Page 5 of Protecting Josie
“Asshole joined the Army when I decided to go into the Navy. I know he did it just to piss me off,” Blink said with a small huff of laughter. Thinking about Tate was actually painful. He hadn’t seen his twin in way too long, and right then and there, he vowed to fix that the second he got back to California. He had no idea if Tate was deployed at themoment, but he’d do whatever it took to spend a few days with his brother.
“Anyway, my dad…he was awesome. Didn’t even pause when our mother left. He figured shit out. Got babysitters, found a job where he could be at home when we got out of school. Our old man didn’t miss one swim meet or track competition. We could always hear him cheering from the stands. But he also didn’t put up with our shit, either. The one time we snuck out to go to a party in high school, he was waiting up for us when we returned at three in the morning. Knowing we’d disappointed him, that the trust he had in us was broken, was enough for us to never want to do it again.”
Hearing a slight sound, Blink turned his head and saw the woman had lowered herself to the floor. Her legs were still curled into herself, but her head was resting on one of her arms now as she lay on her side, still staring at him.
“He’s still alive, in case you were wondering,” Blink told her. “My dad. Lives in Florida like a king. All the ladies giggle and titter around him as if he literallyisthe King of England or something. But he never got serious with a woman after my mom left. He loved her. And she broke his damn heart. And honestly, I used to never want to get close enough to a woman for her to hurt me like that. But then I met Remi. She and Kevlar…they’re…”
His words faded. Blink wasn’t sure how to explain the relationship his team leader had with his girlfriend.
“Maybe I need to back up,” he said. Then he proceeded to tell the mysterious woman all about Remi and Kevlar. How they’d met when they were stranded in the ocean together. About one of Kevlar’s ex-teammates scheming to murderRemi. He downplayed his role in the fiasco; he still had a lot of guilt that he hadn’t figured out a way to stop the asshole before he’d actually put Remi into that hole in the ground.
“My point,” Blink said with a small chuckle, “is that I want that now. What they have. I used to think what they found was a one-time thing. A fluke. But then Safe had to go and meet Wren.”
He spent the next ten minutes explaining how another teammate of his had foundhissoul mate.
“She’s out there,” Blink said in a barely there whisper. “I don’t know her name, her story, or where she is, but I just hope and pray that one day when we cross paths, I’ll recognize her…and somehow manage to make her see through the stoic, boring shell I show the rest of the world to the man who will cherish her for the rest of our lives.”
It was cheesy as hell. Melodramatic for sure. But Blink wanted what his father had been robbed of. Raising young boys wasn’t easy, and he and Tate hadn’t realized how much of a deterrent they’d been when it came to any woman wanting a relationship with their dad.
A low sound had Blink turning his head and looking at the woman once more. She’d lifted her head and was staring in his direction. As he waited, she made the sound again. It was a cross between a groan and a growl. For some reason, it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
He had no idea what she was trying to communicate. But the fact that shehadmade some sort of sound felt like a monumentally big deal.
“Right, I’m going on and on about nothing,” he told her. “Believe it or not, I’m the quiet guy. The one who doesn’t sayanythingunless something needs to be said. And here I am, blabbering my fool head off. You’re probably over there wondering why the hell you got stuck with a cellmate who won’t shut the hell up.”
She made another sound deep in her throat. And this time Blink saw her actually shake her head.
“No?” he asked, feeling giddy. She was interacting with him! Not simply staring with those huge, wounded blue eyes. He wanted to sit up, throw his fists in the air, and exclaimyes!But he decided that would probably scare the hell out of her. And even if he wasn’t shackled, he didn’t think he could move his arm over his head. It hurt like hell.
“So you like hearing me go on and on about nothing?” he asked.
Blink waited patiently and was rewarded with her chin dipping down a fraction.
He smiled. Huge. Making his split lip throb. “Right. So, what else do you want me to talk about? My fascinating morning routine? How I only use cold water to wash my clothes because my dad once warned me about washing in hot water and how it would shrink my shirts, and I’ve been terrified of all my clothes coming out the size of toddler shit ever since?”
Blink could’ve sworn he saw the woman’s lips twitch, but it was dark enough that he couldn’t be sure. He smiled again himself though, and turned his head so he was staring up at the ceiling once more. “One year, my dad decided he wanted to take Tate and me on vacation. He didn’t have a destination in mind, simply packed some clothes and some snacks andthrew us in the car and off we went. Those two weeks are some of the best memories of my life.”
Blink talked until his voice went hoarse. His throat hurt, he would do just about anything for some water, but he didn’t stop. Talking about his family, stuff that was as far removed from this stinking cell as possible, helped him continue to compartmentalize, turn off his aches and pains.
When he’d finished sharing a memory about the first girl he’d ever kissed, when he was in the fourth grade, Blink turned to look at the woman. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be asleep.
Some men would be annoyed that the woman they were trying to entertain had gone to sleep on them. But hearing her deep breaths in the otherwise quiet cells felt like a victory to Blink. Intellectually, he knew she had to sleep sometime. No human could stay awake forever. And knowing his voice was the last thing she’d heard before nodding off, and not the oppressive silence of their cells or the angry shouts of their captors, made him feel good.
It was a lame word to describe his sense of satisfaction, but his head hurt, as did most of his body, and he couldn’t think of a better one at the moment.
Closing his own eyes, Blink heard the distinct drip of water coming from somewhere, the low murmur of men’s voices on the other side of the door down the short hall leading to their cells, and the long, slow, deep breaths of the woman incarcerated next to him.
CHAPTER THREE
“Good morning!” a man’s harsh voice called out.
Josie woke with a start but didn’t move from her position on the floor. She opened her eyes to see the man, Nate, in the cell next to hers being hauled to his feet by three other men. This was the third day he’d been there, and every day he’d been dragged away and returned hours later, bloody and beaten to hell.
But this time was different. There was a man who spoke English. And instead of dragging Nate away to torture him, someone brought in a chair and plunked it down in the middle of his cell. They forced Nate to sit, and then began beating him right there.
Josie wanted to close her eyes. She didn’t want to watch, but somehow she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from what was happening. The man began to question Nate in English, wanting to know exactly what the US governmentknew about his organization. What other groups the US was targeting.
But Nate didn’t speak, simply took whatever this man and his lackeys dished out.
