McKenna read Lucas’s expression. He knew she could get away from Damon. A kick in the shin, a direct hit to his groin, a sharp elbow to his stomach—any of those could incapacitate him long enough for her to get away from him. Then Lucas could shoot him. For right now, her body as shield worked for both of them. If she could get Damon alone, she would overpower him and then tie him up. Until then, she had to stay in front of him to protect him from Lucas.
“Lucas…” The sound was barely above a whisper. No way in hell could he hear her.
Damon pulled her with him toward the house. McKenna didn’t fight. Get him alone. Overpower. Make him talk.
“Dammit, McKenna!” Lucas shouted, the fury in his voice apparent. She had no choice; she had to protect Damon. Lucas wouldn’t dare shoot until she moved away from Damon, and if—
Damon’s grip abruptly loosened. A split second later, McKenna’s ears registered the blast of a pistol.
She whirled around; Damon lay at her feet, a neat bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.
A cry built inside her she couldn’t express. Her heart pounding with dread, she dropped to her knees and checked his pulse. None. Damon was dead.
“It’s over, McKenna,” Lucas growled above her.
Jumping to her feet, she whirled around and slapped him.
He caught her hand before she could deliver a second slap. His face a dark mask of fury, he snarled, “I don’t know what the fuck your problem is, but we’re getting out of here. Then you can tell me why the hell you all of sudden didn’t want the man who killed your family dead.”
Jerking away from him, she turned and scanned the area. She needed to search the rest of the estate, something she’d never had the chance to do before. Though almost certain Jamie wasn’t here, she had to make sure. An arm wrapped around her waist as Lucas picked her up. Before she could twist away, she felt his hand on her neck and then there was nothing.
McKenna blinked rapidly. She was lying on something soft; there was movement beneath her body. Comprehension came quickly. She was in the backseat of a car. Scenes from what had happened flashed through her mind. Grief and fury quickly followed. Grief because she was no closer to finding Jamie Kendrick than she had been before, and fury because of what she had seen in Lucas.
The man was a trained assassin. There was no other explanation for the way he’d moved, the way he’d taken those men out. And the shot that killed Damon. That had been no lucky shot. She had been standing right in front of Damon. An eighth of an inch off and the bullet would have hit her. No one could have made it unless they had specialized training. How had she missed the evidence? Just who the hell was Lucas Kane?
That hurt would have to be dealt with later; she still had a mission to complete. She could not give up just because Damon was dead.
McKenna sat up and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She was in the backseat, Lucas was in the driver’s seat. She gazed around. Palm trees and massive mansions were a blur as the car sped down the highway.
Lucas shot a glance at her over his shoulder. “I see you’re awake.”
The quiet fury in his voice was unmistakable. Tough shit. She had much more reason to be angry than he did. Clearing her throat, she was relieved to actually hear a noise. Anger set aside for the time being, she whispered hoarsely, “I need a phone.”
“What’s wrong with your voice?”
“I need a phone.”
“Sorry. Thought it best to get away as quickly as possible. Stealing a phone wasn’t exactly on my agenda.”
She looked around the luxurious interior. Hell, this was a Rolls-Royce. If it didn’t have a phone installed somewhere, something was very wrong. Thankful that at least Damon had chosen a short wedding dress, McKenna pulled it up farther and crawled into the front seat.
She felt Lucas’s eyes on her as she began pressing buttons and opening compartments.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s got to be a phone somewhere.” Finally she pressed the right one and a compartment opened, revealing a phone. Grabbing it, she punched in Noah’s private number.
He answered on the first ring. “McCall.”
“It’s me. Damon’s dead.”
“And Jamie?”
“She wasn’t there.” She swallowed and added, “I didn’t get a chance to look around the estate, but I think he sold her. He told me he was the only one who knew where she is. I’m sorry, Noah. I failed.”
“We may have some information. Where are you?”
“I still have no idea.” She glanced over at Lucas, noticing his expression had changed from anger to wariness. Yeah, he was beginning to figure out that he’d created a major fuckup. She’d deal with that later. “Do you have any idea where we are?”
Lucas gave a quick nod. “Florida. Palm Beach. I saw a sign a few minutes ago.”
She spoke into the phone. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. And I’m assuming that Lucas Kane got involved in all this?”
“Yes.” She released a heavy sigh. “Long story. You said you may have some information?”
“Yes. Go to the Miles Hotel on Royal Avenue. I’ve stayed there before. Large enough to have what you need, but the staff is professional and will ensure your privacy. We don’t need the press to know that Lucas Kane is in town. I’ll gather a team. We’ll be there tomorrow at ten.”
McKenna closed the phone, and because it hurt too much to look at him, she kept her eyes on the road ahead of them as she asked, “Do you know the Miles Hotel?”
“I’ll find it.” After a palpable silence, he said, “So I’m assuming I just screwed up an op?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“And you weren’t being held captive?”
“I was, but…”
“But what?”
She leaned her head back against the car seat. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got nothing but time.”
She twisted her head to look at him. “Good. Then you can tell me exactly where you learned to shoot like an assassin and move like a ninja.”
“Ninja? Really?” He grinned. “Thanks.”
Any other time she would have laughed. Instead she glared. “It wasn’t a compliment. Who do you work for?”
“Kane Enterprises.”
“Don’t play games with me, Lucas.”
“I’m not playing games.” He drew in a controlled breath. “Look, I think we both have some things we need to tell each other, and neither of us is at our best at the moment. Let’s get to the hotel and then we’ll talk.”
“Should we call the police?”
“I imagine the terrified minister who was hiding in the bushes when we left took care of that. He was the only one still conscious.”
McKenna shrugged. He was right about that. She wished she could have at least taken Damon’s laptop. Maybe Jamie’s whereabouts weren’t there, but there might have been other information that would be helpful. One of LCR’s analysts could probably have broken the other passwords.
She couldn’t think about that now. What was done was done. All she could hope was that Noah had some information that might help them. She certainly didn’t expect that Lucas would have a reasonable explanation for being a trained killer. After all the things she’d told him about her life, he’d obviously left out some vital information about his own. Not only that—just how had Damon known about him in the first place?
With a long, low sigh, McKenna leaned her aching head against the pillowy seat cushion. She had a gut-wrenching feeling she was about to find out several disturbing things about the man she had thought she knew better than anyone.
Lucas kept one eye on the road and one eye on the exhausted woman beside him. As he followed the directions to the hotel given to him by the GPS computer in the car, his mind reviewed what he knew and suspected. He’d obviously screwed up an op and felt like shit for that. Now, not only did he need to figure out a way to rectify that mistake, McKenna was lookin
g at him as if he were her enemy.
Telling her about his agency experience went against his oath. Not telling her went against his conscience and his heart. He owed her the truth. Maybe Jared had been right all along. If he had told McKenna the truth about his past, would it have changed the outcome? Somehow he doubted it.
“How did Damon know about us?” Her voice was hoarse, but he heard the pain in her words.
“There were photographs of us together. Newspapers printed them.”
“And I’m assuming these photographs were taken at your estate?” she asked dully.
“In front of my estate. The first day you came to visit. Photographer must’ve been lying in wait for something to happen.”
After a palpable, ominous silence, she said, “You could have stopped the photographs.”
“Yes.”
She turned to him then. The fury he could deal with; it was the betrayal and hurt that speared him. “You bastard,” she whispered. “You set me up.”
He glared at her. “I set Damon up, McKenna. Not you. I didn’t hire the photographer, but I made use of the photographs to get to the bastard. He deserved to die for what he did to you. The kind of life you were living was no life at all.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make. It was mine.”
“You had no decision to make. You could barely go out in public. Shit, McKenna, despite the fact that I fucked up an operation, you can’t be sorry that the son of a bitch is dead.”
“And that’s all you can see, isn’t it? You got rid of him, solved my problem. I never asked for your help.”
Lucas shot her a frustrated, angry glance. “I get rid of your worst nightmare and you’re angry? Damon really screwed up your mind, didn’t he?”
The instant the words were out, he wanted to call them back. She flinched, and he felt as if his heart had been pierced. After the initial show of pain, her face froze into a mask of icy indifference. It was an expression he’d never seen from her before, and it made him feel a thousand times worse. She had closed herself off. McKenna had always been so open. Even when she was keeping things from him, she’d been honest about it.
“I’m sorry, McKenna. I didn’t mean that.”
She turned away from him and stared out the window.
Hell and damnation.
twenty-three
McKenna emerged from the shower and wrapped a giant towel around her. As soon as she’d walked into the hotel room, she’d stripped off the vile wedding dress and dumped it in the garbage. Then she’d stood under the hot spray of the shower and scrubbed as hard as she could. Part of it was to get the feel of Damon’s filthy hands off her; another reason was to occupy her mind to keep from crying. It had been a while since she’d wanted to just curl up and sob her heart out.
She tried to tell herself that all was not lost. Apparently Noah had some good intel or he wouldn’t be gathering a team and coming here for a meeting. Jamie Kendrick could still be alive and rescue could still be possible. She prayed with all her heart that it was true.
But Lucas…Tears filled her eyes before she could stop them. Lucas had lied to her. The most authentic, beautiful relationship she’d ever had was based on lies. Not only had he used photographs of them together to lure Damon, he was apparently some sort of assassin. Former or current, she didn’t know. But no one could move the way he had, make the execution-style shot he’d made, without extensive, focused training.
She had been stupid enough to buy his earlier explanation that he had taken training because of his wealth. It had been a long time since McKenna had felt so naïve and stupid. She despised the feeling.
What other lies had he told her? He claimed that he had lured Damon out to kill him for her. That she believed. But what about the way he’d treated her? His kisses, his lovemaking. Had those been to keep her there? Were they all part of an elaborate scheme? Had she fallen in love with a man who in his own way had been using her?
“McKenna, don’t.”
She turned to see Lucas standing in the doorway. “Don’t what? Don’t doubt everything you’ve ever told me? Don’t doubt that every word that came from you had a secret agenda behind it?”
“What secret agenda would that be? Trying to protect you?”
“Dammit, Lucas. You’re not my bodyguard. I never asked for your protection.”
His jaw worked as he apparently tried to control his temper, something she hadn’t even known he had. His face went hard as he spotted the bruises on her face. Then his eyes flared hot when he saw her throat. “The bastard hit you and almost choked you to death, didn’t he? Is that why you can barely speak above a whisper?”
“He gave me some sort of injection…froze my vocal cords so I couldn’t speak during the wedding.” The pain Damon had inflicted was no longer significant. It was the bruising of her heart she wasn’t sure she’d recover from.
He blew out an explosive curse. He was obviously furious, but dammit, his fury couldn’t begin to rival her hurt. She endured his hard stare for several more seconds, returning it with one of her own.
Finally he said, “I’ve ordered food. You look ready to drop, and I haven’t eaten in over twenty-four hours. Let’s eat and then we’ll talk.”
Her stomach twisted at the thought of food, but she knew he was right. She hadn’t eaten a real meal in almost a week, not since she’d left Lucas’s home. Giving him a stiff nod, she said, “I’ll be out in a minute.”
With one last frustrated glance, he closed the door, allowing her privacy.
Taking advantage of the bath amenities on the counter, McKenna at last started to feel almost human again. She pulled the hotel robe from the hook and wrapped it around her body. At some point she’d have to figure out a way to get some clothes. Right now she couldn’t care less. This robe was the first thing she’d worn in days that wasn’t tainted by Damon. She relished the stench-free feeling.
The sound of a door being closed and low male voices told her their meal had arrived. Straightening her spine, determined to get answers and deal with whatever she had to, McKenna opened the door.
Lucas looked up as McKenna entered the room. Her anger at him was understandable and expected. He could deal with and identify with that. Even while he’d been making the plans to remove Damon from her life, he had recognized she’d be furious once she found out. Her hurt, however, was another matter. And from what he could tell, she was not only hurt because of the photographs, she was hurt that he hadn’t told her about his past.
“Come eat.” Luring her with food was a dirty trick, but right now he had to use all available weapons.
She sat down at the small table, and without asking her, he began to fill her plate. He took a seat across from her and then poured two cups of coffee. When she did nothing other than pick up a piece of toast and nibble on it, he realized the weapon wouldn’t work this time.
He sighed. “Okay, McKenna. Let’s get it out in the open. First, tell me why you were at Hughes’s estate.”
“I went to…” She cleared her throat. Her voice sounded a little stronger but was still hoarse. “He kidnapped a woman, Jamie Kendrick. I went in to rescue her.”
Lucas shook his head. “Too easy. From what I know about the man, Hughes wasn’t into kidnapping. Tell me the whole story.”
“Jamie Kendrick has an amazing resemblance to how I used to look years ago. Damon’s people abducted her, believing it was me living under another name.”
“That’s why you left London.” His gut clenched. She had known when she left him that she’d be facing her worst nightmare. Part of him was in awe of her courage and selflessness; another part wanted to spank her ass for being so damned willing to sacrifice herself. When the hell would she start looking out for her own well-being? He ground out his words through clenched teeth. “I’m assuming you made an exchange.”
“That was the plan. LCR was helping. I contacted Damon, arranged the exchange. Our plan was to get Jamie, but also capture Damon.”
“So you do work for LCR?”
“I didn’t when we first met. I do now.”
“And things didn’t go as planned?”
“The woman he brought wasn’t Jamie. I’m not sure who she is. The men who brought her got away. A helicopter swooped down and a man hanging from a ladder was there to grab me.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Since I knew it wasn’t Jamie that Damon had released, I had no choice but to go with him.”
Lucas nodded, trying to appear undisturbed by her statement. Hard as hell to do. She could easily have been killed, yet she talked about her experience as casually as if she’d been chatting about the damned weather. He kept his tone even. “So you sacrificed yourself to rescue the girl. You could have been killed.”
Again she shrugged. “I knew Damon wouldn’t kill me.”
“No, just rape and beat you.” Lucas took a breath. He had to know. “Did he rape you?”
“No.”
Relieved beyond words, he looked at the hideous bruises on her neck. The fury reemerged. “But he did hit you, choke you.”
When she shrugged again, it was all he could do not to shout at her that her life was worth a hell of a lot more than she apparently thought it was. Raising his voice and giving in to his anger wouldn’t solve a damn thing.
Either she was getting better at reading him or he wasn’t as skilled as he used to be in hiding his thoughts, because she sighed and said, “I had to take the chance, Lucas. She never would have been taken if I—”
Leaning forward, he locked eyes with her. “Dammit, McKenna. You have got to stop blaming yourself for Damon Hughes’s acts.”
She looked down at her plate. “I guess that’s a moot point now since he’s dead.”
“Is it? Or will you try to find every person Hughes ever hurt, as if you’re responsible for the bastard’s existence on this earth?”
She flinched again. This time Lucas refused to feel guilty. However, he did want the rest of the story. “I’m assuming you had a plan if you got taken?”
“I had a GPS device…a ring.”
For the first time Lucas saw something different in her eyes: shame. Through clenched teeth again, he said, “He made you strip.”
Last Chance Page 26
