CHAPTER 35

"That was good," said Baby. "That's what I've been missing."

The Colonel lay beside her, breathing heavily, one hand resting on her bare thigh. Moonlight squeezed through the pulled curtains of their bedroom, turning the darkness cool and gray.

Baby threw a leg over him. "You're trapped now."

"I know," sighed the Colonel.

They were in the summer cabin, part of a hidden encampment protected by the surrounding mountains and two hundred of the Colonel's best troops. This time of year, the Colonel would usually be set up in one of the small towns, or back at the farm, but since Aztlan had accused him of assassinating their oil minister, he had chosen the security of the summer cabin. Baby had only been here a few times before, remembered it mostly for the wildflowers that seemed to spring up overnight, and making love in the deafening thunderstorms.

Baby picked up their wedding photo off the nightstand. "I look so young."

"You're still young."

"My mama wanted me to wait, but I was sixteen, I knew my own mind." Baby replaced the photo on the nightstand. "You made me happy. Don't ever forget that."

"I missed you." The Colonel stroked her back, made her shiver. "I didn't know how much until this moment."

"I hardly thought about you at all," said Baby, enjoying the look on his face. "Didn't even watch news about the Belt the whole time I was in Nueva Florida." She lowered her voice so he had to strain to hear. "I tried to put everything out of my mind. Start over. I wanted to be a new person…but no matter what I did, I was just me." She tugged at his chest hair. "Now that I'm here beside you again…feels like I've never been gone."

"Hard to believe everything that's happened since you left." The Colonel lay propped up on the pillows. "A year ago Malcolm Crews sent his band of dopeheads and maniacs up against me…today, he's the loudest voice defending me against Aztlan."

"I've seen him all over the tube ever since I came back," said Baby. "He's respectable now. More than respectable. He's the Man in White. How did that happen?"

"Damned if I know."

Baby let the silence gather in the twilight, let it coil around itself, tighter and tighter. "When are you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?"

"Don't be like that. You got to have questions you want to ask me. Why I did it, and what I did afterwards, and was I unfaithful, and who-"

"You're here, that's all that matters."

"That just means you don't want to know."

"That's right, I don't want to know," said the Colonel. "Man goes looking for trouble, trouble's got a habit of following the scent right back to him."

"Okay," said Baby. "But if you ever-"

"I won't."

Baby slid her hand along the sheet, handled his man parts. She had almost forgotten the heft of him. Old man with a big pecker…deduct twenty years for that. "I'm not staying, Zachary. I don't want you to get your hopes up."

The Colonel sighed as she lightly squeezed him.

"I been wanting to ask you…whatever happened to John Moseby?" Baby felt him tense. "Last I saw of him he was half dead with the bends or something from diving in that underground lake. I just hoped he pulled through. You told me Fedayeen were tough-"

"Moseby survived."

"Praise the Lord." Baby released him, stared at the cracks in the ceiling. "It wasn't you, in case you're wondering. And it definitely wasn't Lester Gravenholtz, who I left two days later, thank you very much. You were a good husband, the very best-"

"Baby…"

"I went from my mama's house to your house. Never was on my own for a minute. I needed to find out what that was like, and Miami sounded strange and exciting."

"I understand. I wish I didn't, but I do," said the Colonel. "Were you still in Nueva Florida when the oil minister was murdered?"

"Oh my, yes," said Baby, feeling the warmth run down her neck to the tops of her breasts. "Awful thing. The things they showed on the news, 'bout to turn my stomach."

"I saw the footage too. The look of the body, the rage of the killer…reminded me of the kind of thing Lester was capable of."

Baby covered her mouth. "I thought the exact same thing, but was afraid to bring it up. You think we should contact the Aztlan embassy in Atlanta?"

The Colonel chuckled. "I doubt that Aztlan would put much weight in anything you or I have to say. Even if they did, they'd probably assume Lester was still in my employ."

"I was just trying to help." Baby curled up beside him, the Colonel hard as knotty hickory. "Maybe you should warn Rakkim. Lester had a huge hate-on for him. Not just for cutting up on him, but for the way Rikki looked at me. Lester gets his feelings hurt, there's no fixing it."

"If Lester was going to come after Rakkim, he would have done it before now."

"I guess so." Baby's hand snaked across the Colonel's belly. "It's just…just that killing the oil minister was the first we heard of Lester in a year. Maybe he was hurt and now he's well, and back doing what he likes best." She sat up, her body like marble in the moonlight. "You were the only one could keep Lester in line once he got the killing taste…heck, even you had trouble holding him back."

The Colonel watched her and for a moment Baby was afraid she had moved too fast. He nodded, and her doubts evaporated.

"You can tell Rikki yourself," said the Colonel.

"Can you reach him in the Republic?"

"I don't have to," said the Colonel. "He should be back here sometime in the next week."

"Rikki's in the Belt?" Baby hid her pleasure. This changed everything. "Is that why you said you weren't worried about Aztlan?"

The Colonel pulled her back to him. "Rikki's not here to help me. He's…looking at property around Gatlinburg. Tensions been easing between us and the Republic, and you know Rikki, he loves the Belt. I told him it's a good place to raise a family."

Baby tugged at the gray hairs on his chest. The Colonel was lying about Rikki looking at property. Rikki was here to help Moseby find the cross, she was sure of it. She had come here to steal the cross from Moseby and bring it to her daddy, but this new development was even better. Daddy had a real thing about Rakkim. All he talked about some nights, the two of them standing out on the balcony looking at the stars. Said Rikki was unique, a pivot point that he could use to move the earth itself. Didn't want him killed. Didn't even want him taken prisoner, if it could be helped. Just wanted to talk with him. No force. No threats. Said threats wouldn't work with Rikki anyway. Just wanted to give him a chance to see the light. Another chance.

Evidently they had talked once before, four or five years ago. Daddy had offered Rikki anything, and Rikki turned him down flat. The refusal, of course, had just made Daddy want him more. Baby had played that same game with men all her life, but Rikki, it was no game to him. Still, Daddy wasn't about to give up. If Baby strolled back into Daddy's suite bringing a piece of the cross and Rikki…well, let's just say Ibrahim would be lucky to end up as an attendant in a West Virginia outhouse.

"Baby?"

"I'm sorry…I was just thinking how happy I am," said Baby.

"You know…Lester had reason to be jealous," said the Colonel. "I saw the way Rikki looked at you too."

"Hush now. Rikki…he's just got those eyes, like some kind of hawk," said Baby. "Rikki doesn't miss anything. I could see how you might mistake that for interest, though." She looked at him the same as she did when she told him "I do" in that little church. "You got no reason to be jealous of anyone. I'm in your bed."

"Now."

"I deserve that." Baby lowered her head. "I don't blame you one bit. You want to send me away, just-"