Her mind fell into an abyss, fear and sensation blurring into a thick haze that obliterated thought and sensation completely. She was in a car full of cold water, rocking with the waves, darkness and fear taking her breath away.
“Let her go!” Bill’s familiar voice sounded so distant she couldn’t tell if she dreamed it was there. But her attacker relented and she came around enough to realize Bill was really there—really there and pointing a gun at them. The smallest red light shone from the doorway, the laser sight of a rifle. Bill was a Navy SEAL, long since retired, with an extensive collection of weapons. He was a force to be reckoned with, even now, and in that moment she forgot her earlier worries about his health. He was strong and capable. He would protect her.
Bill fired, an explosive boom filling the room with a painfully loud sound wave. Jackie’s hands covered her ears, a startled gasp escaping as the man fell to the ground in front of her, some part of him landing on her feet.
“He was reaching for the gun on the floor,” said Bill, his silhouette moving toward her, the strange outline of his night vision goggles clear to her when he turned his head. “Are you all right?”
“I think so. Is he dead?”
“Yes.”
“Do you recognize him? Is it…?”
“Mama…” Selena cried from the doorway.
“Go ahead. I’m going to see if I can fix the lights,” said Bill. Jackie ran to Selena, bumping into tables in her haste to get to the girl, squinting against the light as she pulled Selena tightly against her chest. She buried her face in her daughter’s hair. “Shh. It’s okay now. It’s okay.”
Selena sniveled. “I got Bill like you asked me to.”
“Shh. I know. You did good, sweetie. You did real good.” Jackie’s hands trembled as she stroked Selena’s back, her mind desperate to make some sense of what had just happened. It had been years since she’d feared for her life, but her mind went right back there as if no time had passed at all, no safety having ever been attained. Who was that man? As much as she wanted to believe it was a random act of violence that brought him here, she couldn’t allow herself the luxury of such naïveté.
No, a storm was coming, far larger than the atmospheric one raging toward them over the ocean. A different kind of storm that wouldn’t allow her such an easy escape. She could see now, the peace she’d found in Mexico was nothing more than a veil that had separated her from reality, the fabric far too easily pulled back to reveal the danger that was waiting.
There could be others lurking nearby. She shivered and hugged her daughter closer to her, taking comfort in the girl’s steady breathing and the warmth of her body. Thank God Bill was with them. He was the only other person besides her daughter Jackie considered family. He would protect them. Keep them safe.
They stayed that way for long minutes, until Selena’s tears stopped falling and her grip on Jackie’s shirt loosened. She was asleep. Jackie didn’t want to put her down, didn’t want to go into the other room, didn’t want to see the dead man and contemplate what would happen next. So she stayed where she was, listening as Bill moved around, the door opening and closing, wondering what he was doing and not really wanting to know.
She didn’t know how long it had been when Bill came back, entering with a limping gait. Sweat had soaked through his shirt at his underarms and chest, and his brows were lowered over his heavily flushed face. He laid a small photograph on the table beside her. A picture taken many years earlier, Jackie leaning back against the porch railing at the house she’d shared with Doug in San Diego, her expression carefully blank. She picked up the picture, remembering the scene well. She’d been angry with Doug over a campaign speech he’d made at the town hall meeting, the memory feeling strangely like it belonged to someone else.
“Where did you get this?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“In the dead guy’s pack, which also has more military gear than a SEAL on a mountaintop in Kandahar. And the .45 semiautomatic on the floor.”
The noise she’d heard when she threw the chair, the weapon he’d been reaching for when Bill shot him. She’d known it already, hadn’t she? If her attacker hadn’t dropped it, should would be dead right now. She swallowed against the dryness in her throat. “He came here for me.”
“Yes.”
She stared at nothing, her pulse racing. The man who attacked her was dead, but this could only be the beginning. “What now?”
“We get rid of the body, try to buy us some time. I’ll drive it up to the cliffs and dump it into the ocean. I already got it in the back of my truck.”
No wonder he was red. “You shouldn’t be lifting so much.” Her words sounded silly, the guidelines his cardiologist had given him now seemingly irrelevant. But he didn’t look well—hadn’t looked well in weeks. “Are you having any chest pain?”
“I’m fine.” He turned to leave the room.
“How bad is it?”
He turned around with a sigh. “Let me take care of this guy, then you can worry all you want about me. But for now I’ve got to get this done.” He moved to leave the room but stopped before reaching the doorway, groaning as he grabbed his chest. “Goddamn it.” He moved to sit down, half falling onto the floor.
“Bill!” She quickly put down the sleeping Selena and crossed to him.
“Stupid ticker,” he grunted. “Goddamn it!”
“I’m calling an ambulance.”
He grabbed her shirt. “Wait. We can’t let the first responders in here! They’ll see all that blood.”
“We can’t wait to call them.” She moved for the phone.
