Nanny for the Army Rangers by Krista Wolf

 

Twenty-Four

 

 

DELILAH

“Hey stranger.”

Liam’s words halted me mid-step, as I quietly closed the door to the nursery. Getting the twins to sleep at the same time was a tricky feat, but I was getting better at it. Putting them down individually was always fraught with risk, because one could easily wake up the other. But on nights like these…

He opened his mouth again, as if to say something else. Moving swiftly, I brought one finger to my lips.

“Oh,” he whispered. “Sorry.”

I smiled and nodded, as we made our way back to the kitchen. He and Julius had arrived about an hour ago, greeting me with warm hugs hello and kisses for Jace and Courtney. They’d unpacked their duffel bags and taken showers in that time, while I got the little ones to bed.

“They were exhausted,” I explained as we slipped into the kitchen. “I took them to the duck pond, and the walking trails today.”

“Avalon park?”

“Yes.”

Liam grinned, telling me he was sorry he missed it. Julius on the other hand, had four pieces of bread out. He was rifling through the cabinets, looking for something in particular.

“So, we miss anything good while we were gone?”

A tight lump coalesced in my throat. “W—What?”

“I asked if we missed anything exciting while we were in the city,” Liam repeated. “You know, like milestones. Any new words or anything? I know Jace is a couple inches away from being able to finally climb onto the couch, and—”

“No, nothing like that,” I said with relief. “Courtney said ‘duck’ today, though.”

From the very back of the cabinet, Julius pulled out a can of SPAM. He blew the dust off it, and I wrinkled my nose.

“The first few times she said it, it sounded like… well… you know,” I smiled. “But eventually she got the ‘D’ sound down, so it’s all good.”

Julius opened the tin and began spreading mushy pink meat all over two pieces of the soft bread, which broke apart beneath the onslaught. Before I could voice my disgust he opened a can of cat food from God knows where and began spreading that too.

“What the hell is going on here?” I demanded.

Liam laughed. Reaching behind the counter, he pulled up a pair of long steel cages with trap doors at both ends. “These.”

I blinked in confusion, at least at first.

“Duncan mentioned you guys ran into a raccoon problem last night?”

“OH!” I sighed with relief. “That!”

“Yeah, he told us to pick up some traps on the way home,” said Liam. “He also said you’d show us where to stick them.”

Where to stick them…

I shook the filthy thoughts from my dirty mind and pointed toward the far doorway, just as Julius finished setting the two traps. He baited one with SPAM, one with cat food. I guess they were going for an A/B test.

“Come with me,” I said, leading the way. “I’ll show you.”

“And I’ll hang back and order pizza,” said Julius, washing his hands. “If you haven’t eaten yet, that is.”

I hadn’t eaten yet, and pizza sounded absolutely delicious. After picking my toppings — bacon and pineapple — I led Liam through the maze of locked doors and plastic-coated archways that led to the other side of the mansion. He had a raccoon trap dangling from each bare arm and a towel slung over one broad shoulder.

“Marshmallows too next time,” I called back to him.

“What?” Liam cringed. “On pizza?”

I laughed. “No silly, to bait the traps. Raccoons apparently love them. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Hmm, we’ll have to pick some up then,” Liam agreed. “I still kinda wish you were a marshmallow on pizza girl, though.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because it sounds interesting. And you’d probably make me try it.”

I stopped walking and crossed my arms. “Are you saying I’m not interesting?”

“No, of course not—”

“And I’d definitely make you try it.”

He looked good, all shower-casual and ready to relax. After chasing the little ones up and down wooded trails and across the duck pond all day, I was too.

We finally entered the room where we’d seen the raccoons, which looked very different in the sun’s dying light. Liam inspected the walls, and showed me some of the damage that had been done. But with a place this old, it was hard to tell old damage from new damage.

“So is that my present?” I asked, nodding toward the traps.

“What?”

“Duncan said you were bringing something home for me.”

Liam grinned as he set the first spring-loaded trap into place. “No, not at all.”

“So what is it then?”

“Be patient a little longer,” he said, “and we’ll show you in a bit.”

We.Now I was definitely intrigued. Whatever it was involved Julius too.

“So where’s Duncan off to?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Denver.”

“I know that,” I rolled my eyes. “But why?”

“Work stuff,” Liam said awkwardly. “He… has to meet some people.”

“Military people?”

I watched as he considered something before answering. “For the most part, yes.”

He set the second trap, centering the bread between the trap’s two entrances. Now that we’d stopped moving, the room was starting to smell like SPAM and cat food. It wasn’t a good smell.

“Fine,” I said, with an exaggerated sigh. “You get to know all about me, but I’ll just speculate about what you guys do.”

It came off a little bratty, but I didn’t care. I wanted to see how he reacted.

“C’mon Delilah,” he replied, wiping his hands with the towel. “It’s not like that.”

“It’s exactly like that,” I said. “But—”

“What if I told you what we do can be dangerous?”

I looked up at him, and saw that he was being genuine. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I guess I assumed it already was,” I replied. “Especially being not only Army but rangers too. I just figured there’d be a little more dialogue, more discussion.”

“We’re not just rangers,” said Liam. “We’re mercenaries, too.”

I knew the term, but only from books and movies. I didn’t realize it was real life stuff. It seemed a little too detached from real life.

“Like, people hire you? Or…”

“Exactly like that, yes.”

I thought back to what I’d seen so far, and what kinds of things they talked about when they thought I wasn’t listening. I didn’t know everything, but I had some idea of what the place they called ‘the Shop’ was all about. As well as one other thing:

“Julius isn’t active duty, is he?” I asked. “Not anymore, anyway.”

Liam froze in the middle of slinging the towel back over his shoulder. When he looked at me again, he seemed almost impressed.

“No,” he answered slowly, “he’s not.” He tilted his head. “How did you know that?”

“Hey, I live with the three of you, remember? I can’t help it if I pick up stuff.”

If his face had gone serious, it was only for a moment. The next time I looked at him, he was all smiles.

“Forget all that for now,” he said. “Tonight, none of us are working. The three of us have the night off.”

“Oh yeah?” I chuckled. “And what are we going to do with our night off?”

“Stick around,” Liam said, in a very terrible impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. “And find out.”