by B. J Daniels
“ARE YOU TRYING to get me drunk?”
Max grinned across the narrow table in the dark back corner of the bar. “Is it working?”
“I don’t ever cry, let alone fall apart like I did earlier.” She waved a hand through the air, still embarrassed that she’d broken down in the prison parking lot. “I’ve always been the strong, determined, stubborn one in the family.”
“Sounds like a boring, tedious and tiring job. Have you ever thought about saying to hell with it and letting down your hair? You might be surprised what happens.”
He’d ordered for her. She hadn’t minded, feeling surprisingly safe with Max. The alcohol had lightened her up. She was actually having fun. It didn’t hurt that she was with a charming, handsome, incredibly sexy man. Or that she was starting to like him. A lot.
That alone should have scared her. She hadn’t let her guard down around a man in so long...
“There is a wild, adventurous, free-spirited woman in you who is fighting to get out,” Max said.
She laughed. “Does that line actually work on women?”
“I’ve never said that to any woman before.” He made an X over his heart with his index finger.
Kat studied him for a moment, amazed that she’d let him talk her into any of this. Even more amazed that she could laugh after everything she’d been through since making Max Malone’s acquaintance.
“Are you trying to seduce me?”
He shook his head slowly, his gaze never leaving hers. “I have a rule. I never get involved with anyone connected to a story I’m working on.”
“Really? But you want to see me let my hair down anyway?”
His smile was almost sad. “I got a glimpse of that woman a few nights ago in the Pacific. I was enchanted, so, yes, I’d love to see her again.”
She felt a flush move up her neck at his words, at the memory of the kiss, the feel of his hands on her wet, warm skin. She quickly changed the subject.
“You know this would be funny, if it wasn’t so horrible. I keep seeing the headline in one of the tabloids. My Mother Was a Terrorist—Senator’s Daughter Tells All.”
“Not a bad headline,” Max said.
She took another sip of her drink as she perused him over the rim of the glass, before she said, “I sometimes forget that you’re a reporter. That all this is just a story for you.”
He grew serious as he looked over at her. “It’s become more than that, Kat, and I think we both know it.”
“Why am I helping you?” She asked the question she’d been asking herself since the beginning.
“You’re helping yourself. You’ve wanted to know the truth long before I came along. Or am I wrong about that?”
She shook her head. “But wouldn’t a loving, caring, compassionate daughter try to protect her mother? Her family?”
He smiled. “That is exactly what you are trying to do, because you know your mother is the woman formerly known as Red.”
Kat felt tears burn her eyes the way the alcohol burned like a warm fire in her stomach. “You see me, don’t you?”
“I do. I don’t know what happened yet that made you close yourself off from not just the world but from every pleasure, every indulgence, everything you love,” he said. “But I’m glad to see you coming back.”
She felt the alcohol in her system warming her clear to her toes. She also felt her inhibitions take a hike out the back door as she looked at this man. He did see her. She hadn’t even been aware of how she’d denied herself.
“This rule of yours?” she asked. “How many times have you wanted to break it?”
“A few times I was tempted.”
“And how many times have you broken it?”
When he spoke, his voice sounded rough with emotion. “Never.”
* * *
ANGELINA GOT THE call in Washington, DC. When she saw that it was Ace phoning, she quickly excused herself from the fund-raiser dinner and hurried to the powder room to take the call.
“Tell me you’ve found something,” she said the moment she was alone.
“Where are you?”
The question caught her off guard. “At a fund-raising dinner in DC.”
“How soon can you come back to Montana?” Ace asked.
Her pulse jumped. “Tell me what you found out.”
“Not over the phone. It would take too long.”
“Then just tell me I was right.”
That deep gruff chuckle. “You were right. Call me when you get here. Are you flying in to Butte?”
“No, Bozeman. I’ll drive from there.”
“Watch your back.”
“Sarah doesn’t scare me,” she said and realized it was a lie. The one time she’d confronted the woman, she’d felt on some primitive level that Sarah Johnson Hamilton was dangerous. Behind that shy, sweet, confused and helpless-seeming woman was a monster. Only before now, Angelina had had no way to prove it.
“I can handle Sarah,” she said with more confidence than she felt.
“It isn’t only Sarah you have to fear,” Ace said and hung up.
Angelina stared at the phone for a long moment, her heart pounding. Surely the PI hadn’t meant that she should be afraid of Buckmaster.
She shoved that thought away, refusing to worry about it. Ace had the goods on Sarah. She felt a weight lift off her shoulders. Her heart seemed to swell. She had to fight tears. She’d known there was something. She’d known, and Buckmaster hadn’t believed her.
She wanted to dance around the restroom. She wanted to cheer. She could imagine herself walking back to the dinner and announcing to the world that the senator’s first wife was a liar, a fraud and as far from an angel as a manipulating bitch could be.
Instead, she called the airport, got the next flight out, fixed her makeup, put on her soon-to-be-First-Lady smile and returned to the table to finish her meal.
* * *
“WE’D BETTER GET to the motel before they give away our rooms,” Max said and finished his drink. This had been a bad idea.
Even though Kat said she didn’t drink, he’d thought one might relax her. She’d had a rough few days. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been going through. He hadn’t known his mother but he wouldn’t have wanted her to be a terrorist who’d been responsible in part for the deaths of five people. Five people, so far, he reminded himself.
He hadn’t forced alcohol on her, though. “I’ll buy you a Shirley Temple,” he’d said to the teetotaler as they’d entered the dim, small bar.
“I’ll have what you’re having.”
He’d grinned at her. “You’re on.”
After the first one, she’d begun to relax.
“You aren’t in AA or anything, are you?” he’d asked.
She’d laughed. “No, I don’t drink because—”
“You like being in control.”
Kat had stopped laughing. “Is it that obvious?”
“Maybe someday you’ll tell me about the man,” he said now.
“What man?” she asked, sounding leery.
“The one who hurt you so badly that you dress the way you do, don’t eat or drink things you like, and have that sign on your forehead that says Approach at Your Own Risk.”
She reached for her drink, took a long pull and set the glass back down. “Maybe I will tell you someday.”
“You all right?” he asked as she got to her feet.
She nodded. “Little girls’ room. You are actually...fun, you know that?”
He chuckled. “Thanks. So are you.”
“When I let my hair down, right?” She grabbed the clip holding her hair up, pulled and shook out the long, dark, curly locks. “Better?”
“Much. If we didn’t have to be at the
prison so early in the morning, I would take you dancing.”
“I don’t dance.”
* * *
WHEN KAT RETURNED from the restroom, Max drove them to the motel. It was as bad as any he’d ever stayed in, and he’d stayed in some doozies. Kat, bless her, had tried to hide how appalled she was, and offered to stay in the car while he went in and got the keys.
“There’s some kind of convention in town and with the prison so far away from everything,” he said, “this was all I could get.”
“I’m sure it will be fine.” She sat back, smiled and closed her eyes.
He knew that had to be the booze talking. Wait until she woke up in the morning. Worse, when she found out that he could get only one room. He’d been told, though, that the couch folded out into a bed.
Still, as he went inside the motel office, he knew he was playing with a wildfire. It hadn’t been the booze talking when he’d told her that he’d been enchanted with her in the Pacific. True, the alcohol had loosened his tongue, but enchanted was exactly what he was still.
He had gotten a tempting glimpse of the real Kat Hamilton, the one she kept locked up under the baggy clothes and the “Keep Your Distance” expression. He couldn’t help thinking about what she would be like unleashed.
Pushing that thought away, he paid for the motel, took the key and walked back to the rental car. The night sky couldn’t compare to Montana’s, but still there was a sprinkling of stars and a sliver of silver moon. Nor could the cool night air, which smelled of broiled steaks from the steak house down the road, compare.
But he breathed in the night, feeling oddly happier than he had in a long time. And it wasn’t the story he was chasing, which was usually the case. He just felt...good. That, too, surprised him.
He was smart enough to know the cause. Kat.
Now, if he could just get through this night without—
As he reached the car, he stopped to smile. Kat was sacked out. Even when he opened the door and carried her to their room, she didn’t wake up. He pulled back the covers and laid her down. As he took off her shoes, he found himself laughing to himself.
He’d made it through another day without breaking his rule.
* * *
KAT WOKE THE next morning with a start. She sat up but then quickly lay back as her head began to spin. Where was she? She could hear water running. Blinking, she looked around the tacky, older motel room. She’d never stayed in any place this run-down. She’d always preferred her tent over a motel anyway.
Her tent would have definitely been a step up from this dump.
Looking down, she saw that she was wearing only her undergarments. She frowned, trying to recall taking off her clothes, as she sat up again. The last thing she could remember was Max going in to get the keys.
“Good morning!”
Kat jumped, startled as Max came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. She was instantly reminded of the Pacific Ocean and the feel of that wonderfully strong, beautiful body.
Her gaze flew up to his face. “What are you doing here?” she demanded, pulling the sheet up to cover herself.
“I could get only one room,” he said as he stepped over to his worn leather satchel, no doubt something else with sentimental value, and began pulling out clothes.
Her voice came out unusually high as she asked, “Where did you sleep last night?”
“On the couch. I didn’t bother making it into a bed.” He turned to look at her. “Your honor is safe. I only carried you in and put you to bed.”
“You undressed me.”
“I figured you would feel more comfortable that way, but don’t worry. I’m a professional,” he joked.
She took a breath, not sure if she was glad about that or sorry. But if anything ever happened between them, she wanted to be wide-awake. She didn’t want to miss a second of it.
That thought shook her. It had been so long and her last memory of sex... She shoved that away as she had always done. Nothing was ever going to happen with her and Max. He’d already told her he never broke his rule.
“Here,” he said as he took a bottle of aspirin from his suitcase and got her a plastic cup of water. “I’ll go get us some coffee and cinnamon rolls while you get ready.”
She swallowed the aspirin and handed him back the cup. “I don’t eat—”
“Cinnamon rolls,” he said with a grin and left.
* * *
KAT, HE NOTICED, was still licking the sugar off her fingers when they arrived at the prison. “I hate you,” she said without much conviction.
Max chuckled. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Fine.”
She seemed stronger today, more ready to face another man who’d known a Sarah Johnson she’d never dreamed existed. That was something else about Kat Hamilton that fascinated him. He found himself wondering more and more about the woman under that protective shell she’d built around herself.
“Well, aren’t you going to tell me the plan?” she said, yanking him out of his musings.
“Today should go easier,” he said as they got out and walked toward the prison entrance. “McGill will have heard about our visit with his cohort Green. Actually, when I called the warden this morning, I was only a little surprised when McGill had still agreed to see us.”
Unlike Green, McGill would be prepared to see a version of Sarah Johnson as she’d been all those years ago.
They went through the same access routine as they had yesterday at the other prison. The only difference was that the room they were led to was a little larger.
Max found himself watching the door. He wanted to make sure he didn’t miss McGill’s reaction to Kat.
At the sound of footfalls outside, he held his breath. Could anything prepare McGill for seeing a ghostlike version of Red? Both Green and McGill would be wondering about Kat, wondering if Red was trying to send them a message. Or if Red’s cover was truly blown.
The visiting room door had opened. Max had had to get special permission for Kat to accompany him for this visit. But he was damned glad she’d decided to come along. It was one thing to be told that Kat looked like her mother. It was another thing to actually see how much she resembled the woman called Red.
The instant Wallace McGill laid eyes on Red’s daughter, he stumbled and would have fallen if the guard hadn’t grabbed him.
* * *
KAT HAD BEEN trying to remember what Wallace McGill looked like from the old photo. Max had pointed him out in the eight-member antigovernment group before they’d left the motel. He’d been tall and blond with pale blue eyes. What had struck her was how young he’d looked—how innocent.
When the door to the visiting room opened, she’d been so deep in thought that she jumped. Max laid a hand on her knee as a guard helped a thin, gray-haired man into the room. Kat thought there must have been a mistake. This couldn’t be the man from the photo. Maybe this was the wrong Wallace McGill.
When the old man stumbled, the guard kept him from falling and helped him into a chair. He was shackled like Green had been, but he didn’t look as if he could hurt a spider.
She felt his gaze boring into her, though. But unlike Mason Green, Wallace McGill looked nostalgic, as if he was caught in a time warp. Did he think it was Red herself visiting him?
“So, what is this about?” McGill asked, still looking at Kat. “I was told you were doing a story?”
“On the Prophecy,” Max said. “But what is it anyway?”
McGill finally shifted his gaze to Max. “You know or you wouldn’t be here.” His eyes cut back to Kat.
“We’re here about Sarah Johnson,” Max said.
“I don’t know anyone by that name,” he said, his gaze on her.
“But you know
Red,” Max said. “This is her daughter, not that I need to tell you that. You saw the resemblance the moment you came through the door.”
“You knew my mother,” Kat said, her voice breaking.
McGill shook his head. “I just told you—”
“Please, we don’t have much time,” Kat said.
“We were with Red just yesterday,” Max interjected. “We know everything.”
The man smiled, exposing several missing teeth. “I highly doubt that.”
Max held up the photo of Sarah and Kat. The other side of the counter grew very quiet as the elderly man studied it, something sad and regretful in his eyes.
“If you know so much, then why are you here?” Before either of them could answer, he continued. “Why bother me?”
“Did you know that Sarah is remarrying? A nice rancher, and settling down in the Sweet Grass Valley,” Max said. “Or maybe Green didn’t tell you.”
Kat saw the man’s reaction. That was something he hadn’t known.
“She’s getting on with her life,” Max said. “But why would you care? You don’t know the woman.”
“Was it worth it?” Kat asked. “Killing innocent people? Doing what you all did back then? Look at the price you have had to pay. Life without any chance of parole.”
McGill’s expression turned angry. “I’d do it again. I would do anything for Red. And she would do anything for me,” the man said, suddenly looking stronger, less like an old man.
“Even though she’s had it a lot easier than you have the past thirty-six years?” Max asked.
McGill’s jaw tightened. “She is continuing the fight.”
“Sure doesn’t seem like it,” Max said. “She got married to a rich man, had six children with him...so what fight would that be?”
“Red knows what she’s doing,” McGill said.
“Fooling you,” Max said. “What did any of you really accomplish other than blowing up a few buildings and killing innocent people, so you and Green could end up in prison all these years?”
“Someone has to speak up. The government is corrupt. Someone has to bring it down, by whatever means, however long it takes. And the Prophecy will, because that has been the plan all along. I played my part but now I’m happy to sit back and watch.”
