Leopard Dreaming (60 page)

p.s. Get better you lunatic.

Love Officers CD & BB

Mira shook her head, surprised by an unexpected epiphany.

She wasn’t crazy after all. It was the rest of the world.

Mira took one more step nearer to the hall, not bothering to grab any shoes. She didn’t plan on leaving the building yet. Just the ends of each corridor in search of Lockman’s room.

She glanced up, and found him already standing in her doorway, watching her with one hand poised to knock. Barefoot too, which turned her on as much as his silhouette. Black jeans and a t-shirt never looked so good. Watching her. Drinking in the sight of her in shimmering crimson, he leaned against the door and simply smiled at her.

‘You can see me?’ he asked, and she nodded. ‘You feel up to a visitor?’

‘Only if you mean
you
.’ She wanted to run to him and feel the shape of that smile so she could hold it in her hands again and know it was real, but she promised herself there’d be plenty of time for that. No need to rush. She longed to savour every minute with him, and for the moment she felt a thrill just seeing him there, watching her.

Fanning her new skirt, she twirled, trying to be graceful and feeling less conspicuous to be moving — even if she did still appear to be clumsy old Mira to him. The dress made up for her shortfalls like glorious, distracting packaging. Or, so she hoped.

‘Gabby bought it. Isn’t it lovely?’

‘Hell, yeah. But I was admiring the woman inside it.’

Mira blushed, wondering if she’d glow red if he kissed her right then, and before she realised it, she’d taken that next step towards him.

He strode for her too, both halting in the middle, leaving barely a hair’s breadth of air between them.

‘I want to hold you so bad,’ he confessed. ‘But I don’t want to hurt you. No amount of endorphins —’

‘Same here. I want to slide my hands up under your shirt and get to know every part of you with my eyes closed.’

‘Oh, baby.’ His voice grew huskier, as if needing it too.

‘It’s been twenty-nine hours, and feels more like a thousand.’ Her hands hovered timidly up to his face, inspecting the worst of his bruises and scratches — not daring to touch him. She longed to feel the shape of his thoughts as he looked at her. Needed to read his expression like Braille, and feel the way he always relaxed from his brow to his lips under her fingertips. Yet the ability to lock eyes with him, finally, charmed her with a whole new kind of magic.

He nuzzled her hand and leaned the side of his face against her palm, making her touch him, even where his cheek had swollen and split during hand-to-hand combat. ‘The way you do that to me makes the whole world fade away.’

His hands slid up the side of her arms with fluttering fingers that gave her goose pimples. He coded the word
beautiful
in Braille all over the bare skin of her back and shoulders.

‘Oh, wow,’ she sighed. A burst of endorphins shot into her system and floated her away to another level. ‘That feels sooo good, it must be illegal.’

‘That’s only the start, sweetheart. This is purely medicinal, remember?’

Licking her lips, she traced the line of his jaw to his mouth, wondering how to plead for a more generous sample.

A bump at the door interrupted them.

‘Whoa, bad timing.’ Darkin stopped abruptly, carrying a yellow octagonal box, about the size of a human head, and pushing a wheelchair smothered in bright, floating balloons. ‘Forget I was here.’ He backed out faster than he’d come in. ‘Oh, and here’s your special order.’ He winked at Lockman and dropped the odd yellow box inside the door on his way out.

Mira heard something rattle inside it, like sharp pebbles.

‘Hey, where are you going?’ Gabby called from further down the hall. ‘Get back in there, rock star.’

‘They’re not ready.’

‘I’ve got all the food. They have to be.’

‘Trust me. They need another ten minutes — at least.’ Darkin’s voice dropped to a whisper, still audible to Mira through the open doorway. ‘I suggest we take it back to that snug little closet, and finish our debate on French kissing versus necking.’

‘No contest,’ Gabby argued. ‘I’ll only win again.’

Mira heard a playful scuffle, followed by wheels and footsteps spinning about, leaving.

‘I think they’ve hit it off,’ Mira whispered.

Lockman toyed with her ear. ‘They seem to think we’re about to.’

Her hands paused; thoughtfully, one around his neck, the other lightly over his heart. ‘Did I see balloons just now? Or was that only painkillers messing with me again?’

‘Balloons on an army base?’ He chuckled. ‘Unlikely.’

‘Gabby mentioned food.’ Mira’s nose caught the scent of it too. Hot savoury finger foods and sweet cakes with icings. ‘Last time I smelled anything like that was from a birthday party in a cell down the hall at Serenity.’

‘It was supposed to be a surprise.’

‘Then your surveillance is off for once, Lieutenant. It’s not my birthday. I don’t wish to be glum either, but I really don’t feel like celebrating.’

‘That happens to be the perfect reason for — and definition of — a room party. I came to take you for a walk for ten minutes, so we could talk and they could set up in here.’

‘So you’re
supposed
to be a distraction for me?’

‘Hey, I faked
nothing
with you just now. You distracted me first.’ He stroked her wild curl from her brow. ‘Not for the first time either.’ His tone fell serious. ‘You should have let that splinter hit me. I had the padded vest, and the backpack.’

‘You didn’t see the trajectory.’ She turned away, trying not to remember it, but the vision came back anyway. ‘You had both hands on your Glock, arms out aiming, and it was headed right for your armpit, on a straight line for your heart.’

Too terrible to think about. She forced a smile and turned back to him. ‘Besides, now I’m the front runner for the biggest scar.’

‘Is that so?’

‘If you’d been here twenty minutes ago, you could have checked it yourself. I was standing right over there.’ She pointed by the bed. ‘Stripped down to my bandage, while Gabby helped me get changed.’

‘Whoa, now there’s an image I’m going to hold on to. Hey, come to think of it, should you be —’

‘Don’t. You. Dare. Ask if I should be up and about yet.’ She wagged a finger at him. ‘If I’m fit for a ride in a wheelchair, I’m fit enough to be on my feet. So long as I’m careful, I feel much better up than down anyway. Or for further details, please refer to my previous arguments with Ben, Mel, Garland, Gabby and Declan. In that order.’ She counted them off on her fingers.

‘Ah, friends.’ He smiled knowingly. ‘You can shoot them, stab them, blow them up and bad-joke-them to death, and the best ones just keep coming back to share another sucker punch.’

‘You can hardly talk.’ She noticed only the barest hint of bandaging beneath his shirt, even though he’d been bleeding from enough minor injuries to plaster a mummy. ‘I’m not about to be hypocritical and ask if you should be up yet, but if that wasn’t your question, then what
were
you going to ask me?’

He crossed to her window and closed the drapes.

‘If you should be getting changed in here with
those
open? Outside may look like a peaceful view over empty fields and mountains, but there’s always patrols and training units out there, fully equipped. And that’s not counting all the guys with built-in radar for the presence of pretty girls on the base. Some of the female soldiers too, so I’ve heard.’

‘Oh, crap. I kissed Gabby while I was naked. I hope I haven’t got her into any trouble.’

‘You did
what
when now?’

He looked like a kid who’d just fallen into a giant candy jar.

‘It wasn’t like that, silly. It was just a girl thing. She cried, I cried, and we nearly died laughing.’

‘Hey, I’m not asking. You’re the one who put the picture in my head. Now I’m having a hard time … never mind. You’re an endless supply of surprises, Mira Chambers.’

‘Mortifying surprises. I should have noticed the curtains open. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate it when I’m dosed with things that mess with my head?’

‘News to me,’ he teased. ‘Try this.’ From his hip pocket, he took something that looked like a mini-mobile phone on a keychain. ‘Gift,’ he said, offering it to her. Still warm from his body in the most appealing way possible. Unwrapped, unboxed and unmarked, and yet she still had no idea what it …

‘Signal jammer.’ He switched it on and explained how she’d always be able to find, neutralise or destroy any surveillance devices within three kilometres, while making herself electronically invisible. ‘I acquired one for everyone.’

‘Thanks, but you couldn’t have switched it on and closed the curtains as soon as you came in here?’

‘Didn’t you get my card?’

‘What card?’

He crossed to her bedside table, and dug out a “sick humour” card from behind the roses. On the front she found an image of four soldiers, all geared up in black for night missions, with the message
Get Well Soon, before your squad figures out you’re expendable.

Opening it, he revealed a silver credit-card shaped gadget with a blinking light in the top corner. ‘Much older model,’ he said, tossing it back onto her bed, ‘so it’s simpler and can mess up the heart monitors if you start playing with buttons, but the range kicks out to five clicks instead of three. So you’ve been covered the whole time you’ve been in here.’

‘And the curtains?’

‘I left them open deliberately. I want the whole world to know how I feel about you.’

Mira sighed in relief. ‘You can’t imagine how glad I am to hear that, but …’ She paused to chew on her lip, knowing he’d hardly feel the same way once he knew everything he needed to about her, now that she’d learned it herself.

‘But?’

‘I think you’d better sit down. There’s two things I discovered in the bunker that we need to discuss first.’

‘I can think of three, so you keep the scar award and I win to talk first.’ He swung the sofa around, jammed it under the door handle and sat with his weight on one arm, ensuring their privacy.

Mira watched Lockman rake his fingers through his hair, as a shadow of worry darkened his expression.

‘I needed ten minutes alone to discuss this with you anyway,’ he explained. ‘In here, out there. Either way we have to get it done before the room party.’

‘Oh?’ Now he did have her full attention.

‘Garland tells me you’re starting your own army.’

‘Bucking for promotion, Lieutenant?’

‘I’ll confess I like the sound of major, but I’m aiming for general.’

Mira rolled her eyes and turned away. ‘Is one not enough for me to handle? Besides, you’ve already got the top job, right beside me.’

‘How far do you plan on trusting her?’

‘About as far as I can spit while sedated. Have you ever tried to do that at the dentist?’

‘She’ll drive you mad in a week.’

‘I give it a day. But you and Mel got under my skin that fast too, and look how you’ve both grown on me. Or at least started to in Mel’s case. I’m not expecting miracles with Garland either, but a trifecta would be nice to at least work towards, wouldn’t it?’

‘Fair enough. Second order of business.’ He raked his fingers through his hair, still looking worried, and probably unaware of how much she loved to watch him do that. ‘Maybe you’ll need to sit for this one?’ He rose, offering her the swap. ‘Higher than the chair, lower than the bed, so perching on the arm will be easier on your ribs.’

‘I’d rather stand for bad news.’

‘How do you know it’s bad news?’

‘You’re stalling.’ Moving closer, she encouraged him to sit again, stroked his hair, and cuddled him to the least painful side of her bandaged ribcage. Possibly the last time he’d ever want her so close, judging by the way he’d changed his mind about discussing it. So he must have seen the medical ward as he’d battled through it. Must have seen what they’d done to Ben and only partially succeeded with her.

‘It’s okay, Jayson.’ She tried to sound reassuring, while on the inside she couldn’t scream any louder. ‘Most people rest painlessly under sedation during surgery, but I spent the whole time imagining all the worst ways this could turn out. And it’s not like you to stall, so don’t start now. Not on my account.’

‘Colonel Kitching is here, Mira. He’s alive.’

‘He
survived
?’

‘Not for much longer.’

He caught her hand and brought it to his lips for a light kiss, as if for goodbye. ‘You’re going to hate me, Mira. I’ve tried to change, I swear I have, but to keep you safe, I need to be the kind of soldier that you’ve always known and feared me to be.’

Closing her eyes, she shook her head determinedly, refusing to believe it. ‘You are not a cold killer, Jayson. I’ve seen cold killers, lived with them as convicts. Seen them hang so often last century at Serenity, they became like rotten fruit on the hanging tree, and if there’s one thing I know in my heart better than I
know myself, it’s that you are not a stone cold killer. You. Are. Not.’

He hung his head, ashamed anyway.

‘Look at me,’ she demanded. ‘I saw you come through hellfire with grenades still unused on your vest.’

He shrugged. ‘I couldn’t use them without risking harm to you or Maddy.’

‘I saw you temper your aim, trying to neutralise men without killing them.’

‘A dead man answers to no justice.’

‘See? That’s exactly what I mean. You know what’s right, and you do it.’

‘And look where that’s brought us.’ He leapt to his feet and paced ovals in the floor to the drapes and back again. ‘I have to end it, or you’ll never be free.’

‘Please, no. I’m as free as I need to be.’

‘For now maybe. They didn’t get all the metal from Kitching’s brain, first time round, so I’ll take care of him after they’ve taken care of the metal. But I need you and all your friends away from here first, so nobody can blame any of you. Which brings us back to the room party.’

‘I’m not liking this already.’