Page 32 of Very Special Forces

"He wason the way to the grocery store so I thought I'd pay him a visit,"he replied without missing a beat. He probably wasn't evensurprised that I knew already.

"Maddoxdescribed it as breaking and entering."

"Such atattletale," Solomon whispered against my neck.

"Iappreciate the sentiment of protecting me but I don't believeMaddox would have shot me. He was putting on a show for hissuperiors. You know that as well as I do."

"All thesame," said Solomon. He released me and went to work on thebaguette, slicing it part way into sections and placing it on abaking pan. I handed him a couple cloves of garlic and he mashed itwith the butter before rolling it into a sausage shape and thenslicing discs to insert into the bread.

"You doremember I'm marrying you, don't you?" I asked.

Solomonsmiled. "I do."

"And Ican take care of myself?"

"Iknow... although... the elephant pajamas don't foster unequivocalfaith." He tweaked my collar and I playfully swatted his hand away."You didn't tell me if you found the tank."

"Ididn't find it," I confessed. "Lucas got a sighting of it in thatarea but when I poked around, I saw no evidence of it ever beingthere. Maddox made inquiries too and he said a vehicle that couldhave been a tank transporter was seen passing through the area inthe early hours of the morning but they weren't aware of itstopping."

"You'rebuilding a trail. That's good. Keep looking. It'll turnup."

"If itisn't already out of state."

"Strangeroute to choose if they wanted to take the tank across statelines."

"Goodpoint," I agreed. "All signs currently point to the tank beinghidden in the local area. Perhaps if I knew why it was stolen, I'dbe able to calculate where it is, although I don't mind if wherecomes first."

"A taskfor tomorrow," said Solomon. He inserted the baking tray into theoven and closed the door. Then he lifted the lid of the pan andstirred gently while the delicious aroma filled the air. "Tenminutes," he said.

"Whatshall we do for ten minutes?" I wondered aloud.

Solomonsmiled, circled his arms around my waist and tugged me closer. "Ican think of one or two things."

"We onlyhave time for one," I murmured against his lips.

"That'swhat you think," he said and winked.

ChapterNine

By thetime I woke up the next morning, Solomon had already left and myelephant pajamas were folded in a neat pile next to the bed. On topof them was a note that read "Love you." Smiling, I tucked the noteaway in my nightstand, went about my morning routine and headed towork.

I spenta large part of the day at my desk wading my way through thedigital data Lucas collected from multiple sources. When I wasn'tviewing footage of empty streets at night, I was bent over severalmaps, attempting to identify where the tank might be. There was noevidence to suggest the tank had left Montgomery but so far, I hadno indication of where it could be. It seemed like — poof! — itliterally disappeared.

Finally,I picked up the phone and placed a call. "Any sign of it?" Harrisasked.

"Therewas a sighting but I hit a dead end," I told him. "Any chatter onyour end?"

I heardthe sound of a chair scraping, footsteps, then a door closing."None, and so far, no one else has noticed it's gone but I don'tknow how long until someone finds out," said Harris when he cameback on the line. "Shit's gonna get real when someone notices andthen I'm a dead man."

"Literally?"

"Metaphorically. Kafsky isn't thrilled either but I'm thecaptain so I'll have to suck it up. Most likely, I'll getcourt-martialed, imprisoned, or dishonorably discharged. I don'tlike any of those options."

"That'sunderstandable." A thought occurred to me. "Has the tanktransporter turned up?"

"Yes.It's parked behind the hangar like usual."

"Andit's the same one?"

---