It was time to get back to her life.
***
“Gone?What do you mean she’s gone?”Dobby demanded of the corporal who had arrived to give them orders the next day.
“Mila Watkins left on the flight that took Ethan and Vance to Singapore.”The man shrugged.“It was a last-minute departure change.She only had time to get dressed and go.”
Damn it.He hadn’t told her how he felt.He hadn’t even got her address or telephone number.All he knew was she lived in Sydney.
“I need to find her brother.”
Joker placed a hand on his arm.“We’ve got a new mission.You can find her later.”
He didn’t want to find her later.He wanted to make sure she knew how he felt and discover whether they had a future together.
“Joker’s right,” Radar said.“With the exercise cancelled, we’ve all got to help with the relief effort.”
At least they’d been assigned to a different island from the one he’d escaped from.
“We’ll help you find her afterwards,” Axle promised.
He exhaled, soothed by the promise.He’d told her he wanted her to move to Perth.Surely she’d realise that meant he wanted a relationship with her.
“All right.”Time to get to work.
But as soon as this mission was over, he would find the woman he loved.
***
Three weeks.
It had been three weeks since the tsunami and Mila hadn’t heard from Damien.When her mother returned home, Mila asked her to find out where he was, and she’d said he was still actively deployed.
Which meant he couldn’t even call.
She hated not knowing when she’d hear from him—if at all.But she’d have to get used to it if she wanted a relationship with him.Not knowing where he was would be part and parcel of it.
She stared out of the living room window of her parents’ large mansion in Sydney and down at the water below.The waves crashed on the shore and the sound brought goosebumps to her skin.She was trapped, wanting to flee from the coast and not wanting to leave the safety of the cliff.
The day after she’d landed in Sydney, she’d walked along the shore with her father, but when a large wave had reached her where she walked above the tide line she’d panicked and sprinted home.
It had taken five minutes for her father to catch up with her.
That’s when he’d suggested therapy.
She’d agreed, knowing she needed help.Sleep was difficult to come by without Damien around.The memories weren’t far away and closing her eyes meant the wave washed over her again and again.
The lack of sleep had made it hard to get motivated for anything except Ethan.
She called him every day while he was in hospital, encouraging him, knowing he had no one else to help him.She’d considered flying over to Perth, but it was almost Christmas and her mother would be home this year.Perhaps after Christmas she would.
When her mother arrived home from her deployment, she’d dragged Mila out shopping to replace some things she’d lost in the tsunami; clothes, phone, laptop.She’d transferred her old number to the new phone and her contacts had been backed up in the cloud so she hadn’t lost them.
She just didn’t have the contact details of the one person she wanted.
The only bit of good news was Vance’s father had cut him off after hearing that he’d faked his kidnapping.He’d kicked Vance out of his Bondi townhouse and forced him to get a job.The last Mila had heard he was staying with a friend and was on the dole.
He deserved it.
