Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (8 page)

“Are you a hero, Uncle Nick?”
Christopher asked with all the innocence of an adoring child.

“Naw, just a good Marine.”

“He is a hero, Christopher,” Hanna
amended. “Your Uncle Nick has been awarded lots of medals for bravery, himself,
including the Navy Cross which is one of the highest honors a man can receive.
Maybe he will show that to you sometime. He’s saved the lives of many men he
has served with and commanded.”

Christopher was staring up at his
uncle with awe. “Tell a story ‘bout you, Uncle Nick,” he asked excitedly.

Obviously uncomfortable with the
adulation, Nick was quiet for a long moment. With Hanna’s encouragement, he
recalled an incident with one of his teams in Iraq, but while the story awed
the ladies, it didn’t seem to impress his nephew too much because of all the
political ramifications beyond his comprehension. Capturing well-known
terrorists didn’t mean much to a ten-year-old who had no idea how important
they had been.

He decided to tell him a few of the
interesting things he got to do as a Recon Marine instead. “Well, I get to jump
out of airplanes thousands of feet up in the air. We put on special masks and
suits. Sometimes I fly like a bird for a long way before I use my parachute.
It’s called HALO jumping. When we jump out of an airplane so far above the
ground our enemies don’t know we are coming because they can’t see us on their
radar.” Nick smiled as Christopher’s eyes rounded with wonder. “Sometimes I
have to slide real fast out of helicopters on a long rope that drops us into
the ocean or onto the ground. It’s called fast roping, and it’s very dangerous.
But what I like best, is putting on all my very special diving gear and
swimming underwater. The Navy also has little submarines that I get to use.”

“Cool!” Christopher liked that one
best.

“Yeah, I get to play with lots of cool
toys. That’s the fun part of my job.”

Christopher was thinking hard about
something. “What are emees and terriers, Uncle Nick?”

It took Nick a second to figure that
one out, then he chuckled. “They are bad guys.”

“You shoot emees and terriers with
your gun?”

“Its terrorists, not terriers, big guy,”
Nick corrected gently, slowly enunciating each phoneme. “Terriers are dogs, and
terrorists are really bad guys that kill a lot of innocent people. Sometimes I
have to shoot them,” he explained solemnly and honestly. “But it’s an awful
thing to shoot someone, Christopher.”

Because his uncle said it, the boy
believed it. “Daddy says Antie Hanna is a hero. She saves hurt people.”

Nick looked at Hanna and saw her flush
with embarrassment. “She is, Christopher. It’s very important to save people
who are sick or hurt. It’s more important than what I do.” He saw how his
praise surprised her and smiled softly at her. “Her mommy and daddy were
heroes, too. They were doctors who helped people in parts of the world where
there are terrible things like earthquakes and floods that kill lots of
families. Like my father, they died trying to save people. You know they were
Uncle Dylan’s parents, too. That’s why Dylan and Hanna went to live with Grandma
Colleen and Grandpa Ben when they were little— because their mommy and daddy
had died.”

“Is my daddy dead, Uncle Nick?”

That question hit them all in the gut.
No one was sure what Christopher thought about his father’s disappearance,
especially since he was delayed cognitively.

Nick pulled his nephew onto his lap
and gave him a reassuring hug. “I don’t think so, Christopher. Your daddy and I
have always been real close, and I’m pretty sure I’d know it if he was dead.
I’m going to find your daddy and bring him home as soon as I can. I promise.”

The look of complete confidence the
ten-year old gave his uncle was stunning. “Okay, Uncle Nick, but hurry up. I
miss daddy.”

Nick kissed the top of his nephew’s
head, closed his eyes for a second, and then opened them to find Hanna staring
at him with silent tears swimming in her own. His own felt misty.

He regrouped, stroked her hand in
comfort, then ruffled the little boy’s hair. “Let’s go find the playground
equipment. I want to swing. How about you, squirt?”

Christopher jumped to his feet with
childish exuberance.“Yeah, let’s go!” He turned to the two women. “Come on
guys! Come on baby!”

Nick raced his nephew to the
playground equipment in the distance, while Hanna, Christine, and Baby Katie
followed at a more sedate pace.

“Boy, Hanna, Nick Kelly is one heck of
a man!” Christine exclaimed with obvious admiration. “We’ve all turned to him
to solve Dylan’s death and Lance’s disappearance, and he hasn’t even flinched.
Most men would have said I’ll see what I can do. He just says I’ll do it. I’m
really beginning to think he will, too. I mean, any man who can do what he does
for a living has to be extraordinary. How has he remained single for so long?”

If Hanna didn’t know how much
Christine had loved Dylan, she would have been jealous of the awe in her
sister-in-law’s voice. “He’s married to the Marine Corps, and he’s never in one
place long enough to meet a potential candidate for a wife.”

“How about you?”

“We’re just friends.”

“That was no
just friends
kiss
I saw him give you.”

Hanna still didn’t know what to make
of that intimacy, or the way he always seemed to be watching her lately. “I
have no idea what that meant, Christine.”

“Well, Doctor, I have a feeling you’re
going to find out over the next couple of weeks. My advice is, whatever it is,
go with it. A man like Nick Kelly is a rare breed. God doesn’t make too many
like him.” Then she smiled, a rarity itself lately. “Of course, there’s Dylan
and Lance. Maybe God decided they needed to come in three’s once in the while.
Lucky us.”

Hanna turned to her friend because she
heard the sad regret in Christine’s voice. When she saw the unshed tears in the
other woman’s eyes, she put her arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I’m so
awfully sorry, Christine. God, I wish I could reverse time for both of us!”

Christine patted her back, comforting
her in return. “I had three years of knowing and loving Dylan. He gave me a
beautiful baby. It wasn’t enough, and yet I thank God I had that much. For
Katie’s sake, I’m going to get through this.”

“You’re such a courageous lady,
Christine.”

“It runs in this family, don’t you
know.”

By the time, the women joined Nick, he
was pushing Christopher high into the air on the swing. Hanna sat on the swing
beside the little boy, and pushed off the ground. On the backward motion of the
swing, Nick reached out to push her, too. His big long-fingered hands moved
from her waist to her bottom as she got higher and higher. A shiver of delight
swept through her every time he touched her bottom. With each push, his hands
seemed to linger just a fraction of a second longer until she was sure he was doing
it deliberately.

Laughing, she arched backwards in the
swing and looked at Nick upside down. Somehow, he managed to plant a kiss on
her forehead, and she wondered in delight if this time things were going to be
different between them.

On the way to the car, at the end of
their afternoon, they ran into the police chief, Phillip Douglas, and his
family. Hanna didn’t often see Phillip with his wife and two children. She
hadn’t realized that he was married to another one of Nick’s old girlfriends
from high school, until she saw the old flame greet him with exaggerated
enthusiasm.

Mandy Phillips was also an
ex-cheerleader and prom queen. Funny how all those cute little cheerleaders in
high school had names ending in “
y”
― Ashley, Mandy.

Apparently, Mandy hadn’t seen Nick the
other times he’d been home. She acted obnoxiously pleased with how well he
looked. She kept commenting on it, eyeing his big muscular frame like she
wanted to touch. It irritated Hanna to no end. She saw that it also seemed to
elicit a similar reaction from Phillip.

“Any word from your brother?” Phillip
finally asked as if he didn’t know the family considered his disappearance foul
play.

“You tell me. How’s the investigation
going, Phillip? What have you learned about his disappearance?”

“We’re not looking at it as a missing
person incident. Lance is old enough to take off on his own.”

Nick glanced at Christopher, and Hanna
could tell he didn’t think this was the time or place to discuss the matter
with the police chief. “I’ll be in to see you on Tuesday. around nine, after I
take Hanna to work. I’ll want to talk to the sheriff and the coroner then, too.
Let them know. Have your reports ready. I’ll want copies.”

Hanna saw Phillip Douglas’ eyes widen before
he leveled a fierce scowl on Nick. “I’ll have to check to see who’s available.”

“Make them available.”

“Damn it, Kelly!” Phillip cussed in
exasperation. “No wonder they made you a Colonel.”

“See you Tuesday at nine, Phillip,”
Nick concluded. “Mandy, nice to see you again. Take care.”

“Nice seeing you, too, Nick. Maybe
we’ll run into each other again.” The woman was practically drooling, and Hanna
wanted to tell her to grow up so badly she nearly said it aloud.

After watching the police chief and
his family depart, she walked side by side to the car with Nick. Christopher,
Christine, and the baby were several feet ahead of them.

Hanna turned to look up at him. “You
know you have an amazing way of directing people to do what you want.”

“Douglas hasn’t done what I want yet.”
At the car, he opened the passenger door for her and gave her one of his sexy,
crooked grins. Christopher, the baby, and Christine were already seated in the
back seat.

Hanna slid inside the car and smiled
up at him as he closed the door. “I have every confidence you’ll get more out
of the three of them than we did.”

CHAPTER 6

ON WEDNESDAY, HANNA was in her office
at the hospital, working on her backlogged paperwork, when the receptionist
from downstairs called to tell her she had a visitor, a Colonel Nicholas Kelly.
She wanted to know if it was okay to send him up to her third floor office. Hanna
smiled. It certainly was, she told the woman.

She’d been buried in paperwork all
morning. She didn’t often get several hours in a row to work on it, but it had
been quiet enough for her to get out of the Emergency Room, and she’d taken the
opportunity. She wanted to be caught up before her vacation started. But she’d
been thinking about taking a lunch break, and seeing Nick was always something
she welcomed.

True to his promise, he’d brought her
to work the last three mornings, and picked her up once she was off. And he’d
driven Lance’s Jeep, so she didn’t have to make accommodations for coming to
work on the back of a motorcycle, which being a doctor, she didn’t approve of
anyway.

She was just shutting down her
computer when Nick came through her open door. The sight of him filled her with
delight. Little happy bubbles, as she secretly called them, churned in her
stomach. Today he was wearing baby blue Levis that snugly fit his long muscular
legs and another knit polo shirt, this time a pale gray. The color made his
eyes look lighter, more silvery. His hair was tousled and wind-blown, and she
just bet he’d come into town on his motorcycle. The smile he returned hers with
was devastating.

“I’m going over to Seattle on the
ferry this afternoon to see a friend of mine,” he announced as he came to stand
in front of her cluttered desk. “I thought I’d drop by to see if you’d like to
have lunch with me first.” He looked at all the paperwork still on her desk and
his smile turned rueful. “Can I drag you away from all this?”

Hanna pushed her dark rimmed glasses
back up onto her nose. “Absolutely. I was just thinking about going down to the
cafeteria to get something to eat. Is it okay if we just go there?”

“Sure, if that’s what you’d like.”

She made a grimace of distaste. “It’s
probably all I have time for, unfortunately. I’m trying to get caught up on my
paperwork before I go on vacation.”

She reached into the drawer of her
desk to retrieve her wallet. Nick motioned for her to put her money back. “I’m
buying.”

“You sound just like Lance. He never
thought I should pay, either.”

Since it was noon, the cafeteria
downstairs was crowded with staff and hospital visitors, but after going
through the food line, Nick and Hanna found a table in a corner that was quiet
enough for them to hear one another speak. It was also next to one of the big
glass windows that allowed a view of the bay in the distance, below the bluff
the hospital was perched on.

“It looks like it’s turned into a
beautiful day. I’m glad all the fog has blown out,” Hanna commented. “You
should have a nice ride on the ferry.” She took a bite of the sandwich on her
plate, then washed it down with a spoonful of soup, much hungrier than she’d
first thought. “Who are you going to see in Seattle?” Hopefully, it wasn’t some
female friend.

“A friend of mine in the FBI. Kurt
Palmer. He’s an ex-Marine. We went to Annapolis together, then into Recon
together. He got out after ten, and became an FBI agent. We’ve worked together
on and off since then. He’s with the agency’s Seattle office right now, so I
thought I’d get a little assistance from him.”

Hanna’s curiosity was spiked. “What
kind of assistance?”

“Well, you know I told you when
Christine and I went over to her house, we looked around pretty thoroughly. The
only thing that seemed amiss to Christine was Dylan’s laptop. It wasn’t where
he usually leaves it. So I turned it on and studied all of his hard drive
files. His old and new cases were on his computer. Under current
investigations, he had one labeled Illegal Drug Cases.”

“Really.”

“It had nothing in it.” Nick proceeded
to finish his sandwich as he waited for Hanna to fill him in on what she knew.

“That’s odd. Port George is no
Seattle, but we do have drug problems here. I see the end result too frequently
lately in ER. Besides, I know Dylan made several illegal drug arrests within
the last six months. Mostly, it was marijuana and amphetamines, sometimes crack
or cocaine. But he also had a case or two that have involved heroin. I’ve seen
a couple in ER, too. It’s not a drug we were seeing any of until recently.
Dylan certainly should have had something in his files under current cases.”

“That’s pretty much what Christine said,
so I checked the “Recent Places” on his computer. It showed that he had added
to a file titled Drug Cases the day before he died. Of course, his computer
hadn’t been used since then, except for one instance― two days after he
died. The file was accessed and erased.”

Hanna paled. “What do you think that
means?” She was afraid to speculate.

“For now, I’m going to assume that
whoever broke into Christine and Dylan’s new house was looking for information
Dylan had on any illegal drug cases he’d been investigating. I’m taking Dylan’s
laptop to Kurt to see if he’ll dust it for fingerprints. Maybe he can even find
some way to retrieve the erased file. Christine gave me all of Dylan’s backup
drives. There might be something on one of them, too. Luckily, they were in a
closet, not next to his computer, so the intruder didn’t know about them. I
don’t want to comprise any evidence on the computer, so I’m going to let Kirk
and his team go over it. Christine was okay with that, and I trust Kirk to be
discreet.”

“That definitely sounds promising!”
She smiled at him gratefully. “I’ve felt so frustrated for weeks. I haven’t
been able to get anywhere. Now, with your help, I finally have some real hope
we can find out the truth about Dylan’s death.”

Nick smiled at her, his silver gray
eyes full of tenderness. Then he reached over and caught her hand between his.
Neither of them said a thing. Hanna didn’t know what to say, the intimacy in
his gaze was so intense. It left her addled, unsettled. It had been like this
between them since he had come home. The way he looked at her, always watching
her, the way he sought every excuse to touch her, and then the way he had
kissed her at the park.

What was going on? He had always been
sweet, considerate, and thoughtful, but this time something was different.
Maybe it was just her silly imagination. She’d always been so crazy about him,
so hopelessly in love with him. It seemed she’d fantasized a thousand times
about him looking at her this way. Was she reading too much into things?

Her ego was much too fragile to trust
what she thought she saw. She might have the IQ of a genius, but she was no
genius when it came to men and her feelings for Nick. She was smart enough to
know, though, that men like him didn’t fall in love with women like her—
brainy, ordinary looking women, who wore thick-rimmed glasses and were too
quiet, too shy to be sexy and enticing.

She shook herself mentally and brought
herself back to the real world. “What did Chief Douglas and Sheriff Thomas have
to say yesterday about Lance? Are they looking for him? Have they at least
posted him as a missing person?”

Nick rubbed his forehead and shook his
head in disgust. “Dealing with those two was....”

“Challenging?” Hanna supplied,
commiserating with him.

“Definitely. They haven’t done either
of those things, unfortunately. They seem to think Lance either took off with
some woman, or he got a call from Elaine and left to meet her somewhere.”

Hanna let out a breath of disgust.
Lance would never have anything to do with his ex-wife! He’d married her his
senior year in college and brought her home to Port George. No one had known
she was a cocaine user when she’d gotten pregnant with Christopher. The infant
had been born with significant seizures and subsequent developmental delays.
And his loving mother, not wanting to bother with such a demanding baby, had
walked out on her husband and son within six months of giving birth. She had
never returned or even written. No one knew where she was. Or if she was even still
living. Hanna didn’t know of any other women in Lance’s life, and he’d never
take off on his son anyway. He was much too devoted a father; much too
responsible for that kind of behavior.

“Why would Douglas and Thomas think
that? Lance wasn’t seeing anyone, and he hasn’t talked to Elaine since she left
him.”

“One of the temporary workers Lance
hires occasionally from Job Service told Phillip that Elaine called Lance at
work a couple of times recently. The guy said Lance was really upset afterward
and talked about finding her.”

“Oh bullshit!” Hanna hardly ever
swore, but she was thoroughly disgusted by what Nick told her. He smiled at her
rare use of profanity. “Lance would have told me if Elaine had contacted him.
We didn’t keep those kinds of secrets from one another. Who was this temporary
hire anyway?”

Nick told her the name of the man, but
it didn’t ring any bells for Hanna. Nick stared at her thoughtfully, his eyes
narrowed, forehead wrinkled. “You were that close to Lance that you’d know for
sure if Elaine had tried to call him?”

“Yes! Absolutely.”

Her answer was so emphatic, it
deepened Nick’s frown. “I don’t think Chief Douglas and Sheriff Thomas want to
concern themselves with Lance’s disappearance.”

“Why?” Hanna couldn’t understand that
response now any more than she could when she’d first suspected it.

“I don’t know, but something about
those two bothers me. Their willingness to settle for the easiest explanation
possible in both cases is disturbing enough, but my gut tells me that it’s more
than just incompetence and indifference that motivates them. I’m going to have
Kurt run background checks on them.”

“But you know Phillip. You went to
high school with him. You played football with him. And wasn’t his wife an old
girlfriend?”

His mouth slid into a partial grin.
“Hanna, your memory is too good. But men change in twenty years.”

“Well, Phillip Douglas didn’t change
for the better. I still can’t stand him. He was an arrogant, obnoxious bully in
high school, and he still is.”

“I remember how he used to pick on
you,” Nick stated, frowning again. “I always enjoyed hitting him a little
harder on the practice field for it. He’s not still bothering you, is he?”

“No. He just treats me like I’m not
worth his time.”

“He’s not worth yours. He can deal
with me from now on.”

She’d always loved the way Nick had
championed her. If it hadn’t been for him, she would have been so much more
miserable in high school. His unwavering support had been one of the reasons
she’d fallen in love with him.

She glanced at her watch and grimaced.
“I hate to, but I better get going. What ferry are you taking?”

“The one o’clock. I’ll be back in time
to pick you up from work. Would you hate it if I picked you up on my bike? I
might not have time to go home and get the Jeep.”

She looked down at her skirt. “Well, I
guess it’s a good thing I wore a full skirt. Can I ride home in this modestly?”

He looked down and scanned her legs.
“Unfortunately, yes.”

She laughed and hit him playfully on
the arm. Just as they were leaving, Ashley Davis came through the cafeteria
door with Dr. Rick Penman.

“Nick! How nice to run into you
again,” Ashley exclaimed with such enthusiasm Hanna wanted to groan. “I keep
missing you when you pick up Dr. Wallace.” Oh, how fortuitous, Hanna thought
snidely once again. “Doctor, isn’t your car working?”

“It’s limping along,” Hanna replied.
“I better run. See you later, Nick. Have a good trip into Seattle.”

“Hanna! Wait up!”

Nick watched Doctor Penman leave
Ashley’s side and hurry after Hanna, chasing her into the elevator.

Ashley was watching Nick just as
closely. “Doctor Penman works in ER with Doctor Wallace. He’s a resident
doctor. Rumor has it he’s got it bad for her.”

Nick turned to look down at the petite
woman he’d dated once or twice in high school. “Got it bad?”

Ashley smiled up sweetly at him. “He
has a crush on Hanna.”

“Isn’t he a little old for a crush?”

The ER nurse shrugged. “Well, Doctor
Wallace is still single after all these years.” Nick turned to walk away with a
snort of disgust. Ashley touched his forearm. “Where are you off to? I was just
about to take my lunch break. Want to join me?”

He shook his head and smiled absently.
“I just had lunch with Hanna. I’ve got to catch the one o’clock ferry to
Seattle.”

“What’s in Seattle?”

“A friend.”

“Male or female?”

“The former,” he responded
impatiently.

“I hear you’re home for a while. Why
don’t we go out for a drink some evening after I get off work.” Nick began to
shake his head negatively, so she quickly added, “Doctor Wallace can join us.
We usually work the same shift.”