by DJ Erfert
The GPS in the dashboard guided Kate through the streets of Phoenix. Lucy didn’t need the artificial woman’s voice telling her where to turn. She knew her old neighborhood by heart. The landscaping may have been a little different in spots, but the Circle Ks were still in operation, as was the Sonic Drive-In. The house on the corner of her street had a new wall bordering the yard. Lucy thought it looked nice. Now the kids couldn’t cut across on their bikes anymore.
Kate pulled over and turned off the engine.
“Why here?” Lucy asked.
Kate unbuckled her seatbelt. “I don’t feel right parking in front of your house.”
“You want to sneak up?”
Kate turned in her seat and faced Lucy. “I need to know what we’re up against. You didn’t have any idea your father ran Steele Reinforcement, the CIA’s major subcontractor. We don’t know why he kept that a secret from you, or that he wasn’t responsible for your mother’s murder.” Lucy inwardly cringed when Kate said that out loud. “We don’t know what other secrets he’s keeping from you. I want to be careful, and to do that we don’t announce ourselves, right?”
Lucy nodded, knowing her partner was thinking with a clear head and not one clouded with emotion.
Kate opened the glove box and took out two small black cylinders. “Here—” Lucy pushed the button on the end and lit up the truck’s interior. They were LED flashlights—powerful and bright.
“Are we going to wear gloves and ski masks, too?”
Kate slapped her across the bicep. “I forgot them. Maybe next time,” she said with a sneaky smile.
Kate led the way up the sidewalk, but Lucy noticed the same head-bobbing motion the boy did back at the Am/Pm before he killed Harvey. Lucy had no doubt Kate saw more in those quick glances than that boy ever did.
They slipped up the side yard and peeked into the garage. The little windows were dirty, but with their flashlights they could see one car sitting inside the double bay. “That’s my V-dub,” Lucy whispered. “My dad drives a pickup. He’s not home.” Her heart slowed down in disappointment. The confrontation she had expected would have to wait until another day.
“Lucy, knowing what we found out, did you really expect Cooper Steele to be here?”
Kate had a point—a huge point, in fact. Lucy’s curiosity overrode her anger, at least for the moment. She wondered if he still lived in their modest home at all. The three-bedroom house was anything but spacious.
“Let’s go inside,” Lucy whispered.
“But he’s not home. Shouldn’t we just call him and ask for a meeting?”
“Call him? You can do that?” Lucy didn’t think about her question before it fell out of her mouth. “Of course—you have his phone number.”
“Yes, I call him all the time when we need his company for a job. We’ve never met in person, but I’d know his voice anywhere.” Kate reached into her jean’s pocket and took out her phone. “Don’t you have a number for your dad?”
“Yes …” Lucy blew out an exasperated breath. “Stupid—”
“Me?”
“No, me.” She opened her phone’s contact list and scrolled to ‘dad.’ “Don’t call him yet. Let’s—”
“Compare phone numbers,” Kate finished for her. She moved and stood next to Lucy’s shoulder and held out her phone with the Steele Reinforcement’s name and number pulled up ready for dialing.
“It’s not the same,” Lucy whispered.
“Okay, I know why.” Kate grabbed Lucy’s elbow and moved her to the deep shadows of the side of the house before she said, “When I call the company, I always get the executive secretary first, then depending on what the job is, she makes the arrangements for what we need, or she puts me through to Coop, like when you were wounded …”
Lucy gave a heavy sigh. “Like when I was wounded in the Bahamas two months ago.”
“Yeah,” Kate said quietly. “When I called them for the back up we needed, I told her what happened and she immediately transferred me to—your dad.”
Lucy touched the house, feeling the cold, rough stucco under her fingers. It was real and not a dream. She was home, and she needed comfort. “I want to go inside.” She turned and headed for the backyard.
“Are you sure you just don’t want to call him?” Kate went through the side gate after Lucy. “You have his personal number.”
“I don’t think I’m ready to talk over the phone.” The grass in the yard was yellow. It hadn’t been watered in a while and had died.
“Did you bring your key?”
“No.”
“Then how … never mind.”
Lucy ran her flashlight around the back door, and smiled when she found the little paper straw sticking out just above the top hinge. Using the lock picks her dad gave her—which Cooper Steele had given her—she unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door leading into the kitchen. It smelled musty. The air was stale and cool. Her first impulse was to turn on the light, but she resisted and used the flashlight to look around.
“What are we searching for?”
Lucy ran her fingers along the granite countertop and felt the dust. “Answers.” The fridge light came on.
“There’s no milk,” Kate said.
“He doesn’t like milk.” Lucy turned and looked at her friend. “Is there orange juice?”
“No. Nothing to drink, and there aren’t any leftovers in here either.” She reached in and moved around a jar. “Some sweet pickles, a half empty jar of mayonnaise, and some thousand island salad dressing, and that’s about it.”
“He doesn’t eat here.” Lucy went down the line and opened the cupboard doors looking for anything that might resemble edible foodstuff, but she found mostly empty cabinets. “He doesn’t even have any emergency supplies.” She leaned her fists against the countertops and hung her head, realizing fully that her dad, the man she grew up with, the first man who knew of her gift and loved her unconditionally in spite of it, wasn’t the man she believed him to be. The burning she felt in her chest worked its way up her throat and pushed hot tears over her lashes. She couldn’t help but cry for the loss of her dad, at least of who she remembered.
“Lucy …” Kate rested her hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
Wiping her face with her fingers, Lucy swallowed a heated sob and whispered, “It’s not your fault.” She stepped away from her friend and out of the kitchen, heading through the living room in the darkness. Lucy didn’t need the beam from the flashlight to find her bedroom. She could find her way there with her eyes closed.
Standing inside the doorway, Lucy inhaled the stale air. She’d kept a dish of rose potpourri on her dresser, but in the last ten years that had slipped away; the flowery scent had died. Her room lit up as Kate came in behind her, pointing the flashlight at her unmade bed. Her dad hadn’t bothered making it after she left—it made her smile, and the thought of him being sentimental brought new tears to her eyes, blurring her vision again.
The one thing Lucy wanted was inside her closet. She crossed the room, knelt on the floor, and pushed aside the sliding door. A few of her clothes were still hanging, but only the ones that she’d outgrown when she left for the academy in Quantico, Virginia, after she had been hired with the CIA. She’d been nineteen at the time, and had grown four inches in the three years she’d been at Arizona State.
Digging to the back of the closet, Lucy moved several pairs of too small boots and worn out athletic shoes, and old shoeboxes filled with junk to reach the pink leather tool bag she wanted. She had to use her flashlight when Kate turned hers off. The worn leather handles felt familiar in her fist as she pulled it from the corner. It was lighter than she remembered—or she was stronger. Lucy turned around with the bag clutched to her chest and found a dark figure of a man filling the bedroom doorway. Her heart flipped in surprise.
In the next instant, he bent over, grunting loudly. Lucy swung her flashlight up in time to see Kate with her knee in his abdomen before she grabbed h
is arm, and with her leg in front of his, pulled him into the room, tripping him—straight at Lucy. The man knocked Lucy backwards into the closet, making her drop the only source of light behind the boxes. The room was plunged in darkness.
While Kate fought with the intruder, Lucy skirted the edge of the room as she pulled up her pant leg and took out her gun from its ankle holster, getting kicked twice before she was able to hit the light switch. She almost dropped her gun from shock when she got a good look at the man lying on top of Kate. He had her pinned to the carpet with his body.
“Dad?”
He looked up. “Lulu?”
“Cooper?”
His wide-eyed stare dropped to the woman under him. He looked shocked. “You’re Kate Laurence?”
“Dad, what are you doing sneaking in here?” Lucy asked pointing the gun upward. “I almost shot you.”
“But you waited until you had a clear shot, just like I taught you,” he said, grinning.
“Would you get off me?” Kate demanded, struggling against his heavy body.
Lucy stepped forward to help, but then she stopped when she noticed the grin on her dad’s face when he stared down at her friend. He had her arms pinned at the wrists, as well as her legs with his legs. From all outward appearances, he looked like he was enjoying himself.
“Uh, Dad? Should I leave you two alone?”
His grin went into a full handsome smile. “Would you?”
“No—” Kate yelled. “Shoot him!”
Lucy slapped her hand over her mouth and tried hard not to laugh. For whatever reason, she couldn’t be mad at him any longer. His smile always melted her heart. Hearing his voice reassured her that her tired imagination had carried her rational mind away. She knew him, and he wasn’t a murderer. There had to be a good reason for his changing her name when she was a baby, and for him taking an alias. She just had to get him to tell her why.
“Dad, why didn’t you tell me you’re Cooper Steele?”
His dark blue-eyed gaze slowly went from Kate’s angry face to Lucy’s. “I tried. If you would’ve met with me when I asked you to, Lulu, then you would have known.”
She’d been plagued with invitations for a meeting from Cooper Steele since she came home from her mission two months prior, and she’d turned him down every time. If only she’d known he was her dad she wouldn’t have been so obstinate. She knelt down in front of him and asked, “Did you have my house bugged?”
He sat upright, letting go of Kate. “Your house was bugged?”
Kate clamped her hands together and swung her doubled-up fists into Cooper’s jaw, knocking him sideways. When he fell, Kate tossed him off her completely. She rolled away, reaching for her ankle, and before Lucy could say anything, a Glock 9 mm automatic was pointed at his chest.
“What are you doing?” Lucy yelled. She held her hand out, as if she could catch the bullet in mid-air.
Cooper rubbed his chin. It had to have hurt, but from the unwavering grin on his face, Lucy couldn’t detect any hard feelings, only admiration as he stared past the barrel of the gun and into Kate’s blushed face. Her dad wasn’t an average sized man. When he stood up straight, the top of his dark haired head reached over six foot five inches tall. His muscular body had to weigh twice that of Kate, yet she took him down—twice. For an executive assistant, that astonished Lucy. From the smile in her dad’s eyes, he was more than impressed.
“Lucy, we don’t know he didn’t kill your mother,” Kate said breathlessly, brushing her hair out of her face with one hand. She kept her gun at his chest—until Cooper’s lightning fast hand grabbed the gun and yanked it away. The gun went off, the explosion resounded off the bedroom walls.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lucy held her breath and waited for the blood to flow, terrified at the thought of her dad getting shot.
“I’m okay, Lulu,” Cooper said, standing up. He dumped the magazine on the floor and ejected the next round from the chamber. “It hit the chest of drawers.” He tucked the gun into his belt and moved his stare to Lucy. “I didn’t kill your mother.”
Lucy ran to her dad and jumped into his embrace, throwing her arms around his neck. “I know you didn’t. I’m sorry for doubting you.”
“It’s okay, Lulu baby,” he whispered. “I’ve missed you.”
“I—I’ve missed you too, Dad,” she said. “And I’m sorry for staying away so long.”
He turned slightly and said, “I’ve been watching over you.”
“Have you?” Kate asked sharply. “Enough to place bugs in her house?”
Cooper set Lucy down on her feet, but he didn’t let her go. “I didn’t authorize any listening devices to be placed in her home. I have no need to eavesdrop in on my daughter’s private life.”
“No, you just spy on her from helicopters,” Kate said harshly, taking a step closer to him.
“Yes, I admitted that already. How else can I keep an eye on her while she’s taking on dangerous missions?”
“Missions?” Kate stepped closer. “She wasn’t on a mission this afternoon when she spotted your chopper watching her.”
Cooper let Lucy loose and moved a little closer to the redhead. Lucy watched them, intrigued at their heated interaction. While Kate had her voice raised louder than she’d heard her use in the ten years she’d known her, Lucy’s dad kept his low and even as he studied her face. The one side of his mouth still suggested a grin. “What do you call using a truck to stop a full-sized school bus? A girls’ night out?”
“It was unexpected. She didn’t know that was going to happen. She certainly wasn’t assigned to it.”
“She saw someone in trouble,” Cooper said slowly. “It’s in Lucy’s nature to help. It always has been. And she’s good at it.”
Kate opened her mouth, but then shut it without speaking. Evidently he didn’t know Kate knew about Lucy’s special gift. Lucy needed to have a long talk with him about her secret. Then Kate did something unexpected. She made a grab for the gun still tucked in his belt—and she got it out, but not without getting her wrist captured. He whirled Kate around and crossed her arms over her chest, clamping her back to his chest with his arms as tight as iron bars.
“Stop trying to kill me,” Cooper said, his mouth pressed firmly above Kate’s ear.
“She doesn’t trust you, Dad.”
With his face still pressed in her hair, he said, “I’m getting that feeling.”
Kate lifted her foot and kicked backward, grazing Cooper’s shin. When she lifted her foot for a second try, he dove to the carpet, taking Kate down with him. He landed hard on his shoulder with a loud expulsion of breath. “You’ve got to stop,” he said.
“Then let me go,” Kate whispered.
“Stop trying to kill me, and I’ll think about it.”
The bullet magazine was within Kate’s reach if her dad let up on his grip at all. Lucy saw it and knelt down, placing her hand on top of the mag. “What’s all this fighting for? I know you’re not going to kill my dad.”
Kate opened her fingers, and the gun slipped from her grip onto the carpet.
Lucy didn’t know what to make of Kate’s expression. What she thought was anger stewing in Kate’s eyes had changed in the few moments of being in her dad’s embrace. Her pretty eyebrows weren’t pinched together any longer, but they were raised higher on her forehead while her eyes had closed. Kate’s small gasping breaths worried Lucy.
“Dad, I think you’re hurting her.”
As quickly as he had captured Kate, he released her and laid her on her back. Cooper leaned up on his elbow and pulled open her leather jacket. “Are you injured, Katie?” He pressed his hand along her ribs, and she flinched. “Did I hurt you?”
She nodded.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know who attacked me—I didn’t know it was you I was fighting,” Cooper said, pushing her hair from her forehead. “Do you want me to take you to the hospital?”
Kate briefly closed her eyes, shaking her head.
>
Again, Lucy was confused at their interaction. Her dad stayed next to Kate’s side, slowly stroking her hair while she stared up into his face. Kate said they’d never met, but then again, she told Lucy that she would speak to Cooper Steele on the phone. How long it had been going on, she didn’t know, nor did she know how far from work their conversions had strayed. From the way he treated her, the way he talked to her, he had affection for her. Could a phone relationship be more than friendship? Could it be romantic?
The doorbell sounded, and Lucy had a flashback to last night when she had the nightmare. Kate’s gun had gone off, and a neighbor had to have heard it. “That’s probably the police. I’ll take care of them. You two …” Lucy shook her head and said, “just relax and stay quiet.”
~*~
“You’re Lucy’s father.”
Cooper gathered a handful of Kate’s dark red hair and let it curl around his fingers. “I am.” He lifted the curls to his nose and inhaled. “Your hair smells sweet.”
“But you’re Lucy’s father,” Kate whispered.
“I think we established that already.” With his fingers still in her hair, he asked, “Are you disappointed?” Kate attempted to answer, but her lips produced only puckering movements so alluring Cooper wanted to kiss them. He resisted. He didn’t want to move too fast now that they’d finally met in person. “You match your voice.”
“What?”
“You’re beautiful. I knew you would be from the sound of your voice.”
Her lips turned upward into a cautious smile. “This isn’t how I expected our first meeting to go.”
“You mean beating me up wasn’t on the top of your list of dating activities?”
“No,” Kate said, finally breaking into the first full smile since they met. But it didn’t last. It melted away like a chocolate bar near a hot fire. “I’m angry with you. I thought we were being honest with each other.”
