“So we’re back to the Barillo family?” Meg asked.
“Or someone with ties to the Barillo family—and money,” Brett said. “Diego and I are going to see Phil Kinny tomorrow. He has some ideas that might add to what we’ve been talking about here. We’re going to pay a visit to Anthony Barillo, too.” He turned to Lara. “After that threat yesterday, I was thinking that maybe you should come with us tomorrow, so we can make sure you stay safe.”
She smiled at him. “Not tomorrow. It’s Just Say Thanks day. I’ll be running around like a chicken with my head cut off.”
“Mike the chicken,” Brett said.
“What?” Meg asked.
Brett shrugged. “Look it up. Diego told me about it. Back in the 1940s a chicken lived for months with most of its head missing.”
Meg and Matt stared at him.
“I’ve heard about Mike the chicken. Our zombies still have their heads, at least,” Meg said.
“Until they don’t,” Lara added very softly.
Brett looked over at her and felt his body grow tense. Apparently there was something to chemistry after all.
He hated knowing that she had to go to work tomorrow, but she wouldn’t be alone. Meg and Matt would be there.
Not to mention hundreds of retired members of the American military.
He wanted to argue that she should leave the event to someone else and be with him. It was that primeval need every caveman felt to protect his woman. But he didn’t say anything. It was pure ego to think that he could be a better protector than Meg and Matt. Not to mention that it was wrong to take something away that meant so much to her—and to so many others, as well.
He’d actually intended to be there himself, but there was no waiting on this case. He and Diego had to follow these new leads.
“Tomorrow,” he told her, “you have to be careful. Very, very careful. Please.”
“Tomorrow,” she assured him, “I’ll be safer than ever. The place will be flooded with people—including the media. I can’t imagine a situation where there could possibly be more help at hand—if help was needed, which I’m sure it won’t be,” she said. “I’ll be surrounded by the military, for heaven’s sake. And of course I’ll have Meg and Matt with me at all times.”
“I know,” he said.
She smiled. “And I’ll also have Miguel Gomez.” She paused and touched his arm. “He was there this evening when I went to see Cocoa. She sees him, too. He’s lost and so sad. I really pray that there’s a heaven and that he’ll find Maria there.”
“I believe that they’re meant to be together forever and that they will meet again,” Brett assured her. And, he realized, he did believe it.
“Have you seen her again? Maria?” Meg asked him.
He shook his head. “But I haven’t been home in days except to grab a change of clothes. She only shows up at night, or when I’m just waking up, actually.”
“Miguel definitely wants to help,” Lara said with a smile, “and he’s going to be watching out for anything strange now, too.”
After dinner they returned to Sea Life, where Brett and Lara went down to the docks to see Diego.
Brett caught him up on the conversation they’d had at dinner, and Diego nodded gravely. “Mike the headless chicken,” he said. “And to think you mocked me.”
“You have to admit, it sounds pretty strange,” Brett admitted.
“You two better go get your sleep—or whatever,” Diego said. He winked at Lara. “After the ‘whatever,’ you should have plenty of time to rest.”
“He must be speaking from experience,” Brett told Lara. She laughed softly, linking an arm through his, and they left Diego there on the platform. He’d apparently formed his own relationship with the dolphins. Brett looked back and saw two of them swim over and let Diego stroke their backs.
Back at the house, he and Lara tiptoed past Meg and Matt, who already seemed to be asleep on the couch. Up in the guest room of Grady’s suite, they turned to one another by instinct and fell swiftly into a frenzy of lovemaking, as if they really did have only minutes.
He wondered if making love to her would ever get old.
No, never old. Just more comfortable, easier, with more time to laugh and tease.
But it would always be amazing.
As he drifted to sleep, he thought of Miguel. And he wondered if this was how Miguel had felt about Maria when it had all begun for them.
*
Lara had done more work on the Just Say Thanks day, with press releases and appeals to their sponsors, than on anything else since her arrival at Sea Life. She’d approached it with every bit as much passion as she ever had brought to her political campaign work and enjoyed it more.
They always hoped for contributions to help keep the place afloat, but they didn’t have to kowtow to lobbyists, nor were they expected to provide payback beyond the occasional gala dinner and special opportunities to interact with the dolphins.
Far better than politics!