Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) (46 page)

“You know you never do that to someone you want to question,” Kevin said.

“I do not want to question you, now or forever!” She clutched Ian’s arm to her and pulled. “Com’on, Ian. I have a car—”

“And I have a room. We will talk. Eventually.”

She led him to her car. “Eventually?”

“Once you have calmed a bit.”

She said nothing in the car, preferring to concentrate on navigating the light traffic. Ian had made a single phone call, to confirm the address of the hotel. She followed him through the lobby into the elevator and down the hallway to the room at the end. Though she trailed him, she had the feeling he was doing as she demanded.

He tapped and the door swung open so quickly Elena must have been forewarned. But no: “I saw you getting out of the car,” the woman explained as they came in. “I’ll run down and get another room. I’m sure they’re not full.”

“Not on my account,” Beckie said. “I’ll be with Ian, wherever he is.”

“Oookaaay,” Elena muttered. “That’ll be… here. I’m next door and Kevin’s gonna be across the hall. Unless…”

“Fine with me. Ian?”

“Fine,” he agreed.

Beckie wondered if he was in shock. She grinned at him as Elena showed herself out. Before she closed the door, Beckie said, “Please put the Do Not Disturb thing in the lock, Elena. We have a lot to talk about. Oh! Thank you again for the training.” Beckie’s smile might have split her face, but Elena looked confused. “It comes in handy at the most unexpected times.” Damn! I’m blushing again.

Alone. Alone with Ian.

“Rebecca…”

Beckie went to him, pushed him to sit on the bench at the foot of the bed. She pulled the armchair out from under the lamp, placing it to sit before him. Curling up in it, she tucked her legs beneath her. A couple of wipes to smooth her skirt and she raised her eyes to his. “We need to talk.” She took a deep breath. How to begin?

“Strange as it may seem…” She fixed her gaze on his eyes, his bright blue eyes. “I hated what J.K. Rowling did with Ginny and Harry at the end of the series. I know, you didn’t expect a literary critique, especially now,” she said, holding up her hand as the confusion in his expression threatened to spill into words. “What she did was true to her characters, but for me, she missed an opportunity to… to… We knew Harry would push Ginny away when he sensed his mortal danger. He had to.” As she continued, she reached up and unconsciously pulled her ponytail out and began to twist the strands together. “So having him send her away, that was okay. But neither of them paid a price for that, except for being apart.”

Her head was down as she worked on her hair, but she could look up under her brows at Ian’s face. He’s still confused. “Yesterday, or day before, Amy and I were sitting on a bench watching Lissa and Ginny work the horses. Meili, Noorah and Tahirah were down by the arena, about forty feet away.”

She sat up and flipped her hair to her back, then rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand. “I saw Mike running toward us from the side. He raced up and grabbed at us, but missed. He got Amy’s shirtfront and my sleeve. I tried to yell, you know, what? but he just heaved like hell. Fear and anguish were all over his face. His eyes… I could see the whites. His mouth was open and his teeth were clenched as he pulled. My shirt stretched and yanked on my side as he kept on.”

She wiped her cheek again, then placed her hands firmly in her lap. “His eyes went up as he dragged us off the bench, and he got even more determined. I hit the ground and at the same time I heard a crash with a metallic grinding and crunching sound, massive loud and way too close!” She took another deep breath, trying to calm herself.

“When I could look around, Amy lay flat on her back beside me, shirt gone. A car had impaled itself on the bench where we’d been sitting. I kind of twitched and found myself lying on Amy.” She gave Ian a tentative grin. “Later I told Mike it was to protect him from seeing her perfect breasts, but right then we just hugged and hugged, both of us crying in relief and shared, you know, survivorship.

“By then, a bunch of people were there checking on us and the people in the car—they were all okay except shaken up—and when Mike helped us up, we both hugged him as hard as I’ve ever hugged anyone… even you…” She’d draped her hair over her shoulder and was again running fingers through it trying to decide where to go. “That’s what I thought about on the plane here. You sent me away, I guess to protect me. And I nearly died anyway. That’s what I wanted Harry to learn. The thing you and I had to learn.” She covered her eyes to hide her tears. “Life doesn’t care.” She uncovered her eyes and sat forward, almost unbalanced on the front edge. “I got the message. I’m gonna stay with you, now and forevermore.

“How about you?” She sat back, hands on her knees, waiting.

She waited a lot longer than she wanted to. Perhaps a minute, or even two passed while Ian’s face went to a myriad of different places. She watched the changes; they didn’t sooth her.

Finally, he spoke. His voice was so soft she had to lean closer to hear. “Rebecca, I love you. I love you so much. And the permission you gave me, to towel you dry and… take care of you.” God, it
was
that! Does he hate me? He’s still talking. “… wonderful. At the same time, it made me realize I could not abide even the thought of loosing you, whether to deluded Arabs or… Or anything. I could not live with myself if something happened to you… If I lost you.”

“But…”

“Wait a moment please. I have come to discern that, once again, in assuaging my feelings, I am ignoring you as a person. I am treating you as someone who is there for
my
, not pleasure, exactly, that is not what I mean. But not accepting that you are a separate person, with ideas and dreams that may not always run in concert with my own.” He reached over to take her hand. “I cannot say I will never make that error again. I will try, however.”

“I can accept that,” Beckie said. “Just…” Her voice dropped; she had to imbue these words with significance. “Don’t ever send me away to protect me. I feel the same way about you. I died a thousand deaths in the plane after Patrice picked me up. And again when Millie…” She clapped her free hand over her mouth. “Well, I don’t need to talk about that. I love you Ian, all the way to death and back. I want to be as close to you… as close to you as sweat, though that may not be the most appetizing picture.” Thank God, he’s laughing!

“I will try not to give you cause to regret this.”

“I know. Now, to be clear. I don’t know if Millie told you, but she did me, we shouldn’t make love…” Her blush came back. “Anyway, we can’t yet, for another three weeks.” She stood, flipped her skirt and sat on his lap. Throwing her arms around his neck, she looked into his face and tousled his short blond hair. With a little smile, she said, “I’ve waited nineteen years. I can wait three more weeks. And she didn’t say we couldn’t be close. Real close.” She wriggled in his arms. “Okay, I’ll slow down, a little.”

He dropped his embrace, allowing one hand to press her back while the other caught her hair, played with the long strands. “How are your ribs?”

“Millie told me they’d be a bother longer than your skull would need to heal, but…” She leaned her head back to observe his sparkling blue eyes. “You didn’t hear me scream when I took Kevin down, did you?”

“No, except for a few oofs and a grunt—which may have been Kevin—you executed a perfect silent take-down. I was comforted, more than I expected.”

She gave him a look before resting her head on his chest. “Well, the ribs complained, but much less than even a day ago. Millie said—”

“You will make me tape you again?”

Her head came up almost as fast as her shock. “You… you didn’t…” She couldn’t finish.

He laughed again. What does that mean? “I did not what? You cannot believe that I did not enjoy every second, nay, every microsecond of that morning. However, I fear my control may fail us.”

Oh God, that’s better. That’s okay. “We could’ve dealt with it,” she said with a grin, “but Millie said I don’t need the tape anymore.” She moved to sit on his knees with her legs astride him. She took his hands in hers and clutched them to her chest. “Please be sure about your answer. Are we okay, Ian?”

There was no pause this time. “We are fine, Rebecca. I love you. You love me. We cannot possibly be better.”

With his help, she pulled them together. Their kiss was secondary to the feelings they shared.

Sometime before midnight, she sat up and straightened her clothing. She turned to see Ian watching her. “God, that was brilliant! You’re brilliant! However…” She stood and went to the phone. “I’m starved. Let’s chance room service, okay? And then you can tell me what you guys are doing here, since I sure didn’t expect you, and I guess before Kevin grabbed me, you didn’t know I was here, either.”

“Order first, then we can discuss our individual and joint missions.”

Outside the window, the sky was dark and the stars bright looking away from the city. The dinner was acceptable, though Beckie acknowledged it only in passing. They talked for two hours, each telling their story. Beckie admitted her anger on Alisha’s behalf and Ian explained the unexpected payday offered by the attempted mass murder at Wembley.

“Funny how things run together,” Beckie said. She curled up, a small lump of woman under the blankets. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk to Elena and Kevin and plan the approach to Reverend Billy at breakfast. Okay?” She looked up into his face.

“Yes, mistress. As you wish.” She was sure he faked his meek little smile.

Chapter Forty-Three

Day Forty-seven - Kansas City

BECKIE AWOKE TO FIND HERSELF spooned with Ian the way she had been with Amy a couple of mornings earlier. This is so nice. I could stay here… Ian moved and she clasped his hand to her chest even tighter. “I know how this feels. I was holding Amy just like this… whenever it was.”

He breathed on her neck; she quivered in delight. “Did you do that as well?”

“No, more’s the pity,” she said, rubbing herself to relax. “Now, I won’t get the chance to see how she reacts.” She stretched without breaking contact. “I told her everything, you know. How we met.” She rolled over in his arms and nuzzled her head against his chest. “She asked, so I told her. From Hawai’i to Thailand. She was a good listener, gasps and ooo’s in the all the right places.”

“Perhaps you should tell me the story sometime.”

“Nah. You’d be bored. You and me, we’ll find new things, and we’ll do them together. Once we clean up here.” She sat up and tried to straighten the borrowed tee-shirt, pulling it down to her hips.

“I will say that shirt looks far better on you.”

“Pfaugh.” Beckie snorted her amusement and derision. “That’s what you guys always say.” She slid out of the bed and walked to the bathroom. “Ten minutes…” She stopped at the door. “Unless you want to go first?”

Forty-six minutes later, Beckie walked into the hotel dining room a step ahead of Ian. The marble-topped tables for four were strangely reassuring. She took a chair with its back to the wall; Ian sat beside her facing the entrance.

A little rising motion allowed her to sweep her skirt smooth beneath her. Before leaving the room, she had turned and spun for Ian, concerned the altercation with Kevin had split a seam or torn either the skirt or shirt. However, neither of them could see anything to be concerned with—“As long as you wish to be seen as a fifteen year-old out by herself for the first time.”

She riposted that he’d hit the mark; he’d described exactly the look she wished to spring on Reverend Billy. A look to put him in mind of Sarah, his granddaughter, since she couldn’t very well evoke David, his grandson.

They were most of the way through their first coffee when Elena walked into the restaurant, followed in a minute by Kevin, carrying a newspaper. They exchanged good-natured greetings as Ian poured more coffee. In between bites of ham and eggs, Beckie described everything she’d seen on the tenth floor the night before. The food lasted longer.

“Coming in cold like this,” Kevin said, “it’d take a while to collect the data I’d like to have.”

“What’s that?”

“Building specs, floor plans, things like that.”

“Hmm,” Beckie said. “Do we have the headset with us?”

Ian gave her a look as he said, “No. There are issues with it at customs.”

“How about a wire, then?”

“I have one of those,” Elena said, “but I don’t know where we could put it on you, under that outfit.”

Beckie gave her a look. “It’s not that revealing. But it is supposed to be snug. Except for the skirt.”

“And so it is,” Kevin joked. “But, no problem. I’ve got a wire too, but we can weave mine into your hair. Like in London. Won’t bother your figure at all.”

She started to respond, but Ian said, “Why would you like a wire?”

Ah. The first test of our new agreement. “So I can go in first. I want to make Alisha’s case for her.”

“I see.” Ian sat, quiet, contemplating what, Beckie couldn’t guess. After a moment he looked at her with a pleasant expression and a little spark of humor in his eye. “Of course, you expect to fail.”