Chapter Twenty-Six

“Wait. What?” That was Reagan’s response.

Jasper told me a long time ago I had no tact. At the time I thought he was wrong. However, judging by Rea’s response, I’m thinking Jasper may’ve been correct in his assessment.

“I want you to move in.”

Simple. Straightforward. To the point. I didn’t see the issue.

“Um, Clark, I’m going to need more information than that.”

I was missing something, or she was because my statement was self-explanatory.

“Are you having issues with the English language, woman?”

If she were any other woman, I’d think she was fishing, but Reagan was a straight shooter. She didn’t play games, and neither was I, but I couldn’t find the disconnect.

She rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at me.

“Stop. You might pull a stitch,” I scolded.

“Enough.” Reagan stopped smiling. “The doctor gave me the all clear. I’m healthy.”

I assure you the donor is very healthy; she has no medical conditions.

“Where’d you go?” she asked.

“Nowhere. Sorry. I want you to move in permanently. Not just stay here until you recover.”

Reagan remained quiet for a moment, and I didn’t like how long it was taking her to answer.

“What happened on the platform?”

Death. Fear. Horror.

“I’ve already told you. Nothing worth talking about.”

“You dream about it.” Shit. I was hoping I hadn’t woken her when I had dreams about her being strapped to the bed with the doctor elbow deep in her chest cavity yanking her heart out while she screamed. “It’s not like the first nightmare I walked in on. You whimper and beg me not to die. Other times you apologize for letting me die.”

I was horrified I’d talked in my sleep and she heard.

Christ.

“I’ll move in with you if you talk to me. It’s not good to keep everything locked up.”

“Baby. I have more shit locked away than a bank vault.”

She was looking at me expectantly. I couldn’t believe she was blackmailing me into talking about something I absolutely did not want to speak about.

“Why do you want to know? There are some things you’re better off not remembering. Be happy either the anesthesia those hacks gave you kept you from knowing what was going on, or your brain is protecting you and blocking it out.”

“Was it that bad?” she asked.

Was she fucking crazy?

“Worse than you can imagine!”

“You’re not in the regular Army, are you?”

Whoa. Subject change, a welcomed one. We needed to have this conversation anyway. Before she committed to a relationship with me, she needed the facts.

“No. Remember when we talked about Combat Applications Group?”

“Yeah. Special Forces team, right? A CAG team saved you when you were captured.”

“Yes. What I do for the Army isn’t something I talk about. None of us do. It’s not because we're secretive for shits and grins. We literally can’t. The 707 is attached to the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment.” I waited for some sort of understanding to dawn, but it didn’t. “This is going to be painful.”

“What is?”

“Explaining my team this way; have you heard of Delta Force?” I almost rolled my eyes saying that. No operator I knew would call themselves Delta. We were special operators, SFOD, ACE, Task Force Green - the Army had many names for us, the one we avoided the most was Delta. That was what Hollywood and video games liked to use. It was sensationalized as if the word Delta didn’t translate into death – elite deadly warfighters. To them, it was great for headlines. Delta Force and Navy SEALs, the media loved to exploit war.

“Of course. Ohhh…wait…are you?”

“I’ve never had to explain what I am and you not having an understanding of the military is making this difficult. The 707 is a twenty-man unit - four men, five teams. Officially, the 707 is a research and development regiment. Unofficially, we’re a black ops team. We get sent in when the government wants complete deniability. Jasper and Lenox were pulled from Ranger school when they showed outstanding potential. Levi and I were both on an SFOD team when we were pulled to join the 707.”

“That sounds dangerous, Clark.”

“It is. I won’t lie to you. Each time I leave on an op, there’s a chance I won’t come home.” Reagan’s face paled, and I hurried to finish. “But that’s true for most jobs in the military. When units deploy, they aren’t going on vacation; they’re going into a war zone.”

“What happened when you found me?”

The woman was giving me whiplash. I guess she was done with job descriptions and was moving on to mental anguish.

“The first room we entered was…disturbing.” Was I really doing this - debriefing sweet, innocent Reagan. I didn’t need to close my eyes to recall the details. They were always at the forefront of my memory. “One male doctor. Two female nurses. The doctor was performing cardiac surgery to remove a man’s heart – to sell it.”

Reagan had gone pale again, and I was rethinking telling her more.

“Go on. Where was I?”

“I found you in one of the berthing compartments that had been converted into a makeshift recovery ward. There were two rooms that held patients in various stages of… I don’t know what to call it… recovery… waiting to have more of their organs, joints, and bones taken from their bodies to sell. You were in a room by yourself.”

She shifted and slid down from leaning against the headboard to rest her head on my chest. Somehow telling her the details when she wasn’t looking at me with her pretty eyes -eyes that were almost stolen from her – made it slightly easier.

Fuck!

“Go on, Nolan,” she whispered, running her fingers back and forth across my chest.

On an exhale, I went on. “Lenard was with you. He was on the phone negotiating.” When I didn’t say anything more, she prompted me to continue. “He had a buyer that was interested in purchasing your eyes.” Reagan sucked in a breath, and I seriously considered putting a stop to this madness. She didn’t need to know this shit. It was jacked.

“I need to know.”

“He told the buyer that your eyes were perfect, you were healthy, and prepped for surgery. He promised your eyes would be airborne within an hour.”

“That didn’t happen,” she whispered.

“No, baby, it didn’t.”

“You saved me.”

“No, I didn’t.” I didn’t get there soon enough, or she’d still have both kidneys.

“You did. Wanna know how I know?” she asked, and flattened her hand and placed it over my heart.

“How?” I asked.

“Because I can see.” She giggled. “Too soon?” She continued to laugh.

“Ya think?” I snapped.

“Listen. I’m alive. You saved my life and, as a bonus, you saved a hundred other people on the rig as well. Not to mention you and the team helped shut down Larry’s fucked up organization. That’s a win. That’s how we’re thinking about this.”

The FBI had a field day sifting through LJ Glass Holdings. Other government agencies had to be called in as well as law enforcement in three other countries. Luckily, the Horizon III was the only make-shift hospital. As far as I knew, they were still dismantling the network he’d created.

“You’re missing a fucking kidney, Reagan, and part of your liver.”

“Yeah, Clark,” she sassed. “I know. Lucky for me I had two. One plus a spare. You know that people live with one kidney all the time. My liver has already started to regenerate. I’m healthy.”

“Stop saying you’re healthy. That’s what that fucker said. Very healthy, no medical conditions. Fuck, Rea. That’s all I can hear. Lenard talking about you like you weren’t a person. He wanted to sell your goddamn eyes. Do you understand? I didn’t know if you were dead or alive; if they’d already butchered you. I was so afraid I was going to fail, and you were going to die. It gutted me that he wanted to take your beautiful eyes from me. I died a thousand deaths thinking I’d never get a chance to look into them again. Fuck. When you look at me… it’s…everything.”

Reagan sat up, and before I could stop her she was sitting astride me, both her hands on my face, forcing me to meet her gaze.

“Look at me, Nolan. Really look at me. You saved me. You got there. See?” I finally met her stare, and relief didn’t begin to cover what I felt looking into her eyes. “I love you, Nolan. You said you could love me through anything. And you did. You are. Right back atcha’. Don’t hide from me.”

“You heard that?”

“I did. God knows you told me enough. As long as you’re breathing, baby. I heard you, Nolan. You need to stop worrying so much. You’re gonna drive yourself crazy. I think you have grey hair now and everything. I’m worried that your gonna need to trim your nose hair soon, and maybe even need those little blue pills, which will be a shame because it’s been …it’s been like, forever, since I’ve gotten laid.”

“I love you so fucking much.”

Damn, it felt good to laugh, and once it started, I couldn’t stop it. The hilarity died down, and I held her stare. Beautiful hazel orbs, more green than brown, shone brightly. She was here and breathing. That was a win.

“You straight?” she asked.

“You movin’ in?” I returned.

“Yes.”

“Then, yes.”

“You think I can get some?” She winked and wiggled her eyebrows.

“Nope.”

“Party pooper,” she whined and ground down on my unused throbbing cock.

“If you’re a good girl and lie still, I’ll take care of you.”

“Yippy!”

Beauty comes in many different packages. All shapes and sizes. Reagan’s beauty didn’t come from the outside - it was deep within her. A bright light, a beacon calling me home. I was there, free of my past. And freedom never tasted sweeter.