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water, but he held fast to her wrist in a death grip.
The cave entrance the open sea, waves of heroic proportion cascading into the
cavern.
Culhane fought the waves, as if they were human enemies trying to destroy him
and the woman whose wrist he would not let go. Two SEALs reached out to them,
grabbing Mulrooney. Culhane waved them ahead with the light.
The current battered Culhane. but with Fanny no longer in tow, the effort was
a little less. Culhane forced himself out of the path of the freight-training
waves, shaking his head to clear it. swimming along a rock wall. The SEALs
were ahead of him. Fanny and JeAnn with them.
The shimmering of moonlight Culhane reached for it, reached. His head broke
the-surface of the water, the white sand against the black rock of the grotto
brilliant.
Perhaps they were within the eye of the Hurricane.
The sand was shoaling under him and, on his knees, Culhane started to drag
himself from the breakers crashing around him. The wind was still high, the
storm surge high as well. But, the Hurricane had passed. If they had been
inside the Hurricane's eye, the winds would have been almost dead calm.
Whatever the fate of Hurricane Elfego. it was gone from this beach, from this
sky.
On his feet, Culhane staggered at last onto the sand. Fanny Mulrooney,
violently shiverring, her body wrapped in a Space Blanket, came into his arms,
huddled against him.
Culhane tore away his face mask, holding it in the fingers of his right hand.
"Josh!" Mulrooney was screaming at him.
"Hold me," he shouted to her, her arms going tight around him.
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Both of them looked toward the highest outcropping of the black escarpment.
The rock above the grotto was warping, drawn downward, then bulging upward. A
whirlwind of green and red light burst skyward into the moonlight, the
cracking sound of it like that of a thousand gunshots.
And then, silence except for the rushing of the high surf and the keening of
the wind and Fanny's breathing beside his face.
Chapter Thirty
Mary Frances Mulrooney leaned her head back, shaking her hair out, across the
back of the couch. She could never remember the name of the cut on the CD that
was playing, but they both liked it and Josh had it set to repeat. It was
long, slow, a sexy sounding saxophone wailing through it.
Culhane crossed the room. sitting down opposite her as she looked across her
body at him. "All those men seeing me naked like that," she whispered.
He handed her a glass of Myers's dark rum in one of his Doc Holliday glasses.
"Rather have the whole bottle and a straw?"
Mulrooney laughed. "I was thinkin' about it."
He stood up, crossed to her side of the couch, then dropped to his knees in
front of her. She leaned forward, Culhane's hands touching at her face,
holding her face there. "Don't let go of me," she whispered.
"Never, promise ya," he smiled, kissing her lightly on the lips. She leaned
farther forward, sliding down from the couch. nestling into his arms as he
leaned back. her head against his chest. He wore no shirt. The hair there
tickled her. "Anyway," she heard him say. "the SEAL Team guys were too busy to
notice."
"That I was naked? Thanks a lot. Josh!"
"It was the guys on the Capricorn who picked us up they were the ones who
couldn't take their eyes off you. Notice how long it took one of 'em to come
up with something more than that blanket? Huh? Think that was an accident?
Hah!"
"I love you."
"I know that. I love you too."
"Too bad they made me sign those papers you made me sign those papers!" She
sat up, on her haunches. staring at him. "Why did you make me sign that
secrecy stuff? You realize what a book that would have made?"
He looked at her, smiled he had pretty eyes, she'd always thought. Brown eyes
like a loveable puppy. "Would you really have wanted to relive that enough to
put it on paper?"
She didn't answer him.
Momma Cinda and JeAnn she thought of that, seeing them hold each other. love
each other like a mother and daughter should love each other. On the
Capricorn. JeAnn had told her that she was going to open a clinic on St.
Peter's Island Father Whitehead could maybe help find some property for it.
She would keep her practice, but run the clinic, supervise it.
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Culhane had told JeAnn about the Gris-Gris for the submarine. about the one he
had carried through it all when he had fought the demon how Momma Cinda had
been the one who really saved the day.
Admiral Case had met them at the marina that's what Culhane had called it.
She'd thought it was just a boat dock. He had already begun proceedings for
recommending Commander Eddleston of the SEAL Team for posthumous awarding of
the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Marines the ones that hadn't survived.
There would be commendations for all of them.
"You wanna dance?"
"Dance?"
"Yeah you know you shuffle your feet around and don't go anywhere?"
Mulrooney clarified.
"Dance right." and he stood up, helped her up she untwisted her nightgown
from around her legs. It was good to be home in the house on Lake Lanier. The
CD cut started over again. "Doin' okay?" Culhane whispered in her ear.
"Fine now I think. You wanna make love?"
"I thought you wanted to dance?"
"Let's dance for a minute, then we'll make love."
"Okay." Culhane agreed with her. He had been very nice he hadn't even asked
about the marks on her body. Her breasts still hurt.But the thing hadn't she
shivered. Culhane held her more tightly as they shuffled their feet. Fred and
Ginger had nothing to worry about, she realized.
"You think they'll ever find Candler and Hanks I mean,JeAnn said she saw them
both, dead. But "
"The grotto's gone. the cave's gone. the demon's gone no. I don't think
they'll find anything. You're lucky your car wasn't parked any closer."
"It's insured boy I can see tryin' to explain that to the insurance agent
hah!"
"You through dancing?" Culhane asked her.
"Yeah I'm through dancing." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]