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“If Mantis had sprung something like this on you…”
She rested her hand on his arm. “This is different. If the situations were reversed and he was telling me he had to go in and extract you, I would understand in the same way I do now.”
Dutch reached out and stroked her cheek. “We’ll leave at sixteen hundred.”
Alegria nodded and moved closer to him, wishing they hadn’t spent the last three weeks arguing as much as they had.
“I’m worried about you,” he said, kissing each eyelid, her cheeks, and then her lips. “You’re very pale.”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. Probably withdrawals from the pain meds messing with me.”
“The doctor told you it was too soon to stop taking them.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. It felt so good to just relax into his comfort.
“Are you sure you want this?” he murmured before he brought his lips to hers a second time.
Alegria backed away, taking his hand, and leading him into the bedroom.
Once there, she pulled her sweater over her head, and then pushed her wool skirt down until it slid from her hips to the floor. Dutch’s eyes traveled the length of her body as she stood before him in nothing but her bra and panties.
“Make love to me, Dutch.” She held her hand out to him as she sat on the bed.
In seconds he was on her, as though he was hurrying to get her naked before he changed his mind. His fingers released the clasp on her bra and he pulled it from her body.
“Lie down,” he said, taking her panties in both hands and sliding them down her legs.
“Please, Dutch,” she begged as he stood above her, studying her body.
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She watched as he undressed, walked to the bedside table, opened the drawer, and pulled out a foil packet. He rolled on the condom and came to rest between her legs. “Do you know how much I love you?”
She nodded, but she couldn’t look him in the eye.
“Manon…”
“I’m sorry…I can’t…” she cried, tears running down her cheeks.
Dutch got off the bed and went into the bathroom. He came back out seconds later, grabbed his clothes, and stalked from the bedroom.
“Get dressed. We’ll leave as soon as you’re ready,” she heard him say.
—:—
Dutch dressed as he went, storming out the back door, into the garage, and over to the punching bag that hung from the rafters. He slammed his fists into it over and over again, cursing his stupidity.
She wasn’t his. She never really had been. Alegria used him to ease the pain of losing Mantis. Why couldn’t he accept that as the truth? Why did he talk himself out of it only to have the reality hit him in the face again? Because he loved her. As much of an idiot as that made him, he’d loved her since the day they’d met.
She was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. She was beautiful, brash, and smart as hell. She had a wicked sense of humor, and for a while, he’d believed he had as much of a shot at getting her to date him as Mantis had. Even then, he’d been lying to himself.
Their drive to Annapolis was silent. When he turned on music, Alegria abruptly turned it off and sat with her arms crossed. She refused to look at or speak to him, although he had nothing to say to her either.
—:—
Sometime during the night, one of the Somalis woke Mantis and handed him a piece of stale bread, a can of tuna, and a bottle of water. After he ate, the same man led him to a hole in the ground where he motioned for him to urinate. After he had, the man led him back to the mattress, chained his legs together first, and then his hands.
The next morning, they dragged him out into the sunlight and tossed him in the back of the pickup truck along with two other men chained like he was. They were blindfolded and gagged before the truck jerked into gear.
