AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The next half an hour was a whirlwind of activity. The SEALs went into the house and retrieved the first lady and her son, Noah and Emmanuel, who emerged securely in the Marine’s arms. He was smiling broadly. They stabilized his broken leg, then and put him in the chopper.
Fabrice hugged Maddy so hard, murmuring how happy she was that Maddy was all right. Then they loaded them up in the chopper, flew them to the embassy where her dad met them and hugged her so tight, she swore he was going to fracture her bones, but she hugged him back just as hard.
Then when she turned around, the chopper was lifting. She ran toward it. She had to catch him before he left. She just had to.
But to her dismay, she clutched her hands against her breastbone and watched him disappear from sight, her vision blurred, so many emotions breaking loose inside her that she couldn’t distinguish one from another.
She turned to her father angry and bereft as she dissolved into tears. He told her Shark was being medevacked to Guantanamo Bay for treatment. She didn’t get a chance to even say goodbye or tell him how much he meant to her. Her father was in crisis mode, and not amenable to her request to be taken to Gitmo. Instead, he sent out a team to retrieve her luggage, carry-on, laptop, and purse from the crashed SUV, then she was whisked to the airport and placed on a flight to Santo Domingo where her conference was going to start next day.
That’s where she found herself now, the night after the conference, her flight to Milan booked and ready to take off.
She had everything prepared, but the aftershock of the earthquake, and the subsequent kidnapping, barely had time to process, so she felt as if she’d been walking through quicksand in slow motion, jumping through the hoops. It hit her that she had killed a man, but the regret over the need for that was outweighed by the fact that she had saved herself and Shark. She could feel no satisfaction when her poster and speech were well-received. It felt as if she was functioning on automatic.
The only bright spots in her life were her updates through her father. She had no way of contacting Shark. She’d heard what had happened to Twister and was also relieved to find out that he was going to make a full recovery.
Unable to sleep, she went down to the bar, settling onto a bar stool. She stiffened when she heard a familiar voice. “Madeline, sweetheart. I was hoping to catch you here.”
Benjamin Halstead, her former boss and lover plopped down on the bar stool next to her, grinning at her like they were still involved. He touched her arm, his eyes warming with intimate lights. She reacted by pushing his hand off her, wondering how she could have ever been the woman who had thought he was sexy and attractive. He just disgusted her now.
She glared at him, that disgust making her lip curl. “You have a lot of nerve talking to me like we’re still together.”
He gave her a conciliatory look, and said in a soft, oily tone, “You left so quickly, I never had a chance to tell you?—”
“That you were never separated and that you were never going to get a divorce.” She slapped him hard and then threw her drink into his shocked face. He remained perfectly still and stared at her as if he couldn’t quite believe how she was acting. “You used me, Ben, and to my regret, I let you because I thought you loved me.” She got up, her hands clenching at her sides. “I was a fool. I had no idea what love was and when it was genuinely in my life, I couldn’t face it and I ran away.” She leaned toward him, the smell of her gin and tonic strong. “I found real love, Ben. Real. Can’t get enough of him. Utterly devastating. Forever-after love. He threw his body in front of bullets for me,” she said fiercely, her anger peaking. “I don’t know who I feel sorry for more. Me, because it took me so long, or you, because you’re never going to understand what love really is. Get out of my sight.”
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then slithered from the bar stool, backing up and slinking away.
She ran from the bar all the way to her room. Shark had taken two bullets for her. What was she still doing here? She grabbed the phone and said, “I need to place a call to Washington, DC.”
“Of course, ma’am. Who do you want to reach?”
“The secretary of state.”
“The who?” the man stuttered.
“She’ll take my call,” she said, her voice laced with confidence. “She owes me.”
And Ellie, as she insisted Maddy call her, delivered.
Maddy looked down at the sprawling military base located on forty-five miles of land and water on the shore of Guantanamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. The US had an open lease to the land, which still didn’t sit well with the Cubans.
The chopper came in for a landing, and as soon as she disembarked, a jeep pulled up. “Dr. Towson?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Welcome to Gitmo,” he said, taking her luggage, and setting it in the back, then he took her elbow as she folded down into the jeep’s seat. He got her from Leeward Point to Windward Point where most of the Naval Base operations were housed. When he pulled up to the two-story white hospital building, flanked by palm trees along the circular drive, with a red cross in the center of the facade, Maddy got out and walked inside. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Shark standing at the administration desk, the nurse there finishing up his discharge. She learned from her father that Twister had already been transferred to Walter Reed in Maryland to continue his recovery. But Shark had stayed here as his wound wasn’t as severe.
As he turned away from the desk, he saw her and froze. He was probably thinking he was hallucinating. But his confusion cleared up the moment she said his name.
Her mind was a jumble of thoughts, her heart full of hopes and dreams. She was thoroughly caught as she started toward him.
When she reached him, he said, “Maddy, babe? I thought you were supposed to be in Milan.”
Nearly overwhelmed by feelings too great to express, she gazed up at him, her smile beaming to see him looking so well, her voice catching when she said, “I was, but I thought you might like to go with me seeing as you’re officially on leave until you heal completely.”
“I don’t know. It seems that being around you is detrimental to my health,” he answered, his tone husky. The solemn expression in his eyes altered, changing to a heart-stopping look that made Maddy’s heart roll over.
“You know. No one asked you to take those bullets for me. I could have handled it,” she said brazenly. “I might look like a sex kitten, but I’m tougher than I look. I think I might be tougher than you.” She tilted her head, poked him in the chest, and smiled into his eyes.
