Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (21 page)

“
Now, you know
men are visually aroused, but women are a lot more complicated in
their arousal, right?”

Again, he glanced at
Rosemary. “Yeah, I guess so.” Rosemary nodded again.

“
Do you want an
intro and outro?”

“
A what?”

“
The stuff that
happens before and after they go at it.”

“
Oh. Yeah, I
guess so.”

“
I mean, you
know, sex is just sex, the nuts and bolts, anyhow; bolt into nut,
turn, done. It's what you write around that that makes the
difference.”

“
And that's why
Gordy wanted you to do it,” Rosemary said.

“
And I'd love to;
piece of cake. But he told you I have to stay anonymous, right?”

“
Right.”

“
Gordy?”

“
Oh. Right.
We'll use the name Dallas, no last name, right?”

“
Right.”

“
Oh, good name,”
Rosemary said.

“
We'll be sure to
do that; promise,” Gordy said.

“
How's this? I'll
do a first draft and email it to you by Wednesday, okay? And then
you can look it over, make any suggestions that you want to, and we
can get together next Saturday and go through it all, and then it's
yours.”

“
You can do it
that quick?”

“
Sure, no
problem. In fact, I think I've got something already written that I
can adapt to what you want in maybe an hour or two.”

“
That one I read
last time?”

“
I could pull
some of that in, sure, but I've got a bunch of others just sitting on
the” –

A high, squeaky voice
cut in, “Hey, Rosemary, Janet's got a question for you.”

“
Hold on, Ron,”
Gordy snapped at him. “Can't you see we're in the middle of a
discussion here?”

“
So what,
schlub?” Ron snapped back. “I wasn't talking to you.”

Rosemary glared at Ron.
“Go away, Ron. I'll talk to Janet when we're done here.”

“
And who's this
pretty lady? And why are you talking to a schlub like this?”

“
Oh, can it,
Ron,” Rosemary said, still glaring at him. “Ignore him,
Dallas.”

“
If you can,”
Gordy added, starting to get up from his lounge.

“
But” –

“
No buts. If you
don't” --

“
Ronald Cecil
[last name deleted], get your ass back up here!” his wife,
Jenny, yelled at him. “Now!”

Ron looked at her, then
back at Gordy, now fully standing up, then at Rosemary, then Dallas,
then back at his wife, his fists clenched.

“
I said now!”
Jenny yelled.

Gordy and Rosemary
looked at each other and mouthed “Cecil?”

As Ron headed back to
his wife, his shoulders drooping, Janet glared at him, as well. “I
told you it could wait, Ron!” She looked at Rosemary and Gordy
and shrugged apologetically.

Ron sat down in his
chair, sulking and glaring back at Gordy and Rosemary. Jenny slapped
him on his upper arm and glared at him.

“
Who the fuck was
that?” Dallas whispered.

“
Just the beach
asshole,” Gordy said, sitting and then lying back down on his
lounge, glancing up at Ron.

“
Sorry about
that,” Rosemary said. “Where were we?”

“
Umm – oh,
I was saying I've got a lot of other scenes sitting on the shelf, and
it'll be a joy to do this one. I think you'll like it; I'll let
myself go, have some fun with it.”

“
That'd be great,
Dallas,” Gordy said. “Anything else you need from me?”

“
Not right now.
Let's see how you like my first draft first.”

Gordy nodded. “Great.
Thank you aga- – oh, one thing.”

“
Yeah?”

“
No anal, okay?”

“
No problem; I
can leave that out.”

“
And no animals,”
Rosemary added.

“
No bestiality;
got it,” Dallas said, making a quick note. “Okay; we're
all set, then. I'll shoot you an email in a few days, okay?”

“
Great.”

“
Good. I'll be
in touch. Got another appointment. See ya. And, Rosemary, anytime
you want to talk some more, give me a buzz.”

Rosemary glanced at
Gordy, then back to Dallas. “Will do, and thanks again,
Dallas.”

“
Any time. Bye.”

As she headed up the
beach to the parking lot, Gordy snapped his fingers. “Ah,
almost forgot. We're still on for Marti and Dave's boat parade party
tonight, right?”

“
Oh, yeah;
looking forward to meeting them. And I've got the deviled eggs all
set.”

“
No peanut butter
in them?”

“
Peanut butter?
Yuck. Why would you ask that?”

He frowned, “I –
I don't know; it just popped into my head.”

“
Now, if I were
taking little turkey sandwiches, I would put peanut butter on those.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah, I love
those flavors together.”

“
Really? Hm.
I'll have to try that sometime.”

“
I'll make one
for you before we go to the party. What time?”

“
Marti said
around five. How 'bout if we leave your place about quarter to?”

“
Fine. And
between now and” –

“
Jake Devlin?”
a stentorian male voice echoed across the beach as two men in dark
suits walked quickly from the boardwalk onto the sand.

Ron, smirking, stood up
and pointed at Gordy. The two men headed down to Gordy and Rosemary.

“
Are you Jake
Devlin?”

“
Actually, no,
but I write under that name.”

One of the men pulled a
folded piece of paper out of his coat pocket and handed it to Gordy.

“
US marshals.
You've been served. You are to appear before a Senatorial oversight
subcommittee on the 18th of this month in Washington, DC. If you
have any questions, call the number on that subpoena.”

“
What is this”
–

“
Have a good
day,” the marshal said as the two turned and left.

- 54 -

December
8, 2012
11:38
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

In the Gulf of Aden

“
This is not a
good day,” Pam said, staring out the porthole at the monsoon
rains buffeting the yacht.

“
Not to worry.
Defiance
is built to handle wind and waves worse than this,”
Jake replied. “Much worse.”

“
We could have
stayed in Sydney,” she said, settling back down on the bed.

“
Yup. It was good
to see some of the old haunts; first time in over forty years. But I
had a flashback in the Royal Botanical Gardens.”

“
I could tell.”

“
Not the best day
in my career. But I had to see it again.” He sighed and lay
down next to her. “At least the operas were good.”

“
Yeah, especially
their 'Aida.'”

“
I thought the
'Rigoletto' was better.”

“
But the woman
who sang Gilda didn't capture her very well.”

“
Yeah, there's
that. Her sacrifice did seem contrived, not, not – oh, what's
the word?”

“
Natural, in
character?”

“
Yeah, something
like that. And I would have liked to stay a few more days to catch
'Falstaff,' too, for some comic relief. That one isn't performed too
often.”

“
Only during deer
season, I hear.”

“
Deer season? I
– oh, got it,” Jake said, laughing. “Good one,
Pam. And if that job had come up a month earlier, we could have seen
those big sculptures they had all along the coastal walk there.”

“
Timing is
everything … some of the time.” Pam sighed, closing her
eyes.

After a minute of
silence, Pam shivered and murmured, “It's been a long time.”

“
I know. You
doin' okay with it?”

“
I'm trying.
Still flashing back to that video, but less often.”

“
It takes time to
get back in the groove.”

“
I know. But
it's tough after so long away.”

“
I know. But it
is like riding a bicycle; you never really forget.”

“
Yeah; they
really drove it into us, 'Keep your perspective, think of the good
you're doing.'”

“
And 'Follow
orders.'”

“
Yeah, that too.”

“
Remember, I went
through the same training, but a lot of years before you did. They
refined it a bunch between my class and yours.”

“
Yeah;
compartmentalize.”

“
Yup. You did
fine down there, and you'll be okay; promise.”

“
I know.”

“
Been there, done
that, got the T-shirt, right?”

“
Right.”

“
Ride out the
storm.”

“
Right.”

“
C'mere.”

Pam rolled over and
rested her head on Jake's chest, and he began gently massaging her
shoulder blades.

“
Mmm; that feels
good.”

“
Mm-hmm.”

A few minutes later,
Jake felt Pam snuggle in closer to him, her leg over his and her hand
sliding up under his T-shirt, toying with his chest hair.

“
He was a real
scumbag, wasn't he?”

“
One of the
worst.”

“
Deserved
everything he got, didn't he?”

“
Yup, and maybe
more.”

“
Thank you.”

“
You're welcome …
uh, for what?”

“
For bringing me
along.”

“
I'm glad you
came … along.”

“
So how are we
gonna ride out this storm?” she murmured, holding her thumb and
index finger a half inch apart on his stomach.

“
Oh, I've got a
few ideas,” he whispered, as she slid her hand further down.

“
Gonna bring me
along again?” she whispered back.

- 55 -

December
8, 2012
5:08
p.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

“
Great party,
Marti.”