Dutch, page 3
3
It was after midnight when they landed at Shaw, which meant since the only access to the island was by boat, they wouldn’t head over until morning.
“We’ll stay somewhere in the historic district tonight so we can leave first thing in the morning,” Dutch told Onyx.
“Sounds good.”
“Got any ideas where?”
“For you?”
Dutch shook his head. “For all of us.”
Onyx looked away. “I made other arrangements.”
Dutch smiled. “Good for you, bro.” He hated that expression, but between him and Onyx, it seemed to work.
“I’ve heard good things about the Yellow Jasmine.”
“I’ll check it out.”
“They’re great about respecting peoples’ privacy.”
Dutch raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know from personal experience. I just know that celebrities stay there sometimes.”
“If they’re good about privacy, how do you know about the celebrities who stay there?”
“I read it somewhere.”
Dutch looked online and settled on another place. The Meeting House Inn was highly rated, right near the water, and one of the most romantic places to stay in all of South Carolina. Only trouble was, they only had one room left.
He found Malin coming out of the ladies’ room followed by Sofia.
“We’ll stay in town for the night,” he told her and then turned to Sofia. “It was nice to meet you, and thanks for the amazing grub.”
“You can take it with you.”
“Nah. I appreciate it, but…”
“I can make more. You can’t.”
“Twisted my arm, then.”
“I’ll go get it together,” Sofia said before walking back toward the break room.
“I take it she’s not staying at the same place we are.”
“No, but I can’t say where she is staying. Onyx was vague about their plans.”
“So you think they’re together?”
“Don’t you?”
Malin grinned. “Oh, yeah.”
* * *
Dutch decided not to tell Malin about the shared room until they arrived at the inn. Given how late it was, finding another place would be near impossible. As exhausted as they both were at this point from traveling, he hoped she’d just accept it without making too much of a fuss.
“I’ll take care of getting us checked in,” he said, motioning for her to take a seat by the fireplace in the inn’s main room.
Dutch didn’t have a hell of a lot of personal items with him, but Malin didn’t have any. Tomorrow, before they left for the island, they should do some shopping.
While he waited for the woman to finish checking them in, he sent a text to Onyx. Need some gear. Are you and the co-pilot around tomorrow?
Dutch continued looking at his phone when he saw the three dots appear, indicating Onyx was responding.
Already taken care of. The house is well-stocked.
I meant clothes and shit, Dutch answered.
So did I.
If someone had thought of clothes—and shit—they must’ve thought of food too.
He signed the piece of paper the woman behind the desk set in front of him.
“How many keys would you like?”
Dutch looked over his shoulder to where Malin sat. It didn’t appear she was listening, but he held up one finger rather than answering.
“Enjoy your stay, Mr. Peabody,” said the woman as he was walking away. “You too, Mrs. Peabody.” Dutch saw the woman wave at Malin, who stood and glared at him.
“You can’t be serious,” she said once they were in the elevator. “You only got one room?”
“It was all they had.”
“Dutch—”
He held up his hand. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”
She nodded and folded her arms in front of her.
When the elevator opened on their floor, they walked down the corridor until they found their room. Dutch put the card in the reader and opened the door, motioning for Malin to go ahead of him.
“The couch, huh?”
Dutch walked in behind her and saw that there was one bed and a single nightstand in the small room. There was hardly enough space for him to sleep on the floor, not that he’d make that offer.
“We’re adults. We can handle sleeping in the same bed for one night.”
“Right,” she answered, turning her back to him.
Dutch walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, look at me.”
Malin shook her head.
“Please?”
She turned around slowly.
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. What I meant was, I’ll respect your space, Malin, even though I’m sleeping next to you.”
“Gee, thanks.” She turned away again.
Dutch pulled his hand back and ran it through his hair. “I’m trying to do the right thing. Hell, I’m trying to say the right thing, and somehow, I’m failing miserably.”
Malin sat on the edge of the bed. “What’s really going on, Dutch? Tell me the truth. Why are we here? Who assigned me to you?”
He wanted to ask one of those questions of her. If he knew what was “really going on,” what she was mixed up in, he could help protect her a lot better than he could acting on blind instinct alone.
“I already told you that I was doing this on my own.”
“Why?”
Dutch paced the short expanse of their room. “I know you’re in over your head.”
Her shoulders went up, but before she could respond, he sat on the bed, next to her.
“Just like I was in over my head when you found me in Germany. Just like Mantis was in over his head when he decided to make a deal with Ghafor to exchange his life for mine. Just like Alegria was, trying to do the same thing. And Gunner with Zary, and even Doc with Merrigan. Every op, every mission, there are times we’re in over our heads and we need our teammates to help us out.”
She didn’t say anything, but he saw the tension leave her shoulders.
“Who’s your teammate on this, Malin? Who has your back? I’m guessing it’s not Sumner Copeland.”
She shook her head.
“Who, then?” He waited, but she didn’t respond. “You wanna know why I’m here. There’s your answer. I’m the one who’s got your back. You may not be ready to tell me what you’re involved in, but I’m here anyway.”
She took a deep breath and turned her head away. Dutch knew two things. First, she had tears in her eyes, and second, she wouldn’t want anyone to see them, especially him.
“You’re in danger, and I’m taking you somewhere safe, somewhere where you can hit the reset button, debrief, fill the tank, whatever you wanna call it.”
“Why?” she asked again.
“I just told you why.”
“Who’s funding this?”
Dutch stood and started pacing. “What difference does it make?”
“Because whoever is funding it, wants something.”
She was right. There were a lot of things “somebody” wanted. He wanted to keep her safe. He also wanted to know what her mission had really been, who was involved, and how she’d gotten in so deep that Sergei Orlov showed up in Islamabad.
Why was K19 funding it? Because he’d asked them to. If they had turned him down, he would’ve done it all on his own. He may still offer, depending on how long this went on and how deep in trouble she was.
The bottom line was K19 had agreed to pony up the money because they wanted to know what her mission had been too, and they probably wanted in on whatever it was. Not for the money, though. It was more about their collective commitment to ridding the world of as many of the bad guys and as much of the evil as they could.
The partners, both junior and senior, had all been fortunate enough to earn plenty of money while they were at it. It made living their everyday lives easier, particularly when the bad guys came knocking on their front doors, necessitating the elaborate security systems they had to have installed in their homes. Or to cover the cost of jet fuel when one of them or someone they cared about needed to be rescued, removed from danger, or taken off the grid.
“What do you want, Dutch?”
“You’re gonna hate me if I tell you.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“I want another chance with you.”
“You’re doing all this because you want to fuck me again? Give me a break.”
Dutch flinched. “There are a lot of reasons why I’m doing this, Malin. One of them is because I know I hurt you, and I sure as hell wish I hadn’t.”
She stood and stormed over to the door, but he beat her to it. With his back up against it, he didn’t stop her when her hand came up to slap his face. He didn’t stop her the second time either. On her third attempt, he grabbed both of her wrists. “Enough,” he whispered, pulling her close to him and letting her cry on his chest.
—:—
It wasn’t as though she hadn’t cried over Dutch Miller before, but not like this. Not the gut-wrenching sobs she couldn’t have stopped no matter how hard she tried—so she didn’t bother trying at all. Instead, she clung to the very man that caused her so much pain to begin with. She let him stroke her hair and hold her close to him.
The only thing she didn’t do, that she could never do, was let him creep back into her heart. No one could live through a second annihilation like the first one he put her through.
Dutch put his arm behind her knees and lifted her, carrying her over to the bed. After he set her on it, he lay down next to her and scooted her until her head rested on his chest.
He didn’t speak. It was as though he knew that if he did, he’d break the spell that allowed her to let out all the pain, anguish, anxiety, and fear her body had kept pent up inside for the past several months.
With one hand, he massaged her scalp while the other rested on the small of her back.
—:—
At some point, they both fell asleep, but for Dutch, it wasn’t soundly. Every time Malin moved even a fraction of an inch, he woke up. If she tried to turn in her sleep, he’d tighten his grip, forcing her to stay nestled against him. It was as though by having her there, all the pain he’d caused her could flow from her body into his. He’d carry all of it for her, forever, because he’d been the one to dump it on her in the first place.
Now, here, he could take it all back, and at the end of their time together in South Carolina, she could choose to leave or stay, but whichever choice she made, he wanted her to do it pain-free.
* * *
When Dutch opened his eyes and saw the light of dawn, he knew he should wake Malin so they could leave for the island before the historic downtown filled with its daily allotment of tourists. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, though. Who knew how long it might be before she let him hold her in his arms like this again? It would be longer still before she shared a bed with him again, if ever.
Instead, he breathed in the perfect scent of her. Only now did he realize how much he’d missed it. He ran his fingers over the curve of her neck, down her arm, and then rested his hand on her hip. He resisted the impulse to lean down and touch his lips to hers, knowing that if that was how he woke her, she wouldn’t like it.
“Hi,” he said when she opened her eyes and looked into his.
“What time is it?” she asked, attempting to roll away.
“I don’t know,” he answered, tightening his grip.
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected her to do, but it wasn’t to cup his cheek with her palm.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“For?”
“Lots of things.”
“Yeah? I’d be open to hearing all of them.”
He added the soft, sweet smile she gave him to the list of things he hadn’t realized he’d missed about her.
“Letting me cry, and not saying anything about it.”
Dutch nodded.
“Not making a move on me even though we’re in bed next to each other.”
“That wasn’t easy.” He tried to make it sound like a joke, but it didn’t, and it wasn’t.
“For bringing me here.”
That wasn’t something he would’ve expected her to appreciate, but he was relieved she did. Would she still thank him when she realized he had no intention of letting her leave once they got to the island? At least not until he knew every last detail about her mission.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“Pretty much always.”
“I remember that about you.”
“Not easy to forget.”
“Where’s the food Sofia made?”
Dutch hit his forehead with his fist. “I left it in the back of the car.”
“Oh.”
“How much do you think it would cost if I paid her to make it all again?”
“Would it matter?”
“What? The cost?”
She nodded.
“You’re right. I’d pay whatever price she demanded.”
“Text Onyx.”
“Good thinking, baby.”
He felt her tense, and wanted to hit himself in the head a second time. He’d promised not to call her that, and he just had.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I know you don’t like that.”
She nodded but didn’t speak.
There were so many other things he wanted to say, but each one would make her tenser than she already was.
“Dutch?”
“Yeah…Malin?” God, he’d almost called her “baby” again.
“I need to use the restroom.”
He smiled and loosened his hold. As soon as she left the bed, he missed her body next to his.
* * *
“Would you like to explore Charleston today?” he asked when she came back and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Can we? I mean do we have time?”
“We aren’t on any kind of schedule. It’s completely up to you.”
“I’ve never been here before.”
Dutch motioned toward the window. “It’s a beautiful day to take a walk along the battery, maybe head downtown to the market.”
“That sounds nice.”
—:—
“Good morning, y’all,” said the woman who had greeted them the night before. “Are you ready for some shrimp and grits?”
Malin’s eyes met Dutch’s. She didn’t want to be rude, but she really wasn’t hungry yet, and even if she was, shrimp and grits for breakfast didn’t appeal to her at all. Coffee sounded good, though.
“We’re going to take a walk and work up an appetite,” he told the woman and then winked at Malin.
“There’s a nice park right across the street called White Point Garden. It’s on the edge of the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. If you look out into the harbor, you’ll see Pinckney Castle—it looks like a fort—and then farther out, there’s Fort Sumter.”
The woman poured them both a to-go cup of coffee from her French press even though neither had asked.
“Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney owned most of the land on White Point after the end of the Revolutionary War. You’ll see his name on streets and buildings throughout the historic downtown.” She also handed Dutch a map. “You can catch a carriage ride down by the market too,” she told him, opening the map and pointing to the intersection of two streets.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said, turning again to wink at Malin. “Shall we go?” He led her outside to the porch. “I guess she gave us our marching orders.”
“She’s sweet.”
“I read on the website that she’s one of Pinckney’s descendants.”
“She’s proud of her heritage.”
The weather was warm for January as they strolled the streets of Charleston, marveling at the big old mansions, most of which were designated as historic landmarks.
“I had no idea that Charleston dated back to the sixteen hundreds,” Malin commented.
Dutch seemed distracted by something on his phone when she turned to see if he’d heard her.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes, fine. Just touching base with Onyx.”
“Do we need to leave?”
Dutch shook his head. “No, he and Sofia are going to meet us. If that’s okay with you.”
“I’d like that.” She’d enjoyed talking to Sofia.
They kept walking up Meeting Street until they came to the City Market. Onyx and Sofia were waiting at the entrance to the blocks-long historic building where merchants gathered daily to sell their wares.
“Good morning,” said Sofia. “How was the inn?”
“It was nice, thanks. Where did you stay?”
“I have a place over in Mount Pleasant. It’s across the bay.” Sofia pointed to a bridge that spanned the width of the harbor where container ships carried their freight up and down the river and a cruise ship was docked.
“It’s beautiful here,” said Malin.
“It’s home for me. My family has lived here for three generations. My great-grandfather used to joke that he was a Spanish pirate, but I think he was stationed here after World War II and liked it so well, he bought some land.”
“I like that story, though.”
Sofia laughed. “Me too. Either way, he’s my hero.”
“Who’s hungry?” asked Dutch.
“You are,” answered Malin, laughing.
He reached over and put his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s take a carriage ride before we have lunch. Sound good?”
“If you can wait,” she murmured.
Dutch kissed her temple. “I want you to be able to see Charleston before we leave for the island.”
When he kissed her temple again, Malin looked over to see if Onyx or Sofia were watching, and pulled away when she saw they both were.
It was easy to fall into the way things used to be between her and Dutch, but if she was going to keep the wall around her heart firmly in place, she needed to remember that they were no longer a couple and hadn’t been since the night he left her for Alegria.
