In a Broken Dream (The Broken Series Book 4) (9 page)

*
* * * *

I
opened one eye when the bedroom door creaked open, then quickly slammed it
shut. Lexie was tiptoeing across the room, presumably on some mission to scare
the living daylights out of me. I tried not to smile as I feigned sleep.
Rafael’s arm was flung over me. His arm felt heavy, like he was still asleep. The
poor guy was in for a rude awakening.

I
felt the bed dip down near my knees just before Lexie started jumping on the
bed. She simultaneously began belting out the lyrics to “I’m Walking on
Sunshine,” her voice terribly out of pitch.

Rafael
buried his head underneath his pillow. “Make it stop!” he groaned. He sounded
as if he were in an excruciating amount of pain.

I
reached for my pillow and swung it against Lexie’s knees. She collapsed onto
the bed in a fit of laughter.

“You
kept us up all night talking. The least you could do is let us sleep in,” I
grumbled half-heartedly.

Lexie
shook her head. “No way. I only get two days with you. Two! I’m going to make
every second count, so get up!” She sat up and looked at us expectantly. When
neither of us moved, she climbed over the top of Rafael, snatched his pillow,
and began beating him with it. “Wake. Up!”

He
quickly pinned her beneath him. “Cold water,” he demanded. “Now!”

I
sprinted toward the bathroom, filled a paper cup full of water, and ran it back
to the bedroom. Half the water sloshed out and splashed against my toes.

Lexie
was trying to wriggle out from beneath Rafael. “Dump it on her face,” he
instructed. He shot her a look that suggested he was bored.

Lexie’s
eyes widened. “You wouldn’t!”

I
dangled the cup over her face. “Promise you won’t be sneaking in here and
waking us up early tomorrow morning.”

Her
eyes narrowed. “You need to define early. Also, what time zone are you
referring to? It’s nearly eight o’clock in Virginia.”

I
tilted the cup a fraction of an inch and snickered when a single drop of water
splashed against her nose.

“Okay,
okay! I won’t wake you up early!” she relented in an exasperated tone.

Rafael
eyed her warily, but he slowly released her arms.

Lexie
inched out from underneath him. “That guy’s got some serious muscle.” She massaged
her wrists before scooting off the bed.

I
laughed. “You’re just now noticing that?”

She
shook her head. “I’ve noticed. I’ve just never been on the receiving end before.”
She turned to face us when she neared the door. “Are you guys ready for
breakfast?”

Rafael
shrugged. “Sure. I could eat.”

“Me
too,” I agreed. I pulled a pair of sweats out of my suitcase and tugged them on.

“Good,”
she replied. “I like my bacon crispy and my eggs over easy.”

Rafael
shot me an inquisitive look.

“She’s
serious,” I confirmed. “Looks like we’re in charge of breakfast.”

Within
minutes, we were hauling bacon, eggs, and toast out to Lexie’s backyard. Lexie
trailed after us with the orange juice and coffee. We sank into the large cushy
chairs surrounding her patio table so we could enjoy the early morning sun. The
air was crisp and noticeably void of humidity, but the pine trees were already beginning
to warm. I breathed in their rich, musky scent. “I love this place,” I proclaimed.
“Even the air is soothing.”

Rafael
poured the coffee while I piled eggs onto everyone’s plate. “Good. That’s why
we’re here.”

Lexie
fed a piece of bacon to Annie, her golden lab, before turning her attention to Rafael.
“How’s she coping with what happened in Ukraine?”

“I’m
sitting right here,” I noted mockingly.

Lexie
scowled at me. “I know where you’re sitting. I’m asking Rafael because I know he’ll
offer a more honest accounting. You’ll sugar coat everything.”

I
rolled my eyes over the top of my coffee mug.

“I’m
worried about her,” Rafael admitted.

“You’ve
lost weight again,” Lexie noted. “Are you sleeping?”

“Not
well,” I confessed, “but I’ve been trying to wean myself off the sleeping
pills.”

She
popped a piece of bacon into her mouth before reaching for her orange juice. “Are
you seeing a therapist?”

“I
saw the school counselor for a while. My schedule’s been a bit hectic, so I
haven’t been able to squeeze in any other therapists. I missed the first month
of summer school and had to make up all those assignments while juggling a full
course load the past eight weeks. I’m developing a personal risk seminar for my
university, and we’ve been dealing with Michael’s estate,” I explained before
digging into my eggs.

“That’s
her modus operandi” Lexie informed Rafael. “Whenever she’s dealing with
something traumatic, she buries herself in work.”

Rafael
reached for a piece of bacon. “She’s returning to work when we get back. She
doesn’t need more stress. She needs time to process everything that’s happened,
time to work through her anxieties and find some peace.”

Lexie
looked thoughtful. “Are you still doing yoga?”

I
shook my head. My mouth was too full of eggs to speak.

Rafael’s
face brightened. “That’s a great idea. Maybe you can start doing yoga in the
evenings before bed, or you can squeeze it in before you go to work like you
did in the spring.”

“Are
you journaling?” Lexie asked. She threw the raggedy old tennis ball that Annie
had deposited at her feet to the far end of the yard.

“I
don’t like journaling,” I confessed.

“I
think you should consider it,” Lexie opined. “Journaling can help you process
and let go of things.” She reached for the coffee carafe and topped off our cups.
“So you decided to return to work. I can’t say that I’m happy to hear that.”

I
warmed my hands on my coffee cup while watching an incredibly fat robin dig a
worm out of Lexie’s lawn. Annie dropped the ball and chased after the bird. “I
don’t have to travel anymore, not unless I want to. Shae and I will be
responsible for generating some briefings and the training materials, but we
aren’t required to take on any trips. My boss, Paul, is going to join Cory and
Sammi for the trainings in India and Pakistan in October. He’s trying to gauge
how best to involve a security detail while ensuring they don’t become too obtrusive.
If the university students feel threatened by our bodyguards, it could impact
their willingness to work with us.”

Lexie
nodded. “I’ve seen how the presence of police officers impacts the willingness
of rape and domestic violence victims to speak at the hospital.”

“Your
personal security should come first, regardless of who might feel threatened by
the security detail,” Rafael groused. He crammed a bunch of eggs into his
mouth.

“What
if the security team were trainers too?” Lexie asked.

I
gaped at her. “That’s…
brilliant!
”

She
snorted softly. “Yeah, right.”

I
grabbed her arm. “No. I’m serious. That
is
brilliant. If the security
team led part of the training, they could pass as additional trainers. This
would give them a cover, so it wasn’t so obvious they were the hired muscle.”

Rafael
eyed me curiously. “What, if anything, could Ethan and Brady teach in your conflict
analysis and resolution trainings?”

I
grinned, thoroughly excited by Lexie’s innovative solution. “Well, for one
thing, they could teach students how to read body language. Non-verbal
communication is just as important as verbal communication when you’re
negotiating. They could also teach students how to assess the conflict
environment, de-escalate a conflict, reduce risk, and improve personal
security.”

Lexie
shoved her chair back from the table, folded her arms across her chest, and
settled back into her seat. “Dang. I am brilliant.”

Rafael’s
gaze flitted between the two of us. “I think you two may actually be on to
something.”

I
jumped up from my chair.

Rafael
looked surprised by the sudden burst of energy. “Where are you going?”

I
yanked on the sliding glass door. “I’m going to call Paul and offer this hybrid
team up as a potential solution to our security problem.”

Lexie
laughed. “There’s no stopping that girl when she’s got her heart set on
something.”

“I
know,” Rafael groaned. “I just wish that
something
was me.”

*
* * * *

I
dropped down next to Lexie in the grass. Rafael and Nate were standing in line,
waiting to order our fry bread and Indian tacos. The Little Shell Chippewa were
forming a circle in front of us. “You truly are brilliant,” I remarked.

“Do
you think he’s enjoying the pow-wow?” she asked. Bells jingled softly with
every step the dancers took.

I
glanced over at Rafael. “Yes. He’s thoroughly enjoying this. I’m so glad you
suggested coming out here.” A chill shot down my spine when one of the dancers
cried out. The drums sounded, and the dance began at a slow, methodical pace.

We
had spent the past two hours touring the First Peoples Buffalo Jump. It was
windy, but the copper colored sandstone that formed the barren cliff was
breathtaking. We were sitting on a patch of wild grass among a handful of white
teepees. A bunch of sticks were poking out of the top of the teepees, but that
wasn’t what I was looking at. I was admiring the miles and miles of golden
wheat that was rippling in the wind.

“When
I think about what these people went through,” Lexie said, shaking her head. There
were a few drops of Native American blood coursing through her veins, and she
was keenly aware of the hardships her ancestors had faced.

“I
can’t even begin to imagine,” I replied. I studied the Chippewa’s regalia… the
colorful feathers, ribbons, beads, and fringe that flowed from their headdress and
clothes. They’d been persecuted, slaughtered, and stripped of most of their
land... land they’d held sacred. They looked so proud. I wondered if they ever
felt broken.

I
closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly released it into the wind. I
could feel the Chippewa’s drums and the tapping of their feet in my legs, back,
and chest. They beat in time with my heart.

“What
you went through makes me very mad,” Lexie confessed. “When I learned what
those Russians had done to you...”

“We
have to let it go. It will kill us if we don’t,” I whispered numbly. “Do you
think that’s what they’re doing?” I nodded toward the dancers. Their heads were
thrown back and then down as they poured their grief into the sky and ground.
Their haunting song was tugging tears from my eyes. I couldn’t understand the
words, but it was clear they were mourning something.

Lexie
stared at me, then burst into tears.

*
* * * *

“What
happened last night?” Rafael asked. We were driving through Wolf Creek Canyon
on our way to Helena. I could tell he was missing his Enzo with the way he was
hugging the twisting road.

I
was staring out the window at the canyon walls and the large battalion of trees
guarding the river down below. “The Chippewa made us cry.”

He
glanced at me. “Seriously? You’re going to blame the Indians for that?”

I
chuckled softly. I tore my eyes from the breathtaking view so I could look at
him. “The song they were singing was very sad. Couldn’t you feel that?”

He
frowned. “I might have felt it if I hadn’t been juggling four tacos, fry bread,
and a girlfriend who was bawling her eyes out.”

“I
wasn’t bawling my eyes out,” I protested.

He
offered me a crazed look. “I think you made the native’s cry.”

“That
was the song,” I insisted. “Did you like the fry bread?”

Rafael
nodded. “Once I brushed the sand off of it. Does the wind always blow that hard
around here?”

I
shook my head. “The wind won’t be blowing like that in Helena. The mountains
help buffer the wind.” I perked up excitedly. “There it is.”

Rafael’s
head tilted as he studied the town. Helena was still quite a few miles in the
distance. “It looks very small.”

“Nearly
thirty thousand people live there, close to sixty thousand if you count the
surrounding area,” I replied a tad bit defensively.

“That
is very small,” he announced even more decidedly.

I
huffed out a breath and folded my arms across my chest. “I grew up in a town
with less than eleven thousand people. That is
not
small.”

He
laughed at my theatrics. “Who are we seeing first?”

I
recited the agenda I’d so carefully crafted in my head. “We need to stop by
Walmart first, so we can buy Siobhan a birthday present. We’ll swing by the law
library to grab the booster seat from her mom. Then we’ll pick Siobhan up from
the childcare center so we can take her to the carousel for ice cream.”