SomedayMyGoodOleBoyWillCome Page 13

  “I don’t like the whole situation. Especially when it messes with my vacation.”

  “Well, how about some good news?” Gambit touched her arm, making Derek narrow his eyes in anger.

  “Let’s have it,” she said with a brilliant smile to the darkly tanned man next to her.

  “Your parents and Caleb weren’t more than an hour behind me.”

  Jacey bit the inside of her lip as tears filled her eyes. “Caleb will be here today?” Derek hated how happy that made her look.

  “Yes, ma’am. I figure they should be here in about twenty minutes or so.” He touched her arm one more time and added, “The files have been sent to your account, take a look at them so it will be out of the way when your parents and Caleb arrive.”

  She nodded. “Thanks, Gambit.” She paused for a second and smiled a smile that Derek noticed softened her whole look. Unlike the smile she sent him, this one reached her eyes. “For everything.”

  “No problem, Jack. We’ll leave you alone so you can get caught up.” Gambit sent a pointed look at Derek before he walked back over to where his plate had been refilled by his gracious hostess, Honey.

  Derek followed him, silently understanding the look on Jacey’s face as being totally focused on the work ahead of her. As much as he despised this man, Caleb, for coming and taking his woman away, he would not do anything to risk her not getting her job done.

  He knew that Gambit recognized him from the rescue and would not say anything about it, and neither would he. Derek assumed it was good that this man wasn’t the one that she was with. Regardless, he wasn’t about to give her up without one hell of a fight. She was his soul mate.

  * * * *

  Twenty minutes later, Jacey finished up her reading, not liking in the slightest what she had found, and a dark blue conversion van heading up the dirt drive. Jacey jumped out of her Jeep and ran to meet the oncoming vehicle.

  Everyone came over to welcome Jacob and Etta Mae back to Leeburg. Her father was the first one out, followed by her mother. Jacey hugged them quickly and then walked over to the passenger side of the van.

  Honey and everyone else watched as the door to the van opened. A large, solid black German Shepherd jumped out and Jacey smiled as she patted him on the head before he headed over to Etta Mae. A young voice reached those listening. “Atten-hut,” it barked.

  Jacey stood ramrod straight until she snapped out a salute to the young man that stood inside the van saluting her. After she lowered her hand, he did the same. The boy had dark hair cut in the high-and-tide Marine style. His eyes were blue and his skin was a little lighter than Jacey’s.

  “Permission to receive a hug?” the young one asked in his tenor voice.

  “Permission granted, Marine. Permission granted.” Her arms opened wide and the boy jumped from the van straight at Jacey, not a doubt in his mind that she would catch him.

  “I missed you,” she said as she hugged him close.

  “I missed you too.” His arms were tight about her neck and it was such a wonderful feeling. He looked up and saw Brian standing nearby with a smile on his face. “Gambit,” the boy said. “You lose.”

  “I should have known better than to make a bet with you, little man.” His deep accent made the child giggle, a sweet innocent sound.

  “What bet is this?” Jacey asked as she reluctantly set down her son.

  “Just one between men,” came her son’s response. Not a good answer, for her expression changed in a second, prompting the child to flash a smile that broke her heart. “Sorry, Mama.”

  * * * *

  Mama? Derek and everyone else, with the exception of Honey, stood in shock as they heard the child call Jacey “Mama.” She had not said one single word to any of them about this.

  Jacey put her hand on the young man’s shoulder and propelled him towards the gawking group. “I have some people I want you to meet. This is Uncle Frank, Auntie Ro, that there with the brown hair is Mr. Carson. Ms. Honey is next to him, you should remember her from the pictures. These two children are Savannah Rose and Tyler Clay Parker. Their parents, Mrs. and Mrs. Bubba and Susie Parker. Bubba is a deputy and Susie works at the bank. Next to them is Mr. R.J. Lawrence, he is the town’s mechanic.”

  “Who is the man next to Gambit?” The question rang across the group.

  “That is Mr. Derek. He is the oldest of the three Moser children.” Jacey looked at everyone in front of her, took a deep breath and announced, “I would like for everyone to meet my son, Caleb.”

  Caleb. Her son’s name was Caleb. That was the man in her life. Derek felt like such an ass; he had hated on a little kid. His eyes never left the small boy as Caleb headed over to talk with the other children there. He was full of confidence and not shy in the least.

  “Oh, Jace, he is adorable, ” Honey and Susie gushed.

  Those tremendous eyes of hers softened as she looked over her child. “Thanks. He is my pride and joy.”

  Caleb was playing easily with the children and his dog Shadow, for he knew he was going to be with his mother for a while. Besides, after being cooped up in the van and the plane, now he wanted to run and play. Every now and then he would swing his indigo gaze over to where his mother stood just to make sure he still saw her, send her a wave, and get back to the business of playing.

  Derek also noted how often he looked at the man they called Gambit. Suddenly the gravity of what she did rushed back to him and he grew livid. How could she do what she did, with a child?

  Two hours later, Gambit climbed into her rental Mustang, ready to head back to Atlanta after a quick farewell. “Take care of yourself, Blackjack. Call us if you need us.”

  Jacey smiled at the man who was like her brother. “Will do, Gambit. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure. See ya in a few.” That said, he sent her a quick salute, gunned the motor, and took himself away from the Moser Farm.

  Chapter Sixteen

  At eight-thirty sharp, Jacey stood at the back of her Jeep, satellite up and running connecting her by phone with a video feed for visual contact to her commanding officer. Her son was tucked away with her parents, so for all intents and purposes she was alone.

  “So you see this one, that I highlighted in yellow, would indicate their intent.”

  With a click of a button Griz was seeing what she had specified. Jacey had a small headset on that allowed her to speak over the phone to Griz without compromising the information that was up on the screen. Over one eye was a yellow screen that was full of scrolling words that Jacey was deciphering as she continued to talk and type on the keyboard.

  “Does this mean, to you, that they are planning something in that specific area?” His question came before his face popped back into view.

  Griz was a handsome man in his late thirties, tanned from working outside most of his life. He had a close cropped head of dark gold hair. A somber and granite like face was what one saw when they met Griz. His nose had a bump on it from where it had been broken in a long ago fight. His profile was strong and very stoic. And he took his job very seriously which was why he wore his typical frown.

  “I can’t give you a for-sure answer since I haven’t gone over everything here yet. Right offhand I would say yes, but then with this section,” she blew up something else big for him to view, “would indicate to me that they are trying to mislead. If I may ask, what did the others say?”

  Griz crossed his massive arms and glared right at her. Jacey didn’t take offense, for that was his way. “They would bet that they were planning here, based on the first thing you had highlighted. They didn’t even touch on this other stuff that you did.”

  “Why don’t you take it to the cryptologist? Get their opinion and make a decision from there. I mean…hang on. Look at this that I just saw.” In a few moments Jacey had the page that she had seen brought up for Griz.

  “What am I looking at?”

  Griz was a very intelligent man, good at his job. He was good at ops, not necessarily
the decoding of files. In fact, he much preferred action to reading. So did she, but she could do both. Griz liked her to look at things because she would give him a straight answer without worrying about the political ramifications of what it could potentially mean.

  “See this.” More highlighting on specific and seemingly random numbers both ordinal and cardinal. “It’s interspaced throughout the whole letter. If you put the numbers together what do you get?”

  Griz spoke at the same time the answer was put up on the screen. “Coordinates. Longitude and latitude coordinates.”

  “And if we put them in…” Jacey’s fingers were flying across her keyboard. “This is where they put us. Oh Jesus. Can that be right?”

  “Let’s hope not,” Griz said. Blinking on the screen in front of him blinking were three targets: Norfolk, San Diego, and Bremerton, WA.

  “They would cripple our military. Griz, please let someone else double check my work on this. I’m not a cryptologist.”

  “I know you’re not, but you see things in there sometimes that they don’t. But I will have this checked again. What about the other file?”

  “I got this from it.” Jacey closed out the first file and entered in the information that she had read and deciphered. “This set of letters in this file was like the previous one. It had more numbers placed sporadically in among their sentences, so it looks just like they are talking about directions and places. But again if I use the same logic that I did with the previous one then these coordinates pop up. Each of the seven letters had these coordinates in them, one set per letter.”

  She stopped talking as her fingers flew across the keys, bringing up a topographical map of the United States. As she hit the enter key, seven spots became highlighted on the screen that Griz and she were looking at. The top four busiest airports in the lower forty-eight states: William B. Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta; Chicago-O’Hare International Airport; Los Angeles International Airport; Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Also marked were the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, the US Military Academy in West Point, and finally the Naval Special Warfare center in California where the BUD training was for future SEALs.

  The sights on her screen made her heart leap in panic. “Griz, what’s going on here? Where did you get these files? Who gave them to you?”

  Jacey almost missed the half guilty, half disgusted expression that flashed across his face. Almost.

  “Look, Jack,” he began. “I got these files from—”

  Two suits sat themselves down on either side of her commanding officer. One male and one female, they put themselves into the view of the video feed on his computer. “Hello, Jacey,” the blonde female said. “We gave him the files and told him to send them to you like he normally would do. You are amazing.”

  Jacey’s eyes narrowed in silent warning. The two in the power suits either didn’t realize it or didn’t care. She recognized the look they were sporting, for her father wore it every day. They were CIA. The brown-haired, whip thin man took up the conversation.

  “Our people got what you got. Of course, that was after five people looked at it for three days. You, Jacey, did this in a few hours.”

  “I didn’t say you could call me Jacey, and tell me how you know who I am and what this is all about.” Her tone was short and snappish. Jacey didn’t like to be played.

  “We need your abilities in our company.” The buxom blonde again. She tossed her hair and smiled. “We are recruiting and we want you.”

  The man smiled as if Jacey should be so honored that they wished for her to join their organization. She wasn’t. Not in any way, shape, or form.

  Only two people in this conversation knew how Jacey felt about scams, and the two in the suits weren’t it. Even if she had been interested in their company they blew their chances with this game.

  She worked to control her anger. “Major?” her question came.

  She wanted to know where he stood on this deception. “It’s your call, Jack.”

  Jacey knew then that he had been forced to do this, for he would never take advantage of her skills unbeknownst to her. She took a deep breath and glared at the other two people. “Not interested.” Her gaze flicked to her CO and she nodded once, sharply. “See you in a few, Major.” Then she was gone.

  As she stood, packing up her equipment, she sensed movement behind her and spun around to find Derek approaching her. The look on his face was anger; Jacey didn’t know what had happened to piss him off so much.

  “I can’t believe you,” he seethed.

  “What is your problem?” Jacey was spoiling for a fight. Being snookered by the CIA had put her into one hell of a foul mood.

  “You have a son.”

  Black eyes narrowed dangerously. No shit, Sherlock. “Think very carefully about the next words out of your mouth. I won’t stand for anyone to disrespect my child.”

  “Like you give a damn about him.” Thick, corded arms crossed as Derek leveled his livid stare at her face.

  “Excuse me?” Her voice was drawn out by her surprise of his accusations. “What did you just say?”

  “Look at you. You have a child, what in the hell are you doing in a Spec Ops group?”

  Jacey lost all of her anger. She couldn’t be mad at him for that question for she had wondered that many times herself. Before she could begin to explain, Derek’s taunting, disgusted voice rang in her ears.

  “What kind of mother would do that? He should be taken away from you. Does his father know what you do?”

  Well, if Derek had been looking for a fight, he found one. All chances of her explaining everything calmly just flew out the window. In the space of a millisecond Jacey went from calm to being beside herself with rage.

  “How dare you…how dare you! You condescending bastard. What in the hell gives you the right to begin to judge me? Whatever you have to say about what I do for a living is one thing, but to stand there and imply that I am not a good mother…if I didn’t respect your family more I would kill you for that statement.”

  She clenched her fists. “There is nothing more important to me than the safety of my son. Nothing! And yes, his father knows what I do. What right do you have to stand there and judge me? Damn you, tell me! What right?” She had begun to shake her emotions were so tense.

  “I’m sorry,” he tried. “I know that sounded all wrong, but I know what it is like to lose one’s mother. I just don’t think that your son should go through it.”

  Her diamond hard eyes cut back to him, devoid of any warmth. “So what, losing a father is easier? I don’t think so.”

  “What makes you do this?” Derek had calmed down enough that his voice had returned to its normal deep tone. Seductive and dangerous.

  It didn’t work on Jacey like it usually did. “I do what I do so my son will have a future. I do it so he can walk to school and play outside with his friends without worrying that a plane will crash into a building beside him, or a bomb will go off on the public transportation system he is on, or some kind of biological component will be released, killing him. I do this so he will grow up to be a man in the best damn country in the world. I risk my life…so he will have one to live.”

  “I’m sorry for my earlier accusations. I guess I never thought about it like that.” He reached for her and stopped at her expression. “I know you love your son. Again, I’m sorry for what I said.”

  Jacey turned around without another word and started storing things in her Jeep once again. For a long time after Derek walked off she stayed by her vehicle.

  “Mama.” The quiet voice interrupted her silent musings.

  Immediately a smile broke across her face. “Hey, baby. What are you doing out here?” Jacey reached for her son and was rewarded with a huge hug.

  “I was going to the barn with Derek and stopped to say hi.”

  Jacey looked over her son’s shoulder and saw Derek waiting for him. He sent her a small smile as he gazed upon mother and son locked in
an embrace. “Well, have fun. Listen to what he says.”

  Caleb struggled to get down and as he was running back over to Derek he yelled, “I will, Mama. Don’t worry.”

  * * * *

  Inside the barn Derek showed Caleb the baby goats. “They are so cute, Mr. Derek. I like baby animals.” His small hand reached through the slats in the fence to pet them.

  “Your grandpa thought you might like to see them.” He just couldn’t get over how sweet this child was.

  “I do.” The innocence was so refreshing to Derek. This was one kid that he could find himself liking, and it wasn’t just because he was Jacey’s son.

  “Where is your father?”

  Derek wanted to find out about the man that had given Jacey a child. It might not be kosher to pump a child for information, but damn it all, he wanted to know something. Jacey didn’t seem to be inclined to tell him anything.

  Biting his lower lip, Caleb left the kids alone and sat down astride a hay bale that was in the aisle, his feet not touching the ground on either side. “D…don’t know,” he said with a shrug of his young shoulders.

  Some man had been fool enough to leave Jacey? What an idiot. If he had the opportunity he would never leave her side again. “I’m sorry to hear that. How old are you?” Wait a minute, I thought she said his father knew what she did.

  Derek was rewarded with a grin. “I’m six and a half. I was born in February. Why, d…do you want to buy me a birthday present?”

  Derek chuckled. Cute kid. Quickly he did some math in his head and the result was shocking. It had been in May that he had slept with Jacey. No, it couldn’t be…could it?

  “Mama says Daddy was a Marine like she is.” Caleb offered, not realizing what he was starting.

  “A Marine?” His heart plummeted.

  “Yes, sir. She said that he loved me even though he had to leave.”