“It was a good choice,” Zoe told him. “I’m proud you made it work. A lot of fatherless boys don’t.” She was following Linc and Star out the door leading to the kennels when she added, “I hope and pray my son turns out half as well as you have.”
Linc was speechless. Was she serious? She’d sure sounded that way. Wow. He bit back an inappropriate quip he might otherwise have used to keep from accepting such high praise. It was one thing to do his job well and serve his country—that was the norm—but to be held up as the perfect adult male example for the little boy Zoe loved with all her heart was something else. Something far beyond regular service.
He busied himself settling Star in her kennel rather than respond to Zoe’s statement. No matter what he said in response, it was bound to sound like either bragging or begging for further praise.
Truth to tell, she had just given him the best compliment of his entire life and he didn’t know what to do or say, other than to let it pass without comment. He wanted to thank her somehow, to admit how deeply touched he was, yet he refused to reveal that much raw emotion for fear of disgracing himself.
Whether Zoe knew it or not, she had just put a crack in the thick stony wall he’d trusted to keep his heart and his warrior spirit intact.
Now he’d have to make sure he didn’t permit her to widen that gap enough to step through or he might never recover.
FOURTEEN
Wind was gusting off the surrounding hills, lifting fine dust and sand that stung Zoe’s cheeks as they crossed the tarmac toward an open hangar. North of the airfield, rows of fighters stood in neat lines, forming their own ready ranks.
Linc touched her arm to get her attention and pointed to a sleek aircraft doing touch-and-go landings. “Your student?”
“Maybe. After basic, they’re assigned to one of four advanced-training tracks—bomber and fighter, airlift and tanker, advanced turboprop or helicopters.”
“That makes sense, I guess.”
“It does, particularly when a pilot ends up assigned to fly large transport and tanker aircraft instead of fighter jets.”
“Who decides?”
Zoe turned her back to the gusts and used a hand to control wisps of her flyaway hair. “Thankfully, not me.”
“Got it.” Linc had to hold on to his blue beret to keep it from blowing away. “Let’s get inside before we end up taking to the air, too.”
A dash for the closest hangar with open doors brought them relief. No mechanics were working on the various aircraft housed there, which was a good thing because an exposed engine full of grit due to the open bay was far from acceptable.
She pointed to an office. “Daily rosters are posted over there. I’ll go check.”
“Where you go, I go.” Linc fell in beside her.
It only took her a few seconds to spot familiar names. “We must be living right. Ahern and Orleck are both on duty in hangar seven.”
“Okay. Before we go talk to them, let’s set some ground rules.”
“A pilot term. Nice.”
Linc was chuckling and shaking his head. “Total accident, I assure you. Tell me more about your dealings with Ahern first.”
“He’s a disgusting braggart. If he was one tenth as wonderful as he thinks he is, he’d have made chief master sergeant by now. That said, he’s a wiz with engines. Not as good on advanced avionics but not bad, either. I think younger guys like Orleck handle most of the electronic testing for him.”
“Speaking of Orleck, what’s the deal with him?”
“He pitched a fit when I washed him out. Once he’d blown off steam, however, he seemed to settle right down. I heard later that he was grateful for the change of direction. That’s the beauty of it. We have a variety of great jobs in the air force and if a person tries, he or she can be very happy, successful and satisfied.”
“What about you? Are you happy?” Linc asked.
She huffed. “I was, until they unfairly sidelined me. Now not so much.”
“What about in the rest of your life?”
Her eyebrows went up as her suspicion increased. “Are you asking about my brother again? Because if you are, remember what I told that nurse. I am not like Boyd. Never was, never will be. I’m not sure why he turned out so twisted, but whatever happened to him, I escaped that negative influence. Maybe it was because we had different mothers.”
“I wasn’t asking officially,” Linc said. “That was more of an existential question. I know you have Freddy and you love him to pieces, but what about the rest of the time? Are you generally happy?”
Deciding how to answer delayed her response. Finally, she paraphrased Scripture. “‘I have learned that whatever state I am in, for whatever reasons, to be content.’ The apostle Paul wrote that in his letter to the Philippians. He said it much better than I just did, but you get the gist.”
“You don’t wish things had been different, could be different?”
Zoe wasn’t sure what he was actually asking, but she didn’t intend to fall into the trap of assuming his query was personal. They had been discussing air force careers, so she replied in that vein. “There were times I thought I wanted to be a combat pilot. Now that I’m a mother, I’ve decided it’s too dangerous. My son only has me.”
“No grandparents?”
She shook her head and made a derisive sound. “My late father ruined Boyd by setting a terrible example and being totally convinced his only son could do no wrong. My mother is still living near the old Wadsworth family place in Dill, but she never had the backbone to stand up to Dad. She’s even worse in regard to my brother. Maybe she overcompensates because she’s his stepmother. All I know is, I would never give her another child to raise. Uh-uh. No way.”
“I get it. I love my mom dearly, and she did manage to get me through my teens, but it was more by accident than from making good choices.”
Smiling at him, Zoe spoke her mind. “I don’t like giving random credit. You can say I’m deluded if you want. You won’t be the first. But I firmly believe that God knew us when we were first being formed and becoming babies, just like the Bible says. He saw where we were going and what we’d become from the beginning.”
“Then why didn’t he stop your brother before so many people died?”
“I don’t know.” She refused to let him rile her. “I’m clueless about far more than I dream of ever understanding. But that doesn’t change my opinion. I can look back and see times where God intervened and saved me. I imagine you could, too, if you’d do it with an unbiased attitude.”
“For instance?”
“How should I know what’s gone on in your life? As for mine, I’ll tell you this. Boyd was already scary when we were kids. I loved him dearly, but I still wonder how many times he thought of murdering me in my sleep.
“And then there was my husband. John was a handsome smooth talker who had me thoroughly convinced he was some kind of super patriot—when he was exactly the opposite. If he had not died when he did, there’s no telling how deep into the pit he’d have dragged me and if I’d have been able to climb out, let alone make the air force my career.”
“Do you believe his death was accidental?”
Zoe sobered and her eyes flamed with repressed emotion. “That was the official finding.”
“And...?”
“It’s my belief that his traitorous cohorts got him out of the way when he made the mistake of bragging to me that he was getting away with breaking the law. How they found out doesn’t matter. What does is that I went to my commanding officers and reported it. John was dead within a week.”
“Then you can’t be sure.”
With a telling sigh and shrug of her shoulders, Zoe said, “I’m as sure as the encrypted files on his personal computer can make me. If I had not preempted that discovery with my initial report and John had not been removed fr
om my life, I could have been charged with treason or even have met the same fate he did. Then Freddy would have died, too, because I was carrying him at the time.”
“So, you really think God rescued you?”
“It makes more sense than random choice, just like knowing the alphabet and being able to spell makes more sense than closing your eyes and banging on a keyboard until a bestseller emerges.”
Linc stared at her for the longest time before he said, “Know what scares me?”
“What?”
A lopsided smile began to lift one corner of his mouth. “You’re actually starting to make sense.”
Her smile mirrored his, then surpassed it. “Of course I am. That’s because I’m right.”
* * *
Along with a half dozen other mechanics, Jim Ahern was working in hangar seven, as scheduled, when Linc led the way with Zoe behind him.
Linc kept it casual as he approached them. “Jim Ahern?”
The senior mechanic laid aside a socket wrench as he turned to face the Security Forces man. “Yeah.”
Smiling cordially, Linc offered to shake hands. Ahern swiped his palms against his oily coveralls before accepting.
“Which one is Orleck?”
Ahern snorted. “Why? What’d he do?”
“Nothing that we know of. I just figured it would save time to speak with both of you at once. Were you both here working all morning?”
“Yup.” He cupped a hand around his mouth and called, “Hey, Mike. C’mere a sec.”
The younger man who emerged from behind the plane was scowling until he saw Zoe standing behind Linc. Then he began to grin. “Hey, Sarge. What brings you here? Are we late getting a trainer ready or something?”
Rather than let her answer, Linc spoke. “Actually, this visit has to do with Sergeant Sullivan.”
“Really?” Orleck was grinning at her as if meeting an old friend and Linc wasn’t sure he liked such familiarity, although it did indicate no latent animosity.
Ahern was less amiable. “I already told you guys, over and over, I ain’t seen Boyd since he begged me to come visit him in prison. It wasn’t my idea in the first place, but we’d been buddies before, so I gave in and went.”
Linc chose to refrain from mentioning that Ahern and Boyd Sullivan appeared to be more cohorts than everyday friends. If Sullivan hadn’t been drummed out of the service early, there was a good chance Ahern would have been sucked further in and have taken the fall for some of their hijinks. The problem was, and always had been, a lack of concrete proof.
“You haven’t been contacted by Boyd?” Linc asked him.
“Nope. I know rumor has him here on the base but if he is, I sure ain’t running into him.” He pointedly stared at Zoe. “What about her? She’s his kin.” His brow furrowed deeper and his eyes narrowed. “Is she blaming me? Is that it?”
“No. Not at all.” Linc struck a casual pose. “What about you, Orleck? Would you know Boyd Sullivan if you saw him?”
“I might. I did see his picture in the base newspaper and on TV. Why? Did he go and kill somebody else?”
“Not lately. Not that I know of,” Linc replied. He purposely changed the subject. “So, how do you like being a mechanic?”
“I like it fine.” His gaze kept slipping over to Zoe, and his grin was so friendly Linc was disappointed. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have suspected the washed-out pilot had a thing for his former instructor.
“You aren’t sorry you didn’t get to fly?”
Orleck shrugged. “Sure, from time to time. But I get to go along on plenty of test flights and that gives me my thrills. Keeping these birds in the air is what I do best.” Once again, his pleasant expression rested on Zoe. “I actually owe it all to you, Sarge. You helped me find a good fit. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she said.
“Well, then...” Linc hitched up his utility belt and holster out of habit and gave each man a nod. “We’ll be going. You know who to call if you catch sight of Sullivan.”
Ahern chuckled. “Believe me, if I find any red roses lying around, you’re the first guys I’m gonna call.”
As Linc turned to go, he placed his hand lightly on Zoe’s back for moral support and guidance. Yes, she was perfectly capable of walking beside him without interference. And yes, he could have stopped himself. But there had been something in the manner of both men, not to mention those watching from afar, that made him want to publicly declare that she was with him. Not just there, but with him.
They were almost outside before she spoke. “I can’t imagine Orleck being behind the attacks on me. Can you? He seems perfectly happy here.”
Linc agreed. “What about Ahern?”
“Why would he want to harass me? Because he was a friend of my brother’s?”
“It makes a little sense.”
Brushing back flyaway strands of her long hair, Zoe faced him. “I don’t see it. I think we were grasping at straws coming here in the first place.”
“You’re probably right.”
“So, what’s next?”
“You hungry?”
She laughed lightly. “Why are you always trying to feed me?”
“It’s a Southern custom. We like to eat.”
“I thought I detected a Texas twang, but I figured it was because you’d been stationed here long enough to pick it up.”
“Nope. Born and raised. Remember the Alamo and all that.”
“I get it. Okay, country boy, you can feed me. And this time let’s eat at a table with chairs and napkins and plenty of sweet tea.”
“Sounds like you’ve acclimated well, too.”
When Zoe looked into his eyes, Linc saw more than he wanted to see. Although she managed a wan smile, there was a telltale glistening of unshed tears pooling in her hazel eyes. “Until my brother escaped and came here, I’d planned to make Texas my permanent home, even after I retired. Now who knows?”
Something inside him urged Linc to open his arms to her and she stepped into his embrace as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It never occurred to him to try to hide their closeness, nor was he embarrassed by it. She needed comforting that he needed to provide. It was that simple. And that complicated.
Closing his eyes, Linc rested his chin on the top of her head and felt her flyaway hair tickling his nose. Thoughts raced through his mind. How could he fix this for her? How could he make it right and continue to protect her? Suppose he was reassigned? Then what?
With great effort, Linc managed to set her away. Grasping her shoulders, he spoke quietly, privately. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s inappropriate.”
Zoe sniffled. “Maybe. But it sure felt good.”
That was the crux of the problem. “What I mean is, if word gets back to headquarters that you and I are getting too friendly, there’s a good chance I may be relieved of this duty.”
Remembering what his master sergeant had suggested gave him some solace, but Linc doubted Sergeant James had meant for him to go this far. Nor had he intended to. Genuine fondness for Zoe had grown so easily it had blindsided him.
She took a step away. Then another. “I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered. “Just tell me how to act and I’ll be glad to comply.” A tiny smile quirked at one corner of her mouth. “Under most circumstances.”
Linc stood tall, almost at attention. “As soon as Star is released for duty, I think things will smooth out for us. If you need comforting, then you can get it from her.”
“I thought Captain Roark said she’d bite my nose off.”
“That may be a slight exaggeration. As long as I tell her it’s okay, she’ll be fine, same as she was with Freddy.”
Sobering and staring off into the distance as if visualizing her darling little boy, Zoe said, “It’s him I’m most wo
rried about.”
“I thought you believed God was taking care of everything.”
“I did, and I do. But I also believe He expects us to use the wits and weapons He’s provided for us. Just because I know how to fly doesn’t mean I’d carelessly go up without a parachute. That would be reckless.”
“What about when you’re on the ground?” Linc asked, eager for her answer.
He never expected her to look him straight in the eye and say, “When I’m down here, you’re my parachute, Sergeant Colson. You and Star. I don’t want to go anywhere without you until we figure out who is trying to destroy me.”
FIFTEEN
The food at Carmen’s was pleasing as usual, and so was the ambience. Linc reported their location and plans, then settled back to enjoy his meal.
She called me her parachute. He couldn’t get that image out of his mind. A parachute slowed a jumper’s descent, settled him gently on the ground and could be used again and again. But there was more to it than that, wasn’t there? Zoe was counting on him to be her safety net, her ever-present, reliable guarantee that when all this was over, she’d survive the same way a parachute kept a jumper alive. Did she realize that the person in the harness had to know when to deploy an emergency chute? How to tuck and roll when making a hard landing? What to do if coming down in enemy territory?
Linc doubted she had made that detailed a comparison when she’d complimented him. That was just as well. As much as he wanted to be everything she needed, he knew that was impossible. So when had the pretty sergeant gone from being an assignment to something more? The change was in his outlook. In the way he perceived both her and their companionship. What had once been a job was now more than a pleasure, more than his duty. It was as if their lives had been joined by circumstances with the glue of compassion, perhaps even budding love.
Love? Linc looked across the table at her and found her studying him, as well. Hoping to seem nonchalant, he smiled and gestured with his fork. “Pretty good, huh? I love their lasagna.”
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