“Good,” he said, “because I’m definitely not here to make your day.”
Shocked, she didn’t know what to say.
“Instead,” he said, “I’m here to make sure somebody else’s day takes a turn.” And, with that, he lunged forward, slapped a hand over her mouth and pinched her neck. And slowly, almost like in the comics, she sagged in his arms, until she was on the floor. He picked her up while she was barely conscious and threw her over his shoulder, then disappeared into the trees.
*
Bullard and Dave finally fell silent, after both had been talking so fast, trying to fill each other in on what had happened. Dave had been doing the bulk of the talking, but then he had asked about Leia, and that had started another whole conversation.
Bullard took several long slow deep breaths. “It’s been really good to be here,” he said. “It’s been a step out of the craziness of my normal world that I hadn’t realized I needed.”
“I kept telling you that you needed to take more time off,” Dave said.
“I hear you,” Bullard replied.
“But you haven’t been really hearing me. You’ve just been listening on a surface level.”
Bullard groaned and rolled his eyes. “Okay, so the world forced me to slow down.”
“Exactly. And now it’s a matter of slowly getting back in, and realizing how much and what you want to do, plus how much you don’t want to do.”
“I want to ease back and not do as much traveling, and I don’t want to be as heavily involved.”
“Let’s face it,” Dave said. “A lot of what you were doing was filling your time and your mind, while trying to forget Ice and all that.”
“I don’t want to forget Ice,” Bullard said quietly. “She’s a very special part of me, and she always will be.”
“Yes, but you didn’t allow yourself room to find anybody else,” he said.
“Maybe so.” He shrugged. “But it feels like that was a long time ago.”
“And I think that’s why this break was so important for you. Honestly I’m surprised at how well you’ve matched up with Leia. The fact that she saved your life is also a pretty positive thing and of course builds a bond that you may not have expected,” Dave said. “But, at the same time, it’s also given you a chance to get to know her. Before, you had short relationships, more of a stress relief than anything. Women were all over you, more than willing to become something more, but you couldn’t see them.”
“Not sure I do now either,” he said.
“No,” Dave said, with a smile, “but that’s because you also see Leia now.”
He looked at Dave and asked, “What do you think about her coming back with me?”
“I think that would be lovely. We do need to look into her history though, and I’ve already started the team on it,” he said.
“Good. I think it’s completely wrong for somebody to accuse her of something like that, only to find out that they actually committed murder in order to get rid of her.”
“The other thing you have to consider,” Dave said, “is the fact that it’s all too possible,” and he hesitated.
“All too possible, what?”
Dave took a deep breath. “You don’t really know Leia.”
Bullard glared at him, though he knew better than to immediately jump in and defend her because Dave was right; Bullard didn’t know Leia. Yet he did. He knew her in the way anybody who’d survived a traumatizing event knew the person who cared for them selflessly the way that she had, day in and day out. But he also knew that Dave wouldn’t have seen it, wouldn’t have known it. And he still would be the pragmatist that said Bullard really didn’t know who she was. He stared out at the ocean, and his jaw twitched.
“I know it’s not something you want to hear,” Dave said, “and it’s not something that I want to bring up either. But the facts remain. You do not know her that well, and, for all you know, she’s lying.”
“Check with Ice,” he said suddenly. “Her father’s in the industry, so he would probably know something about it.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dave said, pulling out his phone. He immediately sent off texts.
“Did you tell Ice?”
“Hell yes, I told her,” he said. “She’s been screaming for joy ever since she found out. Terk has been looking for you. Even telling her that you were alive. Plus, he’s the one who said he had found you.”
Something settled inside Bullard. “I’m glad to hear that. Terk is something else,” he said softly. “Ice will always be special.”
“She will,” Dave said. “But it’s also time for you to find something more for yourself.”
He looked at him, looked up in the direction of Leia’s cabin, and said, “Yes, I think you’re right. And I think Leia is it.”
“Good,” Dave said. “You would make me very happy if that was the case.”
Bullard looked at his old friend and smirked. “Even if I don’t know her?”
“By the time we’re done analyzing her background and tearing her life apart,” he said, “it won’t make much difference.” Immediately Bullard frowned at him. Dave chuckled. “You know what I mean.”
“I know,” he said, “but I wouldn’t want to hurt her.”
“We’re not in the business of pulling wings off butterflies,” Dave said, “but, if we’ve got black widows flying around, you can bet that we’ll take care of them appropriately.”
Bullard rolled his eyes at that. “She’s not a black widow.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” he said. At that, Bullard stood slowly and stretched. Dave assessed him carefully.
“I’m better,” Bullard said. “Not in peak form yet by any means, and I’ve just slowly started rebuilding the muscles, but you and I both know I’m not there.”
“But you’ll get there,” he said.
“Maybe. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get back to where I was though.”
“Do you know how badly you were hurt?”
“No,” he said. “I have no memory except that chaotic moment of the plane exploding.”
“And you just woke up here?”
“I woke up here, completely incapacitated and tied down in many ways,” he said. “I don’t know all the details, but I had a very broken body,” he said. “I was very blessed that she was the one who found me.”
“Interesting that she didn’t let anybody know.”
“I think that even then she knew,” Bullard said.
“Knew what?” Dave asked, confused.
“That I had been targeted,” he said quietly. “She was always about secrecy.”
“That’s kind of creepy, isn’t it?”
“Maybe, but I’ll take it because she kept me alive.” He frowned, looked at his buddy, and said, “Speaking of which, she should have come back by now.”
“Missing her so soon?” he teased.
“I haven’t gone more than one conscious hour without seeing her all this time,” he said.