One Tough Marine

by Paula Graves

And working at Malkin also afforded him a certain level of personal security he couldn’t afford to do without these days.

  His current assignment had come to an end late that afternoon, when he had turned over all of his investigative materials to the police department in Rancho Santa Fe. They’d taken into custody a relentless stalker who’d been terrorizing a banker’s nineteen-year-old daughter, and Luke had earned MSI—and himself—a hefty bonus for providing actionable evidence for the legal proceedings.

  The girl had been nice enough, if pampered within an inch of her life, and the stalker had been escalating well past annoying into dangerous territory. Plus, Luke had been able to spend a lot of time at the banker’s ranch, escorting the daughter on rambling horseback rides. As far as security jobs went, he’d seen worse.

  At least nobody was shooting at him this time.

  He filed the last of his paperwork around 7:00 p.m. and took a moment to scan the newspaper he’d bought that afternoon on the way into the office. For the past week and a half, there’d been rumblings that federal investigators were close to an indictment against a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization for illegal arms trading.

  The articles had yet to identify the NGO by name, but Luke had a pretty good idea. The investigation of Voices for Villages had been the last thing he’d been working on before his retirement from the Marine Corps.

  Still nothing official, he noted, folding the paper and tossing it in the trash. As he took the employee exit stairs down to the parking deck, he wondered what the snag was in making the case against Voices for Villages. People had died getting the evidence that implicated the NGO in a deadly drugs-for-arms racket.

  He reached his car, a gunmetal-gray Ford Mustang, unlocked it and slid behind the wheel. It ran like a dream and turned more than a few female—and male—heads when he drove down the streets of San Diego, but recently he’d been thinking about buying a truck. Most of his brothers drove trucks back home in Chickasaw County, Alabama, he remembered, smiling. He guessed his kid sister, Hannah, did, too, now that she’d married a cowboy.

  Guilt tugged at him, erasing his smile. He’d missed Hannah’s wedding last year, although his mother had made sure to send him a couple of flash drives full of pictures from the event. He’d told his sister he was too involved in a case to leave San Diego even for a few days, but it had been a lie. There wasn’t a case in the world that could’ve kept him from watching his baby sister get married.

  Only Eladio Cordero could do that.

  He shoved away the thought of Cordero with brutal determination. There wasn’t anything he could do about Cordero’s threat until the South American drug lord finally decided to make his move. If U.S. law enforcement or the Sanselmo authorities could have located the elusive thug, he’d be dead already. Worrying about it only kept him from focusing on the things he had to deal with day to day.

  Like finding a better way to fill his long, lonely hours away from the job. Because it wasn’t Eladio Cordero who haunted him in the still of the night, when sleep wouldn’t come fast enough.

  That honor belonged to Abby.

  She would visit him tonight. She always did. He’d never been able to get drunk enough to escape her, and she always followed him into his dreams. Lately, he’d given up trying not to think about her and started looking forward to the nights he spent wrapped up in his memories of her. It was as close as he could ever let himself get, these days.

  But it hadn’t always been that way.

  He exited the interstate on Genesee Avenue, heading south into University City, where he rented a one-story stucco with a two-car garage that was almost as large as the house itself. It wasn’t much of a home, but the rent was reasonable, the neighbors quiet and the commute to work manageable.

  These days, if he could live life with a minimum of fuss, he counted it as a win.

  A beeping noise broke the silence inside the Mustang. Luke’s breath hitched as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Red letters flashed on the black display. INTRUDER.

  In the span of a heartbeat, Luke’s body went on high alert. He pulled the Glock from his hip holster and checked the clip. He was only a couple of minutes from home—should he call in backup? He wasn’t sure he could trust anyone anymore. Not here in San Diego, anyway.

  He was better off on his own.

  Daylight lingered outside as he reached his house and parked by the curb in front. Scanning the street, he noticed a strange car parked a few houses away. Possibly a friend of the teenagers who lived down the street. But maybe not.

  His garage provided cover from the street to the house. He stayed close to the building, moving as quietly as possible across the rocky ground to the side entrance of the house. The curtains in the kitchen window were closed, he noted. He always left them open.

  Someone was definitely in the house.

  He hunkered down at the side door and examined the lock. No sign of any tool marks on the dead bolt, but he knew there were other ways in. He hadn’t tried to turn his house into a fortress once he became aware of Eladio Cordero’s threats. He didn’t want to live his life in a prison of his own making, for one thing. Hell, he was at a point now where he welcomed an attempt on his life, just to get it over with. He couldn’t even risk a quick trip home to his family, thanks to the danger.

  Cordero’s vow of vengeance had been hanging over him long enough. He’d had all he could stand.

  Quietly, he let himself inside the kitchen and stood still a moment, listening. He saw nothing out of place in the kitchen, nor did he hear anything beyond the normal hum of electrical appliances inside and faint traffic noise outside. But he caught a whiff of a strange scent—sweet, a little powdery. There was also a heaviness in the air, as if whoever lurked inside the dark recesses of the tiny bungalow was waiting just as he was, still and breathless, for another sound.

  He tightened his grip on the Glock, slid off his shoes as quietly as possible and padded in sock-clad silence into the hallway, where he paused to listen.

  To his left, where an open doorway led into the living room, he heard a faint snuffling sound. But before he could turn to enter, a ball of pure energy slammed into him from the bedroom, knocking him into the wall.

  He caught a glimpse of wavy brown hair disappearing around the corner into the living room. Scrambling up, he took chase, catching up halfway to the narrow sofa against the wall. He took in a slim waist and nicely rounded backside before he whirled the intruder around to face him.

  Cornflower-blue eyes met his, wide and scared. A smattering of coppery freckles dotted her peaches-and-cream complexion. Soft coral lips, as tempting as they’d ever been, parted to release a soft, shaky breath.

  “Abby?” he breathed, his whole body tingling with surprise and a darker, richer sensation he’d thought he’d buried three years ago, never to be exhumed.

  Had he lost his mind? Had he conjured her up from the fabric of his memories and his longing?

  Her gaze softened at the sound of his voice. A hint of guilt flashed in her eyes, then disappeared as desperation took hold of her expression, even as she plastered on a bright, brittle smile.

  “Hi, Luke,” she said. “Long time, no see.”

  Chapter Two

  Abby gazed into Luke Cooper’s familiar face, fighting tears. Despite the disastrous end to their once-close relationship, Luke Cooper had been her best friend once.

  And on one bleak, emotional night, he’d become her lover.

  She tamped down her sentimental thoughts with ruthless efficiency. Her world had changed since they’d last spoken. And Luke had been nowhere around when she’d needed him the most.

  She’d be a fool to forget that fact.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Luke lowered the Glock he’d pulled and slipped it into the holster at his hip. “How did you get in?”

  “I knocked,” she said in a feeble attempt at a joke. “I might have broken your bathroom window, too.”

  A snuffling sound
behind her drew Luke’s gaze to the sofa, where she’d left Stevie napping while she searched Luke’s house.

  Luke’s gaze darted back to meet hers. “Yours?”

  She nodded, holding her breath. Would he figure it out?

  And did she want him to?

  “What’s his name?”

  “Stephen. I call him Stevie.” It had been Matt’s father’s name. After she’d discovered she was pregnant so soon after Matt’s funeral, everyone assumed he was the father. She’d let everyone believe the assumption; it was easier than the truth.

  But Luke knew there was another possibility, didn’t he?

  Luke frowned. “You brought your kid on a B and E?”

  “Thought I might need backup.” She kept her voice light to hide the fact that she was feeling a little bit crazy and a whole lot desperate at the moment.

  “What were you looking for?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure.” It was stupid to flail around blindly while the clock was ticking on her son’s life. She should have contacted him directly as soon as an old Marine wife friend told her Luke was still living in San Diego, fifteen minutes away. This cloak-and-dagger rot was for the birds.

  She just hadn’t been ready to see him again. And judging by the tremors rocking through her at the moment, she still wasn’t ready.

  “Abs, what’s wrong? You’re shaking like a drunk in rehab.”

  “Matt took something from somebody,” she blurted. “Somebody pretty damned big and powerful.”

  Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Took what?”

  “I don’t know!” She pressed her hands to her throbbing temples. “I don’t think they know, either. It’s like they’re on some fishing expedition and I’m the bait.”

  “You have no idea who they are?”

  Behind her, their raised voices had awakened Stevie. He whimpered, unsettled by the unfamiliar setting and the strange man growling at his mother. Abby ignored Luke’s question and hurried to her son. Stevie clung tightly to her, his yogurt-sticky fingers tangling in her hair. “Shh, baby, Mama’s okay.”

  “Beautiful kid,” Luke murmured. “Looks like you.”

  The tears she’d been fighting spilled down her cheeks. “They threatened him, Luke. If I don’t find whatever it was Matt hid, they’ll kill Stevie.”

  Luke’s eyes widened with alarm. “They threatened him?”

  “They were waiting for me in my apartment when I got home from work. Two men.” She sat down, no longer trusting her trembling legs to keep her upright. Luke shoved a couple of magazines aside and sat on the heavy wood coffee table in front of her. “They said Matt had stolen something important and they wanted it back. By the end of this week.”

  Luke’s expression darkened.

  She continued. “One spoke with a Boston Brahmin accent—but it slipped once, so I think he assumed the accent. The other guy came across as educated. A hint of a southern urban accent—probably born in a southern city but lost the accent.”

  Luke’s lips curved, and she realized she was rattling on about linguistic cues in the middle of the biggest crisis of her life. “Some things never change,” he murmured.

  “Everything changes,” she replied darkly. “I’m pretty sure these guys are ex-military, officer rank. SEALs or Rangers, maybe Special Forces—guys who came from tough neighborhoods but took advantage of the training and education. These aren’t goons. Whatever I’m up against, it’s big.”

  Luke muttered a profanity, then shot an apologetic look at Stevie. “How does Matt figure in?” he asked, though he didn’t sound that surprised by what she was saying.

  “I was hoping you’d know,” she said. “You know he didn’t tell me anything about his work.”

  “This wasn’t work,” Luke said quietly.

  Her heart sank. She pressed her face against Stevie’s soft cheek. “Then what?”

  “The timing is interesting,” Luke added thoughtfully.

  Did Luke know what Matt had hidden or where to find it? “You know something.”

  “I don’t know anything.”

  “But you have suspicions?”

  Luke didn’t meet her eyes when he answered. “He was spending time with people I didn’t trust. People we came in contact with in the field.”

  Abby realized what he meant. “A woman.”

  Luke looked up sharply.

  She smiled without humor. “I know he cheated on me. If that’s what you’re trying to hide—”

  “Her name is Janis Meeks. Ran field ops for an organization called Voices for Villages.”

  “They fund and supply infrastructure construction in Sanselmo’s poverty-stricken areas, right?”

  “She and Matt—” Luke rubbed the back of his neck. “We suspected she was involved in something very bad, so I asked Matt to stay away from her. I guess he didn’t.”

  By now, Abby realized, she shouldn’t be surprised at discovering another one of her late-husband’s infidelities. Matt had spent a year in the South American country, his intel unit attached to a peacekeeping unit assigned to the struggling democracy after a coup attempt. Matt hadn’t been the type of man to go a year without sex. In fact, danger would have been an aphrodisiac.

  After Sanselmo, he’d begun keeping secrets at every level of their relationship. The beginning of the end.

  “Sanselmo was hell,” Luke said bluntly. “Lots of bad things went down after the attempted coup. Marines died.”

  “I know,” Abby murmured, distracted by Stevie wriggling in her grasp. She turned him in her lap to face Luke.

  Luke smiled at Stevie. “Hi, big guy. My name is Luke. I knew your daddy.”

  Abby tried not to flinch. “I haven’t told him much about Matt. He’s not old enough to realize something’s missing.”

  Stevie touched a small gold pendant in the shape of a hawk that hung from Luke’s neck. “Bird.”

  Luke looked down at the sticky fingers tugging his necklace. “That’s right, it’s a big bird.”

  Abby smiled. She’d given the pendant to Luke for his birthday almost six years ago. Hawk was Luke’s unit nickname. It had fit—strong, smart and always watching out for the people he cared for.

  “I have to have some clue what he was into, Luke.” She stroked Stevie’s hair, shuddering at the memory of the masked man’s threat. “They told me if I go to the cops, Stevie will suffer. I can’t risk it.”

  “Sons of bitches.” Luke’s lips thinned to an angry line. “I think I know who they are, Abs—who they work for. But I swear, I don’t know what they want you to find. If I knew, I’d give it to you.”

  “Tell me what you do know, then.” She laid her hand on his arm. “This is what you’d call a need-to-know situation.”

  He sighed. “In Sanselmo, we were looking into American involvement in a drugs-for-arms black market. Some Sanselmano national guardsmen were trading government-issue arms and ordnance to El Cambio rebels in exchange for cocaine.”

  “Is that how they got so close to pulling off the coup?”

  Luke nodded. “El Cambio has controlled the coca production in Sanselmo for decades—only game in town. A lot of money up for grabs. Worse, there were American arms found during raids.”

  “No way Matt was involved with trading arms for drugs,” Abby said bluntly.

  “Maybe not. But his connection to Janis Meeks—”

  Abby winced at the mention of the woman’s name. She’d taken a few body blows over the months after Matt’s death, as one story after another came to light.

  Other Marine wives had warned her infidelity was common—part of the fog of war—and assured her that what happened overseas during a long tour of duty didn’t have anything to do with Abby or with Matt’s love for her. But she knew better.

  Besides, since Sanselmo, she was pretty sure Matt had been cheating on her stateside, too.

  “Matt might not have realized what he was facilitating,” Luke continued. “The timing is interesting because the Feds are on the verge of indic
tments against Voices for Villages. Maybe Matt had something incriminating on Meeks or her organization that’s coming to light now because of the impending charges.”

  “Like what?”

  “That’s the question.” His gaze on Stevie’s fingers fumbling with his pendant, Luke changed topics. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant that night after the funeral?”

  “Would it have made a difference?”

  His expression reflected guilt and regret. “I guess not.”

  She looked away, the memory of that night as vivid in her mind now as it had been the very next morning, when she’d awakened to find Luke had gone, leaving her with nothing but a note on the pillow and a little life growing inside her.

  What if she’d put a call in to his unit overseas when she’d gotten the results of the pregnancy test? He couldn’t have left Kaziristan to race to her side and play daddy to a baby he never intended to make. And she’d have never wanted him to feel obligated to be with her just because they made a baby together.

  But what about now? Didn’t Luke deserve to know that the little boy she was trying so desperately to protect from her husband’s past was his own flesh and blood?

  “I don’t know what to do,” she said aloud.

  “Where is your car parked?” Luke asked, the question catching her off balance.

  “About a block down the street. We walked from there.”

  He frowned. “You don’t drive a dark blue Pontiac G-3?”

  She shook her head. “Silver Honda Prelude.”

  Luke crossed to the front window. Parting the curtains about an inch, he peered outside, where the sun was making a last dying stand against twilight.

  “Is someone out there?” Abby asked.

  “Not anymore,” he answered tersely. “But we have to assume they’re around here somewhere, just to be safe.”

  The urge to cry returned, but she fended it off. She didn’t have time for tears. “What should I do, Luke?”

  “Right now, we don’t have a clue what Matt might have taken, or where he’d have hidden it. If he took anything at all.” He let the curtain drop and turned to her. “Right?”