s cell phone. Thank God he picked it up on the first ring.

“Hey, baby.” His voice was so reassuring. Loud music and background conversations made everything else difficult to hear. But she heard that and immediately her nerves relaxed from the warm timber of his tone.

“Nick, I hate to bother you, but—“

“No bother, sweetheart. What’s up?”

Devon peered through the back porch window. The gurney with Sophie strapped to it flew out the front door. Oxygen had been placed over her nose and mouth as all four attendants ran alongside.

“It’s Sophie.” Devon found herself having trouble breathing. She began running around the side of the house to catch up to them.

“Oh no. Is she—”?

“It’s different than that. There’s been a fire. Nick, she was attacked by two men and the paramedics are taking her to the hospital, I think.”

“What hospital? Find out what hospital, Devon.”

Devon reached the ambulance just as they had slammed the rear doors and the two paramedics had taken their seats up front. She ran to the driver’s side, banging on the closed window, trying to get the driver’s attention. He rolled down the window and looked irritated.

“Where are you taking her?” she asked.

“Memorial.”

“Is she going to be okay?” She asked the driver who had started the van. She held the phone out so Nick could hear their answer.

“Not sure, she’s in shock, and something else is going on. She take drugs?”

“Absolutely not,” Devon started, “But she said they gave her something.”

“Who?” Both Nick and the paramedics asked her in unison.

“She told me her attackers gave her something that knocked her out. She was on chemotherapy until about a month ago. She’s taking something for pain—”

“Look, we gotta go. Sorry. Who’s her doctor?”

Devon’s mind went blank and couldn’t remember. “I’ll find it in the house and call the hospital. Will that work?”

“She needs all the help she can get.”

They drove off, almost sideswiping a third engine that had arrived.

“Oh Nick, did you hear all that?”

“I’m going to the car right now. I’ll be on the next flight up there. I think I can catch the midnight flight. Pick me up at the Santa Rosa airport. I’ll text you the details.”

He hung up without saying goodbye.

Chapter 23

Nick’s plane taxied a short distance and pulled up a few hundred feet from the portable structures of tiny Santa Rosa terminal. Except for the paved runway, it reminded him of a clean version of some of the no-name villages he’d been dropped into in the Middle East.

The welcoming committee in his stomach was jumping up and down with pointed hats stuffed with toothpicks. That part was the same. The crowd in the lobby was a whole lot different, though. No goats, no sand, no hardened faces of men and women who wanted him dead.

Last time he’d held Devon was nearly a month ago, and so the nightmares had started back in earnest. He’d resisted the mindless sex he usually used to relieve the problem. Funny how getting entangled with a woman got him disentangled from himself, and he needed to be with Devon. She distracted his worry, kept him from the nightmares and uncertainty of his past creeping in and spoiling his future. In her arms he knew he’d find himself, because she was now the keeper of the keys.

When he’d left, the escrow had just been opened, as well as their possible future together, without any specific promises made. After Sophie’s property closed, Devon was to come down and perhaps live with him in Coronado, where he hoped their relationship would progress to the next level. He’d missed her even more than he’d thought he would. And he’d actually been feeling a bit shy about his feelings for her, wondering if the timing was too soon, hoping nothing had changed on her part, worrying his need would show too much.

But that was before this latest incident with Sophie and the fire. His sister was in danger, which meant Devon was as well. Being in harm’s way was something he understood. He and his men had signed up for that. But Sophie and Devon were innocents. Nick was good at scouting out the enemy and extracting information, the snatch and grabs. But protecting those he loved—yes, he knew he loved Devon, too—protecting them from evil people here in the states, was entirely another thing. He knew evil existed here. He knew some of the craziness from over there had migrated here and was now inside his own country. But that wasn’t the job he was being paid to do. It was difficult to stand aside and watch as things began to unravel, and people he loved were getting hurt.

A buxom young Hispanic woman was having trouble with her bag, which was stuffed into the tiny overhead bin above his head. Nick stood to help her get it down. Her beautiful dark eyes flirted with him a moment longer than they needed to. He found himself blushing in spite of himself. After he handed her the bag, she tore her eyes off his upper torso, turned, and began making her way down the center aisle towards the front of the plane. Nick watched the carpet as he followed silently behind, trying not to look at the lady’s lovely ass.

Christ, would you get a grip?
He was here to see his dying sister, and he’d been counting the days since he’d last seen Devon, too.

Twenty-two.

As if he’d marked every one on the calendar, Marky teased him relentlessly about his celibacy. It was certainly a record he’d not come close to for six years, ever since the two of them met.

As he deplaned, he spotted Devon behind the iron turnstile and fencing of the outdoor arrival gate. Her dark hair was worn long, just the way his fingers loved it. As he approached, her smile warmed him all the way to the soles of his feet. His small head rose to attention, ready for a long-needed up close and personal. He had a serious snake skin of doubts, worry and pain to rub off, and she was the only one who could do it.

“Hi,” she whispered in his ear as he held her in his arms at last. His body found every surface her soft flesh that he could press against him. She smelled how he remembered; her orange spicy cologne almost made him lose it.

“Missed you, baby,” he said as he bent down to kiss her. His hand migrated up to the back of her neck as he rubbed and squeezed wherever he could get purchase.

They parted. “I’m not sure we can see her, but let’s try. Nick, she’s in ICU.”

“Yes. I’ve been in contact with her attending. She’s pretty sick, and time will tell if she can bounce back. They’re looking for signs of internal bleeding,” he said as he swung his arm around her waist and hoisted his soft bag over his right shoulder. He directed them out the glass doors to the parking lot.

It began to drizzle again, but Nick thought the smell of wet pavement was pleasant. He never liked the odor of the dirty alleyways and sand-filled streets overseas, wet or dry. Tonight, rain protected him in a cool blanket of mist.

Devon pointed to her Lexus so he moved in that direction, still holding Devon tight against his side as they walked. “Have you talked with her yet?”

“No. They wouldn’t let me. I was hoping maybe they would tonight, with you here. I’m not family.”

“Like hell you’re not.” He gave her a squeeze and felt her melt into him even more.

She handed him the keys and they headed south on the freeway towards the hospital.

“So tell me what you know,” he asked. He noticed her eyes were red from crying. “Hey, you okay?”

“Oh Nick, I feel so bad. I was supposed to be back at Sophie’s hours before I got there, but I had some new clients who came in and kept me—“ Devon looked up at him with huge eyes. “You don’t think that was all arranged, do you?”

“You never met those people before tonight?”

“Never. They said they found me through the Internet. Nick, I don’t really advertise on the Internet. The company does that for us.”

“Okay.” Nick didn’t like the sounds of it, but wanted to eliminate the possibility of conspiracy if he could. “But they could have found you that way, right, maybe through one of your listings? Called the company and gotten your information?”

She nodded. “But they had my cell phone number. The secretaries will usually leave us a voicemail if they give out the number. Or an email. I got neither.”

“So what makes you think someone would want to delay you?”

“Just all these little things that add up to one huge coincidence that Sophie was left all alone. Emma was supposed to be there, and I tried to text Sophie, but she never texted me back. Normally, Emma would have done it for her if she was asleep.”

“Did Sophie have an explanation for why Emma wasn’t there?”

“I don’t think she knew. Nick, I can’t remember if I asked her now. She did try to reach her.”

“So Emma might have left Sophie a message, too. Maybe she got held up.”

“Yes. But I didn’t expect that. I left thinking she would show up at her usual time. It was my fault entirely Sophie was left alone. I should never have left until I saw Emma arrive.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about this. Maybe this
was
all orchestrated. But, let’s not jump to conclusions, okay? Makes us all crazy.”

Devon nodded but Nick could see her bottom lip quivering.

“You talk to Emma about this?”

“I will. Tomorrow morning first thing I’ll call her. Sophie said she already left her a message.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes. Devon took a deep breath and continued.

“And there’s more, Nick.”