Debby Giusti - The Captain's Mission

“Okay. Humor me, Kelly.”

Sanchez stood by her car. He opened the passenger door and stepped aside as Phil placed her carefully on the front seat.

Kelly’s brow wrinkled. “I thought both of you were already at the farmhouse.”

“We got hung up on post. Lieutenant Bellows went on ahead of us. He’s probably waiting at the turnoff to the farm.” Phil bent to examine her leg.

She tried to swat his hands away. “That’s not necessary.”

He sat back on his haunches and stared at her. “Here’s the deal. Either I examine your ankle now or I drive you back to the emergency room on post and have the doctor on duty take a look at you.”

She raised her chin and closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, she nodded. “All right. Check my leg. Then I’m going with you to the farmhouse.”

“If your leg’s not broken,” he said.

“It’s merely a sprain.”

Phil worked his fingers over her narrow ankle until his thumb gently pressed a tender spot. She jerked.

“Chaplain, there’s a first aid kit in the back of my pickup. Would you get it for me?”

Once Sanchez handed the kit to Phil, he pulled out an ACE bandage and wrapped it snugly around her ankle. “That should help. At least until I can get you home.”

“You have to talk to Mrs. Taylor, and I’m going with you.”

The woman could be stubborn, but he knew better than to voice that observation. Instead he remained quiet as he handed the first aid kit back to Sanchez. “I’ll drive Agent McQueen’s vehicle. You follow in my truck.”

Once Phil slipped behind the wheel, he glanced at her and then in the rearview mirror to ensure the chaplain was ready before he started the engine. “We’ll pay Mrs. Taylor a visit and tell her about her husband. When we return tomorrow, we’ll ask her why a series of traps was rigged on the land not far from her mother-in-law’s property line.”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “You saw more than one?”

“As dark as it was, I can’t be sure, but I thought I passed a couple of rigged snares on my way to find you.”

“Animal traps?”

Phil shrugged. “Could be, but if so, they were looking for mighty big critters. Any bear sightings in the area?”

“I haven’t heard of any.”

“Tigers or lions?”

He could see a hint of a smile tug at her sweet lips. “Not recently.”

“Then as near as I can determine, the traps were set to catch another type of game.”

Kelly’s smile faded. “You mean the human kind.”

“Roger that.” Phil steered the car onto the road. “Wonder what’s going on in these woods that someone wants to keep off-limits?”

“And why,” Kelly added, “was a teenage boy, who was at a live-fire demonstration on post earlier today, wandering around in the night?”

Kelly’s leg hurt. Not that she would mention her discomfort to Phil. The mishap in the woods had caused him too much of a delay already. He and the chaplain needed to notify Taylor’s widow of what had happened as soon as possible. A difficult task, to say the least.

Still concerned about the wounded teen, Kelly called the Freemont police and told the dispatcher about the injured youth. He promised to send an officer to check the woods in case Kyle was still in the area.

“I’ll call them back tomorrow and see if they found Kyle,” Kelly said once she hung up.

Phil nodded, then pulled his eyes from the road and glanced at her injured leg. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.”

“Really?”

“It smarts a bit, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“I still think you need to have it X-rayed.”

“A couple doses of ibuprofen and I’ll be good as new.”

“Right.”

As they rounded a bend in the road, Kelly spied the mailbox and the split rail fence. Phil pulled up next to another car that had stopped just before the narrow dirt driveway.

Lieutenant Bellows lowered his window. “I was beginning to get worried, sir, when you didn’t show up. Everything okay?”

“We had a slight delay. Is this the place?”

“Yes, sir. As I mentioned, Corporal Taylor and his wife lived with his mom.”

Phil glanced at the farmhouse sitting on a knoll in the distance. “Let’s get this done.”

“Yes, sir.”

The three vehicles turned onto the drive and headed along a path marked with potholes to a gravel-covered parking area to the left of the house. A porch light illuminated the clearing, sending long shadows into the darkness.

“Stay put and I’ll come around the car to help you,” Phil said to Kelly as he opened his own door. Before he could reach the passenger side, she had stepped onto the gravel.

Putting weight on her ankle sent a razor-sharp pain straight up her leg. She groaned. Not loud, but loud enough for him to extend his arm and grab her elbow.

“I said I’d help you.” He closed her door.

She was grateful the darkness hid her flushed cheeks. She didn’t need the handsome captain, who was standing way too close, to realize she was anything but composed at the present moment.

“I’m fine, really.” She tried to extricate her arm from his hold, but he continued to support her.

“The gravel is uneven, Kelly.”

She shoved her chin up a notch and averted his gaze. Her body’s reaction to his nearness must be the result of the upside-down tumble she’d had in the woods. Everything inside her was out of kilter, including her ability to remain focused on anything except the tall, broad-shouldered guy who had become her shadow.

Surely he was aware of the effect he had on women. Kelly had seen him numerous times at the club on post surrounded by a gaggle of beautiful women. Okay, maybe that was stretching the point. After all, she wasn’t even sure how many women constituted a gaggle. Three? Four? Maybe five?

But the women she had seen fawning over Phil had been tall and svelte and drop-dead gorgeous. Thinking of her own petite frame, Kelly knew she was anything but svelte. Slender, maybe. Intelligent, yes. But svelte? Definitely not!

Squaring her shoulders, she limped toward the porch and grasped the railing as she climbed the stairs with Phil at her side, his hand supporting her. He leaned closer to ensure she could navigate the last step, causing her knees to almost buckle. Seemed the attentive captain had a strange effect on her equilibrium.

At least she remained upright thanks to his hold on her arm, which proved the captain was good for something. Instantly, she regretted the internal sarcasm.

“You’re too critical of men.” Her mother’s words came back to taunt her. Kelly didn’t need the mental recollection of a chastisement she had heard too often growing up, which was usually followed by, “Your father loves you in his own way.”

Her mother painted a picture of their little family that was anything but pretty to Kelly. Invariably, she chose to ignore the very obvious fact that Kelly’s father had never seen the need to marry her mother.

Kelly was a McQueen—her mother’s maiden name—instead of a LeBlanc. In Kelly’s opinion, the lack of a marriage certificate proved her father, Charles LeBlanc, was only interested in sweet-talking her mother and not establishing a long-term relationship with either her mother or his only child.

Daddy dearest had died thirteen years ago on a dismal night she tried to block out of her mind. Not that she was always successful.

Still holding her elbow, Phil raised his hand to knock just as the farmhouse door flew open. A woman with chestnut hair stood in the doorway, her green eyes alight with expectation. Confusion quickly took the place of the initial glimmer of hope. Her forehead wrinkled and her hand flew to her heart.