by Jan Coffey
He leaned down and kissed her. It was just a gentle brush of the lips, but Amy felt a delicious twist of desire in her middle. She could have just melted against him, but her gaze shifted to the clock on the wall.
“Zack! You have to get out of there now.”
The mother’s voice worked. The bathroom door immediately opened and the boy stepped out. He’d brushed his hair straight down, and it now had formed itself around his small face like a helmet.
“What do you think?” he asked Darius, who discreetly cocked an eyebrow.
“You’re getting a haircut this afternoon,” Amy warned.
He started heading back into the bathroom, but Amy got there first. With a wet hand towel and some serious bribing, she had him fireproofed and ready for school in two minutes.
Zack, though, was too excited to tell Darius about the latest his friends were saying about Wario Ware.
Another five minutes, and she had everyone out of the apartment. The twins went down the stairs ahead of them, bickering the entire time.
“Are you sure you don’t mind driving?” she asked again.
“I’ve been insisting on it,” he reminded her, his hand lingering around her waist.
Amy felt a rush of sensations, already thinking that after dropping the twins off, they could go back to her apartment. Six hours. They’d have six hours to do whatever they wanted. She looked at Darius, and their eyes locked for a moment. Then Kaitlyn pushed the outside door open, and Amy welcomed the blast of cold air against her flushed skin.
“By the way, how did you get in the building?”
“Barbara let me in. She was going out when I was coming in.”
They walked toward the parking lot and to his black Volvo sedan.
“Is Darius staying for dinner?” Kaitlyn asked in what was meant to be a hushed voice.
Amy looked at him and was thrilled to see the nod. “Yes, Commander McCann will stay for dinner.”
“Can Darius sleep over?” Zack asked much less tactfully.
“We’re not talking about this now.”
The twins climbed in, but Amy saw Darius’s face over the roof of the car. He was mouthing Please.
She was in serious trouble.
The elementary school was only five minutes away. Darius stayed in the car while Amy walked her children in.
“I am so glad he came early,” Zack announced when they were away from the car.
“Me, too,” Kaitlyn said, turning around and giving another wave to Darius.
“I’m more glad,” Zack insisted.
Thankfully, Kaitlyn wasn’t feeling up to the challenge.
“But he’s in the navy…like Daddy, isn’t he?” the little girl asked.
“Yes, he is,” Amy replied as they crossed the sidewalk.
“Does that mean he’ll have to go away for a long, long time, like Daddy?”
The three of them had reached the main entrance to the school. The twins looked up at her expectantly. She wished she could answer them.
“I don’t know, honey, but I’ll find out.”
They both gave her a hug, and she watched them enter the school. Their last words weighed heavy on her heart. Could she do this to them again?
Who was she fooling? Darius probably wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship. She wasn’t sure that she and her family even knew how to take a road half way.
A bittersweet feeling dogged Amy as she made her way back to the car.
“Everything okay?” he asked when she got in.
Amy stared straight ahead. This was as good a time as any to do it. She could force herself to forget what they had between them. She had to.
“We need to talk,” she said quietly.
“I agree,” he answered. “Your apartment?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not your house, either. Someplace where we can only talk.”
Darius nodded and drove out of the school parking lot. Neither said anything more until he pulled into the empty lot of a strip mall a couple of miles down the road. He parked by the edge of some trees.
“Amy?” He touched her cheek.
She turned to tell him the truth, but his mouth was right there. Before she knew it, she was kissing him. Then she broke off the kiss.
“I can’t,” she blurted out.
His fingers threaded into her hair, and he had to give the slightest nudge of his mouth against hers before she was back at it again, taking and giving, kissing him until she felt scorched by the heat between them.
The next time she pulled away, she immediately opened the car door and got out. The cold morning air slapped her with reality.
He got out of the car, too. She closed the door and leaned against it as he came around.
“What’s wrong?” he said softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
She couldn’t step away from his touch. “We’re wrong.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sweeping me off my feet, and I’m not used to it. Because I can’t resist you, don’t want to resist you, but I know it’ll be a mistake.”
He kissed her temple. “We’re not a mistake.”
“Okay, we’re not a mistake.”
“That’s better.” He brushed a kiss across her lips.
She had to talk fast before she lost her courage. “But I’m trouble. You’re the first man I’ve slept with since my divorce.”
“That’s a bad thing?” he asked with a smile.
She shook her head. “No, but listen to me. My life is my children. We’re a package deal. But I know that when I fall for someone, I’m ready to jump in with both feet or not at all. There are no overnight stays. No half way. And that scares the hell out of men.”
He kept her in the circle of his arms. “It’s not working. I found that out on my own the first weekend up. I’m not scared. You’d better come up with something better than that.”
“Okay, then try this. Your job sucks and so does mine. But I’m doing something about mine. Yours is worse. You’re here today, gone tomorrow. You already know my first husband was in the navy. I don’t do too well with part-time arrangements. My kids don’t do well with it. I don’t want to go through that again.”
Darius’s arms brought her closer. “That’s not working, either.”
“How can you say that?” she asked. “This is not a scare tactic. This is reality. I’m telling you what I can and can’t live with.”
“You’re saying we can’t be together because you can’t live with my job.”
“You got it. It’s out. Now, go.”
His arms tightened around her instead. “I’m changing my job.”
“What do you mean you’re changing your job?”
“I’m leaving the sub service,” he told her. “Giving up my command.”
Amy was speechless. “Is it because of the hijacking?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while. My part in the investigation should be wrapped up by the New Year. I have a standing offer to teach at the Naval War College in Newport. Permanent. That’s only an hour away from here. I guess I’ve been waiting for the right moment. Or maybe I wanted to see a snapshot of what my life would be like if I were to do it.”
“Do you have that snapshot?”
He smiled. “You brought it into clear focus for me this past month.”
“I did?”
“You and your children,” he repeated. “I love you, Amy. And anybody would love them.”
Tears welled in her eyes, and her heart pounded as the significance of what he was telling her sank in.
“Even with all the mess and noise?” she finally got out.
“Even that.” He smiled. “They’re great kids.”
“They love you, too.”
“And how about their mother?”
Amy’s hands inched up his chest. “She is crazy about you, Commander McCann. Absolutely nuts. She loves you very much—”
He pulled her closer to his chest. �
�Will you marry me, Amy?”
Once again, she was speechless. Looking up into his handsome face, she saw the love, the affection. “Are you sure you want this?”
“I’ve never wanted anything more in my life, so what do you say, Amy?”
“I say yes.”
Their mouths sealed the promise. They kissed each other in the parking lot under the December sky, oblivious to the world until the horn of a car passing by brought them back to reality.
“Get a room!” the driver shouted out his window.
Amy smiled up at Darius. “Now, that’s an order I can live with.”
Author’s Note
Thank you for allowing us to take you on this undersea journey. We hope it was a suspenseful ride. We loved the characters of Darius and Amy. And many of you have been writing to us asking for a sequel. Silent Killers—our working title for the sequel—is in the works as we write this letter. We are planning to bring back Darius, Amy, Sarah, and Bruce to stop another potential world disaster.
The two of us have fifteen years of experience building nuclear submarines, working at Electric Boat in Groton and at Quonset Point in Rhode Island. Because of that background, writing this book wasn’t entirely a product of our imaginations. At the same time, we had to take many liberties with details of the submarine to make the story come together. After all, this is fiction.
We’d like to think we live in a world where diplomacy can be used more effectively than our most dangerous weapons of war. With any luck, our world’s leaders will rise to the rapidly changing challenges that face us in this new millennium. Let’s hope!
As authors, we love feedback. We write our stories for you. We’d love to hear what you liked, what you loved, even what you didn’t like. We are constantly learning, so please help us write better stories. You can write to us at [email protected] and visit us on our website at www.JanCoffey.com.
Finally, we need to ask a favor. If you’re so inclined, we’d love a review of Silent Waters. Loved it, hated it, just love the feedback.
As you may have already know, reviews can be difficult to come by these days. You, the reader, have the power now to make or break a book. If you have the time, here is a link to our author page on Amazon. You can find all of our books here. Amazon Author Page.
Wishing you peace and health!
Nikoo & Jim
Jan Coffey
Table of Contents
Blind Eye
Silent Waters
Janus Effect
The Janus Effect
by
Jan Coffey
Originally Published as The Deadliest Strain by Jan Coffey (copyright holders Jim & Nikoo McGoldrick) by Mira Books 2008. All rights reverted back to author March 2014
Copyright © 2008 by Nikoo K. and James A. McGoldrick All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher: May McGoldrick Books, PO Box 665, Watertown, CT 06795.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
To our sons: Cyrus & Sam
You are our Firishte
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Forty-Six
Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Fifty
Fifty-One
Author’s Note
One
Moosehead Lake, Maine
As the sun rose, setting the eastern sky ablaze, the northwestern hills ahead grew bright against the deep blue to the west. It had been three hours since they’d started out from Portland. Haley knew they should be getting close to the lake.
The sunny weather forecasted for the week had sounded like a good omen to her. She glanced at her husband, but Neil was focused on the road ahead. With good weather, Haley knew the two teenagers in the back seat would soon get over their complaining about being taken away on this “forced” family vacation. Their friends and sports and the zillion electronic gadgets were so important now.
Still, they’d been coming to this same island, renting the same cabin, for eight years. The boys had been five and seven when they first started. Eager for a week of hiking, fishing, swimming—and having a hundred percent of their father’s attention—they had always regarded this vacation as a special treat. That made it worth it to Haley. Neil traveled nearly fifty-one weeks a year for his job, and going to an island in the middle of nowhere in Maine, with no electricity or Internet or cell phone service, was the only way he knew of getting a full week to devote just to his family.
“I think you should wake them up,” Neil said in a low voice as he turned onto the familiar road that took them to the lake’s edge in Greenville. From there, they would take a rental boat out to the cottage.
Haley looked over her shoulder and smiled. At the sound of Neil’s voice, their eight-month-old lab was doing the job for her, stepping all over the boys, going from one window to the other.
“What the heck!” the younger one whined, waking abruptly. “Mom, Trouble’s gotta pee. He’d better not go on me.” At thirteen, Stevie was in the throes of a love/hate relationship with their dog.
“Be nice to him, moron,” Bobby snapped at his younger brother. “He’s not going to pee on you.”
The silence of a moment earlier erupted into a full fledged brawl as the dog joined in, barking louder than the boys could argue.
In a few minutes the van pulled into a space in the gravel lot by the docks and Haley scrambled out, taking the excited animal with her and leaving the peacemaking to Neil. She stretched and took a deep breath as the dog darted toward the water.
The cool scent of the lake and the pines was welcome and familiar. Haley followed the dog to the water’s edge and marveled. The morning sky was a deep, cloudless blue, the air crisp and fresh, the water dark and clean. To her left, the sun was shining, bright and warm, on the trees and cottages along the Point. Here and there, the light flashed off a cottage window or a boat tied to a dock. Beyond the Point, where the lake extended for forty miles or more, pockets of mist could be seen rising off the lake as the sun chased the darkness from the tree-lined eastern edge. Moosehead Lake was so different from the South Jersey suburb where they lived the rest of the year. Over the years, there’d been some development in Greenville, but not much seemed to change really. And almost nothing ever changed on the dozens of islands that dotted the huge body of water.
The dog
ran back toward the car. Haley saw Judd McCabe’s pickup truck had pulled in next to their van.
Judd was the owner of the cottage they rented. He also owned about fifteen other rental places scattered over the area. Every year, he made a point of meeting them at this very spot the first morning they arrived.
Now he was pointing out to Neil the boat he’d arranged for them to rent.
As Neil and the boys started unloading the car, Haley clipped the leash on the dog’s collar to keep him from getting in the way.
“So, this is the new addition to the family,” Judd said, petting the playful animal. “What’s his name?”
“Trouble,” she replied. Seeing the older man’s wry grin, she nodded wholeheartedly. “It really is the beast’s name. The boys named him Trouble, and it fits him like a glove. A well-chewed glove, but a glove nonetheless.”
“Looks like a happy bit o’ trouble, Mrs. Murray.”
“He is, actually,” she said, smiling. “By the way, thanks so much for not minding us taking him out to the cottage.”
He waved a hand in the air. “Not at all. In fact, the people who are renting the other cabin on the island these two weeks have a dog, too.”
“That’s great,” she said, hiding her disappointment.
There were only two places to stay on the small island, and with the exception of one time about five years ago, the other cottage had always been unoccupied.
“Any kids?” she asked.
“One daughter. I think she’s thirteen or fourteen.”
“Perfect,” she replied. “Friendly, I hope.”
“Don’t know. Pretty little thing, though.” Judd glanced at the boys. “They arrived two days ago, and the girl seemed to be fighting a cold, so she was kinda quiet. With your handsome fellas around, though, I’m sure she’ll be getting better and romping around the place in no time.”