Tucker positioned himself on the edge of the bed as Jessica started to stir but then found another comfortable position in Brandy’s arms.
“You look so beautiful. You are so amazing, Brandy. And I’m so sorry you had to go through all this.”
She was just staring up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Never in a million years did I think when you taught me to shoot that I’d need that training. I really hesitated, almost didn’t do it. That was what I was the most scared of. I thought, if I didn’t get over this hurdle, I wouldn’t live to regret anything or to see you or our daughter.”
“Son.”
“Whatever.”
“You did good. Brawley is over-the-moon impressed with your tactical skills,” he said through his chuckle.
“There was nothing tactical about it. Point and shoot.”
“The decision to shoot the right person is always the biggest thing, Brandy. That’s what I meant. No one else was harmed.” He touched the bandage on her lip. “Who can I punish who did this?”
“Oh.” She started to giggle, which woke Jessica up in earnest. Dorie rose, craned her neck, gave Tucker a hug, and took the toddler from her, exiting the room. “It was some good Samaritan thinking he was stopping a crazed hormonal woman from shooting at her boyfriend or something. I think I chipped a tooth.”
“He beat you up?”
“No, he tackled me! Knocked me unconscious.”
Tucker did begin to laugh behind his hand, in spite of himself.
“It wasn’t funny, Tucker,” she barked.
“No, I understand. But he was being brave.”
He loved the flash of anger in her eyes, that fighting spirit that wanted justice. If the gentleman hadn’t knocked her out, she’d have gotten the better of him, Tucker was certain.
“I’ll show you how to fend off an attacker next,” he said through his laughter.
“No, don’t! Because that’s what will happen next. Don’t you dare!” Her eyes were huge, her cheeks had pinked up, and in all her fiery loveliness, she was speaking honestly.
He loved her more today than he ever had.
“The baby’s fine?”
“Yes. They said you can listen to the heartbeat again, if you want.”
“Okay, let’s do that,” Tucker responded. He was anxious to replace all the nasty images in his mind of what she might have lived through.
An aid entered the room, bringing in a tray. “We’ve got breakfast here,” the young girl said.
Brandy shrugged. “They had pancakes.”
The tray was set on the wheeling cart and moved closer to Brandy.
“Should I order you some?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve had more coffee in the past ten hours than I get in a month. What I really need to do is get you home, get you in that shower, and then get you in my bed.”
Brandy stared lovingly at the pancakes. “After my breakfast?”
He stood up, shaking his head.
“Mr. Hudson?” a voice from the doorway announced.
Tucker saw one of the nurses standing there.
“I have someone who would like to speak with you.”
He followed the nurse to the hallway and then several doors down to a meditation room/chapel. A white-haired man in a modern, gadget-encrusted electric wheelchair sat in the aisle, his back turned.
“You wanted to speak to me, sir?” Tucker asked.
The wheelchair turned effortlessly. The disabled gentleman was disarmingly handsome, with the brightest blue eyes Tucker had ever seen. He wore an expensive deep blue suit with a designer shirt and tie. His shoes were highly polished and appeared never worn.
The man’s heavily veined hands worked the controls of the electric device until he was close enough to extend his hand.
“I’m Colin Riley, Jenna’s most grateful father, Mr. Hudson. Can I call you Mr. Hudson?”
Tucker shook the man’s hand. He was surprised to feel the strength of Mr. Riley’s firm handshake.
“Of course, Mr. Riley. Nice to meet you too.”
Several other things began to surface as Colin Riley started speaking. He was measured. His eyes were friendly and warm but far from weak. Tucker could even say that the man was driven.
“Sit down, Mr. Hudson. I won’t take much of your time.” He smiled. “I know this is a special day, as mine was yesterday, and I have you to thank for that.”
“It was our job, really. I’m not the team leader. That would be Kyle Lansdowne.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of that. But you had more skin in the game, shall we say.”
Tucker bristled at this a bit. “Sir?”
“It’s a vulgar term, I admit, especially since you nearly lost your wife completing this mission. Many important games in business use athletic competitions to characterize them. I’m going to have to learn a more appropriate way to describe them.”
Tucker’s intuition was firing red hot. He wasn’t sure which ledger of the scale the man sat. But one thing was evident. He was an extremely powerful man and was used to wielding it.
“Just what did you want to speak to me about? I’d like to get back to my wife, if you don’t mind.”
“I wanted to thank you in person.”
“Well, you’ve done that, sir. We just did our job.”
“No, you did my job.”
Again, the hackles on the back of Tucker’s neck began to stand up.
“Excuse me, Mr. Riley?”
“You did a very personal task for me, even though, technically, you work for the United States Navy. I helped with some of the logistics, but I would not have used these resources if it weren’t for the fact that my very foolish daughter had followed in the footsteps of her unfortunate and equally foolish brother. She’s flawed. But she’s all I have left. Other than my billions, of course.”
Tucker was getting annoyed with how heavily laced with power and privilege his conversation was. It wasn’t an arena he was familiar, nor was he comfortable with.
“You trying to impress me, Mr. Riley? Because billions of dollars don’t impress me. People do. And bad people motivate me to want to squish them like a bug, like a pimple on freedom’s ass.”
Colin Riley beamed, his eyes filling with water. “I’ve grossly underestimated you, Mr. Hudson.”
“Whatever,” Tucker said, finally at his limit. “Look, I’m glad it turned out. I’m happy you’re reunited and sorry for the loss of your son. Now I gotta leave, and I’m not going to argue anymore with you. My wife is the most valuable thing in my life, and that’s where I’m going.”
Tucker turned around and stormed out of the chapel. He could hear the wheelchair whining behind him. He wasn’t going to stop for anything. His hands balled into fists.
“Mr. Hudson, please take my card,” Tucker finally heard.
He didn’t bother to turn around. “No thanks, sir.”
“What if someone paid you to go take care of those bugs and made it so you never had to worry about money again?”
Tucker stopped. Wheelchair or no, he was about to deck the guy, stomp on his nice blue suit, and rip some of his hair out. He inhaled deeply three times and then faced the man again.
“One last time, Mr. Riley. My services are not for sale. The U.S. Navy owns my ass. They trained me and believed in me, twice now. They’ve given me a job I wake up loving to do each and every day. I get insurance. My wife’s pregnancy is covered, I’m covered, the kids will get college paid for if I die, and I own my life.”
He lunged forward, his face not more than a foot away from Mr. Riley’s face. The man was still smiling in rapt adulation, and Tucker wanted to smack the smile right off his mug.
“I own my life.”
Riley sat still, raised his hand and presented his card.
“We have much to discuss, Mr. Hudson. And much to learn from each other. I suggest you think about it. You can have all that and your dignity and your soul and your profession. Let me help.”
&n
bsp; Tucker ripped the card from the man’s fingers, whipped around, and headed through the doors to Brandy’s ward.
Brawley and Dorie were standing at the nurse’s station, watching them bounce and play with Jessica. His best friend took one look at Tucker’s expression and stood to full attention.
Tucker ignored them, addressing the nurses. “Can I take my wife home, now?”
Chapter 18
The last of their boxes were loaded into the driveway. The college kids they’d hired were happy with the sandwiches and the extra twenty dollars Brandy gave them apiece. She promised to let them know when they had a work party to rid the yard of much of the shrubbery, which gave privacy but ate up too much territory. She wanted a play structure, a nice perimeter fence for both the front and back yards, and a lawn. She wanted a puppy for the baby to play with some day. Her list of plans for this house was never-ending.
Dorie was nearing her term as Brandy was just beginning to show. Ever since the close of escrow, the two friends had been busy wallpapering one of the bedrooms for the nursery and painting the kitchen and most of the rest of the house. But Dorie wasn’t going to be available any longer. Getting up and down a ladder was becoming too much of a risk.
Brandy drew up sketches of what she wanted the front of the house to look like and what the rooms would look like with their very sparse furniture. She calculated and planned for future buys when things went on sale. She scoured the free used furniture listings and picked up some nice finds.
Tucker arrived with drawer pulls, towel bars and new light fixtures from one of the big home improvement stores.
“Got some things I think you’ll like,” he said as he passed by her with his shopping bags, giving her a peck on the cheek.
“Oh, show me!”
He brought the new hardware into the kitchen and spread everything out on the old Formica countertop. “This old stuff is kind of growing on me, Brandy,” he said as his hand brushed over the mottled “space age” themed surface, complete with silver flakes and elliptical circles circa the 1960’s.
“I know. It’s the character of this house. When we re-do the kitchen, then I’d like some granite. But nothing wrong with this the way it is. I hate throwing out something that can still be used.”
“Exactly. And we’ll remove everything carefully so Coop can sell it at the flea market.” He laughed. Then he remembered that day before he left on deployment, the day that had changed everything.
The purchase of the house had taken up most of the money her father had given her from her mother’s estate, so they were being frugal. They knew it would be a few months before another deployment came up, so they did what they could and planned everything else out in stages.
“Come, let me show you,” Tucker said as he picked up several brushed chrome light fixtures and two long boxes of towel racks, entering the master bathroom. She followed him.
He held up the light bar that would be installed over the sink.
“I saw some mirrored medicine cabinets that would work great and will fit here. I’d like you to see them first,” he said.
“Sure. I like the way that looks. I totally approve. The racks go nice with all that too.”
“I got one that matches for the guest bath. I think I found a plumber at the store who said he could install a shower over the tub there. We’re kind of stuck with this thing,” he said as he pointed to the tiny tiled shower.
Brandy came up behind him and hugged him. “Mr. Hudson, this will be the nicest tiled closet anyone has ever seen. It’s the perfect size. All we need is tension shelves.”
Tucker gave his approval.
They liked to eat dinner upstairs in the “observatory,” as it was now labeled. Brandy found the narrow stairwell comforting and knew it would be even nicer once she was further along. Tonight, she ordered some Italian food and had a nice bottle of red wine breathing on the folding table that was their fine dining area for Tucker. She had a bottle of cranberry mineral water for her.
It was getting to be near time when the food would be delivered. She took out a clean tablecloth, some silverware and two wine goblets from her boxes downstairs and set the table with some roses she’d found growing wild in the miniscule back yard. Tucker followed her up.
“I’m starved. When does it arrive?”
She checked her smartwatch. “About twenty minutes.”
“Let’s get this wine poured. Is it ready?” he asked.
“Whenever you want.”
She stood in front of the large picture window that faced the Pacific Ocean. The sun had begun to hang, but it was still an hour until sunset.
“My queen,” he said as he handed her the goblet with her fizzy cranberry juice. He toasted them and, before he drank, gave her a long kiss. “Who knew, Brandy, we could live this way?”
“You’ve come a long way, baby.” She giggled. “Remember that dumpy apartment with the Big Booby magazines on the coffee table. Those things were awful!”
Tucker took a sip of his wine. “Guilty as charged. That was before I had the real thing.”
His kiss this time lingered down her neck, headed toward her cleavage.
The doorbell rang. It sounded like an apartment buzzer.
Tucker stopped and grimaced. “That’s the next thing I’m going to fix. We need a decent doorbell. I’ll be right back.”
Brandy watched from above as Tucker paid the driver. He pointed to two wooden crates containing young palm trees that had been placed at the side by the front stoop.
The driver shook his head, waved and returned to his car with the plastic “Flo’s Pizza” sign attached to the roof.
“Hey, Brandy,” Tucker called out while he was climbing the stairs. “Where did you get those palm tree?”
“I never saw them before. They must have just arrived.”
Tucker set the food on the table, but they both went over to the window and examined the boxes, and then looked at each other.
“Not another package,” Brandy said.
“Fuck.”
In a flash, he was drilling down the stairwell. Brandy carefully followed behind him at a much slower pace.
An envelope was affixed with a piece of stretchy gold twine. On the outside was written,
To Brandy and Tucker, from a grateful friend.
Tucker let the note drop back against the palm tree base.
“Well, open it. You can’t be serious to think it’s a night letter, now, do you Tucker?”
“I don’t want to touch it.”
“Well then, I will.”
She reached for the envelope and Tucker stopped her, holding her wrist tight and then putting his body between her and the trees.
“Tucker. What’s going on?”
“I think I know who it’s from. No, it’s not a night letter. But it’s not something I want to accept.”
“Tucker, it’s one of those fancy palm trees. You know how much they cost? Like one hundred dollars a foot. And there’s two of them! No, wait, they’re the cluster type, so we got, what Five? Six palm trees in each box?”
“I’ll get something to wheel them out to the street, and someone else can enjoy them.”
“Tucker, you’re being an idiot.” Brandy struggled to remove her arm from his grip.
“I’m protecting my tribe.”
Something odd had come over her husband. A dark mood lingered from something she knew was being kept as a secret.
“Look, I’m sorry.” Tucker gently slipped his arm around her waist. “Let’s eat first, and then we can have a chat. I’ll open the envelope up after that, okay?”
She was moved by the softness in his voice and agreed.
They ate silently, watching the roses and peaches of the sky above the ocean, until at last the sun set and a bright green light formed at the last minute before it fell below the horizon and out of view.
“We got the flash!” he said.
His face was bathed in an orange glow as he continued to watch
the sunset.
He was the phenomenon in the room, she thought. He was the handsome warrior who had brought life and love to her world, who had turned a life of frustration into a fairytale.
Green toads and danger along the way, of course.
She smiled at her own internal thoughts.
“What’s got you laughing?” he asked.
“You. I’m so grateful I met you, Tucker. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without you.”
“Nah, someone else would have swept you off your feet.” He leaned across the table and gave her a kiss. “You’re so easy to love, sweetheart. I think I’m the lucky one.”
“When I think of what I was trying to be, it was like stuffing my personality into the mold of what I thought a girl should want and have and dream for, just like that bustier at Dorie’s wedding. You remember that contraption?”
“Who could forget? To see you trussed up like that, it was such a turn-on.”
She frowned.
“Don’t be that way. I’m all mixed up, I admit. I love all the ampleness of your body. I always have. You’re perfect for me.”
She sipped the last of her mineral water and then set the glass down. “Okay. So now we’re having that chat?”
Tucker looked up at the ceiling, rolled his head, and sighed. He leaned forward, put his arms on the table, and fiddled with the roses, causing a couple of petals to drop.
“At the hospital, Colin Riley came to visit.”
“Who is he?”
“He’s the benefactor, the one who helped out with the trip. He arranged the special flights, rented the big house on Gran Canaria, arranged the cars, everything. We couldn’t have done it without his support.”
“Okay. And?” She knew there was more to the story.
“We rescued his daughter. You know that.”
“I do. You guys did a great job.”
“Yeah, well, it spilled over, of course. You got dragged in, and—”
“And I shot them.”
Tucker winced. “Yes, Brandy, you shot them. Thank you very much for that.”
The cat-and-mouse conversations they had were so much fun for her. She loved seeing him spill something he didn’t want to tell. It was impossible for him to tell her a lie or to hide his fear, although he tried.
SEAL's Rescue Page 11