Page 42 of Close Pursuit

“I had no idea,” she breathed.

“Like I said before. You don’t know what you’re getting into. I can’t let you go there.”

She raised her head to stare up at him in the dying glow of the cyalume stick. “If there’s more of that to be had, I’m all for it,” she declared.

“I’ve created a monster,” he groaned.

She growled playfully in the back of her throat, “When can I learn how to do that to you?”

Her flirtatious question sobered him sharply. “I take my pleasures rather more darkly than that, Katie.”

She shrugged “That’s okay. If the end result isthat, who cares how we get there?”

Katie watched, bereft, as Alex turned away from her and strode to the far end of the bunker, or whatever this place was.

Her brothers and her father walked away the same way, never pausing, never looking back. They just left. It was like their entire life was divided into neat little compartments they opened and closed at their convenience. At home: open the family drawer. Off to work: slam that drawer shut and open the soldier drawer. In danger: open the killer drawer. Out of danger: close that drawer again and don’t think about the people they’d eliminated. At a bar after the mission with the guys: open up the friends and buddies drawer.

But in the meantime, the family back home was forced to sit patiently in their little drawer, hearing no news, waiting and worrying, never knowing if their loved one was ever coming home. Or if they did return, whether or not it would be in a closed casket.

As a kid, she’d always vowed she would never fall in love with a soldier. All she had to do was see the toll it took on her mother to know that loving a dangerous man was not for her.

Alex paced long enough that she got tired of watching him. Eventually, in hopes of at least bringing him back to the present if not to her, she asked, “What’s in these crates?”

“Supplies, mostly” he answered absently.

“Any baby formula in one? Maybe some diapers?”

Alex looked up at her quickly. “Probably no diapers, but powdered milk is a possibility. And there are no doubt medical supplies. Rolls of gauze and cotton surgical pads…” He commenced moving around the perimeter of the space reading labels on the crates. “Bring me that crowbar, will you?”

The tool was leaning next to the radio console and she scooped it up, joining Alex at a stack of smallish crates. He pried one open and pulled out several brown paper packages. “Voila. Emergency diaper-making supplies.”

Thank God. She was getting pretty low on clean corners of towel to wipe Dawn’s bottom with. She moved to the baby and, using gauze pads and cloth tape, swaddled her in a reasonably decent makeshift diaper while Alex continued rummaging around.

The infant was over the whole business of not needing to eat and cried loudly. No amount of rocking and IV fluid would calm her. Dawn wanted real food, and she wanted it now.

“See what she thinks of this.” He held out his hand.

Katie glanced up and spied him holding a plastic water bottle full of a creamy white liquid. Milk! The lid had been replaced by what looked like the cut off finger of a surgical glove. She smiled widely. “You’re brilliant!”

“So I’ve been told,” he replied dryly.

Dawn had to be convinced of the appeal of both the makeshift bottle and its contents, but eventually, she settled down to drinking her first real meal.

“We need to get her on proper formula,” Alex commented. “She needs vitamin and mineral supplements designed for babies. But that powdered milk will give her some calories to hold her until our ride gets here.”

Katie smiled warmly at him. “You take such good care of us. Thank you.”

He stared, looking thunderstruck. “Me? Take care of anyone but myself? I can already hear people on several continents laughing their heads off at the concept.”

“Then they don’t know you very well,” she declared.

He looked as if she could knock him over with a feather. She shrugged. He might not be long-term relationship material, but he was a decent guy and she didn’t care what anyone said. Not to mention he’d given her the first orgasm of her life.

It was impossible to tell time in the cavernous dark of the bunker. When Alex shook her shoulder gently to wake her, she was disoriented and struggled to emerge from a delicious dream involving Alex’s hand and her nether regions.

“Ride’s here,” he said.

“Oh!” She sat up quickly, disturbing Dawn who squawked at the abrupt movement. All in all, she was a great baby and had been more than patient with all the traveling so far. Maybe she, too, understood at some level that their lives were on the line.

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