SEAL of My Heart

by Sharon Hamilton

  “There is, and it’s plugged into the wall over here getting charged up. All in good time.” T.J. stood. “I’m supposed to check in with Kyle and the rest of them now that you woke up. Before I go, wanna see what you look like in a dress?”

  “Who needs to see that?” Tyler spat.

  “Weep, my man. This is payback for all the dumb shit you pulled on me over the past few weeks. I’m putting this on the team bulletin board unless I get your complete undying cooperation.”

  “T.J. You’re a fuckin’ asshole.” Tyler hit his forehead with the palm of his right hand, except it nearly toppled a drip. “Ow. You said you learned to drive a bus while being chased by cops in Texas. Tell me that story.”

  “Much later, Ty. Now you rest. Then you call your person, there.” He pointed to the cell phone on the stainless steel stand. “But you can have this back, if you want.” T.J. lobbed the lavender deodorant stick in Tyler’s lap. The top of the stick was crusted with dried blood and caked red clay. Putting it up to his nose, he discovered it still smelled glorious. Just like Kate.

  “Jackie, what about Malalai and the others?”

  “Safe for now. Djibouti, working on some translation for our forces, and some housecleaning. Seems as though helping you and T.J. get out of there was something good to put on their resumes.”

  “They must have family looking for them.”

  “Not any more, my man,” Jackie said solemnly. “Afraid everyone else is gone, or, you know.”

  “Sorry to hear it. I’m glad Malalia’s safe.”

  “Thanks. Owe you. All you guys.”

  T.J. and Jackie left to inform Kyle and the rest of the Team who had stayed behind. They’d elected to stay on the East Coast until Tyler was out of danger.

  Tyler buzzed for a nurse to bring him his cell and she refused until he started swearing, trying to be as soft as he could. The young man next to him in the room must have just come out of surgery, because he was out cold and never said a word.

  “I know my fuckin’ rights and I demand to have that phone, right now.”

  She passed it to him, withdrawing it at the last minute. “You get one call, and then I’m putting it away until someone else tells me you can have it. One.” She held up one forefinger to emphasize the point.

  Tyler punched the divot in the plastic front and swept his fingers across it to unlock the screen. A message was waiting, like he’d seen before. It was a text from Kate’s phone.

  Hope you’re well. I’ve moved on and changed my plans. Please don’t try to contact me as I won’t pick up your calls. I’ve met someone else. Kate.

  Tyler’s head hit the pillow with such force it nearly flipped the bed. He was going to throw his phone when he decided a well-placed “piss off” would do him a world of good. He’d wait and think of something really good to say. To have come this far, to have thought she was there waiting for him, that she felt the same way, only to find out he didn’t mean to her what she’d meant to him, was beyond tragic. It was epic.

  He read the message again. Same message. No other messages but the ones he’d read already, professing how much she missed him.

  He hurled the phone and heard it hit the wall behind the ceiling-mounted TV with a splintering crash, sending bits of plastic parts all over the doorway and out into the hall.

  Immediately the nurse popped her head in the room with an orderly at her side. “We have to restrain you, Special Operator Gray? You destroying U.S. Government property?”

  “Fuck the U.S. Government.” His big forearm was over his eyes so they wouldn’t see his tears.

  Tyler rejected the chaplain. He threw his lunch back at the sweet young volunteer who brought the green tray. But when Kyle and Cooper and the rest of the team showed up, he allowed them entrance.

  “You’ve been behaving badly, Tyler. One would think you’d be more fuckin’ grateful those Marines pulled you out.”

  “I’m grateful to be alive, Lannie. Don’t push it.”

  “You’re a pussy,” Nick said.

  “You watch it. I’m so hopped up on stuff I’d kick your sorry ass and strangle you with this shit,” he rattled the tubing stuck into his arm and the wires attached to his chest. “In fact—”

  Kyle and Cooper both jumped on Tyler, stopping him from pulling out all his tubes and electronic monitoring leads. He struggled a bit against them, but he was no match for both of them, with the state of his emaciation from the desert.

  “We read your fuckin’ message earlier, and no way did that come from Kate,” Nick said. “We were going to tell you that now.”

  “Well, if I had it here, I’d show it to you. Said Kate right on the fuckin’ screen.”

  “And I’m telling you no way. Devon had dinner with her three nights ago. She was on board, champing at the bit to jump into your life big time. Tyler, wise up, man. Even you don’t work that fast.” Nick looked at him as if he had sprouted a purple horn between his eyes.

  “So how do you explain—”?

  Cooper jumped in, “Someone else sent the message Tyler. Someone who wanted you to get it. Got any enemies out there near her?”

  Tyler remembered Sheila. “This girl that worked with her. We knew her, man. Remember that blonde we couldn’t get rid of?”

  “That hot pants frog hog? Shit, she even jumped Fredo’s bones.”

  “Well, that’s because he thought she was a professional,” Kyle added.

  “She’s probably the one who stole all the money from where Kate works, too. Devon told me all about it.”

  “Shit, guys. I gotta get out there,” Tyler said and started again to unhook himself, which set things buzzing. If the Team had let him, he’d have walked right out with them.

  “Let the police handle it.”

  “No, you don’t understand, this lady’s really bad news. I’ve got all my faculties now. We’re wasting time. I gotta go. You know if they don’t strap me down, I’ll escape and go do it by myself somehow. Help me. Help me get outta here.”

  Within the hour Kyle had acquired a full release for Tyler by making nice with the pretty Navy doctor who’d been eyeing T.J. They pitched in for a night she’d never forget. Soon after, he was wheeled to the transport plane for a straight flight to San Francisco from D.C.

  C

  hapter 42

  Kate woke up to the late afternoon sun shedding a golden glow through the mature, leafy trees of the large home next door. The colors became more golden as it dropped farther and farther down to the horizon. It remained warm, but a breeze kicked in.

  As the light turquoise sky turned darker, she saw a single light in the mansion next door, and figured her landlords had come back from Europe. But as it got increasingly dark, the single light remained, but more lights were not turned on, nor did she hear any movement. And the kitchen, where the couple spent most of their early evenings, remained dark.

  She figured it must have been a motion sensor, and then wondered if perhaps a neighbor’s cat had strayed into an opened window. She had a key to be used for emergencies, and the alarm code had been posted on her refrigerator. Since the sticky note was gone, she figured it had gotten old and dropped to the floor somewhere between the cabinets and refrigerator. But she remembered it anyway.

  She decided to re-read Tyler’s last letter before she went next door.

  The hills are beautiful here, although it gets cold at night. Back in the mountainous regions there are upper valleys filled with green fields and wildflowers. Kind of reminds me of Germany, if you can believe that.

  I think about walking with you there, although I’d never take you here. Normal life, or what we’d call normal life, ceased to exist years ago. These are a people who say they want their freedom, but have no concept yet of what that entails. I find them to be honorable and kind, but completely foreign. They are as afraid of us as we are of them.

  The kids are our future here. If there is a future. It would be nice to be part of that someday. Right now it’s further a
way than how distant your bedroom is to my bunker. God willing, we’ll see each other long before they’ll ever get to experience the freedoms we have. Can you imagine growing up where your elders, your parents, particularly your father, decided whom you could marry and when? Well, on the other hand, perhaps your father would be okay about that one. I’d like to think he’d let me take your hand.

  So, when I get back, we have to talk. You have to tell me if you want this life. All I can offer you is a lot of sleepless nights when I’ll be in harm’s way. Is it something you can handle? When you need someone to talk to, namely me? When perhaps we’ve had an argument the day I ship out, like what happens sometimes here, and then we can’t make up for six months? Is that fair to a woman to ask that of you?

  So, you tell me now. Are you ready for this? Because you know me, once I start, I finish. I don’t quit. I never quit. And I work fast. Why wait for tomorrow when we can have it all today? I know you agree with this.

  I might have gotten the wrong impression, but somehow I don’t think so. I think you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. I know where your heart is. I want to stand by you, protect you. Being with you makes me a better man, in all respects.

  I can only hope you share in my feelings. Is it foolish to think I can have this? We can have a life together? Is it something I’ll regret, something that brought us close together and then no farther? Or is it something we can have while we grow old together? I’d share you with a family if that is your wish, but I’ll take you all by yourself if you say that’s what you want. I’ll take you any way I can.

  Tomorrow we go out into the field, so this may be the last post for a while. But I brought my little book and a pen, and I’ll still write something every day, and post it to you when I can.

  Don’t worry. Keep me alive in your thoughts and prayers. But mostly, be strong. If for some reason I don’t return, find someone else who shares my passion for the Teams. It would help you. That’s how we do it here. And if it’s too much, I understand. But if I’m not there to share your life, then you find someone else strong, another warrior to protect and love you the way I would.

  Good night, Kate. Rest well. And I’ll see you later in this life, or in the next. Either way, we’ll say hello again, and it will be just as if the years and the distance never separated us.

  Your love,

  Tyler.

  Her cheeks were drenched with tears. The top of her T-shirt was wet. Her sorrow was private, and quiet. So painful, this knowing she was separated from him. But if by some miracle he came back to her, she’d make sure she didn’t waste a day, an hour, or a minute. However difficult it was to love someone so completely and have to be without them for long periods of time, if she had to, she would. She knew she could do it.

  Be strong, Kate, he’d said to her in that first letter he wrote after they’d become lovers.

  “I will, Tyler. I’ll wait my whole lifetime if I have to. But, God,” she began to sob again, “don’t make me wait that long.”

  It was time to go next door and check on the light. At the last minute she decided to put her cell in her bra, since she didn’t have a pocket and she didn’t want to take a purse. If by some miracle Tyler was alive and did call, the vibration of the phone would press against her heart, just like he had.

  Taking her fluorescent lantern, she walked along the stone path to the back door of the big house.

  To her surprise, the back door was locked, but the alarm wasn’t set. She turned on the pantry closet lights, and then the under counter lights in the massive granite-counter-topped kitchen. She’d been to many parties in the home, and a television film crew had made two documentaries of the get-togethers her landlords had lavishly created for special guest events. The laughter and clinking of glasses of expensive wine were a long distance away from tonight’s venture into the kitchen. It was eerily quiet. Fear snaked up her spine.

  “Alicia, Barry? Are you guys home?” she called out. The echo fell on warm brown pecan flooring, still drapes and unoccupied upholstered couches. “Hello. Is there anyone home?”

  Again, not a sound.

  Breezes outside whipped branches of the sycamore trees against the side of the house. Their leaves and branches slapped against the windowpanes in the dining room, and then were silent.

  She moved to the base of the expansive carved stairway with the double-sided flared landing at the bottom. “Anyone here?” she called again.

  Convinced she was alone, she remembered the light seemed to be coming from a room up on the second floor, emanating from a small window, like a bathroom or closet. Perhaps a window left open had attracted some animal, a bird perhaps. But nothing stirred as she climbed the stairwell. The wood was so tightly laid down there was barely a creak as she stepped, one by one, up to the first landing, then rounded the turn and proceeded up to the top, where the second floor bedroom hall stretched out on front of her.

  The light would be on her left, she thought, so she turned. Flipping on the hall light, she held her lantern out anyway as she passed by several closed doors to the room she thought might contain the light. Indeed, under the crack in the door there was a faint line of light.

  The bedroom door opened with a creak, which scared the bejabbers out of her. The room was cold, and a breeze came from the window over the bed, which was slightly ajar. She placed her lantern on the bed, reaching over to shut the window and saw movement on her left. The bathroom light behind illuminated a shadow of a figure. A shadow of a woman.

  Kate held up the lantern and saw her face.

  “Sheila?”

  “Close enough, Kate.”

  “Or should I call you Joan?” She tried not to sound fearful, but her hands were shaking, her knees were knocking, and the lamp was wobbling so obviously, Sheila would have to be blind not to notice.

  “Ah, you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the papers, Kate.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Right. As you know, I sort of needed a place to lay low for a while. You told me yourself they were in Europe. Thought I’d borrow the place so I could be alone, sort out my thoughts in private.”

  Something Tyler had told her stuck in her head. Don’t trust her, Kate. Be careful. People aren’t always what they seem. Especially don’t trust Sheila.

  He’d been right. Sheila had a composed expression plastered over a feral demeanor. Her eyes darted from side to side. Her hair was disheveled. And as she stepped forward into the center of the room towards the bed and the light, Kate saw she’d dyed it black.

  Sheila noticed her taking stock of her new hair color. “I don’t owe you an explanation, but perhaps this will be easier if I give you one anyway. First, let me assuage your concerns that Tyler will be coming to rescue you. You may not know it, but you’ve broken up with him. You’ve found someone else.”

  “What?”

  “Turns out you make decisions quickly. As soon as you fall for someone, you fall out of love with them just as fast. Tyler has been told this. Trust me, he won’t be coming back.”

  “What have you done?”

  “It works out rather nicely, really, you coming here.” Sheila held up a handgun. “I’m not wanting to hurt you. Murder is not my thing. I need some time to get away. You shouldn’t have come snooping over, but now that you have, if you cooperate, I won’t hurt you. I just need time to get away.”

  “You ruined the Hellers.”

  “You know they have insurance that covers it? Embezzlement is an easy claim to file for. I’ll have to watch over my shoulder for a few months, looking for insurance investigators, but after a few, I’ll be free to roam, as they say. This isn’t my first party, Kate.”

  “So you lived in San Diego. You knew Tyler there.”

  “Oh, I knew Tyler, all right. He was one of my favorites. Boy I latched myself on to him and didn’t want to let go. We had ourselves one hell of a night. The best ever. I doubt you’ve opened him up the way I did. I know what he
’s made of. He’s all devil and hellfire, not the sweet romantic you think. He’s got some demons, and I’m one who can handle demons. I actually prefer them.”

  Kate was nervous again.

  “I didn’t want to leave him, but in the end, I needed to move on. What a surprise to see him. What a complete surprise and a complete delight. Of course, it sped up my plans, as well as gave me some great ideas. You’ll see. If you cooperate, that is.”

  “So what’s the plan, then? You said no one would be coming to rescue me.”

  Then she felt the vibration of her phone tucked inside her bra. In some twisted bit of fate, she had apparently flipped the switch to vibrate from ringer when she’d stashed it. Sheila didn’t seem to notice.

  When it buzzed a second time Kate turned, speaking loud enough to block any noise from the cell’s vibration.

  “I’m not sure you’ll get away with this. But if it’s time you need, I can give you that.”

  “I know that.” She waved the gun at Kate. “You don’t have a choice.”

  Kate held up her hands, palms out. “Sheila I don’t want to give you any trouble. I’ll cooperate.”

  She remembered Tyler telling her stalling was the smartest tactic. Stall until someone else did something that would distract the person. Look around for a way to improvise. And she did, but there wasn’t anything useful within reach except the lantern.

  “Come. We’re going to the wine cellar.” She gestured for Kate to walk in front of her.

  Kate wanted to read her cell message so bad, but she dared not. Once they reached the ground level near the dining room, a small arched door led down a narrow stairway to the cellar. Kate was impressed Sheila had found it.

  “They have quite an impressive collection, Kate. They have some wines that are nearly two hundred years old that could be very drinkable.”

  Kate wasn’t interested in the banter. On one of the turns, she took the chance and reached for her cell. The screen lit with a message from Tyler.