Cinderella Liberty (13 page)

The occupants scattered on his command, leaving Crash and Zippy alone just as another rocket impacted close by again, causing the bunker top to groan and scrape as it shifted even more on top of the supports. The blast rocked the ground so hard, Crash had to reach for the wall to keep his balance.

"Fuck. We can't stay here and those other bunkers are already overflowing." Zip glanced at Crash.

"I know." More than that, Crash wasn't so keen on crowded, confined spaces. Particularly those with a concrete roof that could, with one well-placed blast, be knocked off the two parallel walls it rested precariously upon.

"You wanna try for the berm?" Zippy asked, probably thinking the same thing as Crash, better to be outside than in here crushed under a ton of concrete.

"A'ight. Let's go."

Knowing the troops they'd been with were now under the care of the senior guys in the other bunkers, Crash followed Zippy. They raced towards a dirt and gravel berm and hit the sand. Crash spun to face the direction of the rocket attack.

"Now what?" Zippy asked, his eyes on the perimeter fencing.

Crash adjusted the position of his rifle and stared in the same direction, feeling moderately better that if anyone tried to breach the wire, at least from here he could do something about it. "I guess we wait for the all clear."

Or for the bad guys to run out of rockets. Or for air support to get off the ground, if it ever did.

Until then, Crash's hands would remain on his weapon and his eyes on the perimeter. There wasn't much else he could do, except maybe pray.

CHAPTER 12

New Jersey

Trish hadn't heard back from Danny or Crash, when usually both of them would reply to her. She'd installed a world clock on her computer and knew exactly what time it was on their base and what hours they worked. If she emailed during their day, they'd always get right back to her. At least within the hour, because she knew sometimes they'd take a break for meals or have a meeting.

But not yesterday. She'd emailed the moment she'd woken up in the morning, when it was still afternoon for Crash and Danny. Then she'd heard nothing. When it got to be her night, which meant it was their morning, she'd sat up and waited until eleven before she'd given up and gone to bed. They should have been at their desk for hours by then, but neither had emailed.

Trish had fallen to sleep eventually, but now, at four in the morning, she was awake again and worrying. To hell with it. Staying in bed wide awake was an exercise in frustration. She wasn't going to be able rest until she checked her email, so she got up and booted up the computer. When that took too long, she grabbed her cell phone and hit the email icon.

Scrolling through her inbox, her heart clenched when there was nothing from either of them.

"Okay. That doesn't mean anything. Maybe the internet is out. My internet goes out and I'm not even in Afghanistan." Who she was talking to, she had no idea. She didn't even have a cat.

Trish tossed her cell on the counter and headed for the coffee maker. There'd be no more sleep for her until she'd heard something. That was fine. Today was Saturday. She didn't have to be at work until Monday morning. She could sit here all day and all night, and then all day again tomorrow.

Jesus, she hoped she heard from them before tomorrow. She didn't think she'd be able to take worrying for that long.

The pot of coffee, consumed on an empty stomach, only put Trish more on edge. When the phone finally rang mid morning, she jumped from the sound. Dawn's name appeared in the readout and Trish forced herself to take a breath. Jittery from the caffeine, her hands shook as she hit the button to answer.

"Good morning." Dawn's cheery greeting didn't brighten Trish's mood any, not that that was her friend's fault.

"Hey."

"What's wrong?"

Trish should have known she wouldn't be able to hide anything from Dawn. "I haven't heard from Danny or Crash in days."

"Okay, is that normal?"

"No, they always respond to me."

"So you have been writing to Crash—"

"Dawn, this is not the time."

"All right. Let's think this out. Could they be busy on a mission or something?"

Trish realized how little she knew about the job her brother performed for the military. "I don't think so. He's never disappeared for days before."

"Wouldn't your parents have been notified if anything bad happened?"

"Yeah."

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

"You're right. The internet is probably broken."

"There you go. That's got to be it. My internet went out for like twenty minutes last night. Thought I'd lose my mind."

Trish smiled. Nothing like Dawn's insanity to provide a distraction. She was about to suggest Dawn come over for lunch and distract her further when the call waiting beeped in. Trish pulled the phone away from her face to glance at the caller ID.

The unknown number listed as originating in Maryland had her heart clenching. Who was this? Unsolicited sales calls didn't come through to her cell phone. They only plagued her on the home line. There was a lot of military in Maryland. This could be a call about Danny.

"Oh my God."

"What? What's happening?" Dawn's frantic question told Trish she'd spoken aloud.

"There's a call coming through from Maryland."

"Well, answer it! And call me right back."

"Okay. Bye." Her nerves didn't help the shaking as she rushed to answer the call she wasn't sure she wanted to get. "Hello?"

"Trish?"

"Yes."

"It's Crash."

She grabbed the edge of the table as the room swayed. "What's wrong? Has something happened to Danny?"

"Oh, no. Crap. I didn't even think you'd assume anything . . . Trish, I just saw Zippy, He's fine. I swear."

"Okay." She let out a shaky breath. "I'm sorry I jumped on you. It's just when I didn't hear back from either of you—"

"I know. Comm was down. It's back up now. I'll tell Zippy to contact you."

"Thanks." She lowered herself into a chair and tried to calm herself.

"I really am sorry I scared you."

"It's okay." Now that she knew her brother wasn't dead or injured, and her heart wasn't pounding hard enough to have her feeling dizzy, she could appreciate the deep tenor of Crash's voice funneled directly into her ear through the phone. His soft Southern drawl washed over her and brought back vivid memories of their weekend. Crash calling her still seemed odd, but wonderful. Something else was odd, as well. "The caller ID said Maryland . . ."

"Yeah, they route our calls through the States."

"Oh. I didn't even realize you have phones there. Danny always just emails or Skypes me."

"Yeah, we have a call center set up here, but you need a calling card."

"Oh." Even more intriguing. Crash had not only taken the time to phone her, but he'd had to use a calling card to do it. "So how are you?"

"Good. We had a little, uh, excitement around here, but I'm good. Zippy is too. Um, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Your excitement or my brother?" It seemed Crash's answers only raised more questions, but Trish was more than willing to take the time to figure out the mystery of this man.

His laugh came through her cell. "Both, I guess. I had some time to think the other night, and I talked to Zippy. Anyway, long story short, I told him about us. About that weekend. And I know I should have talked to you first, but there were extenuating circumstances."

"Okay. I trust you. If you thought you needed to tell him, that's fine."

"You trust me?"

She smiled at the happiness she heard in his voice. "Yes, of course I do."

"I'm glad."

"So, uh, how'd Danny take the news of our little fling?"

"He wasn't happy about it, but he never beat the crap out of me the way he said he was going to so that's something, I guess."

Trish laughed. "That's good. I'm glad to hear it. Is he the one who gave you my phone number?"

"No, actually, he'd called you from my phone that one time. My service is cut off but the phone still had the outgoing call log in it. I'm sorry, it's probably out of line for me to just call—"

"No, not at all. It's fine. Really." Trish smiled. She'd made love to this man three times over the course of two days, and he was worried he'd taken liberties by calling her? Southern men really were a different breed. Different, but nice.

"Okay. I'm glad you don't mind." He dragged in a breath. "So the reason I'm calling . . . you know how we said that weekend was just for fun, and that it wouldn't mean anything later on?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what if I changed my mind about that? I think it did mean something. And I think we should take some time to get to know each other better, and see if we can make it work. At least, I want it to try,
if
that's what you want."

Now it was no longer fear that had Trish's heart pounding. "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Good." He let out a loud breath. "That's real good. But I gotta warn you, life as a Marine girlfriend isn't easy."

Hearing him use the word
girlfriend
in relation to her being with him sent a thrill through her. "That's okay. We Jersey girls are pretty tough. I can handle it."

"I'm very happy to hear that. So, um, now that we've talked, maybe I can Skype you sometime?"

"Definitely." She felt like a schoolgirl. Like the quarterback had just asked her to the prom. Giddy. Excited. Nervous. Unable to stop smiling. It was too much to absorb all at once and she loved every bit of it.

"A'ight. Good. So I'll be talking to you then. And I'll email you too."

"Okay." Warmth spread through Trish just from the promise of hearing from him.

"I better get going before this phone card runs out and cuts us off."

"Um, Crash. Can I ask you something real quick before you hang up?"

"Sure. Shoot."

"How'd you get your nickname?"

He chuckled. "I was afraid that would come up. It's kind of an embarrassing story, but here it goes—I backed a jeep into a building during Marine Combat Training. Been called Crash ever since."

Trish smiled. "Thanks for sharing."

"You're welcome. Now, I really better go. Bye for now?"

She bit her lip at his sweetness. "Bye for now."

The line went dead and Trish lowered the phone.

What a difference five minutes could make. She had to call Dawn back and tell her everything was okay. More than okay. Trish had to tell her the crazy but incredible news about her and Crash. She just wasn't sure she'd be able to make the call. She was still shaking, but it had nothing to do with the coffee.

~ * ~

Crash couldn't help the goofy smile on his face as he pushed through the door of his CLU, but he tried to control it for Zippy's sake. "Hey."

"Hey." Zippy responded without looking up from his computer screen and the TV show playing there.

Crash glanced at his friend's back from across the can. "You still mad at me?"

Still not making eye contact, Zippy said, "I'm deciding."

"A'ight. Fair enough. While you're deciding, I wanted you to know I called Trish."

That got Zippy's attention. He paused the show and turned in his chair. "You what?"

"I called her from the phone center."

"Why?" The wariness in Zippy's tone told Crash he wasn't out of the woods with his friend yet.

"Because I like her, Zip. A lot. I wanna get to know her better. And then, when we're home, I wanna see her."

"So you didn't just want to fuck her then?"

"Jesus, Zip." Crash set his jaw. Yeah, he'd been in the wrong doing what he'd done with Trish behind Zippy's back, but Zippy had no right to talk like that about a lady, especially his own sister. "Please don't say that word again in relation to Trish."

Zippy's brow's rose. "Fine. You two do whatever you want to do. It's her life."

Not exactly a blessing, but at least no blows had been exchanged. For now, that would have to be good enough.

"Thanks." Crash turned to leave.

He'd finished his workday and gone directly to the phone center. Now that the nerve-wracking phone call was over, he was starving. He could grab something, bring it back to his desk and log into email. Send Trish a nice long message. He liked that idea.

"I'm hitting the gym in about an hour. Wanna come?" Zippy's question stopped Crash with his hand on the doorknob.

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay. See you there." Zip turned back to his computer and hit play on the show again.

"A'ight." Maybe things were good between them after all.

A few minutes later, armed with a take out container from the chow hall, Crash was back at his office, but this time, not to work. He leaned his weapon against the wall behind him and sat.