He also knew others would be completely overwhelmed because he had survived. As he had that thought, he suddenly realized with joy that Ice would be one of them. Ice and Levi. Then there was Izzie. He frowned for a moment, wondering at the name, until Isabella’s face came into his mind, and he realized it was his niece. He smiled at the thought. Cranky, cantankerous, difficult Izzie.
And yet she was the only blood relative in his life. Blachard was a half brother, as they shared a father, and Bullard had always considered Izzie family. He gave a happy sigh at the memory and the joy at having her firmly back in his mind. Now that he could let her know he was okay, and he assumed the team would have contacted her about the accident. But then again, if his flight had been sabotaged, had his team been targeted too? Had they been attacked?
Had somebody gone after everyone? He had run a big successful security-related business that had interfered in takeovers, coups, high-level crime, and espionage. His company was an international asset that had made a lot of enemies. He always knew there was a chance of somebody coming back after him; it was a dangerous life that way. But he’d hoped that he would have had some hint as to what was going on before now.
Just then he heard Leia call out that dinner was ready. He looked up, lifted a hand, and carefully moved from the river toward her place. He was interested to see just what a meal at her place meant. Somehow he had to get her to relax enough around him to make some progress in getting to know her. Not that she was nervous, just that she wasn’t used to sharing her island.
She’d spent so many years hidden away here that either she had become somebody who preferred her own space with her own silence and didn’t really know how to share herself anymore, or she was worried that he would say or do something that could set off feelings that she didn’t want to deal with. All in all, it was a very strange way to wake up to the world. And wake up was exactly what he had done. Every moment, every hour, more and more memories flooded back, and he couldn’t wait to fill in the rest of the holes.
Chapter 5
Several days later Leia realized just how strong Bullard really was getting, as she looked up at him, using a low-lying branch as a pull-up bar. Slow and steady, he’d been working at it every day. He wasn’t yet in what she envisioned as his top form, but he was about 80 percent there. And she knew that the probing questions and pushing wouldn’t stop. Now that he was almost free and he felt it physically, he was pushing himself hard. All he could talk about at this point was getting back to the world he had left behind and picking up the pieces of a life that she could only imagine.
He stepped out into the water after his push-ups and then went back at it again, jumping up lightly. He stretched and twisted in the early morning sun, as she came down with a cup of coffee for him. He looked up, then smiled. “I can’t believe how good I feel.”
“That’s great,” she said, trying hard to insert a note of joviality into her voice. But it was hard because, as soon as he felt good enough, he’d be gone, and she wasn’t ready for that. The minute that happened, she knew this place—that was home to her—would feel incredibly lonely, and she wasn’t sure how she would handle it. Of course she had been through enough in her life to know that she could handle him leaving; she didn’t get a choice after all. But, at the same time, it was something she really wasn’t looking forward to. Shaking off her sadness, she asked, “Ready for coffee?”
“I am,” he replied. Accepting the cup from her hand, he turned to look around and said, “I’ll really miss this place.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything. What could she say? “When are you leaving?” The words tumbled out without her getting a chance to control them.
He turned to look back at her. “Did you get me a cell phone?”
“No, but I’ve asked for one though. They’re heading to the mainland today, so, with any luck, maybe tonight.”
He nodded slowly. “Does anything here happen fast?”
Her eyes twinkled at that. “Island living,” she said, “so the answer is no.”
“It really is an island life, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “It’s a special way to live.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever really experienced it before,” he said, marveling at it. “I feel I’ve been on that go, go, go life since forever.”
“Exactly,” she said. “And, once you have, it’s pretty hard to let go of.”
“That brings us back to my question. What will you do?”
“Nothing here has changed for me,” she said. “You’ll leave and go back to the world you know, and I’ll be here, living my life, like I always do,” she said simply.
“Won’t you be lonely?”
“Meaning that I won’t survive without you around?” she said, her grin widening.
He laughed. “Okay, I guess that’s kind of foolish of me, isn’t it? But you’ve become a major part of my world for the last few months. It will feel very strange to just leave you behind.”
“Well, I don’t imagine there’s a place for me in your world,” she said. “It doesn’t sound like you were short on any kind of attention. Besides, for all you know, you have a wife and four kids at home.” She had said it lightly, but her gaze searched his face.
He shook his head. “No. None of that for me and my memories are filling in rapidly.”
She was happy for him because it was hard to imagine what life would be like if you were constantly missing a big chunk of who you were.
“No wife,” he said easily. “Although I’m still not sure about a couple people. They—it’s just that I don’t really have explanations for how much in my life they are, how it all fits.”
“Is that Ice?”
He nodded. “She’s married to a good friend of mine,” he said.
Leia stared at him in surprise. “Oh.”
He nodded. “See? So I’m not sure what that’s all about.”
“It’ll fill in slowly. Just let it happen in its own time,” she urged. Inside, her own heart was lightening. Maybe he was pining for someone after all. It didn’t seem possible, considering how big and strong and virile this man was. But still, she was happy to know that no family waited for him. That didn’t sound quite right because, of course, she wanted to know that he was happy and surrounded by people who loved him. But that was a long way from having a partner, staring at the door, wondering if he’d ever come home again.
“I have to leave soon,” he said.
“I get that,” she said. “So hopefully the cell phone is coming tonight.”
“We’ve been watched.”
She looked at him in surprise. “What? We knew about the one person for several days, but I haven’t seen anything since. Have you?”
“Not the same person. No,” he said. “But I have seen others.”
“Strangers?” she asked, stiffening.
He looked at her in surprise. “I don’t know if they’re strangers to you or not,” he said. “This is your life and your friends here. But they are strangers to me.”