Unconditional Love (32 page)

Lark: Will do. Gotta go, baby. I love you.

Me: Love you too!

Jessie smiled and winked as she said, “Victoria’s Secret?”

I nodded my head and said, “Hell yeah.”

I pushed my phone into my pocket and gritted my teeth as the medic cleaned out the bullet wound. I looked down and rolled my eyes when I saw the gunshot wound on my left side.

Fuck! I can’t believe I fucked up like I did.

The door flew open and Skip walked in. “Get the fuck out of here.”

The medic stood up and said, “Sir, he’s bleeding pretty bad still and I haven’t finished stitching him up.”

Skip pointed to the door and said, “You can finish in ten minutes. He’s been out for three days with the bullet wound. Another ten minutes isn’t going to kill him.”

The medic nodded and walked out. I took a deep breath and braced myself.

He turned away from me and pushed his hands through his hair. “Sergeant Philips said you tried getting information from Vazquez’s brother after he shot you, then you argued with Philips about interrogating him and the fucker got away while the two of you fought to see who had the most testosterone. Are you fucking nuts, Lark?”

I shook my head. “It was my mistake. I was tired and shot. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Skip just stood there staring at me. “You lasted three fucking days out there with a gunshot wound, you’re trained for that shit so I don’t buy that. Philips thinks you arguing with him has to do with the fact that he called you out on the girl. You had no idea your fucking informant was the target’s own brother. How in the hell did that happen, Lark? You should have felt something was off.”

I placed the cloth over my side to keep the bleeding down. I looked up at him and said, “I don’t fucking know, Skip. It was your intelligence that gave me Vazquez’s brother’s name in the first place. Didn’t they do a run on him before you threw him in with me?”

Skip began pacing back and forth. “I think it was a set up. They knew we were coming for Vazquez and somehow got his brother planted in with you. They just didn’t plan on you actually killing Vazquez. They underestimated you.”

My stomach dropped and I instantly felt sick. “What do you mean, a set up?”

He stopped walking and said, “A set up, Lark. Someone tipped off Vazquez. He planted his own brother in with us. The only problem was you stripped the brother of his gun and had another man with you. They were planning on you being alone. The brother was going to let you get close enough to where they could take you in.”

I stood up. “Wait a minute. You just said you
thought
it was a set up, and now you’re talking like it was a set up. Which one is it, Skip?”

He sat down and let out a deep breath. “It was a set up. Intel busted a house not far from the border. The last known place Vazquez was. It appears you’ve already taken out two of his best men. Somehow it got back to Vazquez that it was a Marine sniper. I guess one night you were in a bar and were talking Spanish and it drew attention to Vazquez’s brother. He began following you. Saw you come back to the base. Your last hit when Ricker was with you, well, I guess he got drunk in a bar and made some comment about being a sniper for the US Marine Corps. Vasquez’s brother began pumping him for information. Ricker admitted last night he mentioned your name.”

I sat down and whispered, “Motherfucker.” I looked at Skip. “Is that why you pulled him?”

He nodded his head. “When in the fuck were you planning on telling me I was compromised?”

He looked up at me and for the first time since I’d known Skip I saw regret in his eyes. “Command wasn’t sure you had been. They wanted to be sure.”

“So was this a set up on both sides?” I asked.

“No. Fuck no, Williams. I’d never do that to you. We didn’t find out about the house until after y’all humped in. Then we couldn’t get radio contact with you to warn you about the brother. The only thing we could hope for was you to do what you’re good at. I wasn’t planning on your ass getting shot though.”

I sat there staring down at the floor. “What was in the house?”

His face dropped and he stood up and turned away from me.

“Skip?”

He stood there for a few minutes before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few photos. When he handed them to me and I looked at them I would have dropped to the ground if I had been standing up.

“Oh my God.
No
.”

I was staring down at a picture of Azurdee and me eating dinner at a restaurant in Austin. The next photo was of Azurdee walking into her house. The next photo was of me running on Town Lake. I dropped the photos and reached for my phone.

Skip reached for my phone and pulled it out of my hands. “What are you going to do? Call her up and say, ‘Hey honey I just killed one of the most sought-after drug lords in the world, got shot by his brother who I let get away, and now you’re in danger?’ It’s not going to work that way, Lark.”

I swallowed hard. “How’s it supposed to work then, Skip?”

He sat down and put his hands on his face and then raked them down as he let out a moan. “Listen. I know you love her. I saw your discharge paperwork come across my desk as well as the decline letter for the CIA position. I get that you want out and want a normal life with this girl.”

“But…”

He shook his head. “Lark, you’ve got to make it look like she is nothing, like she isn’t an asset to them. If they think she’s just another one of your fuck buddies, they’ll most likely move on and just target you.”

“I have to tell her.”

“No. If they come after her and she knows anything, they’ll either kill her or use her to get to you.”

My heart started pounding in my chest. I knew what he was saying was true but it didn’t make me feel any better. “Well fuck. Neither one of those are good, so why not just tell her?”

Skip stood there staring at me with his cigar hanging from his mouth. His eyes narrowed. “Does she have any idea of what you do?”

I shook my head. “No. I mean she knows I’m still in the Marines. She doesn’t know what I do.”

He nodded his head as his face tightened more. I knew he didn’t like the idea of Azurdee knowing I was still in the Marines. “Good. The less she knows the better. You need to come up with some reason you’re leaving her.”

I instantly felt sick. “I can’t hurt her, Skip. I promised her. I promised.”

“Lark, if you love this girl…you have to let her go, at least until we can track down the fuckers who are after you. Once we get them and you do your job and finish the bastards off, you can tell her the truth.”

My stomach dropped and I felt sick. I didn’t let my emotions show at all to Skip. “What if it takes too long? What if she won’t take me back?”

“If she loves you anything like how you love her…she will.” Skip stood up and walked to the door and opened it. He called for the medic to come back in and finish up.

“We leave tomorrow morning at daybreak. You have twenty-four hours to break it off with her. We’ll make sure she has a tag at all times. If anything looks suspicious…well…we’ll take care of it. The main thing you have to do is stay away from her. No contact whatsoever after the twenty-four hours is up.” He slowly turned and looked at me. “I’m sorry, Lark. I really am.”

I stood outside my door and took a deep breath in. I knew Azurdee was at my place because I sent her a text saying I was coming home tonight and wanted to see her. Plus the tag we had on her informed she arrived earlier this evening. I opened the door and made my way into the kitchen. I placed my keys and phone down and walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. I opened it and downed it in practically one drink. I grabbed another one and drank it just as fast.

I reached for my phone and sent Scott a message:

Me: Don’t ask me why, but Azurdee is going to need Jessie. Make an excuse to come into town today.

I placed my phone back down onto the counter and slowly made my way back to my bedroom as I downed my second beer.

I opened the door and was instantly hit with her smell. The tears building in my eyes caused me to almost turn around and leave. Maybe if I just disappeared from her life that would be better.

She rolled over and made a noise. When I set the beer down on the side table she sat up quickly. She rubbed her eyes and whispered, “Lark?”

“Yeah, it’s me,
mi amor
.”

She jumped out of bed and ran to me. When she slammed into my body I cried out in pain and she jumped back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as she turned on the side lamp. The moment I saw her beautiful face, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do this. I loved her so much and the thought of hurting her about destroyed me. When she smiled at me it hit me hard…the idea of putting her life in danger destroyed me even more.

I shook my head and said, “Nothing. I missed you so much, baby.”

She smiled bigger and pulled my T-shirt over her head and stood before me naked. “Show me how much you missed me.”

One more time.
I needed to make love to her one more time. I needed her to feel my love.

I reached over and turned off the light and began taking off my clothes.

“Get back on the bed, Azurdee. Get on your hands and knees.”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to be fucked, Lark. I want you to make love to me.”

I closed my eyes and almost begged her to just let me have her from behind. If I was behind her she wouldn’t see the gunshot wound on my side.

“Please,” she whispered as she lay down on the bed. I quickly stripped out of my clothes and crawled on top of her. I pushed her hands above her head and said, “Hold onto the bed. Don’t touch me.”

She bit down on her lip and did as I said. I began teasing her wet entrance with my tip and I about came on the spot when I felt how wet she was.

I pushed into her and we both let out a moan. “I missed you so much, Azurdee.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

I began making love to her slowly. She kept her hands above her head and as she began softly calling out my name she wrapped her legs around me and then wrapped her arms around me.

The pain shot through me like I was getting hit with the bullet all over again. I closed my eyes tightly as she rode out her orgasm. I wasn’t sure how I was able to do it, but I came right after she did.

She held onto me and I finally had to push her legs away. She sat up quickly and looked at me. She looked down at my left side and then quickly moved to turn on the light.

“Azurdee, no.” I reached for her, but it was too late. The light was on and she had her hands up to her mouth. When her eyes met mine they were filling with tears.

She jumped up and grabbed my T-shirt and put it back on. “You’re hurt. You’re bleeding.”

I shook my head and said, “Its okay, baby. It’s gonna be okay.”

“What? What happened?”

I stood up and walked into the bathroom.
Fuck, I needed to take something for the pain.
I stood there and took in a few deep breaths to control the pain.

She walked in behind me and whispered, “You’ve been shot.”

I didn’t turn to look at her as I said, “It’s all a part of the job.”

She remained silent for a few seconds before she said, “Please tell me what happened. Tell me what’s going on. Lark, this is killing me not knowing.”

I opened the cabinet and looked for some pain pills. I had some in my jacket pocket but my jacket was in the kitchen.

I grabbed some Advil and swallowed four of them.

“You know I can’t tell you, Azurdee.”

“Bullshit. This whole top-secret shit is getting old. I have the right to know how in the hell you got shot.”

I closed my eyes.
This was it. This was my out.

I turned to face her. “No you don’t. It’s none of your business and I told you in the beginning I wasn’t going to be able to give you what you wanted.”

She looked at me confused. “What? You give me everything I’ve ever wanted. Lark, I’m just trying to understand what is happening here. Please tell me what you’re doing? What do you do? For Christ’s sake, you’re standing here in front of me bleeding from a gunshot wound!”

I let out a gruff laugh. “You’d leave me if you ever knew what I did, Azurdee.”