Greyson

by Dale Mayer

  At the word winnings, Greyson winced. “Do you really think of her as winnings?”

  “Of course,” he said. “And there was money in there for the kid,” he said, looking at the little boy. “As his guardian, of course I’ll make sure he’s well taken care of.”

  Just enough of an odd glow was in his eyes to show that some serious madness had set in.

  “You must have had a rough time of it in the military,” she said slowly. “Where were you? Iraq or Afghanistan?”

  “Both,” he said, and his voice turned to a weird singsong. “So much killing,” he said. “So much death. When I came back, I couldn’t even sleep,” he said. “I already knew that George was in a coma. They had called me to tell me. I’d argued with him a couple weeks earlier. But coming back and finding him like that, it was almost like seeing a sign that it was finally my turn. My place. He should have gotten out of your life a long time ago,” he snapped.

  “He did,” she said. “We haven’t been together for over two years,” she exclaimed.

  He stared at her. “No. No, not two years.”

  “Yes. You helped me move out of his house. Remember?”

  He nodded. “But that was just a few months ago,” he said. “It wasn’t that long at all.”

  “Yes, it was,” she said, “I was pregnant. Remember?”

  “Yes,” he said, “you were pregnant.” He looked at her belly and said, “What happened to the baby?”

  At that point, she realized that he really wasn’t all there. She looked over at Greyson, who shrugged.

  “There’s not any real talking to him now.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not,” Greyson said. “What about Frank, Jensen? How did you get him into this?”

  “He needed money,” he said. “That’s the one thing I have now, thanks to my brother.”

  “So you paid him to come stalk her? And to kidnap her son?”

  “Well, he was supposed to bring the boy to me,” he said. “He’s my son after all.”

  At that statement, she gasped, then stared at him in fascination. “You do know that George was his father, right?”

  “No. No. No. I am George,” he said. “My brother is gone. I’m now in George’s life. It’s his house. It’s his bank accounts. It’s his car. They’re all mine now,” he said, with a beautiful smile. “And so is my son.”

  Chapter 18

  When the cops came and finally took Jensen away, she heard about Frank, who had been left out in the yard. Greyson led the men to the backyard and showed them the man tied up there. They brought him back to the house. Greyson had also taped the entire conversation with Jensen and shared that with the police.

  The cops listened to it and shook their heads. “This guy will never stand trial. The judge will declare him unfit in a heartbeat.”

  “I know,” Greyson said. “I’m not sure he’s sane enough to even be left on his own.”

  “But it wasn’t him who attacked the cops earlier, right?”

  “No. He wasn’t the one who escaped their custody. I suppose it’s possible Jensen helped Frank,” Greyson said, “but I honestly don’t know. The cops were outside at that point, taking away their prisoner.”

  Suddenly shouts and cries came from outside. They looked at each other in horror and raced outside. The paramedics were desperately trying to work on a man on the ground.

  “What’s the matter?” the cops yelled.

  “He pulled a razor blade from his waistband,” a paramedic replied. “But, instead of attacking us, he slashed his throat. He hit an artery.” An edge of panic was in his voice as they worked to try to save Jensen.

  Jessica stood on the front steps, looking at the scene in shock.

  Greyson came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, tugging her against him.

  She realized Kona was nestled up against their side, and she dropped a hand to Kona’s head, then moved it to cuddle closer to Greyson. “Dear God,” she said. “When will this be over?”

  “Now,” Greyson said. “There’s too much blood loss for him to survive. They have to try, but he’s done.”

  She shook her head. “Is it wrong for me to be okay with that?”

  “It’s easier, but it’s also very difficult,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of people suffer after returning from war. Unfortunately this kind of mental instability is often the result.”

  “That’s terrible,” she whispered.

  Another ambulance arrived and several more cops as well. They were pushing back the crowd that was gathering outside. He’d pulled her inside and said, “Come on. Let’s go up and spend some time with Danny and remember what life’s all about. Not to mention clean up your bed so you can sleep tonight.”

  She looked up at him, her tears rising and a knot in her throat. When they raced upstairs, they found Danny right where she’d left him, sleeping in the closet. Greyson looked at him for a long moment. “The innocence of youth.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “I almost hate to disturb him. Are we done with the cops?”

  “For a little bit,” he said. “We’ve given them all the statements we need to tonight. We’ll have to deal with them later though. But this chaos outside isn’t anything we need to be involved in.”

  “No,” she whispered.

  He led her to the bedroom where he efficiently stipped off the bedding and with her help remade it.

  “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to sleep here again, but the whole energy has shifted now. Plus with the mess cleaned up …”

  “Not to mention, it’s over. You can stop being afraid. You get your life back now and can move on.”

  She looked up at him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and said, “Could you just hold me? I think I’ve had enough of the darker side of life to last me a lifetime.”

  “I hear you,” he whispered and held her close. They curled up on the bed, wrapped their arms around each other, and just lay like that for a long moment.

  “I’m scared to jinx it,” she said, “but I’m really hoping this is the end of it.”

  “I think it is,” Greyson said. “With Jensen and Frank captured, no reason for it not to be.” He got up and took a look out the front window over the garage. The ambulances were gone and so was the body on the ground. He opened the window and whistled, attracting the attention of the ranking cop on the ground.

  He looked up and called out, “We’ll talk tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of reports to take care of. We may not get much intel out of Frank, but we’ve got him in custody this time and will interrogate him. I’m not sure his testimony matters at this point.”

  “Good enough,” Greyson said. “We need some sleep.”

  “Sounds good. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  And, with that, Greyson shut the window and headed back to Jessica, who sat up on the bed, looking at him.

  “And?”

  “He didn’t make it,” he said.

  Quietly tears slid down her cheeks. “Do you realize that’s Danny’s entire family on that side—George and Jensen—are both dead?” she said.

  “But what we do know is that now you are safe, and so is Danny.”

  “Depending on Frank,” she said.

  “Well, Frank has his own issues to deal with now. He’s the one who attacked the cops, who broke in your home, who stole your car, and who kidnapped Danny, so he’s not getting out of jail anytime soon. Once they start piling on all the charges, he’ll be singing like a bird, trying to see the light of day. His motivation was only money, so there’s nothing in it for him anymore.”

  She nodded and smiled. “That’s right,” she said, “and that’s a good thing.”

  “Yes,” he said. “So now you can just relax.”

  She smiled and said, “I think maybe I’ll put Danny in his own bed then.” And, picking him up, she moved him into the other room and got him ready for bed.

  “Poor little guy. We didn’t even have a cha
nce to get him ready for bed, did we? Things got crazy fast, once we got home,” he said.

  “No, we didn’t have time,” she said. “That’s okay. Luckily he’s pretty resilient.” She got him into a new diaper and pajamas, then tucked him in, where she stood, looking down at him for a long moment, only vaguely aware of Kona curling on the floor beside the bed. She shook her head. “You have no idea how much I owe you for looking after us.”

  “You don’t owe me anything.” His tone was harsh.

  She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just so damn grateful that we’ve been given this new opportunity at life.”

  The lines on his face eased. “Now that I understand,” he said.

  She walked over, slid her arms up around his neck, and whispered, “So, what do you think? Are your grandparents right about us?”

  He pulled her tight against him, so they were snug from hip to chest. “Well, I know they believe they are,” he said with a gentle smile, as he gently rubbed his nose against hers.

  “Isn’t that supposed to be how Eskimos kiss?” she murmured. “Or is that just a myth from my childhood?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, his lips quirking up in grin. “I’ve never kissed one.”

  She giggled at that.

  “On a brighter note,” he said, “will I have to sleep on the couch tonight?”

  She looked at the spare room, which was Danny’s room, and then at her master bedroom. “You know something? I’m pretty sure my bed is big enough for both of us.”

  He smiled and said, “How about we go find out?”

  Laughing, she raced ahead. He caught her at the doorway, swung her around, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her. It was a kiss that knocked the socks off her feet and raised the hair on her neck. When he lifted his head, she just stared at him in shock. “Wow, what was that?”

  “That was a taste of what’s to come.”

  “Oh, boy,” she said. “It’ll be a long night, won’t it?”

  “Not necessarily,” he said with a crooked grin. “We do have to worry about Danny waking up and interrupting us. So I cannot guarantee you a whole evening of romance and lovemaking, but I can guarantee you that it’ll be a very special night for us. One of many to come.”

  And it seemed like he did everything he could to make it as special as possible. He took off every piece of her clothing—slowly, carefully, kissing every inch of skin as it was exposed—until she stood, trembling, barely able to stand on her own, with just her panties on. And somehow, he was still fully dressed.

  She took one look and said, “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not allowed to wear more than I am.”

  He gave a shout of laughter and quickly stripped off, right to the skin, including his prosthetic. She noted the oddity, but it didn’t matter to her. Except that he’d been hurt. And bad enough to need something like that. Her heart swelled at what he’d been through as she took in all the scars on his body too.

  And still, he was the finest man she knew.

  Her gaze landed on his erection that stood so proudly in front of her, and she stepped closer, both hands reaching out for him. He immediately backed up and said, “Careful. I don’t want it over before we’ve begun.”

  She looked at him, smiled, and said, “We could always start all over again.”

  “I intend to,” he said. Then he walked to the bed, pulled back the blankets, and she dove in, chuckling. He slid in beside her and took her in his arms. His hands were moving already as he murmured, “We’ll have to set up some date nights with my grandparents, so they can watch Danny, and so we can have a full night to ourselves.”

  She nodded, but immediately the tremors racked through her again as his hands and lips explored every inch, as if getting to know her on the most intimate of levels. When she struggled to hold back, he crawled up her body, leaving a trail of moist wet kisses to plant one on her lips. Meanwhile, their hips were aligned as he positioned himself between her thighs. He whispered, “This is for us,” he said, “for right now.”

  She placed a finger against his lips and said, “I like the sound of that. But I also like the sound of not just right now but for all the tomorrows to come.”

  “Me too.” As he slid inside, she arched her back and cried out softly. He kissed her so gently. “Are you okay?”

  “Never better,” she whispered. “Never.”

  As he started to move, she looped her arms around his neck and hung on for the ride. It had been so long, but, at the same time, that made it all even more special. And, when she came apart in his arms, she could hear him crying out with his own release. And he sank down, pulling her into his arms, and just held her close.

  When he looked down, she knew he could see the tears slowly trickling from her eyes. He reared back slightly. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No,” she said, “but you were right. It was special. So very special.”

  He gave her a tender smile, then reached down and kissed her. “This is just the beginning.”

  Epilogue

  Rowan walked into the offices of Titanium Corp. “Hey, somebody called me in?”

  “Hey, Rowan,” Geir said. “Do you have any experience with dogs?”

  “Outside of owning some?” he asked.

  “K9 units, military dog training, that sort of thing.”

  “Some,” he said. “I was a handler for a year, and that was the year before the accident,” he said. “That was one of my biggest regrets. The fact that I didn’t have enough time with the dog.”

  “Understood,” he said. “What dog was it?”

  “Hershey,” he said. “But he had some big fancy formal name, Herod Guildford III, or some such thing,” he said with a smile. “I just called him Hershey. The problem in my case was trying to separate that owner bond,” he said. “Handlers obviously get attached, but getting too attached is frowned upon.”

  “Right, because the dogs can move from handler to handler, depending on the training they’re set up for, right?”

  “Exactly.”

  “How’s the rehab going?”

  “It’s going,” he said. And he slowly straightened out his leg, bringing it back in again. The muscles stiffened so easily these days. He had to remember to always do his stretches or else they seized up. “It’s kind of weird missing a foot. The missing kidney I don’t notice. The rib I do. The muscle I do but not as much as the foot.”

  “Right,” Badger said, walking in behind him. “It’s funny how we can adjust to losing a whole limb, but losing half a foot or half a hand just feels wrong.”

  “And a couple ribs. Plus I’ve got a mess of screws and plates and who knows what else in my body.” He shrugged. “Like all of us, the fact is, we are Patchwork Kids brought back to life.”

  “I like that,” Geir said, laughing. “More like clockwork kids though.”

  “Yeah, steampunk before it became cool,” Rowan said, cracking a grin.

  “What was the name of that dog again?” Geir asked Rowan.

  “Which one?”

  “The one you used to work with?”

  “Hershey,” he said.

  Geir looked to Badger, who sat down with a thump, and reached for a short stack of files that were on the desk and sorted through them.

  “What would you do to get that dog back?” Geir asked him.

  “That would mean going back into an active military K9 unit,” he said, “and that’s not happening. No matter how much dreaming I do.”

  “Got a point there,” Badger said as he flipped open the first folder, closed it; flipped open the second one, closed it; reached for the third one in front of him, hoping, and looked at Geir and gave him a nod. Badger handed the file to Geir.

  “What’s this all about?” Rowan asked.

  “I don’t know if you know about a bunch of the guys who have done private missions for us,” he said. “They’ve been looking into the fate of some of the War Dogs supposedly retired but gone missin
g.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Rowan said, his tone harsh. “These dogs deserve every bit of retirement they have coming.”

  “We agree,” Geir said. “What we do have is a dog here. It was supposed to be sent to California. And it was. It arrived, landed, and was signed off. However, when the military heard of the weather event there, they made a follow-up check to see that everything was still okay, but they found no sign of the people or the dog. Apparently one of the big fires in California had ripped through the place, and everybody was separated. That had been close to a month or six weeks ago. The family in question lost members, not to mention several other furry members of the family that were scattered or died, and, even if the dog can be found again, at this point, they don’t want it back.”

  “Wow,” he said. “I understand, but that’s harsh.”

  “It is, but they also lost their home and had to move to Illinois, I think,” he said, checking the file. “The husband is now a single father of two kids because he lost his wife to that fire.”

  “Well, I guess, given the circumstances, maybe it is understandable,” he said, “but it’s still pretty rough on the dog.”

  “They’d only had the dog a few weeks, and, according to the first welfare check, everything was fine, but then, when the fire blasted through the area shortly thereafter, the dog took off, and nobody has seen it since.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  “It is,” they said.

  “What’s the dog’s name?” Rowan asked, stretching back in the big old office chair.

  “Harold Guildford II,” Badger said, looking over at him.

  He slammed forward, his feet hitting the floor hard and his fist coming down on the desk. “Hershey?”

  Both men nodded. “Yeah, Hershey,” Geir said.