Page 83 of Stolen By the Billionaire
“Okay.”
“I was in the Sayeret Matkal.”
Sarah did not know what those words in the foreign language meant, but Blaze had asked her to make snacks. She found a box of square-type corn cereal in the cabinet, chocolate chips, butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. “I’m sure that’s very impressive.”
“Robinson said he met you only recently.”
Well, that was a whole can of worms. “I think he saved me from some people who were trying to kill me. I think he saved my horse, too.”
He squinted at her. “You think? You don’t know?”
She dumped the chocolate chips and butter into a glass bowl and pushed it into the microwave. “It’s complicated.”
Mr. Savoie nodded. “Everything is.”
Sarah dumped a bunch of cereal squares into a big steel mixing bowl she’d found in a lower cupboard.
Huh, steel mixing bowls, like Blaze was a professional chef or something. Sarah used Bakelite hand-me-downs from her grandmother.
She told Aaron Savoie, “I think they were threatening me. I mean, there were some people, and they said some things that might have been construed as threats.”
“Like?”
“Like, they were going to drag me out into my cornfield and shoot me in the head and then shoot my horse.”
Mr. Savoie nodded and said as if imparting great wisdom, “Those are threats.”
“Well, sure, it seemed like it at the time, but I’m not sure who I should trust. He—um, Blaze Robinson—he broke into my house. Then he sort of threatened to kill me, but his knife was dull and his gun wasn’t even loaded. It was weird.”
Aaron Savoie didn’t speak, and his stare was unnerving as he watched her.
The microwave pinged, and she kept talking while she stirred the melted chocolate into everything else. “And then the other guys came, the ones who wanted to shoot me and Charlie the horse. And then Blaze helped me escape those guys and made sure my horse and cow were okay. And then we drove to Chicago, but all that other stuff from earlier when he broke into my house is still weird, and then he tied me up and—did things.”
Savoie frowned, and his jaw bulged like he was grinding his teeth. “He abused you?”
“No. No, he didn’t even touch me.” Which was the truth, and yet it was not true at all.
Savoie still looked troubled. “If he has abused you, I will take you out of this house and find you someplace safe. I will not allow him to stop me.”
If Sarah had been offered an escape from Blaze Robinson even a few hours before, she would have already been running out the front door, dragging Mr. Savoie behind her.
Instead, she found herself saying, “He’s never hurt me. He just had to tie me up a little because I kept trying to get away while he was rescuing me.”
Mr. Savoie nodded even though his furrowed eyebrows still looked confused. “Sometimes, rescues can be complicated.”
Sarah blurted, “Look, you’ve known him for a while, right?”
His easy nod was more reassuring. “Five years or so. My unit liaised with his SEAL team for US-Israel training exercises. The first time we met was underwater.”
She jumped on this opportunity to confirm or refute Blaze’s story about who he was. “So, he really was in the Navy and a SEAL?”
Savoie glared at her as if she had insulted him. “Yes.”
“And he’s not anymore.”
“He mustered out with an honorable discharge last year. I attended his retirement party at Virginia Beach.”
“But Blaze is in his mid-twenties, right? He’s not old enough to retire.”
