by Jillian Neal
“Fi.” He caught her hands. “If this doesn’t work, if you aren’t feeling better by tomorrow, I’m putting you on a plane to Kauai.”
“Dan.” Fionna shook her head. “Tomorrow is Thursday, and we’re going home Friday evening. I’ll be okay. This isn’t like last time where I couldn’t see my way out. And would you stop trying to get out of our reception.” She smiled.
Her ability to joke with him restored him more than her insistence that she was staying in Paris.
Refusing to agree, Dan held her hand as she stepped into the warm, soothing water. He crawled in behind her and felt the relaxation set in almost immediately.
The tub wasn’t quite as large as theirs at home and certainly not as big as the tubs Tutu had in all of the cottages on the farm, so Dan shifted until Fionna’s body was submerged between his legs and reclined against his chest.
“Why does Tutu always have to be right?” She sighed as her muscles eased their constant strain.
“I want you to relax for me, baby.” Dan began to massage her neck and shoulders using the slick water to let his hands work through her knotted muscles.
She groaned and let her head fall back as he began to unfurl the knots that had set in from the night before. Working rhythmically, he tried desperately to sooth her stress as he moved down her back.
When her body was lax and languid, he decided to massage other things. He cupped the warm water in his hands and gently groped her breasts.
“I was really hoping you’d get to those.”
“I’m gonna take care of each and every part of your gorgeous body, baby.”
She turned her face and hid against his neck. He understood precisely what she needed. She wanted to be held, to be surrounded in the safety of his arms, to be hidden away, buried deeply inside of his shield, as he buried himself deeply inside of her.
She could draw from his release for hours. It would sooth her ragged energy and her overly agitated radar.
“I love you.” She pled suddenly.
Overcome with the identical emotion, Dan squeezed her tighter. “I love you too, Fionna, and I meant what I said, if this gets worse, I’m putting you on a plane to Kauai.”
“If you hold me like this for the next two days, I may never leave.”
“I’m serious.” He refused to let it happen again. He couldn’t watch her sink into the depths of depression. It was simply more than he could stand.
“I’ll be okay. I promise. The baby just sort of makes everything a little more exaggerated. It’s taking some getting used to, but I won’t ever shut you out again. That’s why I was so miserable last time, because I didn’t have you.”
“I’m right here, baby, and I’ll always be right beside you.”
“Best shot buys the beer tonight,” Fitz goaded.
“You’re on,” Dan countered as he watched the paper target displaying the top of a human form joggle on the line as it was brought into place.
Raising his brand new Glock .22, he let the feel of the grip course through his veins.
He’d earned it. He should enjoy it. He thought arrogantly.
Raising his arms, feeling them tense into place, he narrowed his eyes. He steadied his breath, lowered his heart rate, and fired a straight line down the target from the center of the forehead, through the neck, through the heart, through the stomach, and then through the groin. Dan beamed as he lowered his weapon.
“He’s done it again, gentlemen! You all let the kid not only beat you but scrub the floor with you.” Sarrington slapped Dan on the back.
Fitzroy laughed and shook his head.
“Okay, little boys,” Sarrington chuckled at the scowls he received from the Special Ops trainees. “Hand to hand combat for the next few classes, so maybe stop stuffing your faces with crap and actually put forth a little effort in PT tomorrow. Get outta my face, all except you, Mr. Vindico.”
Dan rushed forward eager for the praise that was surely coming.
“Nice shooting, Dan.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“You got plans for yourself after you graduate top of my class?”
“Elite Iodex, sir. At least, I hope.” Dan admitted in a momentary lapse of arrogance.
“I’ll get you in Elite, son, if that’s what you want. But whatcha gonna do once I get you there?”
Dan knew it was a test. “I’d like to be assigned to the Interfeci taskforce. I want to take ‘um down.”
Sarrington chuckled. “You know, boy, you might just be the one to take ‘um down, but let’s not put ten carts before two horses. You’re a hell of a shot and a hell of an officer, but you still got a few things to learn. Take it down a notch or two. You got it?”
Clenching his jaw in effort not to roll his eyes, Dan gave the required nod.
Fionna shifted and awakened Dan. He raised his head to make certain she wasn’t having another nightmare. Cool night air had settled in the room. He pulled a blanket from the end of the bed and spread it over them. He heated the blanket and sealed the warmth around her tranquil, beautiful body. He felt her energy soothe again a moment later, and he fell back asleep.
“Come on, please. Just tell me. I’m gonna be terrible at it if you don’t help me. She’s a dancer for the Rouge. She probably has guys knocking down her dressing room door every night.” Fitzroy pled adamantly.
“Fitz!” Dan wished he were anywhere else doing anything else at that moment.
“Just a few tips, so I look like I’ve done it before.”
“First of all, you need to calm down, and maybe clean the pipes so you don’t go off when she takes off her coat.”
“Fine be a asshole!”
Rolling his eyes, Dan grimaced. “All right. fine. Sit down.”
“Thank you!” Fitz seated himself on the desk Dan had been using at the French Iodex office for the week.
“Take it really slow. Start out somewhere other than your bedroom, and you’ll be able to tell if she wants to take it further.”
“I invited her to spend the weekend with me, and she said yes, so I’m thinking she’s thinking we’re taking it further.”
“Okay, if she hasn’t had guys beating down her dressing room door, so to speak, it’s gonna hurt her, so don’t get carried away.” Dan tried to remember everything Will Haydenshire had told him before he’d taken Amelia to the freshman formal at Venton.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t hurt bad, right?”
Dan offered him a sorrowful look and watched all of the blood drain from Fitzroy’s face.
Thunder shook the window casings in the office as rain cascaded down the streets of Paris.
“I have to pick her up from her last show in like a half hour, so talk fast.” Fitz seemed to strengthen his resolve.
“Warm her up a lot first. Start with kissing. Make sure she’s comfortable and as relaxed as she can be. When your hands get where you want them to be, go slow. You’ll feel her open more, or whatever. Go down on her. Make sure she’s really slick. Try to get her to come before your dick is anywhere near her. Just take it slow and easy. Tell her she’s beautiful.” Dan added at the end.
“She is beautiful.” Fitz seemed momentarily shocked that he was being given the opportunity to take Madeline Durand to bed with him.
“Yeah, but tell her and make her feel loved even if you haven’t said it yet. It kind of makes them vulnerable to do that. She needs to feel safe with you. She needs to know you’re not gonna break her heart.
“Now, if I’m allowed to leave, I’d like to see if I can get home in time take Amelia to bed and keep her awake for awhile.”
Fitz checked his watch for the tenth time in a four-minute block.
“Yeah, I want to get her flowers before the show let’s out.”
Slapping Fitzroy on the back as they headed towards the exit doors, Dan chuckled. “You’ll be fine, but you look scared to death. Confidence is key my friend. Make her believe you know what you’re doing, and she’ll let you do a hell of a lot more.�
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“I am scared to death.” Fitz pulled his set of keys out of his pocket and opened the door into the pouring rain.
“Please I need your help!” An extremely attractive woman that spoke with a Belgian accent was standing under the awning, trembling in the freezing cold.
Dan and Fitz both stepped back into the office eyeing each other concernedly.
Dan eased his pistol from his holster.
“Who are you, and why do you need our help?” Fitz watched the woman closely. She was tall, and curvy, with wavy blonde hair. She was wearing a short black skirt and a hot pink sweater that clung to what Dan was certain was a very cheaply done boob job.
“Please! You have to help me! He’s going to kill me!” The woman pled.
“Who’s going to kill you?”
“Dominic.”
Fitz looked like he might actually cry as he discreetly checked his watch again.
“My son, he is just a little boy. I thought I had hidden him, but he found out that I had him. I wasn’t supposed to. I was supposed to get it taken care of.”
“Are you saying Wretchkinside’s wants to kill your kid?” Fitz gasped.
Even for Nic Wretchkinsides that sounded harsh; Dan agreed.
“May-be but me as well!”
“Where is your son now?” Dan asked.
“Vith his aunt in Belgium, but Dominic is coming here. He found out about my little Haydrien. I don’t know what he vill do.” She began to cry.
“Ok the Auxiliary department handles kids and Non-elite handles witness hiding.” Fitz sighed.
“You go on. I’ll call Mrs. Vincent and Lambert back in. They’ll know how to get them taken care of.” Dan didn’t want Fitzroy to miss his big night.
“Thank you! Thank you! I love you!” Fitz stopped short of kissing Dan.
“Go on. I’ll leave as soon as we get this taken care of.”
Fitz sprinted out into the cold rain.
“What’s your name ma’am?” Dan asked as he dragged his feet back to his desk.
“Vivianna Malden.” She wiped away her tears. “You must save my children!”
“Wait, I thought you said your son?”
“Daddy,” Aida whimpered.
Gasping for breath and trying to remember the dream he’d been having, Dan sat up. “What’s wrong, baby?” He rubbed his face and head trying to massage his memory into compliance, but his brain but he had no conscious memory of the dream.
“Sophie had a bad dream, and I think Mommy forgot to put on her pajamas again.” Aida pointed to Fionna whose breasts were on full display as the covers had lifted with Dan.
“Okay.” His ability to formulate logical thought returned to him slowly. “Why don’t you and Sophie go get your blanket, and I’ll remind Mommy to put on her pajamas. You and Sophie can sleep in here with us, just for tonight, okay?”
“Thank you.” She sounded so relieved it broke Dan’s heart.
The Haydenshires had warned them about allowing Aida sleep with them. They’d vowed that it was an easy habit to get into and then a hard one to break, and that it wasn’t good for the marriage. Dan decided that he’d allow it for the night since numerous gunmen had never attacked Haydenshire farm in the middle of the night.
“Fi.” He hated to awaken her. She was sleeping so soundly.
He grabbed the t-shirt he’d had on earlier in the day and coaxed her body upwards. She stirred as he pulled the t-shirt over her head.
“Aida’s gonna sleep in here, just for tonight.”
“My poor baby girl.” She yawned as Aida crawled into their bed and scooted down between them.
“My fairy princess bed makes me feel safe and snuggly, but the beds in Paris, France make me hear scary sounds.”
“When we get home you need to sleep in your room, but we’ve kind of had a rough trip so it’s okay for tonight, all right sweetheart?”
Aida turned on her side so Fionna could cradle her tenderly.
“I promise not to wiggle, and I won’t take up too much room.”
“You’re fine, baby. Just go to sleep. We’re right here.” Dan could see her sweet smile in the moonlight as she reached and pushed her tiny hand into his. He kissed her forehead as she fell back asleep almost instantly.
As sunlight bouncing off of the Mediterranean began to dance across the walls of the bedroom, Dan rolled to his side. He smiled at his baby girls cuddled beside each other sound asleep.
They were perfect. He knew as he stared at Fionna’s beautiful face. It was starting to swell from carrying his little Halia. Letting his eyes trace down her body he tried to envision what she would look like in a few months time.
It took his breath away. He wanted it so badly. He wanted to feel Halia move inside of her, wanted to hold his baby in his arms, wanted to walk the halls with her in the middle of the night and give her a bottle so Fionna could sleep. He wanted it all.
His eyes moved to Aida’s sleeping form, languid and relaxed in her Mother’s safe embrace. Her blanket was tucked by her face as she clung to it.
Something plagued him, some fear he couldn’t access, the details of something he was missing.
His cell phone blared on the bedside table. Heart racing in his chest, he answered it before moving quickly from the room.
“This is Vindico.” He heard the Fitzroys in the kitchen and wondered what time it was.
“Dan, it’s Roy Stegman.”
Dan turned the phone quickly to see the time. It was ten in France, so it would have been the middle of the night in Vegas.
“What’s wrong, Roy?”
“Well, I meant to call Portwood, truthfully. I forgot you ain’t the man no more.”
“Okay.” Dan wondered what had gotten Stegman out of bed in the middle of the night.
“Anyway, spose this might still concern you.”
“What might concern me?”
“I just come from Latimer.”
Latimer was the limestone fault prison out in the Majave desert. The limestone fields probably had more to do with Stegman’s forgetting that Dan was no longer an Iodex officer than his lack of sleep or his age.
“You just take somebody out there?”
“Nah, but it seems they had themselves a quake. In the middle of the chaos, Quentin Vitirio got himself knifed.”
“What?” Dan huffed. “Are you certain?”
“Yeah, one of the Non-Gifted food suppliers had a scuffle with him earlier in the week, and he brought a knife to the fight this time it seems. Guess you can only escape death so many times, especially if Uncle Nic put out the first hit.”
“Did you catch the guy?”
“Nah, but we will. Suspicious though. Couple of his buddies said he got a big mouth a few days ago, and he just went bought himself a brand new Corvette. Course that was also his getaway car, so shouldn’t be too hard to find. In fact.” Stegman paused. “That’s my guys on the radio. They just got him. Talk to ya later, Dan.”
Reeling from the information, Dan tried to sort through everything he’d just been told. He moved back into the bedroom. Fionna and Aida were awake and snuggling under the covers.
“What’s wrong?” Fionna asked immediately.
Dan shook his head and gestured to Aida.
“Come back to bed, Daddy. I want to be an Aida sandwich!”
Laughing, Dan slid back into the bed and squeezed Aida between he and Fionna then began tickling her until she was giggling hysterically.
Thinking that their little girl’s laughter was probably the sweetest sound in the world, Dan felt the warmth that only his girls provided, flow through his veins soothing his troubled soul.
“Can I go play with Alex, and then can I have Anne braids in my hair later?” Aida asked when she’d settled down.
“Sure, baby. You go play.” Fionna urged.
She slid into the space Aida had occupied previously. “Who called?”
“That was Roy Stegman. He’s…” Dan began but Fionna supplied.
“Yeah.” Dan wrapped his arms around her. He needed to hold on to his saving grace. “Do you remember the guy that showed up at our hotel in Vegas? The guy that handed over Adderand?”
Fionna nodded.
Swallowing harshly, Dan drew a deep breath. “He was murdered in prison last night.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” Dan was still unable to fully process the information.
“Dan, I’m so sorry.”
The statement struck him as odd. “We weren’t particularly close or anything, baby.”
Giving him a slight smile, Fionna nodded. “I know, but you didn’t hate him either. I could tell you felt sorry for him.”
“You’re amazing. Did you know that?” Dan was in awe of his wife’s tremendous powers.
She blushed violently and he brushed his thumb over her fevered cheeks. “He came from a bad neighborhood. Dad drank all the time. Used to do some pretty terrible things to his kids. Wretchkinsides offered him a way out when he was barely sixteen, and he jumped at the chance.” Dan explained Vitrio’s past and why, of the many varied members of the Interfeci, he was one that he felt genuinely sorry for.
Fionna’s cell phone chirped. Leaning, she retrieved it from the table on her side of the bed. A delighted smile formed on her beautiful face as she giggled.
“Who’s that?” Dan was desperate for anything that brought on her smile.
“Malani. She’s going to bed, and she’s texting me the number of days until we arrive. She’s so excited. I haven’t had the heart to tell her we probably will have to delay our arrival.”
“What?”
“We were supposed to go home yesterday, but now we can’t until tomorrow. I just don’t think we’d be ready to move to Kauai for three months with only one day to pack.”
“Hell no.” Dan shook his head. “I used to work days at a time with no sleep. I’ll pack everything. I’ll do whatever we need to do, but we’re leaving Sunday afternoon.”
“Are you sure?”
“Fi, I want you and the girls on the island as soon as I can get you there. I’m not waiting. You’re too important, and Halia needs to be there.”