Missy's Gentle Giant (11 page)

“Yeah, I don’t need to be in Dallas.” 
Ben dropped the receiver, reached in his desk for some playing cards, buzzed
the kitchen and asked Mrs. Diaz if she’d take some coffee and sandwiches up to
his room.

When he slipped in his bedroom, it
pleased Ben to see Missy had finally stopped shaking.  She was sitting
Indian style in the middle of the bed talking to Susan and looked like a ten
year old.  Waves of heat raced through him as his heart pounded.  He
could see her toes peeking out from under her nightgown.  A slight trace
of fear crossed her face when she saw him.

“Hi.”  He towered close to the
bed.  “Wondered if you might be wide awake like me and want to play cards
or something.  Know how to play Slap Jack?”

When Missy nodded, he sat on the
side of the bed.  It surprised her when Susan made no attempt to leave the
room.  Missy glanced at the clock and saw it was after midnight.  When she turned back to Ben, he was looking at the door and talking.  A heavyset
woman came in carrying a large tray with sandwiches, cups and a large pot of
coffee.  She put it down on the coffee table with a smile.

“Melissa this is Mrs. Diaz my housekeeper.” 
He smiled.

“My, my, you are a beautiful young
lady.”  Mrs. Diaz glanced at the bed.  “I see why Ben worries about
you.  Eat now, and if you want anything, call me.”  She frowned at
Ben.  “You should have ordered milk for her, not coffee.”

“No it’s all—” Missy started.

“Bring her some then.”  Ben
grinned at the heavyset cook.  “Oh, and Susan will need some bed linens
for the sofa tonight.”  He pointed, then lay back and shuffled
cards.  “Want to join us Susan?”

“No thanks, I never was much for
cards.”  She went to the sofa, smiled, curled up and reached for a
magazine.

Before long Missy was laughing and
having a good time.  Susan saw how Ben’s eyes never left Missy and how his
expression was relieved as she was able to relax.  At one in the morning
Susan rose and quietly spread out the bed linens Mrs. Diaz had brought. 
She could hold her eyes open no longer.  Ben saw a hint of nervousness
flicker through Missy, but they continued playing cards.  No damn way was
he going to leave her tonight, and she might as well accept it.  Somehow
or other he had to find a way to get her to not be afraid of him, or she’d
never able to marry anyone.  At two when he saw Missy could hardly stay
awake, he told her to scoot on up and crawl under the covers.

Standing beside the bed he held the
covers up for her; he then pulled the covers up to her chin.  The muscles
in his cheeks rippled as he clenched his jaw to fight against arousal. 
Slowly he turned down lights until there was only enough to allow her to see
movement.  Still dressed, he went to the empty side of the bed, loosened
the covers, adjusted the pillow against the headboard, took a deep breath and
dropped slowly onto it.  He saw Missy stiffen.  Gently he sat back,
reached out and pulled her up into his arms.  She began shaking again.

“Missy, Missy, Missy—”  He
whispered.  Reaching for her hand he reminded her Susan was there and she
was safe.  With tears in his eyes he kept repeating over and over Susan
was there to protect her and she was safe.  Gradually her shaking stopped,
and her body relaxed.  Long after she was asleep his hand still told her
she was safe.  The last time he looked at the clock before he fell asleep
it was four in the morning.

At six thirty Missy opened her eyes
to see a white shirt and smell Ben’s clean male scent next to her.  Trying
to figure out where she was, she squirmed a little, but an arm held her close,
and her hand was locked securely in his.  Slowly she shifted and saw him
sleeping beside her, holding her.  She saw his lips move, and her eyes
clouded as she remembered the night before.

He was warm holding her this way
and she felt secure.  Carefully and slowly she tried to pull away and turn
on her other side pulling covers as she went; his body followed hers until he
somehow slid down and her backside was up against the front of him.  When
he mumbled, his breath on the back of her neck scared the daylights out of
her.  His arm circled her possessively, and his hand nearly touched her
breast.  He bent his leg touching hers and she stopped breathing. 
She held her breath until her chest hurt and then let the air out slowly. 
For over half an hour she lay there nearly afraid to breathe and totally
conscious of his breath on the back of her neck, his fingers dangerously near
her breasts and his leg molded against hers.  Oh, he was warm like
sunshine against her.  He smelled so good too.  Slowly she let her
hand slide down his arm.  He mumbled again and reached for her hand. 
Her breath caught until she felt him trying to talk to her with his hand while
he was still asleep.  All she could make out from his fingers was
“Susan—safe” over and over.  Sighing, she closed her eyes and went back to
sleep.

At eight Susan rose and gently
shook Ben’s shoulder.  He opened his eyes, smiled and slowly lifted
himself to sitting.  He put his face in his hands, and then grinned at
Susan.

“She’s special to you?”  Susan
smiled.

“Yeah.”  Ben nodded and looked
at Missy.  He reached out and carefully covered her exposed leg. 
“Yeah, and she’s scared to death of everyone.”

“You’re the one who taught me it
takes time to recover.”

“I know.  It’s why I wanted
you here.  She wants to bury it, has a kind of amnesia about it which I
think is causing the deafness, but she needs to learn to—”

“I’ll talk with her Ben.”

“It’s all I can ask.”  Slowly
he rose.  Susan would understand.  Blinking he wandered to the
bathroom, remembered he needed clothes and went to the walk-in closet.  He
rubbed the back of his neck as he came back with what he needed.  For a
moment he stopped and stared at Missy, his face flooded with desire, and then
he shrugged.  “Guess I’d better shower in one or the other bathrooms in
case she wakes up.”  He smiled sheepishly.

“Before you go, tell me
something.  Was she awake or asleep when you lay on the bed?”

“Half awake I think.  She
shook for a little while and I talked with my hands until she went to
sleep.  Is it important?”

“It might be a good sign. 
Just be patient, Ben.  I’ll talk to her.”

“Yeah, I know.”  He forced a
smile.

Ben wandered into the kitchen and
was greeted with a hot cup of coffee and Mrs. Diaz’ warm smile.

“Is your young lady still asleep?”

“I think so.”  He looked
up.  “You like her?”

“Oh yes, but she’s so young.”

“Oh?”  Ben buried his grin by
ducking his head.  “Too young?”

“I don’t know.”  Mrs. Diaz
frowned.  “Why was the doctor there?”

“Chaperone!”

“Chaperone?”

“Yeah, I kidnapped her.”

“You didn’t!”

“Yeah you know, ladder at the
window while her parents slept.  She’s got nine brothers named Sanchez.”

“Oh my!”

“Know why Susan was there
now?”  He grinned at the cook.

“Chaperone.”  She nodded her
head.  “But you’re still in trouble.”

“Tell me about it.”  He
chuckled and got up to look out the window.  “She might be here a few days
while I go on a job.”

“Oh I see, then she’s just here
because of the job and not what I tho—”

“Nope, you’re too smart for
me.”  Ben grinned.  “She’s here because of the job and for a very
personal reason.  In fact, if I can get around all those brothers, she may
be telling you what to cook for dinner.”  He winked at Mrs. Diaz as he
left the kitchen.

“Oh my!  And you dared to
kidnap her!”

“Yep!”  He laughed.  “So
if I come home all beat up again, you’ll know what happened.”  Ben
sauntered out of the kitchen and went to the library.  He made a couple of
calls and paced impatiently until Jon, his handyman came in to tell him Wanda
was outside.  Grabbing a briefcase, he quickly left the house.

“Well I wore the sexiest thing I
could think of; is it okay?”  Wanda pulled onto the freeway.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”  Ben wasn’t
thinking of Wanda.  He was reliving sleeping with Missy, holding her in
his arms and feeling her warm body next to his, enjoying her smell.

“So what’s the first thing we do?”

“I’ve got to work with the drivers
and coordinate our plans.  You’re going to meet three guys.”  Ben
smiled.

“Three?”

“Yeah, the first one, you’ve met,
Raul Tijerina; remember him?”

“Yeah, he made my skin
crawl.”  Wanda made a face.

“Well, Davis wants pictures, so you
have to take this camera.”  Ben handed her a small case looking like a
compact for makeup.  “He’s staying at the Sheraton, and I want you to
plant seeds.”  He chewed his finger.  “Let him know Fernandez is
suspicious, so is going to follow the trucks and Moreno is planning to go
along.”

“What’s it supposed to do?”

“I hope it will get Tijerina to go
along too.  Then there’s a guy named Mario Moreno staying at the Granada
Inn; he’s just as bad as Tijerina.  They’re cousins by marriage and both
work for Fernandez.  I need for you to play up to him, get pictures and
plant the same seed.”

“To make him go along too?”

“They’re supposed to be working
together, but they have different agendas.  Moreno made plans to stay
behind to do something else, so you really have to emphasize he must go.” 
Ben’s cheek muscles rippled.  “Let him know Fernandez doesn’t trust him
and wants to replace him, but also allude to the possibility Tijerina has
double crossed him.”

“Okay, and Fernandez is the third?”

“Yeah.  Davis said last night
Fernandez will be arriving in McAllen around three this afternoon.  He has
reservations at the airport Holiday Inn.”

“Not exactly where a dealer would
stay.”

“Yeah.  In any case you’ll
need to play up to Fernandez too, and plant still another seed.”

“Ah, I get it.  With Fernandez
you want me to do basically the same thing.”

“Not exactly.  With Fernandez
I want you to hint maybe Moreno is out to hunt for greener pastures and can’t
be trusted.  Moreno wasn’t planning to go; this way Fernandez will insist Moreno
goes along.”

“And you need pictures of him too?”

“No, Davis says they have some, but
be sure you get some of Moreno.  He has a mouthpiece close to the Sanchez
family who will hear about a sudden change.”

“Sounds like you want to make sure
everyone is out to get everyone else.”

“No, I just want to get all of them
together.”

“Ben it’s not all.  Not the
way you’re setting them up against each other.”

Ben shrugged.  “Look Wanda, I
want all of them caught just like you and everyone else.”

“But you also want something more,
don’t you?”

“No, dammit!”

“Okay, okay.  Forget I said
anything.”  Wanda shrugged.  “Where will you be?” 

“Checking out the coke plants!”

“A special reason?”

“Word is two trucks will be decoys
with small amounts.  Two will have larger plants but one will be heavy
with it.”

“And you want to know which?”

“Yeah.  Does it bother you?”

“Nope, not me.”  Wanda smiled
and pulled over behind a parked Cadillac.  “I see your car’s
waiting.  Okay, we’ll get it done Ben.”

“No problems with it?”  He
smiled and reached for the door handle.  Then he reached over and kissed
her cheek.

“No, I think I can handle
it.”  She smiled.

“Good.  Be careful and check
with me this evening at the house.  All right?”

“Will do.” She grinned as she
watched Ben get in the Cadillac.  She sped off to her first
assignment.  Like hell he just wanted to catch the three of them. 
She could see through Ben like he was a window.  One of them was of
special interest to him.  Would any one of them come out smelling like a
rose?  Knowing Ben, no way.

Missy was extremely surprised when
she awakened at ten and saw Susan sitting on the sofa.  More disturbing
was a feeling she’d been close to Ben all night, and her senses reminded her of
his smell.  She was sure he’d been there touching her and holding
her.  With worried eyes she turned to Susan.  “I’ve been kidnapped
right?  Ben said—”

“Only to keep you safe.” 
Susan smiled.

“Safe from what?”

“From some people who threatened
your brothers—not to hurt them but to get you.”  Susan hastily added.

“Where am I then?”

“Ben’s house.”

“His house?”

“This is his bedroom, Melissa.”

“And where did he sleep—is he—did
he—”

“Here with us.”  Susan smiled.

“Oh my!  He did kidnap
me!”  Melissa’s cheeks colored.  His presence wasn’t a dream!

“Only because he wanted to be sure
you’re safe.”

“Where’s Ben now?”

“Gone to work, I think.”

“Oh.”

“Look Melissa, if you get dressed
I’ll be most happy to take you around and introduce—”

“I don’t have to stay right
here?”  Melissa glanced up in surprise.

“No, you’re free to wander.”

“I tho—thought he was going to kee—keep—I’m
not a prisoner?”

“No, Ben brought you here to keep
you away from harm.  He won’t let anyone hurt you.”  Susan shifted,
stood with a bright smile and walked over to a bureau.  “Ben told me to
tell you there are some clothes which should fit you in the closet and
here.”  She smiled at Missy.  “Tell you what, while you get dressed
I’ll go tell Mrs. Diaz you’re coming for breakfast.  Then if you want I’ll
walk around the grounds and house with you.”

“You will?”

“Sure take your time.”  Susan
smiled again.  “No one’s going to hurt you here.”

Half an hour later Missy slowly
walked down the winding staircase and crossed the foyer into a large living
room.

“Golly this place is huge!” 
She glanced up at the ceiling.