“Watch your mouth, little sister. That’s my wife you’re talking about.”
Everyone in the room gasped. “Well, well. You can tell me all about this remarkable woman on the plane, bro. Besides, my partner is getting the information for you. It’ll be here when you get back.”
With a shrug of surrender, he gave in, and Inez flashed him one of those million-dollar smiles of hers. The kind that had men banging at her door in herds. He wasn’t impressed; he knew how much it had cost.
He had one last call to make. Going into his private office, he called Eduardo and gave him specific directions on how to reach a certain redwood tree and bring back a precious item he’d hidden there, wrapped in oilcloth. That done, he tried Antonio to see if he’d gotten Helen’s number, but all he reached was his brother’s answering machine.
Within an hour of Ramon’s call, Rafe was out the door and headed for the airport with his nagging sister badgering him the whole way. Five hours later, he sat beside his brother in a drab Mexico prison cell. They were both under arrest.
Inez was holed up in the local hotel running up his American Express bill. He hoped a few of the bills would be for telephone calls to bail them out.
And all he could think was, Helen, where are you? I miss you, babe.
Helen had been drugged for two days.
She’d been frantic when her memory returned and she’d learned that Rafe was being detained for interrogation, as if he’d done something wrong. “I want Rafe. I want Rafe,” she’d kept screaming. Only when her father had promised to get Rafe released had she sat down and stopped shrieking.
“That soldier was responsible for almost killing you,” her father had seethed. “I’ll see him court-martialed.”
“Helen, your father’s right,” Elliott had added. “He didn’t follow correct military procedure.”
Both men had flinched when Helen told them what they could do with their “correct military procedure.”
After setting her father and all the other brass straight, Helen had been examined by the base physician, who learned that she was pregnant. That had created a new flurry of arguments.
First, she’d had to explain to Elliott that, of course, it wasn’t his child. They hadn’t had sex in months. He’d been on assignment overseas much of the time.
After apologizing for her “infidelity,” which was difficult to do without disclosing details about the time travel, Helen had called off the wedding. Elliott had been surprisingly good about the whole thing, wanting to know what he could do to help her. Elliott was a good man.
Her father hadn’t been so understanding. Not about her breaking the engagement. Not about her involvement with “that rogue lawyer.” Not about her pregnancy. Not about her plans to leave the military. In fact, nothing she’d said set well with him.
Helen hadn’t cared. Rafe was the most important thing.
When Helen had begun raging at her father again, demanding to be taken to Rafe, her father had signaled the doctor and they’d given her a sedative, one that was safe for pregnant women. She hadn’t awakened for two days.
Now, a week later, Helen was finding it impossible to make contact with Rafe. Oh, it wasn’t that she couldn’t locate him. She had his office number in L.A. which she’d called repeatedly. Most times, she just got Rafe’s answering machine, but sometimes Lorenzo answered. “He is still in Mexico, Miss Prescott. That’s all I know. Would you like to leave a message?”
Helen had a feeling that Lorenzo wasn’t writing any of her messages down, or that they weren’t being transmitted to Rafe. Why else wouldn’t he call her?
“I know why he hasn’t called you,” her father told her three weeks later.
“You do?” Helen looked up hopefully. She’d been kneeling on the floor, sorting through boxes that had been sent to her father’s house. They represented all the belongings she’d accumulated over twelve years in the military. She stood now, waiting.
“Honey, I don’t want you hurt,” he said softly. “Really, I just want you to put this man behind you. You’re too good for him.”