Chapter 15 #3
Monica racked her brain trying to remember what it said, but with no luck. She’d been too fixated on the picture. “What did it say?”
Stuart recited the note as easily as if it was something he’d read every day, emphasizing the important words.
“I’d like you to meat my latest work of art. Pictures are better in the raw, I’m no bull in a china shop. I was taught by the best. They said I was insane…does this look like the work of an insane man?”
“Oh my God,” Monica said.
“Yeah, he practically painted us a picture and no one caught on,” Stuart said in disgust. “Spelling out m-e-a-t instead of m-e-e-t wasn’t a mistake; Meat was Baker’s nickname when he was on the teams. And the reference to Baker’s last name, Rawlins, and Beyer’s own nickname, weren’t coincidences either.
There are other messages Huttner received over the years that are similar in nature. ”
“So what now?” Monica asked, more shaken up than she wanted to admit.
“We’re on this,” Stuart said firmly. “And you can bet Baker is not a happy man right about now. Knowing someone he trusted and worked with has turned out to be downright psychotic isn’t settling well.
He knew the man needed help all those years ago, but this…
” Stuart shook his head. “It’s not good. ”
Monica wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to her next question, but she asked it anyway. “Am I in danger? You know, because I saw him?”
“We don’t think so,” Stuart told her, holding out his hand.
Monica put hers in it without thought. She no longer worried about him holding her bad hand. He’d never indicated in any way that he was repulsed by it, and she’d gotten used to his touch.
“Bull seems more interested in making sure the Navy looks bad, and that the leaders understand he’s only doing what he was taught as a SEAL.”
“You’ve been taught to rape and murder women?” Monica blurted before she could think better of it.
“Hell no. But we do know how to get in and out of countries without being detected. And we do kill, but only those who are a threat to the security of our country. Baker was right all those years ago. Bull is definitely unstable.”
“So why does he assume he won’t come after me?” Monica asked.
“Because it’s Baker he’s most pissed at. After reading all the notes and letters, it’s obvious his anger is focused on his former team leader. He blames him for getting kicked out of the Navy, and everything he’s said puts the target directly on Baker’s head.”
“That’s crazy,” Monica said softly.
“Yeah. Huttner wanted to put Baker in protective custody.”
Monica couldn’t help it. She laughed.
“Right? That’s about what Baker thought of that plan too. He’s perfectly willing to use himself as bait if it means stopping Bull.”
Monica sobered. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not. But I trust Baker.”
“He’s not on your team,” Monica pointed out.
“No, he’s not. But he’s a SEAL. I don’t care if he’s been retired for a decade or more.
He’s also assisted my team on more than one occasion.
He’s got more integrity in his little finger than Bull has in his entire body.
Now that we know for sure it’s Bull who you saw, and who’s behind some of the mayhem in countries that don’t need any more unrest, and who’s been escalating by killing and raping women in those countries, he’ll be found.
If he dares come looking for Baker? It’ll be the last thing he ever does. ”
Monica shivered. She didn’t like this situation. Not at all. But she was relieved that she didn’t seem to be the target of this Bull guy’s wrath. Then something else occurred to her. “Is Jody safe?”
“Who?”
“The woman Baker likes.”
“Oh. I’m sure she is. They aren’t together, but there’s no way Baker would let anyone touch a hair on her head. You’ve seen how protective he is of her.”
She had, but if Bull really wanted revenge, going after the woman his nemesis was interested in would be a good way of doing it. She didn’t voice her opinion. She wasn’t the expert in this situation. Baker was. And Stuart. And his team and their superiors.
Stuart mumbled something under his breath that Monica didn’t catch. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Nothing. I was just kicking myself in the ass for worrying you,” Stuart said.
Monica squeezed his hand. “Don’t. If you had blown off my questions and said everything’s fine, I would’ve known you were lying. And that isn’t exactly the way to get me to trust you.”
She didn’t mean to say that, but now that she had, she couldn’t regret it.
“You’re right. But, Mo, there will be times I can’t tell you what’s going on with me and work.”
“I know. And honestly, I don’t want to know everything. I know there’s ugliness in the world. I experienced it firsthand. And I think if I knew about some of the things you do while on missions, it would eat at me.”
It was Stuart’s turn to squeeze her hand.
“But that doesn’t mean that I want you to put a wall between us when it comes to your job,” she said, knowing she was being contradictory, but struggling to explain herself.
“I get it,” he said.
Of course he did.
“I promise to talk to you about what I can…things that won’t make you uncomfortable. There are lots of good things that we see when we’re deployed.”
“Like?”
“Like the babies we’ve helped bring into the world. Like the stray dogs we’ve helped get into rescue groups. Like the citizens who thank us for what we’re doing. Like the children we meet.”
Monica smiled at that. “You have time to meet kids?”
“Sometimes, yeah. And play with them too. Soccer mostly. They kick our asses,” Stuart said with a smile.
Monica could totally picture Stuart, Mustang, Midas, and the others out on a street kicking a ball around with the local children in their downtime.
“I’m proud of you,” she said a little shyly. “Thank you for your service, Stuart.”
“Those words usually don’t mean much to me,” he admitted. “But coming from you, they mean the world.” He lifted their clasped hands and kissed the back of hers.
Monica sighed and closed her eyes as he continued to drive them home.
Home.
She wasn’t sure when she’d begun to think of his house as home, but she did. And even scarier still, she wasn’t freaked out about it.
She’d lived in huge mansions overseas, expensive homes provided to ambassadors by the government, but none had ever come close to being a home more than the small two-bedroom house she was living in with Stuart.
How the man sitting next to her had come to mean so much, Monica had no idea. One second he was the military man she was extremely wary of, and the next, he was the man she couldn’t bear to leave.
It was confusing…but for once in her life, Monica decided to just roll with the punches. Maybe, just maybe, she’d get a break and things from here on out would be nice and boring.