He shook his head. “They’ll hold it for me.”
Blimey. Mia had hoped he would miss his plane. She leaned into him. She’d better savor this moment. Hopefully all the drama with Charlie was why Zeke had felt that premonition that their see you soon would be goodbye. She would get more delicious kisses before she let him go, but she still had the dreaded forty-eight hours without him. When she got home, she’d get ultra-busy with her mum and getting Christmas ready for children in need.
Because as soon as her Rambo got to England, she was planning to focus on him one hundred percent. Then they’d come back here. To this beautiful valley. And someday soon, she’d be designing herself a wedding dress.
Mia smiled as the discussion floated on the chilly air and she clung to Zeke. It would all work out. She had faith it would.
ChapterSeventeen
Zeke took no chances with Mia’s safety this time. He blamed himself for letting Charlie get that close to her. He’d had the brief thought that the case had closed too easily, but he’d been so stirred up with Mia herself and he’d trusted Charlie and Lewis. Crazy to think he now trusted Lewis, and Charlie had been the stalker. He still didn’t like Lewis, but he was a good soldier and loyal to Mia and her family.
It was easy to recruit Joseph and Holly to fly to England with her. They both claimed they’d love the chance to see her mum Abi. Nobody mentioned the duke. Zeke wondered if the guy was a good man like all the stories Mia had told him that beautiful night they had talked so late, or if he was a pompous jerk like he’d been in their one FaceTime call.
He met up with Chaos, Preach, and Wolf on base at Virginia Beach. This mission was an honor, and even Preach leaving his wife before Christmas was excited about it. Zeke tried to be as well, but he just wanted to be with Mia.
They took off for Switzerland, but frustratingly, the men they were searching for were not in a cabin near the high mountain village of Murren like their intel had shown. They found their trail though and soon were backpacking through the Alps. It would’ve been a great adventure if he hadn’t already blown past the forty-eight hours he’d promised Mia. He could only send her quick texts with no information besides the deadline was extended and that he loved her. She sent him beautiful texts back. Texts about how much she loved him and was praying for him and texts about how she couldn’t wait to be with him again and reinitiate touch therapy and see if he was really as good a kisser as she remembered. She never got mad that he wasn’t coming or did anything but show him love. Love he’d never thought he was worthy or capable of before he’d met her.
He didn’t tell anyone much about Mia personally, but he shared the job details as they all knew and cared about the Deltas. He could tell they had their suspicions that something was different with him, but they were used to him being more closed off and didn’t push it.
Until Chaos got him alone one night by a campfire. Chaos started talking about Kacee, a woman he’d loved who’d married a jerk from their hometown while Chaos was deployed. The honesty and raw pain Chaos shared got Zeke opening up and he spilled far too much.
The next thing he knew, the too-insightful Preach was taking every opportunity to pray with him, share some scripture, and generally try to make him nuts. Crazily enough, though, it didn’t make him nuts. It made him miss Mia and it made him think deeply about her words and her love.
His parents had been wrong. God loved him. Mia loved him.
The craziest part was, he could believe it.
It was December sixteenth when they finally caught up with Frederick’s generals, cabinet members, and enforcers in Val Lumnezia. Preach said it was one of the most remote valleys in the Alps. It was beautiful. They staked out the cabin, watching the men through their scopes. It was a party in that small cabin, with the fugitives living it up as if they knew their time as free men was coming to an end. Zeke was ready to just storm it, or honestly, he wouldn’t have minded using some of what Demo had taught him and blowing the place up, but he didn’t need more blood on his conscience.
They waited until almost two a.m. when the twenty-something men were all twisted—drunk and high—and then they breached the door, eliminated anyone who raised a weapon, and captured the rest. They had to wait for extraction, and it was after six a.m. when the men had all been tagged and sent to their proper locations for trial. Each had a list of war crimes that would make their mothers cry.
Zeke was finally on his way to Mia.
A quick stop at the NAS Sigonella Naval Base in Italy where he ate and said goodbye to Chaos, Preach, and Wolf. He even gave them each brief back slaps, which shocked the heck out of Wolf as he hadn’t heard that Cap was working on human touch. He didn’t enjoy it, but he wanted to show them they meant a lot to him. Besides Mia, they were his family.
He flew on to RAF Menwith Hill Naval base, a joint British and American base where he showered, shaved, and put on dress blacks, which were actually navy. He hoped it didn’t come across as pompous to show up at Mia’s door in his best clothes with his medals on, but he needed the confidence if he had to face her dad. These were the nicest clothes he owned. Until Mia got ahold of him and designed him some fancy suit.
He found out it was a four-hour drive to London where her flat was. She’d given him her parents’ address in Surrey just in case, but he thought she’d be at her own apartment. He hoped she would. He should probably text or call, but he fancied surprising her.
He smiled to himself. He even thought like Mia now.
Zeke rented a car and got on the road. It was early afternoon, so he should be there about dinnertime. The drive was beautiful, but he’d seen a lot of scenery in his tours, assignments, and missions. The beauty he wanted to see was Mia’s face, those dark eyes sparkling at him, her lemon candy scent, those lips smiling and then her biting at her lower lip. Man, he couldn’t wait to kiss her.
Rubbing at the back of his neck, he tried to focus on the road, but Mia was all he could see.
Finally, he made it to her place. It was in a very nice area, the famed Hyde Park. Her backyard butted against the park, in fact. He liked it. It fit Mia. He could imagine her out running, walking, or biking in the beautiful park. It also worried him. Would she want to leave an area like this and live in his small refurbished home in Virginia Beach? He loved Virginia Beach, but his house and neighborhood definitely weren’t high-end.
He rubbed at his neck, strode up, and knocked on the door. No one answered. A security guard approached from his five o’clock.
“Pardon me, sir?” the man said crisply.
Zeke turned and the guard eased back slightly. Fortyish, no military experience, five-ten, two-fifty, no weapon besides the wooden truncheon.
“You’re a right big bloke, aren’t ya?” the man asked.
Zeke forced a smile. He was suddenly tired. He hadn’t slept last night with the mission and then all the traveling today. He just wanted to find Mia. Hold her close. Kiss her.
“I’m looking for Mia Burton,” he said.