by Taylor Hart
“What is this?” Sam demanded as he, Alexa, and Frank were shoved into a black van and Gary jumped in with them.
The van took off and Gary put his hand up to quiet Sam.
“He’s gone! He’s gone, sir!” Someone shouted over the radio. “We’ve captured eight men and three women, sir, but Marco Hernandez got on that helicopter!”
Gary frowned and yelled at the driver. “Get to the nearest hospital, now!”
Sam was already taking off his shirt, applying direct pressure to Alexa’s shoulder.
Frank had her tucked into him as much as possible, and silent tears were streaming down his cheeks. “My baby, my baby’s back.”
Sam held the pressure on her and gently kissed the top of her head. Her hand covered her face and her whole body was shaking.
“Good thing the old man called us.” Gary said. “What were you doing? I told you to wait. I gave you information as a professional courtesy.”
Sam was stunned. He turned to Frank, who wasn’t even paying attention to him, still cooing and patting Alexa.
He turned back to Gary, who had gone from completely ticked off to resigned.
Sam grinned. “We got her back. You can count that as a win for you.”
Chapter 15
Alexa woke to the sound of ocean waves. For a second, her heart rate accelerated, and she jerked onto her side. The same side that she used to turn on when she’d been trapped at Marco’s to see the ocean waves.
Pain ripped through her shoulder, and complete darkness assaulted her. She whimpered.
Hands touched her good shoulder. “Shh, shh, you’re okay.”
Sam. She relaxed. It all came back to her, like the same waves that crashed not far from this house. She was being held in another safe house. A house in Florida on another beach. The FBI thought it would be safer, actually, to keep her here. Not take her somewhere Marco would expect, like Idaho or Colorado.
A tear slipped out, and she felt Sam gently whisk it away. He sat back down, like a sentinel guarding the kingdom.
“How long has it been now?” She always asked that when she woke up because Marsal had lied to her and told her weeks had gone by when it had only been hours or days. The drugs had put her into some kind of time warp.
A cool hand brushed back her hair from her forehead. “It’s been three days. Three days since we rescued you. Then you were in the hospital and had to have surgery to get the bullet out of your shoulder, remember?”
More tears leaked out of her. “Thank you.” No matter how many times she said thank you, it would never be enough for what her father and Sam had done for her.
Lips were briefly pressed to her head. “You’re safe, Lex. I’m here. I’m right here.”
Alexa kept her eyes closed and let herself be calmed by the soothing way Sam gently pushed her hair back from her forehead. “I don’t know if I’ll ever like the sound of the ocean again.”
Sam stopped stroking her hair and squeezed her hand. “What did he do to you? What happened?”
Silence. The past few days had left her having, what the doctor called, intense withdrawals. The medication Marco had given her had been dosed with pain killers. He had combined it with some kind of brain altering substance that had made her forget things in the short term and then brought them gushing back.
Bits of torture came back to her. The feel of Marco cutting her wrist with a razor, whispering words of love to her. Words that told her he would cut her up like the other women if she didn’t give him what he wanted.
“Lex.” Sam’s voice was soft, but it was persistent.
“No!” She shouted, surprising herself. “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do anymore! No!” She wailed, and suddenly the room light flashed on and her father rushed into the room.
Alexa couldn’t stop herself from screaming and crying and thrashing. It was like she was still in some nightmare and the only way out of it was to scream.
Her father wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and beginning the lullaby. The only song that would comfort her. The one her parents had sang to her when she’d been little. “Hush a bye and good night, the angels are calling. Hush a bye, hush a bye, they’re coming to your room. Hush a bye and good night, the angels will meet you. Hush a bye, and good night, they’ll be here soon.”
She sucked in a breath and felt the safety of the familiar; at the moment, the only thing that could keep her sane was her father. “Daddy.” Even to her, her voice sounded weak and sad and lost. She hated it. She hated herself. She hated this person Marco had made her. She fell asleep again, sobbing in her father’s arms.
Chapter 16
Sam sat on the deck, sipping his drink, thinking that it sure as hell didn’t feel like Christmas. It had been ten days since they’d rescued Alexa.
The FBI had stayed on the Hernandez family trail until it crossed over American airspace and into Cuba. That was a country they didn’t want a war with.
So now, they waited. The FBI informant had been quiet. He hadn’t been with the people caught and he hadn’t been dead. He’d escaped, but he hadn’t called in, either.
Sam thought about Alexa. She was doing better physically. Her arm was healing. She sat up to eat. Sometimes she talked. But he’d quit asking what Marco had done to her. Every time he did she went into a psychotic rage.
He moved to put the cup down, and his trembling made the glass clink until he let it go. This had been happening more often lately. The tremors. It seemed that no matter how many runs he went on, how many times he did some boxing with Gary when he would come to check in on them, he couldn’t get his nerves under control.
Gary had mentioned to him yesterday that he needed to eat more, too. Between his own hospital stays, improper rest after he’d gotten out, and lack of eating, apparently he ‘looked like a ghost.’ The way Lex responded to him some days told him that wasn’t far from the truth.
He picked up a piece of wheat toast that Frank had made for him and took a nibble. The problem was that he didn’t want food. It didn’t have a taste to him anymore. Once, he had loved eating, he’d always enjoyed food. He’d never had to watch his weight because his exercise schedule had taken care of that. Food had always been a wonderful thing for him.
Until now that is. Now his stomach rebelled against him. Whatever he ate burned through his intestines and caused his nerves to be even more on edge.
He took another nibble and then another sip of tea. The herbal tea was supposed to help with his stomach. It tasted like crap.
Frank opened the door and sat next to him on the deck. He pulled out a tiny box and handed it to Sam.
Sam stared at it, unable to imagine what could possibly be in the box. He was unable to even imagine how Frank had gotten him anything and especially why he’d gotten him anything. “What is this?”
Frank chugged back a sip of coffee. His gut was completely unaffected by this whole incident. He’d been frying up bacon every morning. “Happy Christmas, okay?” he barked out.
Sam rolled his eyes and didn’t respond. Neither of them were in the mood for niceties. Let’s face it, even under normal circumstances Frank didn’t do niceties, and the recent events of the last two months had taken all of the nice out of Sam.
After letting out a long, exhausted sigh, Sam opened the box.
He blinked. He couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be. He’d heard Alexa talk about this back in college. “Her wedding ring.” Mystified, he pulled it out of the box, a hushed reverence sweeping over them, and he could suddenly feel her there.
Alexa’s mother.
Frank sniffed, and Sam wondered if he’d felt it too. “She always wanted Alexa to have it.”
Sam turned the ring over and finally put it back in the box. “Then give it to her.”
Frank reached out and smacked Sam in the back of the head. “You give it to her, dummy.”
The fact was their lives were no romance novel at the moment. He grunted and pushed the ring
back. “Yeah.”
A small sigh escaped Frank’s lips. “You don’t get it boy, do you?”
“What?”
Frank touched the tip of his ball cap. “Haven’t you ever watched a chic flick? Love conquers all.”
Sam didn’t know if it was the shock of crusty old Frank saying it or the fact that he was saying it knowing full well it was probably impossible, but it made him laugh.
Frank shook his head. “It’s the only thing that will save her.” He pushed it back. “So do it.”
A warm rush of chills flooded him. He blinked. “Maybe I will.”
Frank grunted. “Do it at the right time. Not now. But sometime when…when she gets past this.”
The idea that he would do it right now was so ridiculous it actually made Sam laugh again. He stood and held the ring up and laughed even harder. “Man, we’re the biggest scrooges in the world. Look at this place. How can we expect Alexa to celebrate Christmas if we don’t even have a tree?”
Chapter 17
Alexa hadn’t ventured out of the room at all, but her father insisted that she come down for Christmas dinner. So with her shoulder bandaged and an extra ibuprofen, she cleaned herself up in the bathroom as best as she could and put on black leggings and a simple, red sweater. Her hair lay straight, and she’d put on some mascara.
When she saw her father and Sam at the bottom of the stairs and heard Christmas music playing softly behind them, she couldn’t stop the rush of happiness that swept through her, cleansing her. “Hey.”
Sam and her father each took one of her hands, and she felt the comfort in these two good men as they escorted her to the table.
A simple spread lay there—a small ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls that smelled fresh, and some cranberries. Her dad had remembered that they were her favorite.
She sat down, and they joined her.
Her father and Sam both reached out to her to hold hands to pray. Her father led the prayer, naming all the things they had survived and then mentioned her mother and Sam’s family.
Dave.
Alexa honestly hadn’t even thought about Dave in the midst of everything else going on.
The prayer ended and they all began passing the food around, having light conversation. At first it felt completely strained and like playing pretend, but then it got easier.
Her father laughed, telling her about the way Gary had beat the both of them in cards the other night. “Boy, I have to say that guy rubbed me the wrong way at first, but now I think he’s okay.” He pointed his finger at her. “Just don’t play for more than pennies when you play poker with him or he’ll clean you out.”
The food was delicious. When they finished, Alexa began cleaning up.
Sam stood, waving her back down. “Sit, I got this.”
But she refused, walking past him and getting a whiff of some cologne he was wearing. It smelled fresh, like rain. “No thank you, sir. Don’t treat me like an invalid. I want to help.”
Her father and Sam gave each other surprised looks, but they both stood up to help gather things and put them away.
Alexa noticed a fresh apple pie sitting on the oven as she brought things in. Then it hit her. Her mother’s apple pie. The kind she had made for every Christmas dinner. Her hand shook, and she quickly put the gravy down, staring at the pie.
Her father’s hand went to her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
A tear escaped down her cheek. “Sometimes I just miss her so much.”
He squeezed her good shoulder. “Me, too. But she had the best darn apple pie recipe, and I have to make it every year so a part of her is with me on Christmas.”
This touched Alexa more than she could say. She’d avoided going to her father’s for Christmas like the plague itself. She realized now that had been so selfish. Her father needed her, and she needed him.
She pulled her father into a hug and felt him hug her back. It was like the dark cloud that had surrounded her the past few days was finally starting to disperse and dissipate, like she was being healed with her mother’s love.
Her dad didn’t let go of her for a long time.
“I’m okay, Daddy. I really am. You’d have been proud of me. I was stubborn. Just like Bessie.” She pushed back from him and started to laugh.
For a second he frowned and then a light went on in his eyes. He laughed. “That old girl was a good example, and you were just as stubborn as her.”
“That’s the first thing I thought about when I knew I had to do something so I could escape. I thought about how you would always compare me to her, and I knew that you did that to ingrain inside of me how strong I was.”
Tears budded in his eyes, and he nodded. “I’m so proud of you.”
After pulling in a long breath and steadying herself against the counter, she grinned and turned to Sam. He stood like a statue across the kitchen, staring at her. She put her hand out for him.
He cautiously moved to her side.
She grinned at her father. “And I remembered the three rules of how to escape when you are a POW.”
Her father laughed again, and more tears tumbled down his cheeks. “I thought about that, sweetie. At night when I would stare up at the stars and talk to God about this I thought about those lessons and prayed that He would remind you of them, and I prayed he would give you strength and keep you alive.”
She took his hand. “He did.” She grinned and looked between these men. These two men that she knew loved her so much they would die for her. “God gave me the strength to get through, and he gave me two men that would get me through the rest. I’m so grateful for that.” Every part of her hummed with what could only be called the pure love of God. She hadn’t felt it this way for so long. And she remembered something else. She turned to Sam. “Marco would sit and read scriptures to me and try to tell me about God’s love and God’s forgiveness.” Her voice caught as she thought about how Marco had twisted everything. “But when I started to feel overwhelmed and confused, when they’d give me drugs and my mind would feel weak and hazy, it was your face that pulled me back. Your goodness. The goodness of the way you live your life. The honor you have. The way you do the right thing no matter the cost.” She gulped back a sob. “It kept me sane. I had to tell you because it kept me going.”
Sam pulled her gently into his chest. Her hand slipped out of her father’s and Sam surrounded her with a fresh rain smell and the feeling that maybe, just maybe, there really was hope and she would get out of this hole.
Chapter 18
Sam felt grateful. Over the next few days a miraculous change came over Alexa. It was like Christmas had shaken Alexa out of her funk, and he was finally able to see the old, carefree, determined Alexa coming back.
They would go for long walks in the morning on the beach and end up next to the beach house, doing stretching and strengthening exercises for her shoulder.
“Good thing you’ve been shot so much you know exactly what I need to do.” Alexa winked at him and copied the stretch. “It saves me a ton on physical therapists.”
He smiled and took her into another stretch, holding her arm across the front of her body. She smelled good. He got a whiff of something lemony and thought about how much he loved her. Her blond hair was longer, and she never put curls in it, just let it lay straight. It hung around her shoulders or she would put it in a ponytail like right now. She was thinner than she’d ever been. He didn’t like it but knew her father was remedying the situation with how much he cooked for both of them. But all in all she looked good. Her cheeks had a shine to them he hadn’t seen since she’d been taken. The past few days made him think they might be able to start over again.
Carefully, he pulled her back against him, put his arms around her middle, and inhaled.
She relaxed against him, and they both stared at the waves. “He told me you were dead.”
Sam didn’t move. After all the trauma she’d been through and the way she would react when he’d asked about it, he�
��d decided to just wait and trust that God would help him know how to help her when the time was right. “I’m not,” he said quietly.
She turned in his arms and smiled, slowly reaching up her hand to trace the lines of his face.
His heart picked up speed, and he couldn’t deny how much he wanted to kiss her right now. How much he wanted so much more. It was like a dull ache inside of him, the desire for her to be his wife, to be completely his. But not just because he wanted her physically, though he wouldn’t deny that he did. No. It was because he wanted her next to him. Always. He wanted to protect her and love her and laugh with her. But he would be patient, and he’d promised himself he wouldn’t scare her off.
“You have such a nice face.” She laughed.
He didn’t move, letting her trace his jawline and around his ear. Then his lips. He closed his eyes, keeping his arms around her waist. “Keep going, it never gets old.”
She laughed and snuggled into his chest.
Perfect. That’s what this moment was. Her against him. Happy. It was perfect.
“I knew he was lying because I knew what death felt like.”
Sam pulled back, searching her face. “What do you mean?”
She took his hand and began walking toward the house. “When my mother died, I felt an unmistakable sense of loss right here.” She pointed to the center of her chest. “And then it was like I could feel her. Around me.” She broke off and kicked the sand. “Sounds stupid, right? Everyone wants to think they can feel something like that.”
Sam turned her to face him and put one hand on her good shoulder. “Alexa, trust yourself.” The side of his lip tugged up. “Plus, you would have felt me because I would have haunted you. Every time I saw you with another guy, I would have pushed you out of those too-high shoes you like to wear.”
She laughed and held his gaze. Tears moistened her eyes. “I didn’t want to tell you about what happened because…”