Her Vigilant Seal (20 page)

“Yep. I’ve decided to wear you down.”

“I don’t like that method.” Sophia bit his chin sharply. “The man I love shouldn’t sell himself that cheaply. He should expect his woman to throw rose petals at his feet because he’s the best man in the world, and she loves him soul deep.” Sophia stared into eyes bluer than the Pacific Ocean and saw all of her hopes and dreams coming true.

****

Everything stilled. He was going to remember this moment for the rest of his life. He captured her lips. She tasted different, softer, more open, as if she was finally letting him in. He cherished her gift. He continued to explore the texture of her mouth, lost in the feel of her molding to his body. He could stay like this forever, until he couldn’t. He had to get her to his bedroom or explode in the living room. Mason stroked her back up and down, loving how she arched into his touch, and he finally eased her away. She whimpered.

“We’re going down the hall.”

“Oh.” She looked at him with glazed eyes. “The bedroom’s good.”

He put one arm around her back and one under her knees.

“I love it when you carry me,” she whispered. He’d wondered. It was something that had made him feel satisfied, but she’d seemed reluctant yet somewhat content. He hadn’t been sure. Again, he was glad he had followed his instincts. He soon had her lying on his bed. He looked at her and admired her honey gold hair spilled out against his navy blue comforter. It looked gold, and silver, and red with the afternoon sun streaming in through the window.

Mason ached. He needed her so badly. He always did. All he had to do was think of Sophia Anderson and his body went into overdrive, but today was different. Today was the start of something.

Now she finally admitted to loving him, they were going to have a future together. Mason had known for a while now Sophia was the one. He wanted to marry this woman, build a life with her, grow old with her, and when the day came, he wanted to die in her arms. Knowing that, he intended to have this joining be a memorable foundation that would start their lives together.

****

Hours later Mason’s body was still thrumming with the satisfaction of having loved Sophia.

“I’m going to try this leaning thing. Do you mind if I work my way up to it?”

Mason felt some of the knots in his shoulders loosen. He thought he was going to have to get the crowbar out of his trunk to get her to talk.

“Do you think you can let me know what the problem is tonight?” Mason asked hopefully. He looked over at Sophia as they sipped their milkshakes. They were at the beach, having just grabbed their drinks at the shack near the ocean. It turned out they both loved the place. Sophia was staring off into the ocean and he was mostly staring at her. She was absolutely gorgeous with the sunset glinting off her skin. But, he also knew underneath the pink tint she was pale from lack of sleep.

“Yes,” she said as she continued to look out over the water. Mason’s shoulders relaxed even more.

The first couple of days after Margie left to help her daughter-in-law had been rough. Once again Sophia did it all. He’d never been so thankful to see such a skank as Brenda show up. The woman had made three heavy handed passes at him, even though it was obvious he and Sophia were a couple. He hated women like Brenda. What’s more, she did the least amount of work possible, and left all the heavy lifting to Sophia. Yep, Brenda was a real winner but at least she took some of the stress off of his girl.

Still the extra burden at the diner didn’t explain everything. He knew she was still having nightmares when they weren’t sleeping together. He was going to talk to her about seeing a counselor again. Dammit, it seemed like he was busy pushing her on a lot of different fronts, but she didn’t have many people who were there for her. Margie was so busy with her own family, and the DeLucas weren’t around all that much. Basically Sophia was on her own, and Mason knew it brought out his protective instincts.

She turned to him as she sucked down the last of her milkshake and gave him a woeful glance.

“What?” He gave her an unbelieving look.

“Mine’s empty.”

“It’s not my fault you have no self-control.” He suppressed a grin.

“I’m still thirsty.” Her expression went from woeful to pitiful.

“Did this ever work?”

“It does every time Billy does it to me.” She gave him the cutest grin ever.

“Come here.” She looked at him quizzically. He reached over and arranged for her to be sitting between his spread legs, and resting against his chest.

“This is nice.”

He put the straw against her lips and she took a small sip. He brought it back to his mouth, and could swear he could taste Sophia along with the chocolate, and it made the treat all the better. They continued in silence, watching the setting sun and enjoying the rest of the drink. When it was dark he had a sleeping Sophia in his arms. He hated to wake her but it was chilly.

“Come on, honey, time to go home.”

“I love waking up in your arms.”

Now didn’t that make him feel like a million dollars? They made their way up the beach to his parked truck. Her phone rang on the way. She tensed up and pulled it out of her hoodie to look at the display. Then she pressed ignore.

“That’s part of what we have to talk about, but that’s the last part, okay?”

“Sure honey, just tell me things at your own pace.”

He opened the passenger door for her, and once again she seemed surprised even though he’d done it every time they got into his truck.

They talked about his house remodel, Pete, Margie, and her daughter-in-law, but when he asked how she was feeling about the upcoming court case she clammed up.

“Have you talked to the D.A. at all, honey? I thought Mrs. Porter said she would stay in touch.”

“Yeah, she called me. She said they set a court date for the end of July.” Sophia sounded like she was chewing on glass. He grabbed her hand. It was a tightly clenched fist. He quickly looked over at her. He could see the outline of her face against the passenger window and her jaw was rigid.

“She brought me in for a debriefing or something while you were gone. It was horrible. She pretended she was their lawyer. She made it sound like I was a prostitute who liked it rough and that I actually agreed to have sex with them for money. Otherwise why was I there so late at night?”

Mason looked ahead for the next exit and took it.

Within five minutes he had them parked in a Denny’s parking lot. He lifted up the console and slid over, and then arranged for her to be straddling his lap. She gripped his shirt. She didn't cry. She made no noise at all. She just rested her head against his chest in defeat.

“You know Mrs. Porter was doing that to practice with you.”

“Sure, I’ve watched enough TV. But I also know at the end of July I’m going to have to be on the witness stand and somebody is going to say those ugly things about me in front of twelve jurors. What’s more, those same men and women are going to see pictures of me.”

Huge shudders went through her body. Then he understood. The bruising on her torso, and on her breasts.

“Ah fuck.” He rocked her back and forth but still she didn’t shed a tear. It was as if the pain went too deep for mere tears. “It’s going to be all right, I promise you. There is no way anyone will believe what those bastards are saying.”

“I keep spinning around in circles. I can’t seem to stop my mind just chewing and chewing on this. Sometimes I want to scream that I was the one who was abused, and I shouldn’t have to be put through this,” her voice was a whisper into his sweatshirt. Then her head came up and she looked him in the eye.

“Then there are other times I want to grind them into little pieces of dust. I want to get up there and have them do their worst. Show those pictures so they can see them for the animals they are. It doesn’t matter if I was a prostitute, they assaulted me. They were going to rape me. The one man…” She stopped.

“What honey, tell me.”

She pushed her face into his chest and shook her head.

“If you won’t tell me then tell a professional. These dreams you’ve been having are debilitating. You’re not getting nearly enough sleep. I worry about you so much.”

“I don’t want to see anyone,” her tone vehement.

“Then can you tell me?”

She was quiet for so long he thought she would never answer. He held her and watched as cars came in and left the restaurant parking lot.

“If you hadn’t come the one man would have killed me after he raped me. I know it…” her voice trailed off.

“I believe you, honey.”

“You do?”

“I do. You’ve got to remember what I do for a living. I’ve looked into the eyes of evil before. I know what it’s like to stare at someone who wants you dead.”

She gripped the front of his shirt, her nails biting into his chest.

“That’s it, that’s it exactly. He wanted me dead. It excited him. That’s what got him off—the idea of killing me. The other man wanted to violate me, but the first man, he wanted to kill me.” She started to cry. Mason could only pray now she had said the words, got them out in the open, her nightmares would begin to dissipate. He gathered her close and murmured words he prayed would bring her comfort. All the while his mind was whirling with the fact this bastard was currently out on bail.

“Oh, God I’m…”

He tilted up her chin she was forced to meet his eyes.

“If the next word out of your mouth is going to be sorry, I’m going to be pissed. You have nothing to be sorry about. You’re not being needy. This would bring anyone to their knees. But even if you were being clingy, I would love it because I
love
you.”

“I’m holding you to that because I’m not done.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“I’ve been getting these calls, they were just hang ups, and then yesterday they talked to me.”

“Jesus, why didn’t you tell me before this?” Mason winced at the tone of his voice, especially when Sophia drew back.

“Honey, I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re right. I should have told you. I didn’t think about it. It was a nuisance, and then when it really started to escalate you were gone,” she said, her voice trembling. Mason pulled her back into his arms.

“Shhh, the important thing is you told me now. How many calls do you think you’ve gotten? Did it start after the D.A. gave your contact information to the asshole’s attorney?”

“I don’t think it’s them, it started after I had a run in with Brenda’s boyfriend.”

“What kind of run in?”

“He and Brenda were having some problems. He made a couple of pretty strong passes.” How had he missed this?

“How long has that been going on?”

“It started almost exactly the day you started coming to the diner. It was weird.” Mason snorted.

“Honey, it’s not weird. He probably always had a thing for you, but it wasn’t until some other man was showing some interest that he knew he needed to make his move. You should have told me immediately. What do you mean by a strong pass?” Sophia blew out a deep breath.

“One time he trapped me near the bathroom and kissed me, another time he caught me outside and grabbed my breast. I kneed him in the balls. Since then he’s kept his hands to himself.”

“And you worry about being clingy. It just boggles the mind.” Mason pulled out his phone and pressed his speed dial for Clint, who answered on the second ring.

“Can you come over to my house? It’s important.” Sophia looked at him like he had grown a second head. “Thanks, man.”

He kissed the tip of Sophia’s nose. “Come on, let’s get you buckled we’ve got to get home.”

****

Clint was waiting for them on the porch when they pulled up. He followed them into the house and Mason pulled out a beer for him. Clint set a small computer tablet on the kitchen island.

“Sophia, can you give him your phone.” Sophia rifled through her purse. The whole thing seemed bizarre but she trusted Mason. Both men looked serious.

“So what’s the deal?” Clint asked Mason.

“She’s been getting a lot of hang-ups.”

“Shit.”

“Here.” She handed her phone to Mason.

“Honey, I need you to unlock it first.” Damn, of course he did. She took it back and entered her password. She couldn’t see what he was doing but she assumed from his grim expression he was scrolling through her recent calls.

“There have been fifteen times where I actually answered and someone hung up. Then there are the times when I just let it ring.”

“Sophia, somebody has been calling you at least three times a day. Sometimes at two o’clock or four o’clock in the morning.” He handed back her phone and turned to his computer.

“I know, that’s why I told Mason.” She saw both men’s jaws clench. The only saving grace was Drake wasn’t there.

“Sophia, what’s your number?”

She gave it to him.

“Any suspects?” he asked Mason.

“All of San Diego.”

“Doesn’t he need my phone?”

“Nope, I just needed your phone number.” Clint’s fingers started flying over the keyboard.

“What are you going to do?” Sophia asked. Clint didn’t answer.

“What would you like to drink?” Mason asked her. “Clint won’t answer, he won’t even talk for a while. He’s in the zone.”

Sophia peered at the tablet and saw a bunch of code.

“Are you sure he’ll be able to help.”

“Oh, he’ll find out who’s been calling you.”

“I don’t understand. How could he possibly do that?”

“That’s what we do. We figure shit out. If one of us can’t do it, trust me, the other one knows how to get it done.”

Sophia pulled flour and sugar out of the pantry and then got the butter out of the fridge.