Tactical Deception: Silent Warrior, Book 2 (37 page)

The doctor’s brows shot straight up. “No. Not at all. There’re several simple explanations. Her levels could just be a little different from the norm at this point in her pregnancy. No two people are the same and no two pregnancies are either. As I said, she could be at a different stage than originally thought. Also another reason for higher levels is multiple embryos. So have her obstetrician check her out when you get home.”

Roger was sure lightning had struck his brain. Not one, but more than one. The possibility was dizzying. “Multiple?” he muttered, even though he knew very much what the doctor meant.

“As in twins or triplets or more. Ms. Dalton, do multiples run in your family?”

“Yes,” Mari whispered.

Roger didn’t really hear anything else about their discharge. He just followed the FBI and secret service agents down the ER hallway with Mari at his side.
Multiples.
He didn’t ask if life could get any more complicated. He didn’t have to, because he looked up and saw across a lengthy room the bald, bowling-ball head of Clandestine Service’s Staff Operations Officer who’d been trying to nail his ass since Peru. The “Director” was out for blood and his smug smile said he was about to dig his claws into Mari.

Over his dead body, Roger thought. There had to be a way to head off this asshole, a tactical move that would tie the SOB’s hands. Enlightenment dawned. Maybe a little tactical deception… “Mari, this is the wrong time and place, but say yes even if you never will. Will you marry me?”

“No!” Mari cried out, fear vibrating like thunder. She shoved him away from her.

What the hell?
Roger whipped around toward her, shocked at her vehemence. Then he froze, his heart gripping in terror as he saw who was in the adjoining hallway, hidden from view from the others.

Coming at them from the side, not more than five feet from them, with what had to be a newspaper-covered gun in his hand, was Mari’s father. He stood up from a wheelchair. Madness gleamed in his eyes and hate twisted his reddened features as he waved the gun at Mari and at him shouting in Arabic, “All unbelievers deserve death. All whores deserve death.”

Mari had placed herself between him and her father’s wrath and Roger was going to wring her neck later for it. The other agents were several steps ahead, going head to head with the SOO and completely unaware of the danger that was broadsiding them.

He had a feeling that if he shouted for help or if he made any sudden movements Mari’s father would immediately pull the trigger and Roger wasn’t sure he could guarantee Mari wouldn’t catch a bullet.

He spoke to Mari’s father in Arabic as he slowly moved in Mari’s direction. “
Asalamu alaikum
, peace be upon you.” Roger gave the man the traditional Muslim greeting of respect—ironic that the most volatile would have peace so much a part of their tradition. Then he challenged Mari’s father. “Who says I am an unbeliever? I have read every word of the holy Qur’an. You are making a grave mistake in your condemnation of your daughter and me.”

Mari’s father, caught off guard, looked stunned.

It was all the time Roger needed to place himself between Mari and the gun. “Listen to him, Father,” Mari pleaded. “This hate, this anger is not what Allah wants.”

“You lie,” Mari’s father shouted. “He lies!” He waved the gun in the air.

Out of the corner of his eye, Roger saw FBI agents turn toward them and the SOO barrel forward. “Gun!” Roger shouted the only warning he could as he dove for Mari.

The SOO was so intent on getting to Mari that he missed the threat and walked into harm’s way.

FBI and secret service agents realizing the threat buried him and Mari beneath their combined protective muscle just as Mari’s father fired a barrage of bullets.

By the time the agents let up him and Mari, her father was disarmed and on the ground, unmoving from a bullet to the chest. Hospital personnel rushed in to administer first aid to him but their expressions didn’t hold any hope.

The SOO had taken a hit in the back and was telling the hospital staff how to give him first aid. It would be a few days before he came after Mari, which gave Roger plenty of time to position Mari as safely as he could. At least he prayed it would. He turned to Mari, but she wasn’t at his side.

She’d gone to her father. Roger joined her. They hadn’t been able to save him. The hospital staff had covered her father with a sheet.

“He wasn’t always this way,” she said softly, tears in her eyes. “He was always an important man in the village with responsibilities but when we were little, he’d always take time out of his day to make Maisa and me laugh by pretending to be a wolf who tickled his prey to death. The day I was attacked he condemned me, and that father died to me. There was nothing I could do or say to change his mind then and there was nothing I could do or say to stop him from this end yesterday or today. Did his choices to hate drive him to this madness?”

Roger slipped his hand into hers. Mari turned away from her father’s body and Roger saw the doors to the hospital chapel to the right of where they stood. “Come on,” he pulled her with him into the quiet room, leaving the chaos and her father’s body behind. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his heart. “I’m sorry for all of your loss, Mari. For your father, for your mother, for your pain and most importantly for the loss of Neil. Choices we make determine who and what we become.”

She raised her gaze to his and instead of tears of sadness, she smiled at him. “And the choices we make after something terrible happens determine that as well. When the tragedy with Neil happened, you chose to step into the void. That choice saved me from Dugar and now from my father.”

She placed her hand over his heart. “If it is not too late, I’d like to choose too. I want to choose love and I choose you. I choose to create with my life and not to destroy. My child…children maybe…and I deserve to be happy. You deserve to be happy. So if you still mean what you asked me in such a hurry just a minute ago, the answer is yes. I will marry you.”

Roger’s heart thundered, his blood roared in his ears, and his vision dimmed. He went down on his knees and bowed his head before he fainted.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Were you shot?” Mari went down on her knees beside him, her soft hands searching over him, checking for an injury.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he sighed. “You humble me with your forgiveness. But if you don’t stop your exploration, I’m going to have trouble facing all of those people that are waiting just outside that door.” He nodded at the faces glaring at them through the glass-paneled doors of the chapel. “Before they descend, I have to tell you that I love you.”

She glanced at the spectators and didn’t try and hide her face at all. Her smile was like the sun itself. “I love you too.”

Epilogue

South Maui Beach, Hawaii

September 15

1830 hours

“Mari stop.” Roger shuddered, his eyes crossed and the rolling turquoise waves and glorious red sunset out the window blurred.

She ran a fingernail up his side and all along the underside of his arm then drew a circle in his palm. His erection burned harder and his hips jerked in response, he had no idea just how many nerves were connected to his dick. Everywhere she touched, everywhere she licked, every place her silky hair brushed over his skin she found one.

“Stop?” She slid her tongue down his stomach then blew her hot moist breath over his sex. Her silky hair fell across his groin and she brushed the tip of her tongue up the head of his penis.

He bowed up, heels and shoulders digging into the bed. “No. Don’t stop, just help me out a little. Take me inside.”

“When I’m ready,” she leaned up and whispered in his ear.

He exhaled. “Tell me who put you up to this?” Holly had to have talked her into doing this. But when? They’d seen Holly at the hospital together. She was on the mend and upset she missed all of the action.

When Roger told Dekker he was marrying Mari, Dekker had helped him delay Mari’s questioning, but had said they’d better hurry and get back before the SOO was released from the hospital. Dekker probably hadn’t meant for Roger to go all the way to Hawaii to do it, but he wasn’t about to give Mari anything less than she deserved and she deserved paradise for her wedding. The ceremony would be tomorrow morning at the Kula Botanical Gardens. He had the marriage license in his back pocket. Or had had it there before Mari stripped his jeans off him. He was still adjusting to waking up with his hands tied to the headboard. Delta Force had a motto
, De oppresso liber
, free the oppressed. He guessed he’d been a good soldier and had done his job.

She was liberated and killing him softly.

“You told me to do this,” she said. “In the cabin the other morning you said I’d have to tie you up to keep your hands off me. I figured it would be a good way to get to know you as well as you know me before we get married tomorrow.”

Damn. Now she’d scrambled his brain too. How could he not let her have her fun? How much more could he take without starting to scream? He could take all the pain in the world with barely a grunt. He’d trained for that, but pleasure. That was doing him in. Driving him crazy. If he were to yell, he doubted anyone would hear. They were in a private house on a secluded beach. So what was the big deal? The truth was, he wasn’t ready to lose that much control, to lose that much of himself in her that he was screaming for her to fuck him. He loved her though. He had been and still was willing to lay down his life for her. So why not?

If he wanted to, he could ditch the silk curtain ties she had wrapped around his palms, but he hadn’t wanted to spoil her game.

“Oh, hell,” he cried as she ran a nail down the sole of his foot and moved up his leg. When she cupped his balls he was breathing heavily. Then she leaned forward and drew his penis into her hot mouth.

“Oh! Yes, yes, yes.” He arched to her wanting more, but she let him go. She eased up his body, letting her breasts brush all along his chest. “Not yet,” she whispered in his ear again. “I’m not ready yet.”

He shifted, thrusting her higher up his body and sucked her nipple into his mouth before she could get her balance. She moaned and shivered as he stroked the hard point until he had her squirming.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff with need. “You’re ready. You’re ready for me to taste your sweetness. You’re ready for my hot mouth. You’re ready for me to go deep. We’re both ready for it all. I love you.”

“Yes, I’m ready.” She sighed and kissed him, releasing the knots, freeing him to love her completely. He didn’t know what they would face when they returned to the States, but he did know they would do it together and that was all that mattered.

The morning was so beautiful. The lush vegetation of the Haleakala surrounded them in a cocoon of green, fragrant with the blooming white ginger, and alive with the orchids Roger had ordered. Each flower a beautiful work of art.

Mari stood facing him, her heart singing as she stared into his so-blue eyes. He kissed the vibrant gold lei he held and slipped it over her head. She did the same with hers, having to stretch up on her tiptoes as he bent down. He wore a white suit. She, a flowing white dress of lace and satin.

The priest spoke, a man with a voice as rich as the ancients and warm dark eyes and sun-kissed skin. “This morning we gather beneath the warmth of the sun to welcome you to this joyous celebration.
Aloha
. I share with you the Hawaiian word for love. Today Lt. Col. Roger Weston and Maryam Dalton have come together to celebrate and make eternal through the commitment of marriage the special aloha that exists between them. With aloha in their hearts, they promise to share their lives and have chosen their own vows to make this day their own celebration of aloha.”

Roger spoke then. “Mari, I choose you to be my lawfully wedded wife, and pledge to be your faithful husband. To share with you my heart, my life and my love. To give to you and make with you all the happiness I can for as long as I shall live.”

His heart and soul were in his every word and melded to hers as he slipped the simple gold band on her finger.

“Roger, I choose you to be my lawfully wedded husband, and pledge to be your faithful wife. To share with you my heart, my life and my love. To give to you and make with you all the happiness I can for as long as I shall live.”

Hands trembling, she slid the ring on his finger. They clasped hands and spoke as one. “Always and forever. Till death do us part.”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Mari looked at him expectantly, her lips ready for his, but he leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I’m not ready yet. You have to wait.”

She blinked at him shocked. Remembering her game last night—surely he wasn’t going to—

A woman came running up the steps to the wedding gazebo, carrying a large box. “They’re here.”

Roger smiled and took the box. “Open this first. Then I will be ready.” He handed her the box.

“What is it?”

“Just open it.”

Mari untied the ribbon and pulled up the lid. The moment she did, a shower of butterflies flew into the air around them, brightly orange with silver teardrops on their wings. They were the most beautiful present ever. And it was the most beautiful, most perfect moment of her entire life. She was speechless as tears of happiness and wonder streamed down her cheeks. Roger kissed her tears and then he kissed her, joining her soul to his in a way she never imagined was possible.