Page 106 of Wicked Devotion
Everything is still in its respective package, apart from thethick slices of prosciutto. The bread was toasted a tad too long, the bowl sitting in between two bags of cornflakes and a jug of milk. Halved avocados with the pit still lodged inside roll around on the fruit platter because that is obviously where they belong, accompanied by a handful of blueberries, an uncut orange, and two apples.
It’s so adorable the pain in my heart stops for a moment.
Lily reaches for her cup, filled to the brim with tiny marshmallows and maybe a little bit of hot chocolate.
Just as I want to thank Logan, I’m interrupted by the sound of my ringing phone. In the past two days, I haven’t really used it, and since I didn’t want anything or anyone to disturb Lily’s sleep, I let it charge in the living room.
“I’ll be right back,” I mumble, and Lily turns to Logan, continuing their conversation while I walk over to the couch table.
Two missed calls from Joyce and four from Sam, combined with the fact that the current caller is Rockwell, make my stomach churn.
“Max, fucking finally,” he sighs once I pick up the call. “Tell your man we’ll have a problem if he keeps rejecting my calls. I’ve got bad news.”
“I already figured.” I walk back to the table after Logan asks who I’m talking to for the fourth time. “Rockwell,” I mouth while I sit down.
“Logan’s with you?”
Pressing my lips into a thin line, I put him on speaker.
“Yes.”
“Good. Joyce called me when she couldn’t get in touch with you. There’s a problem with your leave, and before you ask, yes, it is because of him. You need to come back. Today,” he adds, not giving me the chance to protest. “They’ll count it as unauthorized absence if you’re not here by tonight, and I really can’t take care of more shit right now.”
“What’s that got to do with me?” Logan chimes in, and a few froot loops spill out of his bowl, rolling over the table.
“Sanders threatens to re-evaluate your contract, huffs about spending taxpayer money while you’re not even here to do your part.”
“Tell him to suck my dick—“ Logan says with a mouth full of cereal, swallowing hastily before he continues. “No, wait. Tell him I’ll have him choking on his own sad appendage if he doesn’t keep his mouth shut. And then I’m going to—“
“Logan, it’s serious. You need to come back.”
On the other end of the phone call, a door is slammed shut, and when a furious Sam starts yelling in the background, Rockwell ends the conversation. Not before repeating that it is urgent and that we need to be back on base tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest. So much for our vacation with Lily.
“What about me? Can I come with you?” she asks, turning white as a ghost as she puts her half-eaten sandwich down on her plate.
“She should stay here,” Logan suggests. “We’ll leave you the car and tell Mrs. Worthington to check on you every one or two days until we can come back. The 203 won’t find you here.”
“No,” I say, worrying my lower lip. “Forgot to tell you, but it was Nick standing in front of the cabin that night. He said they’ve been having some issues around here lately. Didn’t go into details, but he made it pretty clear that we shouldn’t leave Lily on her own.”
“Sunshine, this house has more security systems than Fort Knox.”
“Doesn’t matter. Nick wouldn’t have been so nervous about simple break-ins. If anything happens to Lily, it would take us hours to get here and don’t even start bringing up Mrs. Worthington. An eighty year old with a shotgun can only do so much.”
“You’re probably right,” Logan says, continuing to eat his cereal. “Well, I guess you’re going back to Ruby.”
I don’t know if he doesn’t grasp how big the steaming pile of shit awaiting us is or if he simply doesn’t care.
We eat the rest of our breakfast in silence, and once Lily is done, I send her off to her room to pack her things and get ready.
“It’s bad, right?” Logan asks as we are alone.
I nod and decide to push my heartbreak aside to focus on the more pressing issue.
“We’re going to drop her off at the local airport. I don’t want her to enter base with us, I don’t want her name to appear anywhere Sanders could get his dirty hands on.”
I’m surprised by the venom my voice carries, and on the table, Logan takes my hand in his.
“Whatever you say, Sergeant Vaughn,” he says, tracing circles over the back of my hand with his thumb. “Think they’ll try to arrest me when we’re entering base? Just so you know, I’ll fight back.”
