by Susan Stoker
“I think you’re exaggerating. I can handle some cuts and scrapes…but fine.”
Gumby pulled her into his embrace and closed his eyes. He couldn’t imagine not having her around. She was his everything. His world. Intellectually, he understood her need to put herself in danger to help abused animals. She felt as if she were atoning for something she wasn’t at fault for in the first place. He really wanted to get her to agree to talk to a therapist about everything she’d been through, to try to understand the part of herself that needed to be there for abused animals. But that was something he knew she wasn’t quite ready for.
He stepped back and said, “We good?”
“Yeah, Deck. We’re good.”
“What’s on your agenda for today?”
“Heading over to the trailer park to work for a bit. Then me and Caite are having lunch with Caroline.”
“Caroline Steel?” Gumby asked in surprise.
“Yeah.”
He was as pleased as could be. Caroline was married to Wolf, a fellow SEAL. One he respected a hell of a lot. “Sounds awesome.”
Sidney shrugged. “I’m more looking forward to seeing Caite. I’ve talked to her a few times since that night here at your place, but we haven’t been able to connect in person.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah. I like her a lot.”
“I should get off around three-thirty or so. You want to come back here again tonight?”
“I’m thinking I need to do some stuff around my trailer. It’s been a while since I’ve been there.”
Gumby frowned. He didn’t like that she was trying to pull away from him. “I’ll come over and bring dinner then.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Sid, we had an argument. We talked it out. I know things haven’t been great this morning, but I love you. I want to see you. I need to see you. We can even just sit in the same room and do our own thing if you want, but just because I don’t agree with you about something, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to hang out with you.”
“Okay.”
“Okay? I can come over?”
“Yeah. But…I can’t say it back. Not yet.”
Gumby knew exactly what she was talking about. “That’s okay, Sid. Take your time. I didn’t tell you that I loved you to force you to say it back. I just needed you to know how much you mean to me. That everything I do, I do with your best interests at heart.”
“You’re too perfect,” she whispered.
Gumby huffed out a laugh. “I’m not perfect. I screw things up all the time. I suck at cooking, I hate housekeeping. I’m selfish, and would prefer to hang out here in my house with you and my dog than do anything with my friends. Most of the time I have no clue what I’m doing with Hannah, and I know for a fact that I’m gonna continue to piss you off in the future. I’m not perfect, Sidney, and I don’t want you to think I am. I can’t live up to that kind of pressure.”
She smiled.
“I am good at a lot of things though. Working out, swimming, making omelets, driving, shooting, and making you orgasm. I can work on everything else.”
That got him a small chuckle. He’d take it.
“Thanks, Decker.”
“Feel better?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Good. Call me after lunch and let me know how it went?” he asked.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to interrupt you.”
“I’ve told you over and over again that you aren’t interrupting when you call. If I’m in the middle of something and can’t talk, I just won’t answer, and I’ll call you back when I can. I like talking to you, Sid.”
“Okay.”
“You want me to pick up something specific for dinner?”
“Chinese?”
“Perfect. Think about what you want and you can tell me when you call after lunch.”
“Cashew chicken,” she told him. “With crab rangoon and pot stickers for appetizers.”
Gumby chuckled. He loved that his girl always knew what she liked. “You got it.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I know you’re worried about the dogs. I promise we’ll figure something out to hopefully stop this guy for good. Okay?”
Sidney nodded. “Okay. Decker?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“I’m sorry I’m a pain in the ass.”
He smiled. “I wouldn’t want you any other way than exactly how you are. I love your big heart. If you weren’t compassionate, you wouldn’t have followed me to the vet that day we met because you were concerned about Hannah. We wouldn’t be where we are now. How could I want to change that part of you?”
“You should probably know that we’re probably going to end up with more pets.”
Gumby’s smile widened. The fact that she was thinking that far into the future, and was including him in her vision, was encouraging and exciting as hell. “I figured as much,” he told her. “Eventually we’ll outgrow this house, but I don’t think I ever want to sell it. It’ll be a perfect weekend getaway house.”
Sidney blinked in surprise.
Not wanting to push too hard, too soon—he’d already pushed her way further than he’d planned—Gumby said, “It’s getting late. I need to get to the base, and I’m sure Jude is waiting impatiently for you to arrive. Have fun at lunch.” Then he lowered his head. When Sidney came up on her toes to meet him halfway, he finally relaxed completely, and kissed her.
It was a long, slow kiss, and Gumby did his best to show Sidney how much he loved her without words. He knew she was probably still irritated with him, and definitely worried about the dogs Victor might be abusing, but he appreciated that she had calmed enough to at least talk to him.
When he pulled back, Sidney slowly brought a hand up and palmed the side of his face. She ran her hand down his beard and smiled slightly. “I wasn’t a beard kind of girl until I met you,” she told him.
He couldn’t help the sexy thoughts that raced through his mind at her words. How much she liked the feel of his facial hair against her inner thighs as he ate her out. How she squirmed against him when he kissed his way up her belly because his hair tickled. It was safe to say he was probably not going to shave it off anytime soon. Not if his woman liked it.
“Glad to hear it,” he said after a moment.
Sidney rolled her eyes as if she knew he was thinking something sexual. “You’re such a horndog,” she said, smiling and playfully pushing at his chest.
Glad they were back on a lighter footing, Gumby said, “Only when it comes to you, Sid.”
“Good answer,” she quipped. Then ducked under his arm and headed for her shoes, which were sitting against the wall.
He watched as she tied the laces of her Chucks and spent a minute or two petting and praising Hannah for “being the best dog in the whole wide world.” Then she stood and grabbed her purse and phone.
“Drive safe,” Gumby said as she headed for the door.
“You too. Talk to you later,” she called back, then disappeared out the front door.
Hannah whimpered.
“I feel the same way, girl,” Gumby told his dog, then shook his head and got ready to head to work himself.
Sidney stared down at the phone in her hand as she sat outside the restaurant where she was meeting Caite and Caroline for lunch.
Victor had posted another message…on Facebook this time. He’d included a picture of two puppies sitting in the dirt next to a fence. They were cowering and looked scared to death. His post read,
* * *
Just got these 2 pups and I think they need an older dog to make them more comfortable. Their really skared. If you have an older girl dog that you need to get rid of Ill take her and give her a gd hme.
* * *
Sidney wanted to scream. There were already a ton of responses, asking where he was located. One person even said she’d found a stray dog and couldn’t keep her, and if Victor wanted her, she could meet him somewhere.
Furious at Victor, and scared to death for the puppies he currently had in his clutches, Sidney marked the post as offensive in the hopes Facebook would take it down. Putting a hand on her chest, Sidney realized her heart actually hurt for the puppies. She closed her eyes—and a memory from her past flashed through her mind as if it had happened yesterday, rather than years and years ago.
Brian had been nice to her for almost a full month. He hadn’t done anything that had made her nervous or wary, and Sidney had let her guard down a little. Despite that, when he told her he wanted to show her something out back, she refused. She remembered vividly what she’d seen the last time she’d gone into the shed with him.
But even though he was younger than her, Brian was a big kid. Taller and stronger. He dragged her, kicking and screaming, to the backyard…and the dreaded shed.
The second he opened the door, dread filled her at the thought of whatever Brian might want to show her. He shoved her inside and stood in front of the door, not letting her escape.
“They were strays,” Brian told her, pointing at something on the floor in the corner of the shed. “No one wanted them. Probably sick too.”
There, in the corner, were two puppies…at least, that’s what she thought they’d been. She had no idea what Brian had done to them, as she’d turned her head and squeezed her eyes shut—but not before the image of the blood, the flies, and the poor mutilated bodies had been burned into her memory.
She’d known Brian had been spending more time out back in his shed of horrors, but she’d stayed inside the house, as far away from him as she could get. Out of fear.
And while she’d been sitting around doing nothing, those poor puppies had died a horrible death.
Sidney threw up right then and there in the shed.
Brian was furious with her for “fucking up his work station.” He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the shed, throwing her to the ground and kicking her hard in the stomach before heading back inside and slamming the door.
Sidney opened her eyes and did her best to shake off the flashback. Brian was in jail, and he couldn’t hurt any other puppies or kittens—or women—again.
But Victor could.
Sidney had saved the picture of the puppies before she’d reported the post, and she stared down at it now. She hadn’t saved those poor dogs all those years ago…but she’d be damned if she just sat around and did nothing this time.
She had to save them.
Plans whirled in her head. She’d have lunch with Caite and Caroline, then go check out the situation. Maybe Victor didn’t have any puppies. Maybe he’d taken the picture from the Internet or something. She’d just peek in his backyard and leave if they weren’t there. If they were, then maybe she could sneak them out. If she was careful, if she stayed away from Victor, Decker didn’t have to know. She’d be in and out. Ten minutes, tops.
She knew Decker would be pissed at her if he found out. And she reconsidered what she was planning…for just a second. She knew she was fucked up. Knew her brother and everything he’d done had messed with her head. She’d do anything not to feel so damn guilty about what Brian had done. Maybe she would talk to Decker about seeing a psychologist. If that would lessen the intense and overwhelming need to save animals, it might be worth it.
But then she looked again at the picture Victor had posted.
She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t do something to help those dogs.
Going over her plan in her head once more, Sidney climbed out of her car. She was looking forward to lunch and seeing Caite again, but she hoped it didn’t last too long. She had puppies to save.
Chapter Sixteen
“I had the worst headache the next morning, but Sidney said she wasn’t hung over at all. That amazes me, because we drank a lot of rum.” Caite was smiling and laughing as she recounted the story of how she and Sidney met to Caroline.
The other woman chuckled and leaned her elbows on the table. “Sounds like you guys hit it off pretty well.”
Caite nodded. “I know I could’ve called you, but Gumby swore that Sidney was a dog expert, and I figured she’d know what to do.”
“Good call. I probably would’ve freaked if I’d walked in and seen all that blood,” Caroline said.
Sidney doubted that. The other woman looked as put together and levelheaded as anyone she’d ever met.
Before Caroline arrived, Caite had told Sidney a bit about the her, including how she’d saved an entire plane full of people from crashing, and how she’d been targeted by terrorists, but managed to outsmart them and get a secret message to her now-husband and his SEAL team about where she was being held, so they could get to her and save her.
It was almost unbelievable, but now that she’d met Caroline, Sidney knew Caite hadn’t been exaggerating. She was feeling completely out of place between the two women. She wasn’t intimidated by a lot of people, but Caroline definitely made her feel inadequate. Not only was she down-to-earth and married to a well-respected and decorated Navy SEAL, she was a chemist. A freaking chemist, for God’s sake.
Between that, and Caite being fluent in French and helping the navy with criminal cases involving French-speaking bad guys, Sidney felt like the frumpy black-sheep family member next to these two.
It wasn’t until Caite started talking about how protective Rocco was that Sidney perked up and showed a bit more interest in the conversation.
“I swear, after all the shit that happened with me, Rocco is completely paranoid. That’s why he wanted me to stay at Gumby’s house while the team was on their latest mission. He doesn’t trust anyone in the apartment complex anymore, even though he was perfectly fine with them before that thing with the rear admiral’s wife happened.”
“It’s just how they’re wired,” Caroline commiserated. “Wolf is the same way, and we’ve been together for years. They just can’t stand for anything to happen to us.”
“But it drives me crazy, and I feel bad that I get annoyed with him about it,” Caite said. “I mean, I’m a grown adult. I’m perfectly able to drive myself to lunch if I want to. But he insisted on coming over to NCIS, picking me up, and driving me here. He said he’d come and get me when we were done, but I told him Sidney could take me back to work. Is that okay?”
Sidney tried to hide her frustration. She wanted to get to those puppies as soon as possible. But she couldn’t begrudge Caite a favor. She nodded. “Of course. I could’ve come and picked you up too.”
“I know. But the fact of the matter is, I feel like I’m constantly putting Rocco out…and now my friends. If he’d have just let me drive myself, no one would have to go out of their way to take me to or from work.”
Caroline put her hand over Caite’s. “I admit that their protectiveness can get overwhelming, but you have to remember that they see the worst of humanity. They get sent to poor countries where people are literally starving in the streets. Or to rich countries where men and women with money sometimes enslave those who can’t afford to buy food, so they willingly indenture themselves just to eat. They kill, and are constantly targeted to be killed, when they’re out of the country. Then there are people in this country who think that our SEALs are brainless drones, who do whatever they’re told without thinking about whether it’s right or wrong.
“Our men just want us safe. They want to protect us from the evils of the world that they see on a regular basis. And really, is that so bad? Think about the alternative. That Rocco doesn’t care. That he isn’t concerned about you working late and driving home at night. That he sits on his ass and lets you answer the door late in the evening when someone rings the doorbell.”
“Hmmm,” Caite hummed. “It is nice to know when I get in late from visiting my mom that Rocco will always be there to meet me at the airport. I don’t have to worry about walking through the big parking lot alone to get to my car.”
“Exactly,” Caroline said. “And if he can’t be there, he’ll make sure someone else
he knows and trusts is, right?”
“Right.”
“But what about when he orders you to do something, or stop doing something, that you love to do?” Sidney asked.
Both women turned to her.
Sidney looked curious as hell, but Caroline merely nodded as if the question didn’t surprise her in the least.
“Right. So, I’m assuming this isn’t exactly a rhetorical question, and without knowing the details, it’s hard to answer. But I’ll give it a try. What I’ve learned from being married to a SEAL is that they tend to be super blunt. Matthew isn’t very good at being subtle or trying to work his way around a topic. He just plows full-steam ahead and lays his thoughts about things right out there, without really thinking about how I’ll react. It’s only when I react in a way he doesn’t expect that he stops to think about what he just said. Usually, we talk things out and I realize he’s not really demanding that I stop doing something. He’s just concerned about how I’ll be affected by my actions.”
“Example?” Sidney asked.
Caroline thought for a long moment before saying, “Okay, so there was this time when I thought it would be a great idea to find our friend Tex’s adopted daughter’s family, over in Iraq. I had myself all worked up about it too. I imagined in my head how happy everyone in Iraq would be to see Akilah, and how thrilled she would be to see her family again. I told Matthew about it one night, and he flat-out told me it was an awful idea. I got pissed. Super pissed. How could meeting up with your family be bad?
“After I told him off and stormed away, he came to find me. I didn’t want to talk to him, but he forced me to listen. And he explained that when Akilah was hurt, none of her relatives had done anything to get her the help she needed. It had been a soldier who’d come across her, screaming in pain in the middle of her bombed-out home. Apparently the Red Cross had tried to find the people responsible for her, but no one claimed to know her. Fast-forward to now. She’s acclimated to life here in the States, happy with her family, complete with a little sister. I can imagine that she doesn’t have the best memories of her time in Iraq, and if someone told her they were bringing her back to meet family who’d abandoned her, she probably wouldn’t have been happy about it.