Salvation

“I’m a married man,” he said, and there was no way to keep the incredulity out of his voice. “I can’t believe you said yes!”

“I can’t believe you asked!”

“I was always going to ask.”

“Were you?”

“Yeah. From the moment I saw you. But I knew I’d have to wait. You know—actually say hello first, maybe find out your name.”

“Silly man.”

“I thought I’d blown it yesterday.”

She stroked his cheek. “You didn’t.”

“We’re married!” Callum started laughing.

“Yes. Now we just have to work out how to tell everyone.”

“Oh. Crap. Yeah.” He frowned; just the thought of it was a real passion killer.

Savi gave him an interested look. “You’re not worried about that, are you?”

“No. No, it’s fine.”

“You’re scared of telling my father,” she decided shrewdly.

“Am not.”

“You are! Fine husband you make; you’re supposed to fight demons and dragons for me.”

“I’m not scared of your father. Your mother, on the other hand…”

“Mummy likes you.”

“She’s very good at hiding it.”

“You know what they say: If you want to know what the girl’s going to grow into, look at the mother.”

Callum had a brief, if frightening, memory flash of his own father, standing in Pittodrie Stadium, cheering on The Dons, a beer can in each hand. “I would be delighted if you turned out like your mother.”

Savi’s mouth parted to a wide O, which she covered with her hand as she laughed. “Oh, no, I married a horrific liar!”

“Well, you have to admit, they are a bit conservative. And I am white.”

She ran her hand through his short ginger hair. “White and red. Proper Scottish. I could get snow-blind staring at your skin.”

“Hey, you said my freckles are cute.”

“Freckles are cute on a ten-year-old, Cal; when you’re thirty-one they’re just funny.”

“Oh, thanks.” Callum kissed her. Best way to shut that conversation down. “Anyway,” he said, shrugging, “it’s not family we really have to worry about.”

“Ah, our bloody Connexion Corp lords and masters. I hate them!”

“Company policy. Human Resources gets right tight-assed about personal relationships. They’re paranoid about sexual harassment lawsuits.”

“I never had to harass you for sex.”

“True.”

“Actually,” she said, “it’s not HR that’s the problem.”

“What?”

“Anyone employed by the security division has to have their friends vetted.”

“Vetted? You mean, they get to say who you can date? That’s outrageous! They can’t do that.”

She grimaced. “Ah. You see, in fact, there’s this clause in my contract about who I can associate with outside work. It’s very clear.”

“Wait…you didn’t sign it, did you?”

“It’s the security division, Cal; it’s the way it is. If you work in security you have to know who you’re seeing. Exactly who. If another company is trying to launch an infiltration mission, we can’t afford to be vulnerable.”

“Bloody hell, that’s depressing.”

“I know. But realistic. The world is a bad place filled with bad people.”

“Okay, so…what was my report like?”

“Ah.” She flinched. “I haven’t actually told them.”

“This doesn’t sound good.”

“I…It’s…Cal, that day when we met, it was so much fun, remember? I thought it was…you know.”

“What?”

She sucked her lower lip in faux remorse. “I thought you were just going to be a one-night stand.”

“Shit!” He slumped back and stared up at the ceiling, feeling quite petulant. “It wasn’t actually one night,” he said, acting the martyr.

“Oh, the male ego! Yes, all right: a one-weekend stand. And when it turned out you wanted more than that, I was so happy. But, the point is, I didn’t report it at first because I thought I wouldn’t see you again, and you were Connexion, too. So it wasn’t a huge security risk, and a girl doesn’t want a big file of these things following her around. We still get judged, you know. It’s unfair. Men don’t.”

“I get it,” he said.

“So then, when we started seeing each other properly, I was in an awkward position.”

“Is this going to cost you your job?” he asked, suddenly anxious.

“No. Look, it’s still only been six weeks. Yuri will understand if the notification goes in a little late. He’s an okay guy.”

“Yuri?”

“Yuri Alster. My boss.”

“All right. So we both come clean together, then, as soon as we get back. Good plan, actually. You go ’fess up to Yuri, and I’ll notify Brixton HR. We’ll say it was a spontaneous thing. Right; this is it, okay? We met here on Barbuda, we fell in love, we got married. It’s not really a lie. If people are going to be that reckless about love, it’s going to be on an island like this one.”

Savi grimaced again. “Um, we might just have to wait.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s my current assignment.”

“What about it? Actually, what is it, this assignment?”

“Hey, no fair. You promised you would not ask about my undercover assignments.”

“Sorry.”

“There will always be aspects of what I do that I can’t tell you. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.”

“You have no idea how hard it is for an Indian girl to make a decent career for herself in this business. I worked bloody hard to get into covert ops, and I love what I do. I can’t risk crashing it now.”