Chapter Thirteen

Dev kept Scottie on her lap. The house was quiet. Seth and Cord were in her backyard, cleaning out Gru’s habitat. She had less than a half hour before work, but the Conch Shack was a straight shot from her place if traffic complied. If not… Well, she’d been late before.

Cord had wanted to run right out and buy Scottie another iguana to replace Gru, but Dev told him no. Life shouldn’t work that way. Death was hard, but to trade one life for another as if livings things were replaceable wasn’t the lesson she wanted Scottie to learn. So she rocked him and let him be a sad little boy a while longer. Another pet would come along, and she’d take it in then. Just not now.

For a four-year-old, he’d seen too much, and today was no different than many others she’d put him through. Things had to change, yet the thought of what those poor women and girls had endured in Roland Montego’s prison always kept Dev in the game. She’d been in their place. She knew how awful Montego was to the girls and women he favored. Turning her back on them wasn’t an option.

Until this excursion into Cuba, things had gone smoothly. Cord handled the infils, as he called them. Miguel handled the exfils, which meant he stayed with the CRRC while Cord and his buddies infiltrated Roland Montego’s lair and returned with as many victims as they could. She’d never gone with Cord on his forays, just supplied a resting place for the women when he returned. This was the first time gunplay had been involved, which meant Roland Montego had known Cord and his men were coming. The thought of all she could’ve lost slayed Dev. Hence Scottie wasn’t going anywhere without her.

But now she wondered. Where were the other former Marines who usually traveled with Cord? Why hadn’t they accompanied him to Dev’s house? Where were Stevie “Wonder” James, Ryland “Sonic” DeLorenzo, and Cleveland “Rabbit” Miller? Not that they always came home with him, but what was Cord thinking, keeping one of those women? The blonde should’ve gone with Family Services where she’d be properly cared for, her injuries documented, and her family notified. The nerve.

“I want Gru,” Scottie whined, his ear pressed to Dev’s heart.

“Me too,” she told him honestly. “Remember when Goldie died?”

“Ah-huh,” Scottie sniffled. “You think Gru’s in heaven with her?”

“I’m sure of it. All animals go to heaven, especially iguanas. So do goldfish.” Only mankind had to work his ass off to gain entrance. Which was fair. He was the sinner.

Goldie was Scottie’s first pet. She hadn’t lasted long once Scottie decided she needed the entire can of fish food for breakfast. Instead of flushing her, Dev had held a simple funeral before she and Scottie buried Goldie beneath the Gumbo Limbo tree straddling Trish and her backyards.

“Will I get to see him and Goldie again?”

“Yes,” she told him wistfully. But not until you’ve lived a very, very long time.

“I like Mr. Seth,” Scottie mumbled through a tremendous yawn. “I tired, Mama.”

Thankful that little boys were easily distracted, Dev pressed her nose to her son’s head, breathing his scent into her soul. She still used baby shampoo on his fine, straight hair, and the smell never failed to remind her how blessed she was, and how that one night’s indiscretion had resulted in the greatest treasure in her life. “Me, too. Let’s go read a quick story before I leave for work.”

“’Kay,” he murmured as he pushed off her lap, automatically headed for his bedroom and his bookshelf. “But not Peter Rabbit again. That one’s for babies.”

Dev adored the way her four-year-old said ‘babies’ with so much scorn, as if he were so much older and wiser.

“Not ‘Old Yeller’ either.” She couldn’t bear another tearjerker so soon after losing Gru.

Scottie sniffed. “Then how about the dinosaur one?”

Ah, yes. The colorful tale of a smiling cartoon tyrannosaurus rex eating his way through the smaller herbivores in his jungle to get to the scary stegosaurus always made for a lovely bedtime story. This little guy definitely had his Uncle Cord’s blood running in his veins. But at least the dinosaur story didn’t deal with the real-life scenario of losing a beloved pet.

So if Scottie wanted it… “You got it.”

Once they settled against the pillows on his bed, Dev kept her voice low. Out of the blue some four years earlier, Cord had insisted on room darkening curtains for every window in the bungalow except the kitchen. The kid-friendly version at Scottie’s single window maintained just enough light for him to see the pages—and to lull a tired little man to sleep. He drifted off before she finished the third page.

With the guys still hard at work in her backyard, Devereaux eased away from Scottie and tiptoed to her visitor’s room. She had ten minutes. She’d no sooner cracked the door when—

“I’m awake,” her visitor said. “Please turn the light on so I can see you.”

Dev flicked the switch at her left. The blond in her bed sat propped at the gold padded headboard with all of Dev’s pillows at her back. Pale, with bruised cheeks and a swollen lip, she stared at Dev through melted chocolate drop eyes so large they almost made her look regal. Chin up. Eyes forward. An urge to curtsey—or something—sprang to Dev’s mind. Yeah, right. Not in my house and most definitely, not in my bedroom.

“I’m Devereaux Shepherd. How are you feeling?”

“I’m Lianna Khadeem, and right now, I’m good. I’m afraid I may not look like it, but this is nothing. I’ll survive.”

Dev cocked her head. She’d expected a sassy California name, or at least one from somewhere equally as—blonde. “You’re Arabic?”

That earned her a curt nod and a huff, as if Dev should’ve known better than to ask. The traumatized women Cord rescued were often so tightly wired by the time they arrived on Dev’s doorstep that they fought even the kindest treatment. Dev let it go, but the poor woman’s thickly wrapped hands didn’t look like nothing had happened. “You’re hurt. What did Montego do to you?”

Lianna lifted both hands, her gaze harsh before it softened, and her eyes met Dev’s. “They’ll heal. How are those little girls, Emma and Maddie? Are they” —her throat muscles constricted— “alive?”

Some victims were in full-blown denial by the time they arrived at Dev’s front door, and Dev got that, but Lianna had not only artfully avoided answering the question, she’d changed subjects as well. Montego was a known sadist with a penchant for BDSM straight out of Hell’s playbook. Dev very much wanted to unwrap those hands to see what he’d done to Lianna.

“Family Services has custody of Emma and Maddie until their father arrives in Florida. They’ll be home where they belong soon.”

Lianna’s head tipped back against the headboard. Trembling, she blew out a deep sigh and whispered, “Praise Allah.” Both eyes closed. Her lower lip quivered. Her breasts heaved as if holding back a flood. “They… they were so scared, and everything frightened them. They wouldn’t speak, they wouldn’t even look at me, and I was afraid...” Her throat worked a mighty swallow before she whispered, “I was afraid he’d already d-d-destroyed their souls.”

So… The twins were the important ones, not Lianna. Interesting.

“We need to end Montego once and for all,” Dev said to soothe Lianna’s nerves.

“Not him!” Lianna snapped, her dark eyes flashing.

Dev stopped trying to breach the wall around her guest. She waited, knowing that deep down, Lianna needed to talk. She needed a woman’s shoulder to cry on. Dev dropped her gaze to the old-fashioned chenille bedspread pulled around Lianna. The room chilled as the silence grew. Dev’s ten minutes to be on her way to work was long gone.

The breakthrough began with a tiny cry emanating from deep within Lianna. A hitch of breath betrayed her next. Then her bulky hands, clasped so tight she had to be hurting herself, gave her away. After another noisy gulp, she said, “I am a princess in my country. A woman of noble birth. I did not know…” A strangled sob wound out of her. “I did not know men could be so cruel.”

At last. Dev had never had royalty in her shabby home before. Unsure of proper protocol, but certain this shuddering woman needed a woman’s touch right here and now, she asked, “May I approach, Your Majesty?”

She got a stiff upper lip and a curt nod for that. So be it. Dev knew how to be humble. Slowly extending her arms, palms upward, she moved to the edge of the mattress at her guest’s side.

Lianna fell against her, sobbing. “He… he… he…”

Dev rocked, biding her time. Things like despair and pain, heartache and hysteria, kept no schedule, and this woman seemed on the verge of all that and more. Taller than Dev, Lianna buried her face in the crook of Dev’s neck and shoulder. She was a soft armful, model-worthy, her breasts high and full, her legs long, and her waist trim. She was every man’s dream. Everything Dev wasn’t.

But all too soon, Lianna stiffened as if she’d remembered she was in the arms of a commoner. Dev didn’t slide away, just kept a gentle hold of the distraught woman’s wrist as Lianna eased against the headboard once more. Now wasn’t the time to interrogate her, and Dev wouldn’t have known what to ask anyway. Which was why Lianna should’ve gone with the kindly Family Services people. This was their mission. Cord and she only handled infils, exfils, and the first rest stop on the way home for these tormented women.

“My father signed the marriage contract when I turned three,” Lianna whispered. “I remember the day he told me. We were in the date fields. Fruit hung heavy from the trees. The air beneath the fronds was thick with the honeyed scent of the ripe fruit. I thought he’d taken me there because he loved me. Instead…” Her gaze fluttered to her bandaged fingers. “He’d sold me to a prince, whose wealthy father wanted his son to marry a respectable girl. My father owns the entire Quari’im Peninsula. It is a land rich with orchards and fields and industry. My betrothal was not for me, it was for him. Signing that contract gave him the sole rights to the Saudi shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf. With Dubai and Bahrain to the south, it is a location of great power and wealth. The sad truth is that I always knew my betrothed. We played together as children. He was so handsome then, so tender and kind. As a young man and a prince, he traveled the world. I knew he’d made a reputation for himself, that he’d changed, but...”

Dev knew when to keep her mouth shut.

Lianna lifted her wrist, effectively easing out of Dev’s hold. “I never knew he was capable of this.”

The bedroom door slammed open. “Who the fuck did this to you?” Cord demanded from the doorway.

Lianna paled. “M-my husband. Basheer Bagani.”

Cord cast a baleful glare Dev’s way. “You got a minute?”

Appalled at what she’d heard, Dev followed Cord into the hall. He shut the door tightly behind her, then fast stepped her into the kitchen and stabbed an index finger at the backyard. “Get rid of him now.”

“Who? Seth?”

“Yes, Soldier Boy needs to go, the sooner, the better.”

Enough! “Seth is no boy, Cord. He helped you today. It seems to me you could be a little kinder and besides, why should I?”

Cord’s cell interrupted, buzzing in his pocket. His brows clashed over the blade of his nose as he tugged it up. His lips thinned. He lifted the phone to his ear as he told her, “Because this is bigger than both of us, Dev. I can’t risk this getting out.”

“But Cord—”

“Need to know, Dev. This is an eyes-only op, and Soldier Boy’s got no need to know. Now get him the fuck out of here. Just do it!”