“I’d appreciate that.”
“You gonna tell Mom and Dad?”
“When I get home. Will you wait and let me talk to them?”
Karina nodded. “Yeah, but if you don’t soon, I’m gonna spill the beans,” she mock-threatened.
Kassie knew her sister was full of shit, but said, “I’ll tell them.”
“Good.”
“Be careful,” Kassie told her sister, settling back against Hollywood. He gave the phone back to her, and wrapped his arms around her hips.
“It’s fine, Kass. Stop worrying.”
“I’ll never stop worrying about you,” she told her sister.
“Whatever. You comin’ over to see my dress for the dance soon?”
“I’m not sure what time I’m leaving tomorrow, but I’ll stop by the house and talk to Mom and Dad and see your dress. That work?”
“Yeah. Drive safe. I’ll see you tomorrow night. Expect more questions,” Karina warned.
“Of course. I’d expect nothing less. Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Kassie clicked off the phone and lay back against Hollywood as if she were boneless. “I’m exhausted.”
Hollywood chuckled. “I think that went well,” he told her.
“Believe it or not…it did. She was surprised, but she would’ve protested a lot more if she truly didn’t get good vibes from you.”
“She’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Hollywood commented.
“She does. Although I’m not thrilled with Blake.”
“Hmmmm. Yeah, to be honest, me neither. I’ll get my friend Tex to see what he can find out about him. It’ll be easy enough to check out his story. You’ll get me his last name?”
Kassie nodded. “Definitely. I can’t believe you told her you were going to ask me to marry you and then get me pregnant.”
Hollywood smirked. “I didn’t tell her anything that wasn’t true, sweetheart.”
“You’re insane, Hollywood. You don’t know what’ll happen between us.”
“I know what I want to happen between us, and I’m gonna act like what I want is what will be. You know, the power of wishful thinking and all that.”
Kassie didn’t respond, merely closed her eyes and inhaled his amazing scent once more, letting it relax her.
“You good?” Hollywood asked for the second time that night.
“I think so. As good as I can be right now.”
“I’ll take that,” he said. “Wanna watch something on TV?”
“Is there anything good on?”
“No clue. But I’ll find something if you want.”
“Aren’t you tired? Don’t you need to get back over to your place?” Kassie asked.
“Nope and nope. I’m staying here tonight. No, don’t tense up on me. Nothing’s gonna happen. I just don’t want to leave you. We only have tonight, then tomorrow you’re goin’ back to Austin. I’ll see you next week, but I can’t spend the night. So this is the last time in a while I’ll have to hold you in my arms. I just want to be close to you, Kass.”
“I can give you that,” Kassie said softly. “I’d like it too. It’s weird, but I already miss you and I’m not even gone yet.”
Hollywood kissed her forehead and shifted until they were lying down. He tucked her into his side, her back to the cushions, her head on his shoulder.
“Put your hand under my arm,” he told her quietly.
“Why?”
“Your fingers are cold. I hate that. Let me warm them with my body heat.”
Kassie tried not to melt at his thoughtfulness, but failed. She tucked her hand against his body and he pressed his bicep against it. Her other hand, she curled under her cheek on his chest.
“It’s been a weird day,” she said sleepily.
Hollywood chuckled. “It kinda has. But I wouldn’t change one second of it since it ended with you here in my arms.”
“Flatterer,” Kassie protested weakly.
He chuckled, but didn’t say anything more.
The last thing Kassie remembered was thinking how safe she felt in his arms. Nothing was settled with Dean and Richard, and she still had to give Dean the fake information about the training exercise, but somehow it all didn’t matter. Hollywood would keep her safe. She believed that down to her soul.
Chapter 16
“I’m not sure I approve of you,” Jim Anderson told Hollywood as he leaned back in his chair. They’d just finished dinner and were sitting around the dining table chatting.
“Daaaad,” Kassie moaned. Her dad had been giving Hollywood the stink eye all evening. She wasn’t surprised he’d actually said what he had, just that it had taken so long. Seriously, who said that to someone after they’d eaten a meal together? Her freaked-out, overprotective father, that’s who.
Hollywood put his hand on her leg to try to reassure her then looked her father in the eye as he said, “I’m okay with that…for now. You just met me tonight and your daughter recently told you that her ex treated her like crap. I hope, though, that you’ll give me a chance. Let me show you that not all Army guys are like that jerk.”
Kassie appreciated that Hollywood was curbing his swearing in front of her family. She put her hand over his on her leg under the table and squeezed, letting him know how much she appreciated him.
“I’m just not sure she should be dating when all this other stuff is going on,” her dad said, obviously still not convinced.
“He’s helping me with that,” Kassie protested.
“Not sure what he can do when Richard is in jail up in Kansas and that friend of his is following my baby around.”
“One of my friends was injured over in the Middle East and just finished rehab. His nickname is Fish. He’s medically retired and has watched Karina as she’s gone to school the last two days,” Hollywood informed her family.
Kassie turned to stare at Hollywood. “He has?”
“I haven’t seen anyone following me,” Karina piped up.
“And you won’t,” Hollywood told her with a smile. “He’s good at what he does.” He winked at Karina, then turned back to Kassie’s dad. “I swear to you that I am doing everything in my power to make sure both your daughters are safe.”
“It’s a start,” Jim replied, not completely mollified, but at least thawing a little.
“And I also want you to know that I’m going to do everything I can to show Kassie how she should be treated by a man. I get that Jacks changed after the explosion, but that’s no excuse. If given the chance, I’ll treasure Kassie. I want to show her that just because she can take care of herself, doesn’t mean she should have to all the time.”
Kassie swallowed hard. Man, he was making it really hard to keep an emotional distance from him. She liked him. A lot. But she had decided to take a step back from their relationship until the thing with Richard and Dean was finished. He’d made that hard when he’d driven down to see her Monday night, and then again tonight just to have dinner with her family.
“I’ve been telling her for years not to settle,” her mom said. “I want her to have what Jim and I have.” Donna Anderson looked over at her husband with love and respect easy to see in her eyes.
“May I be excused?” Karina asked politely, but followed that up with a teasing, “I’m about to choke on all the lovey-dovey crap in the air.”
The adults all laughed and Donna shooed her youngest daughter away. “Go on then.”
Karina grinned and pushed back from the table.
“But no texting until you get your homework done,” Jim warned.
“Daaaaaad.”
“Nope. You know the rules. Blake’ll be there when you’re done.”
“Fine,” Karina moped. “I don’t have much anyway.”
“See ya later,” Kassie called out to her sister.
“Later,” Karina yelled back as she ran up the stairs to her room.
When the teenager had disappeared and th
ey heard music start up in her room, Hollywood leaned forward and put both elbows on the table in front of him. “You met Blake?” he asked Jim.
He shook his head. “Not yet. He’s supposed to pick her up for the dance next Saturday. Why?”
“Hollywood, I don’t think—”
“He’s older than her,” Hollywood said, ignoring Kassie’s warning.
“She told us. Should we be worried?” her dad asked, cutting to the chase.
“I don’t know,” Hollywood said honestly.
“Kassie? What do you think?” her mom asked with concern.
She shrugged. “Like Hollywood said, I don’t know. I knew she was dating the new guy in school and that he was older, but I didn’t really think about it much. But me and Karina FaceTimed this weekend when she was at the movies with him and I have to admit, he looks too old to be in high school.”
“She said that he was twenty. That he’d dropped out and made the decision to come back and finish up,” Jim said.
“That’s what she told us too, but…is that even legal?” Kassie asked. “I mean, can someone in their twenties even go back to high school?”
“I looked that up,” Hollywood told them. “In Texas, anyone who is twenty-six or younger can be admitted to a high school, but if he, or she, hasn’t been in attendance at school in the last three years, they can’t be put into a classroom setting with anyone under the age of eighteen.”
“I think Karina said that he was only out for two years,” Kassie mused.
“Then I think it’s legal,” Hollywood said. “I can have Harley’s sister, she’s a lawyer, look into it, but I’m not sure there’s anything we can do about it in the next week and a half.”
“Should we tell her she can’t go to the dance?” Donna fretted.
“Mom, you can’t do that,” Kassie told her. “She’s been looking forward to it for the last month. She’s so excited.”
“But if we don’t know about this Blake guy, I’m not comfortable with her attending,” she protested.
“Why don’t you invite him to dinner like you did Hollywood? You can intimidate him and let him know that Karina isn’t an easy mark.”
“We do not intimidate people,” Donna said in a huff.
“I’d feel better if my attempt at intimidation actually had even a smidgen of effect on your boyfriend,” Jim stated matter-of-factly.
Kassie stared at her dad for a moment, then turned to look at Hollywood to see his reaction to her dad’s admission that he’d been trying to intimidate him. He was smiling. Smiling!
“This isn’t funny,” Kassie informed Hollywood.
“It’s a little funny,” he countered.
Kassie rolled her eyes and looked back at her dad. “Anyway, invite him over. See for yourself.”
“You’ll come too?”
Kassie shook her head. “I can’t. I traded shifts with a girl at work. In exchange for me getting this past Saturday and Sunday off, I agreed to take her late shifts. I work twelve to nine for the next seven days straight.”
“Good Lord,” Hollywood exclaimed. “You have to work the crap shift for a week straight for taking two days off?”
Kassie shrugged. “Not usually, no. But you asked, and it was important to talk about Richard and Dean. So I bit the bullet and made the deal.”
Hollywood put his hand on her face and turned her to look at him. “You did that for me,” he said softly. It wasn’t a question.
Kassie nodded anyway. “Yeah.” She knew he wanted to kiss her because she totally wanted to kiss him. But even though she was thirty years old, certainly old enough to kiss her boyfriend in front of her parents, she still felt shy doing it.
As if he could read her mind, he pulled her toward him and kissed her forehead gently. Then he whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, her cell rang. It was sitting on the kitchen counter and Kassie ignored it. Her mom had a thing about having electronics at the dinner table. The ringing stopped, but started up immediately afterwards.
Kassie looked nervously at Hollywood.
“What?” he asked, reading her unease.
“When Dean wants to get ahold of me, he usually calls, then hangs up if I don’t answer. Then he calls back. He keeps doing it until I answer.”
“Excuse us,” Hollywood told her parents, scooting back and standing.
“If this is something to do with my daughters, I want to hear it,” Jim demanded as he also stood.
Hollywood held up a hand. “I don’t blame you one bit. But if this really is Dean, then you need to give Kassie some space so she can talk to him without worrying what her overprotective, angry father is going to say or do.”
The two men stared at each other for a long moment while the phone continued to ring.
“I swear I’ve got this under control,” Hollywood told the older man. “We have a plan. But Kassie needs to concentrate on the information she gives to Dean, and she can’t do that if she’s worried about her mom and dad and what they’re thinking when she’s executing that plan.”
Jim’s shoulders dropped and he sat back down next to his wife. Donna immediately reached out and grabbed his hand.
“We’ll stay put,” her dad agreed. “But I want a brief before you both leave.”
“Done,” Hollywood said immediately, towing Kassie behind him toward the kitchen counter and her phone. Glancing at the screen, and seeing it was indeed Dean, Hollywood asked, “Is there a room we can go to talk to him?”
Kassie nodded. “Dad’s office.”
“Lead the way.”
Without another word, Kassie spun and headed for the other side of the house. They went through the living room and down a hallway. She opened the door at the end and led them into a dark, masculine office. There were bookshelves along two walls, a large window along the third, and a desk against the fourth.
The phone had stopped ringing, but as soon as Hollywood shut the door behind them, it started up again.
“You remember what to say, right?” Hollywood asked as he handed the cell to her.
Kassie nodded.
“Okay. Hang on a sec.” He kissed her forehead, then pulled out his own phone and clicked on a contact. “Hey, Ghost. It’s Hollywood. Dean’s calling. You ready? Right. Standby.
“Okay, sweetheart. You’re on. Put it on speaker so Ghost can hear too. He’s recording it so we can get everyone on the same page. You got this.”
Kassie nodded, more nervous than she’d been in the past when she’d had to deal with Dean.
“Hello?”
“It’s about fucking time you picked up, bitch,” Dean greeted. “Where the fuck are you?”
Kassie’s eyes went to Hollywood’s and he nodded at her. “I’m at my parents’ house. We had dinner.”
“You must not care about your sister because I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for days,” Dean snarled.
Kassie shook her head at Hollywood to let him know that Dean was lying. Hollywood’s response was to put his hand on the nape of her neck and lean his forehead against the side of her head. She could smell his wonderful scent. It calmed her somewhat, at least enough that she could think about what she needed to say to Dean. Hollywood’s nearness gave her the strength to continue.
“I’m sorry. You got me now. What do you want?” she asked Dean.
“I want to know what information you have for me. You do remember the reason you went to that fucking ball the other weekend, right? Did you suck his cock like I told you to? He’d tell you anything you wanted to know if your lips were around his dick.”
Kassie stiffened and shut her eyes. She hated that Hollywood was hearing this. But instead of getting pissed, she felt Hollywood’s lips against her temple. He kissed her with a feather-light touch, then squeezed her neck gently.
“I’m still not sure what kind of information you wanted me to get from him, Dean.”
“Are he and his budd
ies going out of town anytime soon? If so, where and for how long? Has he bitched about any training exercises coming up? Those assholes are always training…fuckers. What about sick family members? We want any information about those assholes you can get. And we’re getting pretty damn sick of waiting.”
It didn’t escape her notice that he’d used the word “we” instead of “I.”
“What did they ever do to you and Richard?” Kassie asked softly, feeling a bit nauseous that they wanted to know if any of the wonderful women, or Annie, were sick. What did they think they were going to do? Blackmail them so they couldn’t get the medicine they needed? Her mind spun. That wasn’t even possible…was it? She didn’t even want to think about what Dean and his friends could do to a sick woman or child.
“You don’t have to worry about what they did, bitch. Who you should be worried about is your sister. You wouldn’t want her to disappear without a trace, would you?”
“If you touch her, I swear to God I’ll go straight to the cops. You won’t get away with it.”
“You do and I guarantee I’ll have an iron-clad alibi,” Dean retorted immediately. “And all you’ll do is assure your little sister will end up flat on her back for some rich foreign sexual deviant. Now, what the fuck information do you have? And it better be good or you’ll never see Karina again.”
“Okay, okay, okay, let me think,” Kassie pleaded, panicked now. Before, Dean had been vague in his threats against Karina, but this…telling her he could make her disappear was something different altogether. She couldn’t bear the thought of Karina vanishing into the mysterious sex trafficking underground.
“Breathe, sweetheart,” Hollywood said in a toneless whisper into her ear. “You can do this. Tell him about the wildlife refuge.”
“They have a training thing coming up soon,” Kassie blurted.
“Where? When?” Dean ordered.
“Um…next weekend. Hollywood was talking about it with some of his friends at the ball. They were saying how much they weren’t looking forward to it.”
“Who is it with?”
“Uh…I’m not sure. I think they were laughing about how easy it would be because it was a small thing. Like their unit against another.”
Rescuing Kassie: Delta Force Heroes, Book 5 Page 19