Page 84 of Avenging Kelly

Kelly’s excuse for the doctor was that it was shrapnel from an explosion when he was in Mosul and we quickly left the office. At least I knew he hadn’t broken anything.

We didn’t talk about it again, but I knew Kelly was secretly satisfied that everything she’d told him wasn’t a lie. We’d always wonder if all of the operatives had chips or if that bitch had reserved that special hell just for him.

Kelly sighed. “Yeah, she’d said they lost me in Seattle which might have been out of range of whatever she used to track me, or maybe it was because Orr lost us when we went to Hope Island. After Dallas tased me, I just accepted that the chip was fried and didn’t think about anybody being able to revive it.”

I looked at Casper, who nodded. “Good enough. I’ve been doing a bit of research while we waited for you.”

Casper reached around to the printer behind him and pulled off some papers, handing them to me. It was a list of countries with no extradition treaty in place with the United States.

“First one is the list. The rest are information sheets on the ones I think you’d like. If I was going to leave the US and live anywhere else, I’d go to Tunisia,” Casper offered, so I flipped to that page and Kelly and I began reading about the independent country on the northern coast of Africa.

“We don’t speak Arabic,” I commented, seeing the languages commonly spoken: Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, and French.

“Get yourself an app and learn French. I’m sure they speak English, too, but probably not willingly. They’re high on the Human Development Index. They’re now an independent nation and have a president and parliament. High per capita income, and it’s beautiful there. I put in a call to Giuseppe to see if he has friends in any of those places. If you don’t want to be so far away, the Dominican Republic”—I leafed through the pages and found the sheet on it—“looks good.”

“Ah! Spanish and English,” Kelly stated as he put his finger on the paper where the languages were listed. There were issues with sharing the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, but there was a thriving tourist trade, so finding a job wouldn’t be hard.

The next day, one of Giuseppe’s private planes picked us up at Teterboro, and we went into hiding in Italy with the Torrente family while we worked out the details of where to live and what to do for a living. We celebrated Daisy’s first birthday in our new home in Santo Domingo.

* * *

Present

Walking out of the cool airport into the blazing sunshine of a Las Vegas morning always surprised me. We had heat in Santo Domingo, but it was a humid heat that we’d grown accustomed to over time. The dry heat of Las Vegas just felt different to me, but it appeared to suit my brother just fine if his big grin was any indication.

“What time’s Kelly get in?” Dallas asked as I was putting Daisy in the back seat. She’d slept on the overnight flight, and I could see she was going to want to play soon.

“After midnight. We had a fishing tour this morning that we couldn’t cancel, and then he’ll fly to Miami for a three-hour layover, then a direct flight here. He said he’ll pick up the rental car from the airport. How about you? What’s new?” I asked him, cocking my eyebrow as I turned to judge his reaction.

He smirked at me. “Things are great. You think about coming back? Oh, Mom’s pissed at me. I wouldn’t let her come along because you and I both know she’d monopolize the conversation. I wanted a chance to make a pitch to you before she started railing at you about her granddaughter being raised like a wild child,” Dal answered, making me laugh.

Mom had visited us in Santo Domingo a few times, and every time she left, she begged us to come back to the States and live in New Mexico where she could help us raise a civilized little girl. Kelly and I laughed about her protests all the way home after dropping her off at the airport.

I always said we’d think about it, but honestly, we were happy with our life where we lived, and Daisy was thriving there. She spoke Spanish better than Kelly or me, and with such a diverse culture, she had learned lessons we could have never taught her in New York.

“Look, I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but we love where we’re living. She starts school in a few weeks, and the charter business is booming. I don’t want to rock the boat—no pun intended—but we’ve made a life there.”

After we’d been in Santo Domingo for six-months, Kelly had gone to work for a marina as a mechanic, and I’d been hired by one of the charter companies to help out with tours and deep-sea fishing trips.

We both got scuba certified, and after a while, Kelly came to work at the company where I managed the tour schedule. It was owned by Juan Ortez, a kind man who took us under his wing, and when Juan decided to retire, we bought the business from him and kept on the employees, as per his request. Our lives were fantastic and our daughter was happy. I couldn’t ask my family to give any of it up.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Daisy talking to the rag doll that Juan’s wife, Marcy, had made her to keep her company on the flight. The doll had a lot of little pockets that had surprises in each for Daisy to discover when she got bored. It was a fantastic gift to have for a captive little one.

Marcy and Juan had become surrogate grandparents to Daisy, which I knew bothered my mom, even though she’d met Marcy and liked her a lot. The Ortez’s were accepting of Kelly and me raising Daisy together, and along with their son, two daughters, and three grandkids, they’d made us feel like we were part of their family. No, our life was perfect as it was, and I didn’t want to change it for anything.

“How’s the bounty business?” I asked my brother.

“It’s good—changing, but without change, things get boring. I’ve always got a spot for you guys if you wanna move here.”

Later that night when Kelly slid into bed next to me at the small house we’d rented for our two-week stay in Vegas, I turned onto my side and looked at my handsome partner. He’d finally stopped getting the military haircut and was letting his soft brown hair grow out to the point he rocked the manbun when we were working on the boat. He kept his beard trimmed short because it got hot on the sea during those balmy Caribbean days, but he turned heads when we went out. I was proud to be by his side.

I’d kept the goatee, though now it had a lot more salt than I’d have preferred, along with my pre-maturely gray mop. I’d threatened to shave it once, but Kelly pitched a fit, so I left it. I was forty-one, so it wasn’t like I didn’t know I’d eventually go gray. Besides, I’d heard the term “silver fox” aimed in my direction more than once, so maybe it wasn’t all bad.

“Missed you. You just get here?” I asked him as I pulled his hard body closer to me.

“Yeah. I checked on our princess to see she still has Sunny the rag doll in her clutches. How was the flight? She do okay?” Kelly asked as he kissed along the column of my throat reminding me of every good thing I’d missed about him in the twenty hours we’d been apart.

“Yeah. She did great. She was happy to see Dal and Mom. As I predicted, Dallas tried to entice us to move back. Said we could work with him if we wanted. Mom jumped on that bandwagon pretty quick and said she’d move up here from Silver City if we did,” I explained to my partner.

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