“I couldn’t sit at Maverick’s and do nothing,” Beau ground out, focused now on not losing his breakfast or his man card. Okay, he was feeling a little ambushed again, and a whole lot of stupid. But mostly, like he needed to hurl because he’d been so idiotically paranoid—for no good reason—that he’d missed what was going on right under his nose. Alex was here. Okay, so he was still an ass, and he growled one helluva lot, but Jesus H. Christ. Alex was here. He’d always been here. Every. Damned. Time.
Just then, Maverick and Gabe rounded the other side of the house, both with sniper rifles slung over their shoulders. “What are you guys doing?” Beau asked, hating the uncertainty in his tone. But Jesus. The only reason any of these guys had been activated was because of one little finger. Okay, so the demented witch who’d hacked it off figured into the picture too, but they were doing this because they’d all come to his aid. My aid.
The very guys he’d badgered and berated all had his six. Every single one of them. All this time. Beau bowed his very hard head, wondering how he’d gotten so—lucky. And been so blind.
Gabe squawked, “McKenna is so pissed at you, Jennings. China says she’s spitting nails. You got some ’splaining to do, tough guy.”
“How hard is that damned Ranger head of yours, anyway?” Maverick growled.
You have no idea…
“How many times you going to run out on her?”
“I’d never do that to Izza,” Connor muttered.
“Cuz she’d kick your ass,” Maverick added.
And McKenna should kick mine...
“Damned straight, or she’d suddenly have a migraine for the rest of your life, and you’d be sleeping on the couch,” Gabe chuckled.
“Already got a migraine.” Izza glared at Beau, her head canted and a funny light in her eyes. “He stands about six-foot-five and weighs around two-ten, when he’s not looking so puny and green. Isn’t that right, dumbass?”
Was she teasing him? After he’d dissed her in the office? “Umm, yeah,” Beau said, totally flummoxed at the banter flying back and forth. For lethal professionals, these guys and this gal were amazingly cool under pressure. “Who’s guarding McKenna? Just Lee and Adam?”
Alex interrupted before Maverick could answer. “Nope. Just China and Shelby. Oh, yeah. Kyrie’s there, too. I activated the wives. Everyone but Zack is out tracking Montego.”
“You left McKenna unguarded?” Un-fuckin’-believable!
Izza’s dark brown eyes narrowed. Her upper lip twitched like she wished she had Beau’s balls in her gloved hands. “You think women aren’t as good as you? You got an issue with us?”
Funny. He hadn’t thought of Izza as female before, not with that tough girl swagger and the way she handled firearms and knives like a man. Make that like a former Marine.
“No,” he told her honestly. “Not with you, but with the wives, yeah. They shouldn’t have to hunt and” —he swallowed extra hard, still fighting a jumpy stomach— “kill. I don’t want McKenna to ever have to do that.”
Izza’s nose twitched. “What that? You mean defend herself? You think we like that our husbands have to do—that? Get a clue, Jennings. Life’s bitchin’ hard and—”
“And then you’ll die if you keep pissing my wife off,” Connor finished quietly. He canted his head at Beau with his usual casual smile, but Beau caught the threat. “It’s a new world, buddy, and I’m here to tell you, women are every bit as good in the field as most men I’ve worked with.”
There it was again, that tender something zinging between Connor and Izza that Beau craved in his own life. With his own woman. “I’m sorry, Izza,” he told the woman he should’ve respected from the get-go. “I’ve been an ass and—”
“You sure as hell are.” Her head bobbed and her ponytail with it.
“And you’re right,” he admitted, licking his dry lips as he kept on keeping on. “I am, but I’m trying to change. Women are every bit as good as men. Maybe better than most.”
“Holy shit. Did hell just freeze over?” Maverick plunked his butt on the steps alongside Beau and clapped a hand to his back. “You sure you’re okay? I haven’t heard you drop not one f-bomb yet.”
Beau wasn’t sure of anything. He turned to Alex. “I thought you suspected Montego was in your neighborhood.” I certainly did. “I mean, after you found the second finger in your car...”
“Gut reaction at the time, Junior Agent,” Alex replied smoothly. “But we now believe Montego planted it earlier in the day. I made two stops after Golden Horizons, one at Sanders prior residence, the other at my office. Montego doesn’t have any interest in McKenna or her father, so she hasn’t been seen near Adams Morgan, which means she planted the last finger when I stopped in Alexandria.”
“She’s been watching TEAM headquarters,” Gabe said as he leaned one hip into McKenna’s stair railing, his gaze zeroed on Beau. “You sure you’re feeling okay? You are pretty green.”
Beau nodded. He was sick—damned sick—at heart. For so many years, he’d lived by one set of rules: Don’t trust people. They all lie, and every last one will stab you in the back. Hit first and hit hard. Leave first—before they leave you—because they damned sure will.
Nothing more than survival instincts learned the hard way, those rules had kept him alive. He’d only made one exception, when he’d wanted to join the Army. The posters back then made it look easy. But when he failed the mock ASVAB, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, that Army recruiter Sergeant Emery Pickett just happened to have on hand, reality had set in cold and hard. Uncle Sam didn’t want him, either.
But Pickett must’ve seen something in Beau that afternoon. He’d cocked that big square head of his, and he’d challenged Beau to come live with him and his wife for a year if he was serious about joining.
At first, Beau shrugged the invite away, just like he’d shrugged any other perv’s advances off. But then Pickett said he could turn Beau into something called an Army Ranger. He hadn’t known what that term meant at the time, but it sounded honorable, as if he really could be better and smarter than anyone else, two things Beau had desperately wanted back then. In the end he’d decided, why not? What difference was one more wasted year to a life already deemed useless?
Turned out that year made a helluva difference. During that time, not only had Beau qualified for any number of MOSs, military occupations, he learned to read, how to handle the arsenal of weapons in Pickett’s private collection, and he discovered he had a head for math and science. He’d made two lasting friends, Emery and his wife, Coretta.
Pickett also made certain Beau had the necessary documentation to enlist. When they couldn’t locate a birth certificate, Pickett wrangled a green card out of someone who’d ‘owed him a favor’. And he’d done it all to help some dumb kid on the street whom he didn’t know and shouldn’t have cared a lick about. That tough sergeant’s version of generosity had amazed Beau then, and still did today. He finally understood how a loner might need men like Pickett, Maverick, and Gabe at his back. Women like Izza in his corner. McKenna in his life. Hell, he might even need Alex.
Beau looked his boss in the eye. “I’m not any good at this. I don’t know how to be” —he shook his head, searching for the right words— “second best.” Or human. Or approachable. Or a team player. Or whatever it is you want from me.
Alex stared back at him, ever the leader. Ever the vicious attack trained killer, and the one that—if you were smart—you never riled. “It’s not about being second best, Junior Agent. It’s knowing that no matter which world war you’re headed into, this TEAM’s in the fight with you.”
Yeah, that. Coughing, Beau cleared his throat as it hit home. He was so damned tired of being an army of one. For the first time in his pitiful excuse of a life, he wanted to crawl back into bed and let someone else fight the good fight for a change. Because these guys and gals would do just that. They’d fight for him, and once he’d res
ted and healed, they’d welcome him back into the fray with a brotherly—or sisterly—insult. He didn’t have to go it alone. Not any more...
“Then what are we waiting for?” he asked meekly.
There was that mean as hell, shit-eating Devil Dog stare again. Alex drew in a slow breath, and then exhaled just as slowly. “’Bout damned time. Let’s roll.”
Chapter Forty-Five
The horseback ride into the wooded hills surrounding the Wild Wolf Ranch East calmed McKenna’s jagged nerves. Listening to the slow, methodical footfall of China’s ‘kids,’ went a long way toward regaining a healthier perspective.
McKenna eased out of her saddle under the stately oaks, and slowly slid to the ground, while China and Shelby tied the horses’ reins to a low branch. Kyrie hovered over Suzette like a big sister as they chattered and spread a blanket in the shade not too far from the enormous draft horses. They’d ridden Spot, a miniature Mediterranean donkey, which necessitated the slow pace of the much larger Percherons.
The horse China had ridden was a sleek black stallion named Ebony. He tossed his head and pawed the ground, while the other horses were more sedate. Shelby rode a bay, Joker, while China had selected another bay, Star, for McKenna, because he was gentle. Even now the two bays bumped butts and shoulders like locker buddies, while Ebony rolled his eyes like he had other places to be.
China smoothed a hand under the veil of his coal black mane. “Easy boy. Settle down. You know everyone here, so stop acting up. Spot’s the ass, not you.”
As if he knew what she’d said, the big guy stopped his anxious pawing.
“You can tell when it’s springtime in the Rockies,” Shelby chuckled. “Stallions can scent a mare a hundred miles away.”
That McKenna understood. “He’s your only stallion?” she asked, her gaze shifting to the other, less anxious horses.
“Not the only one I own, just the only one with us today,” China said as she moved from horse to horse, rubbing their noses or patting their necks like a mother might with her kids. “I keep Ebony, Hex, and Deuces Wild separate from the geldings and mares. Safer that way.”
McKenna understood that concept. “Star’s bigger than the other two.”
China sighed. “Yes, I made a mistake gelding him. Wish I hadn’t. The babies he could’ve fathered would’ve been magnificent. Funny thing is, he’s Maverick’s buddy. Those two share a soul or something.”
“How so?”
“Because the day Maverick met China, he also saved Star’s life,” Shelby replied. “Star and China got caught in a landslide.”
“A small landslide,” China added. “Just enough that Star’s legs were trapped—”
“And you nearly died,” Shelby added. “Don’t minimize what happened. You had no cell service, and who knows how bad things could’ve gone if he hadn’t run to your rescue like he did.”
China shrugged. “He did kind of drop into my life like a big, dark guardian angel.”
That was the best description for Maverick that McKenna had ever heard. Alex too. “Aren’t they all?”
Shelby nodded, her violet eyes extra blue in the morning sun. “Not sure about your guys, but Gabe surely is mine. I don’t know what I’d do without him, and he’s so good with Suzette. You should see them in the kitchen. He’s teaching her to make waffles. Can you believe that? Of course, all of their waffles have chocolate chips.”
“These guys do seem to show up when you least expect them,” China added, a dreamy quality to her voice. Just then her cell rang. “Hey. Sure, here she is.” China handed the phone to McKenna with a grimace. “It’s Beau.”
McKenna put the phone to her ear. “Doctor Fitzgerald.”
“Umm, yeah,” he replied, a definite note of hesitation in his voice at her professional declaration. What was he expecting? A warm greeting?
“I owe you an—”
“You don’t owe me anything. No worries, like you said. I’m just one of many. Now how may I help you today?”
A feral snarl growled over the connection before he bit out, “Knock it off. I already know I’m an idiot. You don’t have to rub it in.”
She nodded at his astute assessment of himself even as she mustered her courage. “Yes, you certainly are, but I imagine it’s because you’re just busy. I get it. You’ve got important work to do, and I’m old news. Stop worrying about me. I’ll be fine. Now why’d you call?” She didn’t mean the sharpness in her tone to cut like a knife, but then, why not? His continual rejection stung like a razor.
“Like hell you will.”
“Will what? Be fine?” Who did he think he was? “Bet me.”
Of course, he didn’t answer. That was his usual MO. Shut down when things became uncomfortable. Clam up. Shrug. At the lull in the argument, she walked away from the picnic taking place behind her, needing privacy to unload on the arrogant male sounding off in her ear.
“Listen,” she said firmly as she turned her back to the group and faced downhill. “You and I got off to a crazy start, and yes, my emotions were all over the place. I’ll admit to that. Just like you, I probably said things I didn’t mean. It happens, right? Especially when people are under emotional stress like we certainly were. Are. But I’m better today, and I don’t need—”
“Will you shut up and look at the photo I texted you over China’s damned phone?”
“You know, I’m really not in the mood to argue with you, and I don’t appreciate your language, and I’ve got—”
“Look at it! Do you know either of those women?”
Tired of being bossed by a man who had no intention other than to Do His Job, McKenna huffed even as she obeyed—damn him—and checked China’s latest text message. Two photos were displayed, one of the evil woman who’d tortured her, the other of another dark-haired woman in a slimming skirt.
“Look closely, McKenna. Do you see any resemblance between those two women and anyone else you know?”
“Like who?”
“Like your mother,” he snapped.
My mother? This bully is getting on my last nerve.
Shaking her head, McKenna reverted back to the pictures for one last look. But just one, and then this conversation was over. Okay, the women looked somewhat alike. So what? Back to the call from Beau she went, what little she could recall of the mother she’d gone through years of therapy to forget. “No, Mom was blonde, pencil thin, and… and...”
And the world tipped on its axis. McKenna dropped to her knees. Turned out she hadn’t forgotten a thing. Change the hair color on both those women. Change their eye color to cornflower blue. Pluck the daylights out of the ungodly unibrow stretched across Bitch Two’s forehead, and…
“They’re my aunts,” she breathed as every molecule of saliva evaporated out of her open mouth. “Aren’t they?”
“They’re two of your mother’s five sisters, McKenna, and right now, we’re looking for the others. Do you recall anything about them? Like where they live? Anything?”
“No, Dad—”
“For God’s sake, tell her!” Maverick bellowed in the background.
McKenna’s throat closed. “Tell me what? Is it my dad?” Don’t say it.
“He’s safe. Connor and Izza are with him now,” Beau said. “As soon as the police are finished interviewing him, he’s free to go. Connor and Izza will accompany him to Maverick’s to stay with you until we get the rest of these women in custody.”
China scrambled to her side. “What’s wrong?”
McKenna could barely ask, “Beau… Did she h-hurt him like she did m-me?”
“No, baby, he’s fine. Just tired and thirsty, worried about you, and ready to kick some Lynch butt.”
Lynch. My mom’s maiden name. Okay, that’s just plain scary.
China sank to the ground beside her. “Is it your dad? Did they find him? Is he okay??”
Nodding, McKenna managed a squeaky, “He’s fine, but I need to go back
to the ranch and—”
“Where the hell are you?” Beau roared.
“It’s okay. Really. We... we took a break, and China packed a lunch, and we’re riding horses and—”
“You’re not behind closed doors?” he all but screamed over the phone.
“Beau. China brought her rifle, and so did Shelby. Gosh, I think even Kyrie’s got a gun.” Okay, not the correct word, but that was the best McKenna could do. She peered around China to see if there was a pistol in Kyrie’s holster as she tried to calm the raging bull at the other end of the line. “I feel safe. Honest. But if Dad’s going to be at the ranch—”
“No, stay with China,” Beau ordered in her ear. “Trust me. It’s better this way.”
“But I need to be there when he arrives—”
“You need to do as you’re told! I know better than—”
And enough! “I’ve had enough, Beau. Either stay or go. You keep telling me to trust you, but you’re always leaving me,” she yelled back at him. “I’m not your damned yo-yo!”
Dead silence met her bold retort. Then a grumbly male cough. He obviously hadn’t seen that coming. Well, neither had she, but really? He thought he could boss her just because he’d saved her life? What’d that make her, his slave? No way.
At last a raspy male ego muttered, “Never said I was smart.”
“That’s for sure,” a surly male voice McKenna didn’t recognize hooted from Beau’s end of the connection.
“Will you guys back off?” he hissed. “I’m talking here!”
McKenna was pretty sure she heard Alex bark something she couldn’t interpret before Beau came back to her with, “I’m trying. Honest. This is hard for me, too.”
She had to give him credit for admitting that. Especially since she’d seen the scars on his back and the burn on his hand. Even now, as upset as she was with him, she could still picture the nervous uncertainty in his dark eyes when he’d asked if she’d keep him. Someone had to have been utterly cruel to him to have caused the depth of hesitation she’d seen in this pig-headed, know-it-all, bully male.
Beau (In the Company of Snipers Book 18) Page 30
