country where it was easier to hide. Our military already had a pretty good idea where they were being held, and after that video was sent, they were going in to every possible location in question. There were five possibilities. Special Forces teams were being brought together, and once information was gleaned on which location held the hostages, they would move forward with a mission to secure them. He said it could be days before we knew the end result.
When the call ended, I sat there in a daze. My laid-back movie-making surfer guy, the man of my dreams, had watched a co-worker and, knowing Wes and how he connected with people, a friend murdered right in front of his eyes. How the hell does someone get over something like that? Whatever it took, I’d be there for him every step of the way. If he survived, God willing, I’d kiss every single last one of his wounds, mental and physical. I’d take it all away with my words, my body, and by loving him more than he'd ever known in this lifetime.
“I love you, Wes.” I said the words out loud. To him, for him. Even though Wes was nowhere near, maybe, just maybe, those words would whisper along the air into a remote location in Indonesia, where he would, at the very least, feel them…against his skin, within his heart, as part of his soul.
Chapter Five
T wo weeks in Vegas and the zombie vibe had taken on a whole new level of creep-factor. Both Maddy and I shuffled around one another like those little robots that cleaned your floor automatically but didn’t run into one another. The Roomba, I think it is? As if the two of us had a sensor a foot around our entire bodies, we moved through the maze of our days on autopilot without touching. Maybe we needed the touching, but neither of us could make an effort. They’d taken the breathing machine away a couple of days ago. Pops was definitely breathing on his own, and the medications were finally clearing the infection. The doctors were pleased with his new prognosis.
Maddy and I were as well, but the fact that he still had tubes coming out of every orifice didn’t make us feel all that content. In another week, Maddy and Matt would go back to school. She needed to get her life ready for that change. It was her third year of college and she was taking a full load as usual. My over-achieving sister. Secretly, I loved that she put so much on her shoulders because it meant that she definitely wouldn’t be tying the knot any time soon.
Remembering that, I still needed to have a chat with goody two-shoes Matt about his issue of pressuring my sister to marry. If he loved her, he needed to wait. Finish up school and show her the kind of man he is. Besides, I wondered how the conversation about Maddy being interested in Cunningham Oil & Gas and working in Texas was going to go. Would it be a deal breaker? Matt had a great family in the Vegas area, the type that you didn’t want to stray too far away from. Would he for her? I guessed only time would tell.
My phone pinged in my back pocket, and I pulled it out. It was a video text message from an unknown caller. Frowning, I clicked on the message, and what I saw almost sent me to my knees. I hadn’t even opened the message yet, but the square box framed a face I knew almost as well as my own. Ginelle. A black strip of fabric over her eyes, her nose bleeding, blood running down her lip into her mouth.
Without word, I ran, literally ran outside to the garden space and clicked over the little arrow that would play the video.
What the hell had I done?
The video started, and Ginelle’s voice was scared, tears coming down her cheeks from beneath the fabric tied around her head. She licked her lips and sobbed. Her bottom lip was cut, swollen, and purple. The video panned back, and I found she was dressed in one of her work outfits. Feathers and sequins were shredded as a man’s hand came into view. The fingertips of his meaty hand caressed down the open space between her breasts
When the call ended, I sat there in a daze. My laid-back movie-making surfer guy, the man of my dreams, had watched a co-worker and, knowing Wes and how he connected with people, a friend murdered right in front of his eyes. How the hell does someone get over something like that? Whatever it took, I’d be there for him every step of the way. If he survived, God willing, I’d kiss every single last one of his wounds, mental and physical. I’d take it all away with my words, my body, and by loving him more than he'd ever known in this lifetime.
“I love you, Wes.” I said the words out loud. To him, for him. Even though Wes was nowhere near, maybe, just maybe, those words would whisper along the air into a remote location in Indonesia, where he would, at the very least, feel them…against his skin, within his heart, as part of his soul.
Chapter Five
T wo weeks in Vegas and the zombie vibe had taken on a whole new level of creep-factor. Both Maddy and I shuffled around one another like those little robots that cleaned your floor automatically but didn’t run into one another. The Roomba, I think it is? As if the two of us had a sensor a foot around our entire bodies, we moved through the maze of our days on autopilot without touching. Maybe we needed the touching, but neither of us could make an effort. They’d taken the breathing machine away a couple of days ago. Pops was definitely breathing on his own, and the medications were finally clearing the infection. The doctors were pleased with his new prognosis.
Maddy and I were as well, but the fact that he still had tubes coming out of every orifice didn’t make us feel all that content. In another week, Maddy and Matt would go back to school. She needed to get her life ready for that change. It was her third year of college and she was taking a full load as usual. My over-achieving sister. Secretly, I loved that she put so much on her shoulders because it meant that she definitely wouldn’t be tying the knot any time soon.
Remembering that, I still needed to have a chat with goody two-shoes Matt about his issue of pressuring my sister to marry. If he loved her, he needed to wait. Finish up school and show her the kind of man he is. Besides, I wondered how the conversation about Maddy being interested in Cunningham Oil & Gas and working in Texas was going to go. Would it be a deal breaker? Matt had a great family in the Vegas area, the type that you didn’t want to stray too far away from. Would he for her? I guessed only time would tell.
My phone pinged in my back pocket, and I pulled it out. It was a video text message from an unknown caller. Frowning, I clicked on the message, and what I saw almost sent me to my knees. I hadn’t even opened the message yet, but the square box framed a face I knew almost as well as my own. Ginelle. A black strip of fabric over her eyes, her nose bleeding, blood running down her lip into her mouth.
Without word, I ran, literally ran outside to the garden space and clicked over the little arrow that would play the video.
What the hell had I done?
The video started, and Ginelle’s voice was scared, tears coming down her cheeks from beneath the fabric tied around her head. She licked her lips and sobbed. Her bottom lip was cut, swollen, and purple. The video panned back, and I found she was dressed in one of her work outfits. Feathers and sequins were shredded as a man’s hand came into view. The fingertips of his meaty hand caressed down the open space between her breasts
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