RYDER: A Standalone Military Romance (Blake Security Book 1) (5 page)

              “Okay, man. By the way, Granny wants you to stop by and see her when you have time.”

              That got another one of his rare smiles. Granny has that effect on everyone who knows her. “I just might do that,” he said as he left.

RYDER

             
“Alicia, do you know the circumstances of Celia’s birth?” A few hours later, after I’d spoken with the police and Vince and the property had been searched once more, I found Alicia feeding the baby her breakfast in the kitchen. I’m not sure what was in the bowl she was spooning into the baby’s mouth, but it looked almost identical to the goo that was in her diaper the day before. Maybe we'd found the problem. Alicia glanced nervously at me and then back at the baby. She smiled at Celia, and once again I was jealous of a six month old. When she looked back at me, she wasn’t smiling.

              “I can’t talk about it. I hope you understand. I never should have said anything before. Mr. Branson is going to be so angry. I signed a confidentiality agreement. I was never supposed to talk about it. I can lose my job. If I lose my job, I will be deported. I’m here on a visa.” She sounded like she was about to panic, and I felt badly about pushing her, but I didn’t stop.

              “You’re not going to lose your job.”

              “You can’t guarantee me that,” she said. She was right. Knowing Branson, he probably would fire her. I would do everything I could to prevent that, but I couldn’t guarantee it—just as I’d found out when I spoke to Vince Carter that I wouldn’t be able to do much for the young security officer from the night before. Vince seemed to be more concerned with kissing Branson’s butt than standing up for his own. 

              I sighed. “You’re right; I can’t promise you that. I can promise you that the Bransons won’t know where I got any of this information. But Alicia, I can see by the way you are with that baby that you care about her. I know that you don’t want anything to happen to her. We can’t protect her if we don’t have all the facts.”

              The baby was squirming in her high chair. Alicia stood up and used a baby wipe to clean the goo off of her face and hands before lifting her out of the chair. Then she did something that completely freaked me out. She turned and held the baby out in my direction. I’m sure the look on my face was similar to the one I’d have if she suddenly grew another head on her shoulders. “Will you hold her for just a second?”

              “Um…no. What do you need?”

              “I was going to wipe up her chair before her parents come down.”

              “I’ll do that.”

              Alicia’s lips twitched. “Surely a big, strong guy like you is not afraid of a baby.”

              “I’m not afraid of her,” I protested.

              Her lips curled further. She was trying not to laugh at me, but she was losing the battle. “You are so. She’s not going to hurt you.”

              “I’m not afraid of her hurting me. Look at me. One of my hands is as big as her head.” Celia was actually reaching her little arms out to me. I felt like an ass not taking her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. “I don’t want to break her.”

              She actually did laugh then. “You’re not going to break her. Look, she wants you.” She put the baby against the crook of my arm, and I had no choice but to take her. I put one of my big hands against her back, and I had the other arm underneath her little bottom. I held her a few inches away from me and looked down at her. She smiled a little toothless grin and reached up with one of her slobber-covered hands and touched my chin. I made a face, involuntarily, and she giggled. I felt her little body shake in my arms as she laughed. The sound of it was adorable, and her little face dimpled along the sides of her wide smile. It was too cute, and I had to smile back at her. When I looked up, Alicia was watching us with a gentle smile on her face. “See, there’s nothing to it. She likes you. She has good taste,” Alicia said with a wink.

              I felt my blood run hot. She thinks the baby has good taste because she likes me. That means she likes me too…right? Alicia turned her back on us then went to get the dishrag to wash off the high chair. I looked at Celia again. She babbled something, and then once again began to giggle. Against my better judgement, I was beginning to like the little minion. I sat down with her and bounced her up and down on my knee, making her giggle hysterically until Alicia was done. When she came over and took the baby back, neither Celia nor I were ready to be separated. Celia began to cry, and I immediately held my arms back out to her.

              “You want her back?”

              “She wants me. Like you said, the kid has good taste.”

              Alicia laughed. “Someone thinks highly of himself.”

              I shrugged and said, “I was only repeating what you said. I was wondering if it meant you thought highly of me.”

              She rolled her eyes and said, “My English is not so good, but I didn’t fall off of the grape basket yesterday.”

              “The apple cart.”

              “What?”

              “Never mind,” I told her with a smile. “Give the baby back, and we’ll talk more about how hot you think I am.”

              She handed Celia to me and laughed. “If you want a few minutes alone with yourself, I’ll take Celia and you can gaze into the stainless steel appliances.”

              I had to smile at that. “No thanks. I’d rather look at you.” Her pale skin flushed, and she quickly turned her back to me. She made a play of wiping part of the counter she’d already wiped down.

“Alicia, tell me about Celia’s birth, please.”

              She turned back toward me. I was still bouncing my knee and Celia was thoroughly enjoying it, judging by the sounds she was making. Alicia leaned back into the counter and twisted the rag in her hands as she said, “There was a lot of arguing when I first came here. My understanding was that they were having a baby through a surrogate, but neither of them seemed happy about it at all. Then one day I made the mistake of sitting on the sun porch to read my book. The Bransons didn’t know I was there, and they had one of their arguments in the sitting room. I heard Mrs. Branson say she didn’t want to raise his love child. Mr. Branson told her that she was welcome to leave, and she told him she would take as many of his assets with her as she could if she did. I could tell by his voice that he was worried about that. He started talking calmer and telling her how bad all of the publicity of an ugly divorce would be for business. She said something like, ‘Fine, I’ll stay with your cheating butt, but I won’t raise the tramp’s kid.’ They argued a little more…mostly he was trying to calm her down at that point. The voices stopped, and I listened for footsteps. I thought I heard them both leave. When I finally went out, Mr. Branson was still in the sitting room. He looked angry when he saw me and asked what I heard. I told him the truth that I’d heard most of it, but I’d never talk about it to anyone. He was angry and called me an eavesdropper and wanted to know how much money it would take to keep me silent. I told him over and over that I didn’t want money, I wouldn’t tell. He didn’t believe me. In the end, I signed a confidentiality agreement that says if I ever talked about it, I’d lose my job and my wages for that month.”

              She looked so anxious, and it made me feel really bad. “I won’t tell them you talked to me, Alicia.”

              She shrugged sadly and said, “He’ll know.”

              “You know what else he knows?”

              “What’s that?”

              “His wife doesn’t want to take care of this baby. I’m sitting here holding her and having a hard time believing it, but it’s true. This baby loves you, and Mr. Branson seems to be crazy about her, but his wife absolutely does not feel that same bond. He needs you, and I’m sure he knows that.”

              She didn’t look completely convinced, but she let that go and said, “Do you know yet who the man was from last night?”

              “No. Last night he refused to say anything to anyone. The police took him down and booked him for trespassing. They gave us his name once they got him fingerprinted. He doesn’t have a record, at least here in the U.S. He’s not a citizen though, so he’ll be turned over to the immigration authorities.”

“So he was Russian?”

“Yes. He’s from Georgia, and here on a visa. He works for a textile company, but that is really all we know.”

She made a face at that. I wondered if she was thinking about her job and being deported again. “Alicia, you don’t know anyone from home that might want to do this, do you?”

“Because I’m Russian too, you think I have something to do with this? I’m from Moscow anyways. Moscow is far from Georgia.”

“I didn’t say that. What I asked was if there was anyone you knew who might want to do something like this? Maybe someone who knows you’re here working for these rich people.”

“No. I don’t know anyone who would be a kidnapper.” She was obviously offended. I wasn’t sure why.

“Alicia, why did you come to the United States in the first place?”

“For a better life. Have you ever been to my country?”

“Yes.” I’d been there on more than one mission while I was with the Seals. There were parts of it that were so beautiful they took your breath away and other parts where your heart broke for the people who had to live there. In a lot of ways, it was like the beautiful country we lived in. My guess, however, was that Alicia came from one of those places that broke your heart.

In a quiet voice and without making eye contact with me, she said, “I was raised by a single mother with five kids. I was the only girl. It’s a miracle that I became a nanny and not a prostitute as well.”

“Who did you know in the US before you came here?”

“I have a friend that came here to be a nanny four years ago. We kept in touch, and when she heard about a job, she recommended me to the couple. The husband was in Moscow at the time on business. He interviewed me, and after he got home and spoke to his wife, they hired me and helped me with the arrangements to come here.” 

“What exactly happened at that job? You never said why you had to leave.”

“That’s confidential, too,” she said.

“Again, this is all just about keeping Celia safe. I’m not going to go around announcing that you gave me confidential information. I have my own reputation and the reputation of my company to be concerned with.”

She sighed and said, “The husband couldn’t keep his hands to himself. The fact that I didn’t like that didn’t seem to bother him, but his wife didn’t like it either, so I was let go, quietly. I was recommended to the Bransons and given a bonus after I signed a confidentiality agreement.” I felt an unexplained surge of anger in my chest that she would have to deal with that.

Tamping that down I said, “Has Mr. Branson ever made advances toward you?”

Celia made another noise. It sounded like a happy one to me. Alicia suddenly stood up straight and said, “I should go change her.” She held out her arms, and I gave her the baby. She didn’t answer my question or say another word. She carried the baby over to the back stairs and disappeared in a few steps. I had to assume the answer to that question was yes, and once again, I was angry.

“Hey!” The sound of Leif’s voice behind me caused me to jump. I turned and looked at him and he said, “Did I scare you?” with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes at him and stood up. I’m at least eight inches taller than he is. He looked up at me and grinned. “Go ahead and puff out that big ol’ chest. I saw ya jump. Sorry I scared you. I shoulda known how jumpy you Seals are.” He wasn’t a huge guy, but he was a Green Beret and he’d done four tours of duty. I knew he was a tough S.O.B. as soon as I met him.

I gestured at him with my middle finger, but I smiled. “Are you here for your shift, or just to give me a hard time?”

He was smiling that big goofy country boy smile of his. “I’m here for the shift and to give you a hard time. The boss wants you to go by the shop on your way home.” Like Granny, Leif sometimes makes up his own words for things. I guess Oklahoma and the bayou aren’t so far apart.

“All right, stick close to the nanny and the baby.”

He nodded, and as I started to walk out, he said, “I wouldn’t mind sticking up against that nanny, she’s hot.”

I didn’t even think about it. I spun around, and I was actually ready to fight my friend over a woman that I barely knew. What the hell is wrong with me? Leif was laughing, and that snapped me out of it. “What are you laughing at?”

“You,” he said. “I saw the way you were looking at her last night, and from the green stuff you’ve got all over your shirt, I’d guess you’re gettin’ close to the baby, too.” I looked down and saw that Celia had left green slobber all down the front of me. Shaking my head at Leif, I turned and left to the sound of him laughing. 

RYDER

              I was fading fast from not having any sleep from the past twenty-four hours. I was hoping whatever Blake wanted wouldn’t take too long. I parked next to a shiny black Mercedes in front of the office and went inside. Blake’s door was closed, and Lucy was at her desk. “Well, hello beautiful.”

              She beamed up at me with a pair of dark blue eyes from underneath wild red curls that hung down in front of them. “Hey there yourself, gorgeous. How are you?”

              “I’m wiped out. How’s the bear in there today?”

              She wrinkled her nose. “He’s a wild one. Before that man came in, he was slamming things around in there so loud I thought he was tearing the place down.”

              I shook my head. Blake was reaching his boiling point, and I was afraid of what would happen when he did. “Who’s in there?”

              “His name is Vladimir Kosovo. He’s an investigator in Czechoslovakia or something. He was in the US working a job or something. The boss knows him. He thinks he might be able to help y’all with your kidnapping case.”

              I wondered if that was what Blake wanted me for and if I should go in. I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with his wrath if he didn’t want me to interrupt though, so I waited. Lucy and I talked about baseball. She’s originally from California and a big San Francisco Giants fan. Her current boyfriend, a uniformed cop for the city, is a native of New Orleans, and since we have no professional teams, he’s an Atlanta Braves fan. She teases him relentlessly about how long it’s been since they’d won a pennant. She knows more about baseball than any woman I’ve ever met.

              “This is our year, you know.”

              “Your year?” I asked her.

              “To go to the World Series. We’ve gone every two years since 2010. This is an even year, so we’re going.”

              I tried to control my smile as I asked, “Is that a guarantee, or do they actually have to win a lot of games?”

              “They have won a lot of games. We’re leading in our league. The stupid Dodgers are close behind, but behind is the key word there.”

              I laughed. I was more of a football fan than baseball, but I could appreciate her devotion. “Well, I wish them luck. We wouldn’t want the stupid old Dodgers going instead.”

              She made a face like that would be the end of the world. “No way!”

              Before I could say anything else, the door to Blake’s office was pulled open, and as he held it, a big man with black and silver hair and a belly that lapped over his pants about four inches stepped out. He turned and held his hand out. Blake took it and they shook.

              “Thank you for coming by, Vlad. Oh, here is my partner. Ryder this is Vladimir Kosovo. He’s going to be helping us out on the Branson case.”

              I held out my hand and the big man took it. “Good to meet you and looking forward to working with you,” I said.

              “It’s good to meet you, too,” he said in a thick accent. His accent sounded a lot like Alicia’s.

              “Mr. Kosovo…”

              “Call me Vlad.”

              “Vlad, can I ask you a question?”

              “Of course.”

              “Can you tell where in Russia a person is from by their dialect and the sound of their accent?”

              “Most of the time.”

              “Can I ask you what part of Russia you’re from, sir?”

“I’m from Georgia,” he said.

I heard Lucy snap her fingers behind me and say, “That’s it! Not Czechoslovakia! Georgia!”

I fought another smile and said, “So would someone from a different region have a different accent than you, similar to the way it is here in the States?”

“Yes, in most cases. It’s hard to decipher differences in most regions of the Soviet Union, but Georgia is entirely different. I’m not sure you want a history lesson, but I can tell you that Georgians even look different. My dark hair, skin, and eyes give me away when I’m in my country before I even open my mouth.”

“Would people from Moscow sound like you?”

“Not if they’d lived in Moscow their entire lives. Our accents—and even a lot of our dialect are as different as our hair, eye, and skin coloring.”

I thought about Alicia’s dark hair and tan skin, but I wasn’t going to rush to judgment. She said she was from Moscow, but that doesn’t mean her parents weren’t Georgian. Part of being an investigator was knowing what to address immediately and what to file away for later. “Thank you, sir,” I told Vlad.

He smiled and said, “My pleasure. Blake has my number if you think of anything you need. I’ll be in and out of the country with this case I’m working on, but I’ll do my best to get back to you as quickly as I can.”

“Good, thank you.”

After he left, Blake said, “What was that about?”

I shrugged. “I was just wondering about the kidnappers,” I half-lied. “Did they cut the one from last night loose yet?”

Blake looked at his watch. “About an hour ago. Abrahem is on him. Come on in the office.”

I glanced at Lucy as I followed him and she mouthed the words,
"Good Luck!”

I winked at her and followed my grumpy boss and friend into his office and closed the door. He went around and sat down behind his desk. I took the chair on the other side. I watched as he shuffled things on his desk. I could tell he was having trouble saying whatever it was he needed to say. When we were kids, he never stopped talking. These days, getting anything other than a butt-chewing from him, was like pulling teeth. “I asked Vlad to come in on this partly because I’m going to have to abandon you and leave town for a while.” Blake never goes anywhere, much less in the middle of a case.

“Okay…where are you going?”

“California.”

“To talk to the biological mother?”

He sighed and said, “Partly. I will contact her while I’m there.”

“And the other part?”

“When did you get so damned nosy?”

I smiled. “I’ve always been nosy, you just usually brush me off. Come on, man. I’ve known you longer than anyone in your life except your parents and your brother.”

Blake’s family moved to Florida when he was seventeen. After the army, he moved back to Louisiana where he’d grown up. His parents and older brother were still in Florida. I’m not sure how often he talks to them, if at all. I do know he hasn’t gone to visit them in the past two years.

“You don’t want to know this crap, Ryder. Trust me.”

“I do if it will help me understand what’s going on with you. Besides, if I was taking off out of state suddenly in the middle of a case, wouldn’t you want to know why?”

He looked like he was going to throw me out. I was surprised when he didn’t and also when he started talking. He began to tell me a story, and after a few minutes, it was as if he’d slipped into the past and he was back in Afghanistan. I had been there myself, so I could picture it as he talked. I could hear that wind whipping around and almost feel the grainy sand against my face…

“We were in the Helmand Province, looking for insurgents. Everyone else had already pulled out, and we were the last unit left. I had a young kid named Dawson with me, and we were leading up the unit. It was his first tour. That hot wind was blowing like it always did, and it was well over a hundred degrees without it. The sand was clawing at our raw, chapped faces. The city was abandoned, and the buildings were crumbling. There was no wood or glass left in any of them, nothing anyone could steal and use for something else. The empty shells rolled around underneath our boots, and the sidewalks were so cracked and uneven that we had to watch our step to keep from breaking a leg or an arm or God forbid our necks. Other than the wind and the sound of our boots, it was completely silent. Creepy, you know?” I nodded and his eyes kind of glazed over and he went on. “What I remember is a convoy of tanks and trucks rolling by, the last of the Marines pulling out. I remember thinking that the Marines were leaving, and we were still there, which meant we had a specific mission that someone had yet to inform us about. The base was almost completely broken down, save the supplies they’d left for us. Everyone except us and the Taliban were gone once the Marines took off.

“The base and the abandoned city had been eerily quiet for a few days even before they left. We were sure that insurgents were lying in wait, but we weren’t sure where. The kid I was with, Dawson, he was scared to death, but he was trying like hell not to show it. I felt for him. I could remember being him. Hell, I was on my tenth tour and still scared to death. I tried making conversation with him about where he was from and his family—just to get keep his mind occupied with other things. He told me he grew up in Tennessee. He had a twin sister and both of his parents were still living. He’d had a girlfriend when he signed up, but she waited until he got to boot camp to dump him through an email. I could tell he was still hurting over that and he really missed his family. He told me he was really close to his sister, and he kind of talked about their “twin radar.” He said that if he got killed over there she would know before he did. He laughed about that, but I got the feeling he wasn’t kidding. He was kind of like you and Granny, believing in all that supernatural stuff.”

Granny was the believer, not me. I didn’t interrupt him to tell him that though. He went on, “We’d been given orders a few days prior to this, not to leave our barracks without our weapon. We were told to carry it to the john with us. I knew that meant something big was coming our way, but the powers-that-be hadn’t chosen to share it with us yet. I walked out in the open with Dawson, hugging the butt of my M27 and waiting for all hell to break loose, and then it did.”

I realized when he paused that I was holding my breath. I let it out slowly and waited for him to take a drink of his Red Bull and start again.

“This horrible scream floated in on the wind. It was earsplitting, and it sounded close, but you know how deceiving sound can be out there. We had no idea which direction it came from. But, it was one of those screams that triggers a response on an emotional level, you know someone is hurting and badly. Dawson and I split up, and I went inside of this big, cement building. I wasn’t sure, but it sounded like the sound was muffled slightly, maybe off of the cement walls. I stood at the foot of the stairs and listened. The building was big, probably an old warehouse office or something. When I didn’t hear anything else, I advanced up the stairs, and Dawson went in the other direction. There were three small rooms upstairs. That was all, just three. I was gone a total of two or three minutes before I heard a single gunshot. It didn’t come from inside the building, but I had to make sure the kid and the rest of my unit was okay. I tried the radio first, but all I got back was static.

As I ran down the stairs, I heard twelve more shots in rapid succession. They sounded like they were all coming from different directions. I was disoriented by the time my feet hit the cement of the bottom floor. I didn’t know which way to go. I called out for Dawson, and when he didn’t answer, I checked out the bottom floor. I found him in the third room I looked in…with his throat cut and a single gunshot to the head.”

“Damn. I’m sorry, man.”

His eyes were still thousands of miles away as he went on. “I knew that I had to stay focused and find the rest of my team. I left his body there with every intention of going back for him unless I ended up dead myself. I exited the building and stood close to it out front and scanned the area. Another shot rang out, that one whizzed by so close to my head I could almost feel it. I hit the dirt, and I just lay there, like a damned coward.”

“Blake…”

He ignored me and kept talking. “I don’t know if they thought I was dead or what, but that was the only shot they took at me. I couldn’t even remember how much time had passed later when I had to tell command what happened or fill out my reports. But when I finally pulled myself up out of the dirt and went to look for the rest of them, I found them all in the exact same shape as Dawson. They were all scattered out. I have no clue how they got them to split up. They’d never willingly leave their teammates. Anyways, I realized at that moment that out of six, I was the only one left alive. I was their leader and I’d failed them.”

“Wait, Blake, listen to me. You said you heard shots while you were still in the building and only one after you came out. Those men were dead before you took cover. And damn it, what good were you going to be to anyone if you were dead, too?”

At least I was beginning to understand what happened to him.

“I radioed our back-up unit. They were only a couple miles behind us, but I still wasn’t getting anything back but static. I just started going from building to building. If I was going down, I wanted to take at least a few of the murdering SOBs with me, you know?” I nodded, and he said, “I cleared four of them before I heard the final shot. I’m not even sure I heard it. To this day I’m not sure if what I remember are actual memories or my imagination or what I was told. The back-up unit got there apparently before they had time to cut my throat. I had a bullet in my chest, and I was bleeding out. And while all of that was happening, a mortar shell hit the building Dawson’s body was in. There was nothing left of him. His family got to bury an empty coffin.”