Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (13 page)

“
And the techs
understand the reasons for the hoods and their isolation while they
get it installed, right?

“
Absolutely,
sir.”

“
Very good.

“
And this is your
passenger,” Jake said, indicating JJ.

“
Pleasure to have
you aboard, ma'am.”

“
Thank you.”

“
Have you been in
a copter before?”

“
Sonny, back in
the '80s, I piloted 'em.”

“
Really?”

“
Really. And
those were a lot more bare bones than this one.”

“
Well, we'll try
to make you as comfortable as possible until we land and transfer you
to the jet to the US. That will be much more comfy.”

“
Or wouldn't that
be 'comfier'?” Pam said, chuckling and nudging Jake.

“
Pardon me,
ma'am?”

“
Inside joke,”
Jake said. “Never mind.”

“
Yes, sir.”

When everything had
been unloaded and taken below, and JJ's luggage had been loaded,
Jake, Pam and JJ shared a final hug, JJ got into the helicopter, and
it took off in a light mist.

Jake and Pam, wiping
either the mist or tears from their eyes, gave a final wave and, once
the helo was out of sight, headed below.

- 35 -

November
13, 2012
4:41
a.m. local time

On the Aegean Sea

The helicopter lowered
the two jet skis onto the aft deck of the launch, then landed and was
tied down securely. The passengers debarked, followed by Becky and
Craig, and all hurried into the main cabin as the storm hit with all
its fury.

Four hours later, as
the storm passed and the skies cleared, both the drone and the helo
searched for Cam until dusk, finding nothing.

The jet ski at the end
of the rope had a foot-long, shredded hole in the bow, just below the
waterline, with what was later determined to be pieces of bull shark
skin embedded in the edges. The jet pack was still locked in place,
but no sign of Cam was ever found, and even Becky was finally forced
to come to the inevitable conclusion that she never would be.

The storm had washed
all signs of the battle at the monastery into the sea, but a small
crew returned to repair the front door and do a final inspection to
be sure that nothing inside or outside indicated anything other than
abandonment.

The following Sunday,
Becky and Nate did their best to console Armando about Cam's loss,
while keeping from him the full story of her disappearance. Becky
and Nate, per Cam's will, were given sole custody of Cam's son,
Blake, and cared for him as if he were their own. When he turned ten
two years later, they told him his mother had died a hero, serving
her country; he believed that until he died at the age of 83.

On the upside, the dish
that Armando brought to the pot luck was even better than Cam had
told Becky it would be, and several of the female guests (at least
the ones who hadn't fainted upon taking their first taste while
looking at him) offered him multiple inducements with the ostensible
motive of getting the recipe. In the weeks to come, many of them
helped to “console” him enough to push Cam into the
deepest recesses of his memory.

Becky never collected
the 55,000 euros that Cam owed her from their word game, nor did she
care in the slightest.

- 36 -

November
13, 2012
11:05
a.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

“
Hey, Louise, you
made it back. Bravo.”

“
Oh, yeah, Gordy,
but this was a tough one; high tide and only soft sand to run on. I
should get double points. Hi, Rosemary.”

“
Hi, Louise.”

“
So did you have
a good chat with Steve and Bruce?”

“
Oh, yeah, real
good. I like their ideas a lot. Thanks for doing all that.”

“
Welcome. It was
hard to get 'em to read it, but once I got 'em started, it was a
piece of cake.”

“
I'll get back to
'em in a week or so and we'll go from there. Thanks again.”

“
Good. Well,
gotta run; department meeting at one. Nice to see you again,
Rosemary.” She picked up her chair and bag and headed toward
the showers.

“
Hey, Louise, one
of these days you're actually going to sit in that chair.”

Louise laughed, “I
know, I know, Gordy.”

“
When you do,
I'll alert the media.”

She laughed again.

“
Have a good
meeting.”

“
Thanks,
Rosemary. See ya.”

“
Nice woman,
Gordy.”

“
Yeah, she is.
And bright, too.”

“
So to get back
to Dallas, did you know she's a writer, too?”

“
No, I didn't.”

“
After you left,
we had a nice chat. She writes erotic romances.”

“
Not that you
read that kind of stuff, of course.”

“
Of course not,”
Rosemary said, blushing slightly.

“
Of course not.”

“
Anyhow, I told
her about your book and she said she was gonna get a copy. She
seemed very interested. Too bad you were sleeping when she had to
leave. But I dug a card out of your bag and gave it to her, told her
where she could pick up a copy, and if she brought it back to you,
that you'd sign it.”

“
Nice. Thank
you.”

“
Not at all. I
know how hard you worked on it.”

“
You mean 'we,'
how hard 'we' worked on it.”

“
Aw, I didn't do
that much.”

“
Yes, you did. I
didn't think that much about building their intimacy and trust before
they got into the sex stuff. Needed a woman's point of view to get
me to do that. And I'm not sure I even did it enough.”

“
Well, you were
more focused on the Donne part, the economics and the policy stuff.”

“
Yeah, the stuff
those profs got focused on.”

“
But you said
they called all the rest 'fluff.'”

“
Yeah, well,
everybody brings their background to every book they read.”

“
And everything
else. Movies, music, everything.”

“
Got that right.
Each one sees what they're capable of seeing.”

“
Kinda like a
Rorschach test?”

“
Hmm. Yeah, I
guess so.”

He reached into his
cooler and pulled out a sandwich bag, zipped it open and held it out
to her.

“
Want a cookie,
little girl?”

Rosemary laughed and
said, “Don't mind if I do. Chocolate chip?”

“
Of course. The
buck-a-bag ones.”

“
Thanks.”

“
Take two, if you
want.”

“
Nah, one's
enough.”

“
Same here; I
like that grazing idea.”

“
Glad you do,”
she said, taking a bite. “Mm, that's good.”

“
Mm-hmm,”
Gordy said, chewing with his eyes closed.

“
Uh-oh,”
Rosemary said.

“
Mmff?”
Gordy said, as he finished swallowing.

“
Hey, schlub,”
a high, squeaky voice came from behind Gordy.

“
Oh, geez, Ron,
what the hell do you want now?”

“
Janet told me
you're putting me in the sequel, too.”

“
Yeah, so?”

“
So you gonna
make me an asshole in that, too?”

“
Only if you keep
acting like one. And so far, that's what you've been doing.”

“
Bullshit. I'm
not an asshole.”

“
Actually, Ron,
if you look that word up in the dictionary, you'll find your –
oh, never mind; old cliché.

“
You still
haven't figured it out, have you?”

“
Figured what
out?”

“
That most of the
people on this beach really do think you're an asshole.”

“
No, they don't.”

“
And that you're
infantile.”

“
Aw, that's
bullshit.”

“
Think so?
You've been pouting ever since you found out you were gonna be in the
first book.”

“
Pouting? Aw,
bullshit.”

“
Can it, Ron; you
know exactly what I'm talking about, and you've been bitching to Norm
and Janet and George over the whole damn summer, to the point where
they don't even answer or return your phone calls anymore. And I'll
bet you haven't even read the book.”

“
Got that right.
And I won't be reading it.”

“
That's fine with
me, Ron. It'll survive without you. But now, IF you don't mind,
I'll be getting back to my conversation with Rosemary, and I expect
no further interruptions from you.

“
Wait; I've got
more” --

“
Well, Ron, back
to our original deal. Jenny's baking for my time. Remember that?”

“
But” --

“
Sorry, Ron;
that's the deal … same as last season. Got it?”

“
But” --

“
Got it?”

“
Are you gonna
kill me off again?”

“
Well, Ron, the
answer to that'll cost you a dozen brownies. Up to you.”

“
But” --

“
No more buts,
and get yours away from us … now, please.”

Ron glared at Gordy,
then looked imploringly at Rosemary, who ignored him, and then huffed
and puffed his way back to Jenny and sat down, sulking.

Gordy looked at
Rosemary, shrugged and said, “Sometimes life intrudes.”

“
Yeah, it does.”

“
By the way, did
you notice his haircut?”

Rosemary coughed to
stifle her laughter.

“
Guess it's
true.”

“
What is, Gordy?”

“
You do get what
you pay for.”

At that, Rosemary could
no longer stifle her laughter, especially when she saw Ron glaring at
Gordy and the rest of the group chuckling.

- 37 -

November 16, 2012

6:34 p.m. local time

Pretoria, South Africa

The attack came out of
absolutely nowhere, as far as the people in the limousine and the two
SUVs in the convoy could tell.

“
One minute we're
humming along on our way to the embassy, the next there's an
explosion under our right front tire and we're rolling over and
over,” Danuta explained later to the debriefer. “Vito
and I had our seatbelts on, so we only had some minor scrapes and
bruises, and the armor kept the vehicle intact. But the SUV was a
mess inside, guns, grenades and RPGs scattered all over, out of their
mounts.