Life, Liberty, and Pursuit

by Susan Kaye Quinn

  “Oh, honey,” she hugged Eliza tight. “Are you okay? Johnny said you needed to rest … I’ve been going crazy!” Eliza gave a tight smile of thanks to Johnny for managing her mom.

  “I’m better now.” Eliza sat on the bed. “Johnny was right; I just needed a rest. Have you heard anything—from the hospital, I mean?” Somehow she didn’t want to say his name, as though her fears might become real if she did.

  “Yes. The boys are going to be fine,” her mom said. “Jozef—I mean, Dr. Marek—said they had been drugged with some kind of—I don’t know what it was called—”

  “Rohypnol,” interjected Johnny. “It’s like some kind of date-rape drug.”

  “Right,” her mom said. “But I guess it gets used for kidnapping sometimes.” Her eyes were starting to well up with tears again.

  “But they’re okay, right?” Eliza said. “We’re all okay, so you don’t need to worry about it, right?” She tried a half-hearted smile, but it didn’t work.

  “I just can’t believe … you were so close; it could have been you …” The tears were coming again.

  “Hey, I wasn’t the one they tried to drug and kidnap, Mom.” Eliza forced the grin this time. “I mean, they took one look at me and ran. They knew better than to try to mess with me and my cell phone.” That earned her a nervous laugh from both of them. That part of the drama was still a mystery to her.

  “Oh, Bet. My brave Bet.” Her mom was clutching her again. Eliza was afraid two traumatic events in as many days would send her mom over the edge.

  Eliza gently pried herself out of her mom’s arms. “Are the Mareks coming back?” She glanced at her watch. “I mean, the ship leaves in, like, two hours.”

  Her mom smiled at her in a knowing way that was unsettling, as though she was in on some secret of which Eliza had no knowledge. “Dr. Marek said the boys could come back to the ship, but that they would have to rest. He said the drug had made them disoriented and groggy, kind of like being drunk. But there wouldn’t be any permanent effects, and they should be back to normal by tomorrow.”

  Eliza sighed with relief, knowing they were okay and, even better, they were coming back to the ship. “Um, what about David? I mean, I saw them beating him up pretty bad.” The worried look flashed back to her mom’s face. Oops. She should have left that part out.

  “Well, Dr. Marek didn’t say anything about that.”

  “Oh, then, it must have been fine. I mean, he’s a really great doctor, and I’m sure he’ll make sure they’re all taken care of.” She tried to find an exit to this line of conversation. “You know what? I’m starved. I never did get any lunch. Would you mind if we went and got something to eat?”

  “If there’s one thing this cruise ship has, it’s food!” said Johnny, picking up on her lead. Good job, Johnny. Remembering that he was the one who had carried her back to the ship, she gave Johnny her warmest smile ever.

  “Lead the way, Johnny!” Eliza stood up and left her mom with no choice but to stop crying and join them. “I’m craving hot dogs with the works. Do you think we could find some of those?”

  “Anything you want, Bet.” Johnny spoke softly, and she squeezed his hand. Taking her mom’s hand, Eliza towed them both out of the cabin.

  * * *

  The sunlight streamed in the porthole, prying his eyes open. David rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head, blocking the light. He winced as his ribs protested, still sore from the beating he had received yesterday. He was groggy—the normal sleep-deprived kind, not the hazy, drug-induced kind. Yesterday was a nightmare, and he had the bruises to prove it.

  He didn’t remember everything that happened. His dad said that memory loss was a side-effect of the drug, but there were some things that he remembered. Eliza leaning over him, calling his name. Dragging Tomasz out of the bar. Riding in the ambulance, wondering if Tomasz was all right. Tea had filled him in on the details, but it still seemed like it had happened to someone else.

  Tomasz snored loudly, precluding any attempt to sleep. Whoever had drugged them had slipped it into their drinks at the bar. Tomasz had no doubt gotten the full dose. David was lucky to have left half his drink behind at the bar. That was probably the only reason they were still here, today. That, and Eliza coming to their rescue. He smiled as he thought of Tea’s retelling of Eliza’s heroic rescue—how she had somehow frightened off the kidnappers who were hauling him off. If she hadn’t intervened, they probably would still be held for ransom in a hole somewhere. Or worse. How she had managed it, he didn’t really understand, but he was very much looking forward to hearing the full story from her.

  Slowly, he rolled his legs out of bed and sat gingerly on the edge. The dizziness of yesterday was gone, along with the light-sensitivity. Whatever his father had given him last night for his splitting headache must have worked. His head only had a dull throb now. He was lucky to not have a concussion. A deep weariness weighed him down, probably the shock still wearing off. His legs had been wobbly last night. They had to come in on wheelchairs, which was embarrassing, but at least they didn’t fall off the gangplank. He tested his legs out by slowly walking to the bathroom and starting up the shower—so far, so good.

  He stood under the hot water a long time, thinking about the day before. The saints must have smiled on them, letting them get away with a few bruises and a hangover. He was glad he was out of it for a while. Tea said that their mom had completely panicked and had only settled down once he and Tomasz were examined by his father.

  He dressed quietly, slipping on a T-shirt and shorts, not wanting to wake Tomasz. There didn’t seem much danger of that, however, with the logs he was sawing. Then David heard a knock. At first, he wasn’t sure it was a knock at all, with Tomasz’s noise blocking out all other sounds. He checked the peephole and saw her standing outside his door. Eliza.

  He quickly pulled the door open, a smile wide on his face. “Hi.” He suddenly felt a whole lot better.

  She looked nervous. “Hi. I hope I didn’t wake you up. I didn’t want to knock too loud.” She peered over his shoulder at the racket coming from Tomasz’s bed.

  “It’s okay. I don’t think a fire alarm could wake Tomasz right now.” He knew he had a stupid grin on his face, but he had a hard time caring. It was really good to see her, and not just because she was so nice to look at. She was wearing white shorts and a blue halter-top that bared most of her shoulders, her dark hair spilling over them. He took a deep breath.

  “Well, I just wanted to check and see how you were doing,” she said. “If you’re still resting…”

  “No, I just got up, in fact.” He moved outside, quietly closing the door behind him. “Maybe we could go for a walk. I’d rather not stay here and listen to Tomasz snore.”

  A shy smile brightened her face. “Okay. Are you sure you’re all right to walk?” The smile gave way to a frown.

  “I’m fine.” He led the way down the hall, trying to ignore the aching soreness in his sides. He was pretty sure his T-shirt covered up all the bruises. “Would you like to go get some coffee?”

  She smiled. “That would be great.”

  They went down to the deck with the rock wall where they had met before. He ordered coffees while Eliza found a spot for them to sit. The place she picked was perfect—on the opposite side of the spacious lounge from where she had sat before. Tucked into a window alcove was a small couch warmed by the sun. They were sheltered from the early morning bustle of the lounge and rock wall by some large potted ferns.

  “Double latte, extra cream?” He handed her the cup. He grinned when she looked surprised, taking it and cradling it in her hands.

  “You remembered?” She seemed incredulous.

  He gave her an amused look. “Some credit, please?” He tried not to wince as he sat in the deep soft couch. They sipped their coffees, settling in. She tucked her l
egs up under her, still holding and blowing on her coffee.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” She set her coffee down and gave him an odd look of concern.

  “Why?” He hoped she hadn’t seen him flinching.

  “Well, I saw them—when they were beating you up. It looked pretty bad.” Her eyebrows knit together in a scowl. He cringed at the thought of her witnessing him being pummeled.

  “I have a few bruises,” he admitted, adding quickly, “but nothing that won’t heal.”

  She had a grim look on her face, as if she suspected as much. Then something occurred to him, and he smiled widely again.

  “If it wasn’t for you, it would have been much worse.” He drew closer to her, and gently touched her cheek, brushing her hair away from her face. “Which reminds me,” he added, smiling, “I never had a chance to thank you.”

  Slowly, trying to make sure she didn’t mind, he bent closer and touched his lips to hers. He meant to kiss her softly, so it could be easily dismissed if she didn’t want it. And, in all fairness, it did start out that way. But as soon as his lips touched hers, a thrill shot up through his body—and then he was pulling her towards him, his hand behind her neck, pressing his lips urgently into hers. He stopped, breathing ragged, shocked at his own intensity.

  “Eliza …” His lips brushed hers as he spoke. “I’ve wanted to do that …”

  She didn’t let him finish. Her eyes hungry, she ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him. The force of it pushed him back into the couch. His hands went to her waist, holding her as she bore down on him. His heart pounded ferociously. Too soon, she pulled away, breathing as hard as he was.

  He didn’t want her to go anywhere, so he settled her into his lap. He trailed soft kisses along her jaw, reveling in the silkiness of her skin. When he reached her ear and touched his lips just behind her earlobe, she shivered, and that about undid him. He stopped and simply held her, his face buried in her hair. They breathed together until their hearts calmed. He couldn’t imagine anywhere he would rather be.

  “You’re welcome,” she said softly. He laughed and resisted the urge to start kissing her again. She snuggled down in his arms, head resting on his shoulder. Her slow, warm breath on his neck sent shivers down his spine.

  When he found his voice, he said, “Would you tell me something?”

  “What?”

  “Why is Flag Day important to you?”

  He could feel her smile through the thin fabric of his T-shirt. “You remember that, too?”

  “I remember everything about you, Eliza.” He felt as though he had just told her a terribly important secret.

  She paused for a moment. “My great-grandma’s birthday was Flag Day—June fourteenth, every year. She died this last winter.”

  He aimlessly stroked her hair, enjoying how it slipped through his fingers. “I’m sorry.” He kissed her lightly on the top of her head. “You miss her.”

  “She was an amazing lady.” Her voice was tinged with sadness and a kind of awe. “She was very adventurous, traveled everywhere.” She pulled back to tell her story, so her lips no longer whispered on his skin. He missed it already.

  “When she was eighty, she decided to go on an African safari. She couldn’t get her friends to go with her, so she just signed up and went on her own. She always brought back souvenirs for me. One time, she drove all the way from Albuquerque to Alaska, just to see the glaciers.” She paused for a moment. “She would have loved to come on this cruise.”

  He held her a little tighter. He had a vision of Eliza as a scrappy eighty-year-old woman, off on some kind of adventure, possibly taking on bands of thieves with her cane. He tried not to smile and kissed the top of her head again, sighing.

  She sat up suddenly, hands gently lingering on his chest. “Am I hurting you, leaning on you like this?” Truthfully, the dull ache of his bruises was more than compensated by the heavenly feel of her touching him with her hands.

  He smiled wickedly at her and trapped her hand against his chest. “Please, hurt me some more …”

  She pretended to disapprove, shaking her head, but she was smiling, too. “Seriously, where are you hurt?” She tried to lift the edge of his T-shirt to see, as if she knew where the bruises were—which she probably did, having witnessed the whole thing.

  He pulled her hand away from his shirt, lacing her fingers in his, and grinned. “I don’t think you’re qualified to play doctor with me, Miss Stanton.” She blushed, and it spread all the way down to her shoulders. Breathing in sharply, he pulled her close, kissing her and feeling that thrill shoot through him. He settled her down on the couch next to him before he could get too carried away.

  “You still haven’t told me how you rescued me.”

  “There’s not much to tell.” She seemed to hedge.

  “Well, I don’t remember much at all—as you may recall, I was unconscious at the time.” He smiled and then dropped his voice. “I remember you, calling my name. Tea says you scared them off with your phone?”

  “I guess so,” she said. “I told them I had taken their picture and the police were on their way. I don’t think they believed me until Tea came up behind me, on the phone.” She smiled. “That’s when they decided we were too much for them to handle and took off.”

  He raised his eyebrows, impressed. Eliza was resourceful as well as brave. He tried to picture Eliza taking on the kidnappers, armed only with her cell phone and bravado—there was something irresistibly attractive about it.

  “Did I already thank you for that?” he said softly. He leaned closer. “I think I need to thank you again.” She laughed, and he peppered her cheek with soft kisses. He really wanted to lower his kisses to her bare shoulders, but decided that wasn’t a good idea if he wanted to maintain any kind of self-control. He looked at her warm, brown eyes instead.

  “Would you tell me something?” she asked, returning his stare.

  “Anything,” he blurted out, a little embarrassed with how readily he meant that.

  “Why did you decide to join the Navy?”

  He drew back a little, studying her. “Well, I started out thinking I would train to be an EMT, but shadowing Tomasz around Green Bay got old pretty fast.” He grimaced. “I wanted to do something different, something that made a difference. I heard about the linguist program. It’s very hard to get into, so I wasn’t sure if I could pass the tests. Most of the work is highly classified, so I’ll have to get a clearance as well. Once I do, I’ll have a chance to travel all over the world, see things I would never see in Green Bay. If I could get in, it seemed too good to pass up.” He had nervously spilled it all out in a rush and now stopped to see what she thought.

  She had listened intently. “So, you took the tests, and now you’re in. What are you going to study at the Institute?”

  It gave him a warm feeling of satisfaction that she wanted to know so much about it. He hadn’t talked to anyone but Tea about it, and even her interest was limited. “I’ll spend two years at the Institute,” he said. “But I won’t just be learning to speak a language. Language is complicated—it’s part of a culture. So, I’ll be learning the geo-politics as well—and I’ll be training to be a sailor, too. By the end, I’ll have my BA, but most importantly, I’ll be ready to go into the field.”

  “The field? You mean, on a ship?”

  “Not necessarily. I could be stationed anywhere that needs me, and I’ll probably move around a lot, too.”

  “Will it be dangerous?” she asked, frowning. “Will you be … fighting?”

  “It’s possible. I’ll be a sailor, after all, and I could be assigned to a submarine or ship that will see combat.” She frowned more, so he quickly added, “But it’s not very likely. They want to keep their translators and intelligence crew out of the line of fire, so they can keep the flow of information
coming.” The danger aspect seemed an acceptable part of his duty; in fact, it made it more attractive to him. But he didn’t think she’d want to hear that.

  Eliza was quiet. They had drawn closer together while they were talking, their private conversation tucked in the corner by the window.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, suddenly nervous of what she thought of all this.

  “I think you are very brave.” There was something she was leaving unsaid.

  “And?”

  “And I guess I’m a little jealous.” She looked embarrassed and turned away from him to look down at her hands between them.

  “Jealous?” he said, confused. “Well, with your Princeton admission, I’m pretty sure you could get into the linguist program at the Navy, too, if you wanted …”

  “I’m pretty sure I’d have to read a map to serve,” she said wryly. He smiled, but didn’t understand what she was getting at. He waited for her to find the words she was struggling for. “I just wish I had your sense of purpose,” she said finally. “It’s a very cool thing you’re doing.”

  Some feeling he couldn’t identify was welling up inside him. He couldn’t help himself; he had to kiss her again—softly, at first, then more intensely as she pulled him closer to her. His hands slid down her neck, to the soft skin of her bare shoulders. Gripping her shoulders, he slowly broke away from her, needing to stop.

  Breathless, he mumbled, “Um … maybe I should go, um, check on Tomasz.”

  She nodded and looked away from him. “Okay.”

  The sudden awkwardness went with them as they stood up to leave the lounge. He had this need to touch and kiss Eliza that didn’t stop. He wasn’t at all certain, but she didn’t seem to mind too much. However, he was sure of one thing: he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.

  Chapter 7

  Dining

  Eliza shook with the nervous energy left over from her morning coffee with David. She tried to convince herself it wasn’t merely an amazing dream. At her cabin door, they had agreed to meet later for lunch, after he checked in on Tomasz. He had kissed her again, and then whispered “It’s a date” in her ear before beaming sunshine at her and leaving.