Sin (The Waite Family) (41 page)

They were headed straight to the gravesi
t
e. Shipley hadn’t wanted a regular service, but simply a graveside
service
.
Payton didn’t think the city of Zanesville was too happy about the arrangements
,
but had worked hard to grant the wishes of a fallen hero.

Payton looked at the lines of cars they drove by as they headed to the site.
There must have been five hundred vehicles lined on both sides of the road leading up to the small cemetery.

It seemed that every soldier, active or retired
,
had shown up to honor one of their own.
Payton looked over at Sydney dressed in her parade uniform and then down at his own.
He too was here to honor a man he’d come to like over the past few days.

Payton walked to the
hearse
with David and the President.
He was startled to see the latter man get in line to be a pall bearer.

David leaned close and whispered to him.
“Stay with Sydney, son. This is going to be hard on her. We’ll take him home.” Payton
nodded and walked back to Sydney.

~Chapter 23~

Sydney looked around at all of the people who had come to the grave.
She bit back a smile knowing that Shipley would have been royally pissed about all this.
She looked over at Payton when he squeezed her hand.

“He would have hated this,” he whispered in her ear.

“I was thinking the same thing.
It was what I wanted too.
No press, no people, especially no military.”

She looked over as
t
he casket was being brought to the grave. Six men held him up and three men with rifles walked on either side of them
with
one leading the way.
David was on Shipley’s left and the
President
on his right.
The flag lifted slightly in the breeze
,
but settled down again over the oak
repository.

Sydney hadn’t been to many military funerals even though she’d spent the last ten years in the service in the front line.
When a man
died in the line of duty
she would take a set of his dog tags and make sure the other set was out where it was visible for the next group to come through to pick them up
.
She knew that they would
make note of the name and outfit he or she had been with
before taking the body back to whatever ship was going home
.
She knew the name of every man
she’d taken a tag off of.

When Shipley was at rest everyone who could sat down. Sydney sat down with her family, Payton, David
,
and the
n
Candace.
The woman had hugged Sydney so tight earlier that she thought there might be a mark later. It had felt wonderful.

The eulogy was given by the President. He talked about Shipley’s years of service, his death for his country
,
and the honor
that
he’d felt having had a man like Roger Shipley work and serve for him.

David talked about the man.
“When I first met Shipley he was in a bar room brawl.
There were several men already laid out on the floor bleeding from various places
,
but none of them moved.
Shipley had his beefy arm around this little private and saying any number of things he was going to do to when he let go.”

Sydney smiled
,
remembering.

“Now at first glance
,
you’d say this man is a
nuisance
and needs to be put in irons and then thrown in the brig.
But he hadn’t
done
anything other than hold onto the private until help could arrive
.
He told me while he
,
himself
,
hadn’t
thrown a single punch
,
it was the private
in his arm
had done the
ass kicking.
But
he did feel it necessary to say that it was justified
all around
.
”

Several men she had served with turned to her and she smiled and shrugged at them. She heard Payton laugh and Cain groan.

“Two months later,” David continued.
“
Sergeant
Shipley asked to have the private put on his squad.
He and
Captain Waite, the private back then
,
had been together since.”

“What happened in the bar
?
” the President asked then flushed when everyone turned to him.
“I’m sorry. I would like to know what they did to her to have her lay them all out.”

David turned to her. “Captain Waite?”

She flushed again as she stood.
Several of her men were laughing now.
She stood up.
“I was shooting pool and winning. They accused me of cheating
.”

“But you were cheating, Capt.
You was good at it, but you was cheating,” someone shouted over the laughter.

“Yes
,
I was
,
but he said I was cheating by wiggling my as…butt
,
not cheating on the table.
H
e
said I was distracting him and the others from watching the plays.”
She
looked at
David
before she finally told him the truth.
“All I did was plunk him on the head w
hen
he smacked my bottom.
Shipley was hold
ing
me so I wouldn’t go after the other man who said my tits w
ere distracting as well.
He wanted a…he wanted to cop a feel of them.
I took
exception
to that.
”

Everyone
that hadn’t been laughing before was doing so now
,
including the President. David nodded to her and ended his talk when she sat down.
Payton leaned over to her and nipped hard on her neck before he spoke softly to her.

“No one touches your ass again but me.
Understood?”

She nodded
,
not trusting her voice.

“And when I get you home I’m going to show you who
should be spanking
that ass.”

Sydney didn’t move. She could feel her body respond to his promise by her nipples hardening and her pussy creaming.
She looked
d
own at the ring he’d put on her finger.

It occurred to her that she hadn’t answered him. Not that she knew what she would say when he pressed.
She did love him with all her heart
,
but marry him?
She wasn’t sure.
It wasn’t until they fired the twenty-one gun salute and one of the men handed her Shipley’s flag that she knew her answer.

~~~

Payton watched her closely. Something had changed since they’d left the cemetery and come to Cain and Alyssa’s home.
He wasn’t sure if it was a good change or not
,
but he did intend
to
find out what it was.
Before he could get to her to ask he was waylaid by Captain Grant.

“Detective Cooperider?
I was wondering if I may have a word or two with you
,
please
?
I understand you have a
grudge against Richard Conway?
Is that true?”

“I don’t know a Richard…the man who was engaged to Sydney?
Yeah
,
I do.
But I haven’t talked to the man.”
Yet
,
he added mentally, but he would
,
and soon.
“Why, has he said something?”

“No, not to me at any rate.
You say that he was engaged to Sydney?”
She
glanced back at the woman in question who was currently shaking hands with the
President’s
wife.
“
He’s the one who told her she wasn’t good enough for him?”

Payton nodded
,
but said nothing. He didn’t know how she’d come by that information
,
but had a good idea. His mother
,
he would guess.

“I was wondering if I could persuade you to come down to the office tomorrow sometime
?
I’d like a word with you.”

Payton had plans for tomorrow and for the rest of
tonight
as soon as he could get Sydney alone.
“No, here is fine.
What can I help you with
,
c
aptain?”

She laughed
;
it was a knowing laugh.
“All right.
I would like you to consider staying here and becoming a part of my force.
I sort of had a long conversation with your
c
hief in Jersey and he had a lot to say about you.”

Payton looked over at his
c
hief and when he winked back, Payton cringed.
“I’m sure you shouldn’t believe half of what he’s told you and none of the rest.
He’s pissed off because I quit today.”

Cait laughed again.
“
He said I’d be damn lucky if you didn’t have my job in a few years.
Said you were one of his best officers and if you di
dn’t
take the job he was going to kick your ass.”

Payton thought there was an awful lot of that going around lately. It seemed everyone wanted a piece of his ass. He glanced back over at Sydney.
She was the only one he was actually looking forwar
d to taking a bite out of it.