Chapter 17
“I need to shake you up, shake some sense into you. The only way I know how. I’m going to move your world like an earthquake. You won’t know what hit you.”
“The hell?”
She was on him now, whispering in his ear. “I’m going to show you how I own you. Show you there’s no escape, make you beg me to stay.” She slipped her hand down his abdomen, under his shirt and lower, slow and careful. She stopped short when she realized he wasn’t wearing underwear.
He was naked and aroused and she’d better not stop now.
“Is sex always the answer? The way we’re always going to solve our problems?
” he said. He couldn’t believe he’d said the words with a straight face.
Must have been the meds still having their effect on him.
The effect her hand was having on him was another matter.
The loving caress of her, the nearness of her warmth, her scent, aroused him, forced his focus away from the darkness.
“I’ve learned all the tricks, haven’t I?” Her teasing words sent a hot shudder of pleasure through him, banishing the worst of the pain, sending his new blood speeding through him.
“Not from me.” He croaked the words. “You were born tricky.”
“You were born mean, meant for someone badass to tame.”
“Someone like you?”
“Not someone like me. Me. I’m yours. You belong to me. You can’t escape it. Even if you never saw me again, even if you ran to the other end of the earth to escape me, you couldn’t. Because you’d always know I was the one. That I was part of you.”
He listened. Her words reverberated through him, pinging off the walls of his brain, familiar because they were all words he’d thought before, felt before.
Hell, he’d probably said the same thing to her at another point in time.
Maybe the last time doubt had crept into her wounds, through cracks of pain, after the torture of impending loss, loss too close by, left her vulnerable. The way he felt now.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said, an exhausted smile coming from his soul.
“What question?”
“Is sex always going to be your solution to our problems? I only ask because if it is, then I’m all-in on this, I’m right there with you.”
She laughed and buried her face in his neck.”
“Seriously. I might even pick a fight now and then if things got slow.”
She lifted her head and whispered, “Shut up, Dane.”
“Make me, girlie.”
The pop of light in her eyes at the dare would have made him laugh if his heart wasn’t too busy getting all excited, sending a fresh batch of that new blood to his most excitable parts.
She caressed his face, brushing the matted hair aside, felt his forehead like she was checking for a fever. With her voice hushed as if afraid to ask, afraid of his answer, she asked, “What happened to you, Dane?”
He pressed his head back on the pillow and wondered. “I don’t know. Your mother. She’s worried, angry with me. I’m . . . heavily medicated . . .” He thought the next word but hesitated to say it. Shana said it for him.
“Vulnerable. In pain.”
He took a deep breath and cursed under his breath.
“I need to get out of this damn place, get off these meds.”
“You’ve just had massive stitches and a blood infusion. I don’t think”
“Don’t underestimate the power of Dane the Demon’s will, girlie.”
*****
After much arguing with the doctor, the embassy and Shana’s mother, Dane arranged to leave the hospital the next morning to stay at the embassy with Shana, leaving Tillie to return to her home alone.
“Serves her right,” Shana said.
“Don’t be too hard on her. She loves you,” Dane said. He didn’t blame her.
“Then she’d better start loving you.”
Billy said, “She’ll be right.” Billy had met them with whatever belongings they’d left at the Bondi Beach AirBNB. Joe waited at the , leaning against the embassy limo, chatting with the driver.
Dane stood and the nurse tried to give him crutches. He pushed them away.
“Dane, you can’t walk on that leg—not yet.”
“We have a meeting at Liverpool Street in two hours with every damn police and political official and their damn sisters and mothers and I’m not walking in there on crutches.”
The nurse said, “I have a cane. You’ll need something when you walk, but you must keep the leg up as often as possible and stay off your feet.” Dane nodded at her and took the cane.
When he stepped forward he mostly leaned on Shana. If he did that he could stand the excruciating pain that wrenched his leg with each step.
“You look white as a sheet,” Shana whispered to him as they made it to the back door of the limo.
“Put your leg up. Set it across my lap,” she said when they got inside.
“Anything for you, girlie.” He closed his eyes, not to mask the pain, but to give a silent prayer of thanks to whatever god was responsible for letting him have this woman, for consigning her to a life with him.
He swore to himself he’d do whatever he could to make her happy for the rest of his life.
He didn’t want to think what would happen to her when he was gone, he only knew with certainty that she’d outlive him.
*****
The man from the embassy who’d ridden with him in the ambulance escorted them to the police station at Liverpool Street for their meeting. It turned out his name was John Smith, but Dane figured he was CIA and it was an alias. No one was named John Smith for real anymore.
They were the last to arrive at the posh top floor office of the NSW police force and it was a full house.
The governor was there via satellite video—in the middle of the night for him—Chief Kevin Ivory, Wick from ACLEI and Pelham from ACIC, the mayor, Shana’s attorney courtesy of her ex, and the attorneys for Grisk and Peterson and the US Ambassador, in person.
The main offenders, Grisk and Peterson, were absent, being held without bail in the cells below.
The commissioner, a weighty man reminiscent of Winston Churchill cartoons in Dane’s mind, was running the meeting. Commissioner Armfield waited for Dane and Shana to take their seats at the table to clear his throat.
“The purpose of this meeting is to sort out the best way to handle the charges and see justice done in this highly sensitive and important matter of the police pension fraud case.” He paused and looked around as if to allow an argument. No one did.
“As we all know, there is an international element to this case which must be addressed.”
“If I may,” the ambassador said, standing without waiting for permission to speak.
“I’ve seen the video, read the statements, and have concluded that there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that US citizens Dane Blaise and Joseph Allaro, along with their Australian cohorts, Shana and William George, did well to assist your fine police force and the special detail to finally resolve this terrible case of fraud and corruption that robbed the legitimate members of the brotherhood of their pensions.
“In so doing, I think it fair to honor the requests by their attorney that no charges be brought.”
“I’d like my client’s passport reinstated,” Shana’s attorney spoke up, half standing.
A melee of requests ensued, mostly calling for Dane’s head, with the mayor’s voice the loudest and longest. “We can’t have some hotshot renegade coming in and mucking up our city’s law enforcement and let him get away with it.”
The commissioner addressed the mayor. “While I agree with you that Mr. Blaise’s methods were unorthodox and dangerous—mostly to himself—in the end, his behavior was understandable and his endeavor fruitful.
I would not recommend charges, however I would recommend that he be banned from returning to the country for the foreseeable future. ”
Since he had no attorney to speak for him, the governor spoke up and agreed on his behalf. Then Dane stood, in spite of the sharp stab followed by a thudding throbbing pain in his leg.
“I have no problem with that. As long as Shana is free to come and go.”
Dane had his fingers mentally crossed. Shana tensed in her seat next to him, but he calmed her with a squeeze to her thigh. He had no intention of keeping such a ridiculous promise. Peter likely knew this.
“Is it agreed, then?”
There were murmurs around the room.
“That would be my recommendation,” Kevin said. His voice commanded respect. His bosses nodded. “As long as Ms. George agrees to return to testify.”
“That’s settled. We’ll have the agreement drawn up immediately. Now, onto the issue of the missing money.” The commissioner looked at the attorneys for Grisk and Peterson. Then paused.
“You may leave this discussion. I believe it is essential to keep the sensitive nature as closely guarded as possible.” He waved an arm indicating Dane, Shana, Joe, John Smith, the and the ambassador, as well as the governor’s satellite link.
As much as Dane was curious to know whether the money had been found and what the charges would end up being, he was damn glad to get out of that room so he could put his leg up.
After a healthy round of handshaking, ending with a dire warning by the mayor that if Dane ever showed his face again he’d be arrested on sight, the governor signed off and they all left Liverpool Street.
*****
Although the US Embassy attaché, John Smith, offered to drive them to the airport later that afternoon, they declined.
Billy drove Dane, Shana, and Joe to the airport, albeit with a police escort.
The mayor wanted assurance that Dane was getting out of town although it was obvious it was a face-saving gesture and lacked the je ne sais quoi of throwing him out a window on his rear, it was meant to be the equivalent.
Dane held back from daring Billy to lose the police escort now that he had his speedster car back.
The only worry left on Dane’s mind was Tillie. It didn’t feel right to Dane that Tillie wasn’t there.
“You sure you don’t want to stop in at your mother’s to say goodbye?” he asked Shana one last time.
“No. Don’t ask again.”
“It’s not healthy to leave at odds with your mother—”
“Don’t worry about a fight between these two,” Billy said. “All they ever did was fight growing up. When they weren’t hugging and weeping and making up.”
“Shut up, William.”
“You’re tense,” Dane whispered to her. “This is different. I don’t like being in the middle.”
“You’re not in the middle of me and my mum.” She caught his face in her hand and had a serious glint in her eye. “It’s my mum who tried getting in the middle of us. And I’ll not have it.” She was quiet, but adamant. He felt like Scarlett O’Hara, deciding to put the problem away for another day.
They all say goodbye to Billy and Joe headed to a bar because he was on a later flight and hated flying.
“Don’t worry about me. I always plan extra time at the airport. Gives me plenty of time to get myself sedated before taking off.”
“Don’t be a stranger,” Shana said as she hugged him.
If Dane’s eyes weren’t playing tricks, he would swear he saw a slight blush in Joe’s cheeks.