Chapter 12 #2
The bed in his room was tiny, but then again, the places they’d slept in the jungle weren’t exactly spacious.
Buck got her under the sheet, then climbed in behind her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against his chest. He tucked her in close and simply held her as she continued to cry.
Rain was distressed, and he got up onto the bed with them, curling into a ball and resting his head on Mandy’s feet.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Shhhh. You’re good,” Buck told her.
“I’m just…I didn’t think it would hurt so badly to say goodbye to the kids. But after all we’ve been through together… I think they thought they did something wrong that made me want to leave.”
“I’m sure they don’t think that,” he reassured her.
“The thing that hurts the most is that I have no idea what Blair will tell them. She was…so cold. I’m not even sure that’s the right word, but it was as if I was sitting across from a total stranger in her office. And I’m guessing being able to adopt is probably out.”
“Why?”
“She didn’t sound receptive at all when I told her I’d be sending in an application.”
“Really? That’s shocking. I mean, isn’t it the goal of every orphanage to get the kids adopted?”
“You’d think so. Nash?”
“Yeah, Rebel?”
“I think…I don’t even like to say this out loud…but what if she had something to do with it?”
“With what?” Buck asked, not sure what she was talking about.
“The kidnapping.”
Buck’s first inclination was to disagree. To reassure Mandy that there was no way the seventy-two-year-old director of the school would do something so awful.
But honestly…he didn’t know the woman. If Mandy thought it could be possible, he’d listen to her reasoning before forming an opinion.
“Why would she put the lives of the children in danger? And one of her staff was killed in the process. It doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. But the woman I talked to today was nothing like the one I’d gotten to know. She was emotionless. Almost…blank. And when I said I was thinking about adopting Bibi? You know, the youngest little girl? There was a look in her eyes that actually scared me. I think she wants Bibi for herself.”
“So she what, arranged for over twenty kids to be kidnapped because she was…jealous?” Buck felt Mandy stiffen against him.
“I’m not disagreeing with you,” he said quickly.
“Just trying to understand, and playing a bit of devil’s advocate.
It’s how my team and I prepare for missions sometimes.
When we try to figure out how things might go. ”
“Sorry. I just…there’s something else. Blair was explaining that it would be safer if I wasn’t there because when the rebels hear that I was actually in the jungle, and managed to escape from them, they wouldn’t be happy. They’d come back for me in retaliation or something.”
“It’s not an impossible scenario,” Buck said rationally.
“Yeah, but she said when. Not if they heard, but when. How would they find out unless they had some connection to the school?”
It was Buck’s turn to stiffen. She wasn’t wrong. That was suspicious.
“What if she arranged for the rebels to come? To take some of the kids? It’s no secret among the staff that the older kids aren’t her favorite.
She seems almost annoyed by them most of the time.
I didn’t think much about it, since she left their care to others and spent all her time with the younger ones.
But the day we were taken? The older and younger classes were combined for a special art lesson.
On a normal day, there only would’ve been eight kids in that classroom—the kids who were ten and up. Six boys and two girls.”
“To what end would she arrange something like this?” Buck asked. He wasn’t feeling warm and fuzzy about anything she was saying. Of course, there was no proof that Blair was involved. But he couldn’t dismiss Mandy’s suspicions.
“To get rid of the older kids? To make more room for younger children?”
“But kids grow up. The girls and boys she loves today will be older in a few years.”
“I realize that, but…God! I don’t know.”
“What about you? Were you supposed to be there that day?”
“Yes. I worked mostly with the older kids.”
“Then what if it wasn’t the kids she was hoping to get rid of…but you?” Buck asked into the quiet of the room.
When Mandy didn’t respond, he went on.
“You said yourself that she was especially fond of Bibi, but the girl had bonded with you. What if she was pissed about that? What if she arranged for the rebels to come to the school, but they were only supposed to take you? Or maybe you and some of the older boys, to make it look legit?”
Mandy shook her head. “They ordered me to leave with the rest of the staff. I refused.”
But she sounded unsure about that…
Buck urged Mandy to roll to her back. He was hovering over her now. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were red. Her hair was once again sticking up all over the place, which he found endearing and adorable.
“Close your eyes. Think back to that day. I know it’s difficult, because it was extremely chaotic. Think about what was said, what the rebels did. This time, keeping in mind your suspicions about Blair…look at the scene from a new perspective.”
She did as he requested, closing her eyes and furrowing her brow as she thought back to that day.
“They burst into the room, scaring everyone half to death. They had rifles and they pointed them at all of us. They ordered the children to one side of the room and the adults to the other. Then started separating the boys from the girls. They…” She hesitated, then gasped slightly.
“One came over to where I was standing with Bibi, kind of in the middle of the adults and kids. Bibi was crying and wouldn’t let go of me.
The man grabbed my arm and shoved us both toward the door.
“Things got crazy and confusing then, Barry tried to bum-rush one of the men and he was shot, freaking out all the kids even more. They all started screaming. The rebels seemed to panic, and they started pushing everyone toward the door, all the kids. The guy still had a hold of my arm. He was pulling me along, but he didn’t have to bother.
I went willingly. I didn’t want to leave the children. ”
“Did they try to take any of the other volunteers?”
“No. They all ran out a side door as soon as the kids started screaming.”
“And was Blair there?”
“No. But that’s not unusual. She didn’t teach on a daily basis. She was probably in her office in the other building.”
Mandy’s eyes opened, and she stared up at him. “If she did arrange the kidnapping, what now? We have no proof. Nothing to prove that I was the target, or that she wanted the older children gone for some reason.”
Buck hated this. Hated that Blair had hurt Mandy’s feelings by dismissing her so abruptly today.
And now she’d caught on to the fact that there was potentially something really bad going on at the orphanage.
That a woman she knew and trusted might have betrayed her in the worst way.
But they didn’t have proof, and Buck wasn’t sure what, if anything, could be done about it.
“Tomorrow, we head home. I’ll talk to my friends, see if we can’t get someone to look into what’s going on down here.”
“I’m scared for the kids.”
Of course she was. Buck wasn’t surprised in the least that Mandy’s concern was for the children she was leaving behind, and not on the possibility she’d been the target of the kidnapping in the first place.
“We’ll figure this out. And if Blair did have anything to do with what happened, we’ll make sure she pays for what she did,” Buck said as diplomatically as he could.
“This sucks,” Mandy said with a sigh.
“Yeah.”
She looked up at him. “I’m better now. Thank you for getting me back here. I don’t remember much about the ride from the school. I was too upset. I can go to my room. I’m sure you’d rather not have me hogging half this tiny little mattress.”
“Actually, I like having you here,” Buck said honestly. “And with everything you just said, I’d feel more comfortable having you near…just in case.”
“You think she’d do something now? Right before we leave?”
“No clue. But I don’t want to take any chances. I doubt anyone would be able to get onto the base to get to you, but we don’t know what kind of connections the woman’s made since she’s been here.”
“I’m sure I’d be fine down the hall,” Mandy said quietly.
“Do you want to leave? Am I crowding you?” Buck asked, suddenly feeling stupid for not realizing that she might not want to be in his bed right now.
“No! I just…I don’t want to be an obligation,” she admitted.
Buck put his hand on her cheek and leaned down until they were almost touching, but not quite.
“You aren’t an obligation. Maybe at first, before I knew you, you were an objective.
A mission. But that stopped from almost the moment I looked into your terrified eyes, and you asked about James.
Seeing how worried you were for that kid, how unselfish, it changed how I thought about what you did, and what I was doing.
Besides, I’ve gotten used to sleeping with you in my arms. I have a feeling it’s going to be hard to get used to sleeping alone again. ”
“I don’t want to leave,” she said.
Buck closed the scant distance between them and kissed her. It was a light and easy kiss. Not the one he wanted to give her. But he didn’t want to pressure her in any way. She was feeling vulnerable right now, and he’d be a dick to take advantage of that.
“Sleep, Rebel. We have a long day of travel tomorrow. It’ll be loud, uncomfortable, and you’ll be more than ready to see the backside of me and Obi-Wan by the time we get to Virginia.”
“I highly doubt that,” she said softly.
“Roll back onto your side, so we can both fit on this mattress,” Buck ordered.
She did so immediately, and curling up against her back felt like coming home to Buck.
Rain let out a huff of annoyance and jumped off the bed onto the floor. He walked over to the pile of blankets Buck had left for him and scrunched them with his front paws until he was satisfied they were exactly how he wanted them.
“Nash?” Mandy said after a long moment.
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad Blair fired me. I want to go home. I don’t feel safe here anymore.”
His heart broke for her. “I’ll get you home, Mandy. As soon as I can.”
“Even though the last month has sucked, and I’ve been more scared than I’ve ever been. I’ve been dirty, hungry, I have more bug bites than I can count…I wouldn’t change anything, because that would mean I wouldn’t have met you.”
It was Buck’s turn to feel emotional now.
“Thank you for coming after me,” she went on. “For not leaving me alone out there. For being an honorable man. For watching over me, taking care of me, protecting me. I’m not usually so helpless, I promise.”
“You weren’t helpless, Mandy. You were out of your element. And you could’ve made that time we spent in the jungle a nightmare. Instead, it felt like kind of an adventure. You make a good partner. We make a good team.”
He wasn’t blowing smoke up her ass either. Things had been dicey out there, but she’d done whatever he’d asked of her without hesitation. Allowing him to use his skills to keep them both safe and get them back across the border.
“And I wouldn’t change anything either, because meeting you has changed my life.”
He meant that. One hundred percent. He had no idea what his future held, but he really, really hoped it included her.
To Buck’s surprise, he heard slight snoring coming from the woman in his arms.
He couldn’t stop the quiet chuckle from escaping his lips. She’d literally fallen asleep in the middle of a conversation.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you never regret meeting me. From here on out, your life is going to be full of nothing but good things. I promise.”
He held her, enjoying being on a comfortable bed, in an air-conditioned room, and not having to worry about someone stumbling across them in the middle of the night and holding them at gunpoint.
Tomorrow was a new day with new challenges. But the sooner he and Mandy were in the air, the better. They were starting another chapter, and he was determined to be at her side every step of the way.