When the three of them had shared a conference call on the secure line this morning, there had been no sugarcoating the risks of leaving the penthouse. Drake had laid down some guidelines. Macki had jumped at the chance. Against his gut instincts, Josh had agreed.
“Oh, there’s something I need to show you before we get out of the truck.” He reached into the front pocket of his jeans and came out with a small key fob. Round, it looked like a cheap embellishment with an O-ring attached.
“That? You need to show me that right now? Right this instant, that is more important than anything else in the world?”
He grabbed her hand and dropped the piece in her palm. “Yes, Macki. That is the most important thing in the world you will ever hold. Look at it and make sure you understand what I’m saying.”
She flipped the fob over and over, rubbing her finger across the letters. “What is it?”
“An emergency call for backup. Not just for OPAQUE. If that initial is crushed into the backing, a signal goes out to OPAQUE, the FBI, and any local police department. Tells them an OPAQUE agent is in trouble.” The piece had saved his life a couple of times and was the only lifeline he sometimes had on an assignment.
“Why show me this now?”
“Because you need to know what to do if I ever go down.”
Last night, when she’d talked about how he didn’t know what it felt like to run in fear, it had hit him like a two-by-four upside the head. That was exactly what he’d done when he walked away from her years ago. That was the only thing in his life he’d ever run from.
He wouldn’t run again. This time, he’d either confess to her, be dead on the ground, or piss her off so badly she’d kick him out of her life.
She narrowed her eyes, but kept her mouth shut. “What do I do?”
Josh’s gut cringed at the thought the instructions would ever be put in play by her. He didn’t like the idea of the end being near for himself, even more so for her. “Grab the fob from my watch pocket and smash it good. Stomp on it. Whatever it takes.”
She nodded.
“If you run, take it with you and smash the fob when you get to a safer location. Then wait there. Can you promise you’ll do that for me? That if I tell you to go, you’ll save yourself and call for help?”
A flicker of defiance flashed across her face. She wouldn’t want to leave him, she’d want to stand and fight, just like him. And together they might be able to keep CT at bay long enough for backup to arrive. Then again, maybe not. He couldn’t stand the thought of CT having her in their control.
The past couple of days had shown him the true Macki. He liked that woman. He liked the way her hazel eyes intensified behind her long lashes when she looked at him. The way her lips tempted, moist from the sweep of her tongue on her lower lip. The way her curves had melded into him, her fingers digging into his back, her breath on his neck. He’d almost blown everything that night in the kitchen.
No. He couldn’t stand the thought of what CT might do if they had her in their clutches.
“Promise me, Macki.” He knew she kept her promises.
“I promise.” She handed him the key fob, and he tucked it back in his pocket. “Now, don’t you think we should get out of this truck before we’re overcome with heatstroke? Besides which, we need to mingle with the people on your they-could-be-the-bad-guys list.”
“Might as well.” He hated barbeques. Hated all the play-nice conversations that interlaced every get-together he’d ever been to. Glancing around one more time, he jumped from the driver’s-side door. “Stay there and I’ll come around.”
She met him by the passenger back bumper. A blush of lip gloss accentuated her tan, and sun-bleached hair framed her face. He had to force himself back from believing they were simply a couple on their way to a picnic with friends.
“Okay, let’s review a few things.” He cringed with the thought of all the ways this afternoon could turn bad. “First, stay within sight of me at all times. No jumping in the pool. No wandering inside or outside without me knowing. Got it?”
She inhaled a deep, loud breath and bit the side of her lip. He could tell her inner steam engine was about to explode. Too bad. This assignment was his, and he planned to follow his usual routine, because he hadn’t lost a client yet. Didn’t plan to start today.
“If I yell ‘ground,’ you hit it without thinking. Same goes for you. If you see anything suspicious, just yell and I’ll react.” He calmed his breathing and his mind. “When I say it’s time to go, we go. No questions asked.”
...
Every time Mackenzie entered Lieutenant Grey’s house, she expected her high school friend Peggy to rush over and give her a hug. Grey and her own dad had worked the force together. They’d also been close friends.
Only made sense that she and Peggy became pinkie-finger confidantes. But, the comfort of being able to count on someone for friendship forever had died, along with Peggy’s overdose. It still hurt, hurt bad. Mackenzie had thought it would subside after Grey moved to this new house a few years back, but it hadn’t. Her friend might have died a long time ago, but it sometimes felt as if college was only yesterday.
She’d never considered Grey’s twin sons as friends, rather they’d tolerated her for their sister’s sake. Annoyed her when she was in grade school. Ogled her as she filled out. Offered half-sincere compassion when her parents died. Once out of college, one had headed to New York, one to Hawaii.
As far back as she could remember, Grey’s annual end-of-summer barbeque had smelled of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. Usually, she got an invitation in the mail, so she’d been surprised at the last-minute phone call. The yard at his previous house had been a lot smaller. This house had a big, custom-made river-stone barbeque pit, along with a state-of-the-art outdoor kitchen. Misters and overhead bamboo fans completed the entertainment area.
She kept her hand in Josh’s as they navigated the crowd, some known, some not-so-known, huddled in groups around the flagstone patio leading to the pool. Josh had insisted there’d be no swimming today, even though cooling off about now would feel great.
“Mackenzie!” Grey waggled the grilling tongs high in the air, waving her in his direction over by one of the hickory-pit smokers.
She pulled her hand from Josh’s as she neared the man who’d taken on the role of backup dad to Drake after her father had been killed. Flicking his grilling apron that read “Smokin’ Hot,” she leaned in and gave him a hug, even though she expected none in return. “Looking pretty cool there.”
“Looking pretty awesome yourself.” Once Peggy had overdosed, he’d never been quite as demonstrative. His friendly hello hugs had stopped entirely. “Bet there’ll be quite a few single guys here who’ll be telling you the same thing before the night is over.”
That was different. Usually he was pushing for her not to rush on with her life. To let Blake’s death settle before she got serious again. If only he knew. Nothing had ever been serious between her and her so-called fiancé.
“You remember Josh, don’t you?” She took Josh’s elbow and pulled him into the conversation.
He held out his hand. “Thanks for inviting me, Lieutenant Grey.”
“Just call me Lieutenant.” He handed the tongs to what appeared to be a member of the catering staff, then yanked the apron off over his head. Scowling as if he was about to come in contact with hazardous waste, he took the offered hand in an obligatory handshake. “Besides, I doubt Mackenzie would have agreed to come otherwise. You’ve got quite a hold over her. Why is that?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” The laughter coming from the pool area contrasted with the tone of the men’s conversation. “We’re just good friends, aren’t we, Macki?”
Maybe she should reach out and knock both their heads together. Instead, she ignored the unnecessary claim staking.
Grey laughed. “Looked like more than friends out there in your truck.”
“How did you—” She glanced
across the yard in that direction. They would have been blocked from his line of sight by shrubs and trees and a tall privacy fence. There was no way he’d been able to see Josh and her from this angle.
Josh moved his hand to her back as if to guide her away from the conversation. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” he said.
“Why don’t you two grab a steak? When you’ve got a moment later, come inside. I want to show you something.” Grey headed to the sliding doors leading into the house. “If you see Cummings, tell him to come in, also.”
The smell of barbeque lured her, so she and Josh filled their plates and found a table to the side of the crowd. A lot of the people seemed to stay together in their own small groups, two or three couples sitting around, laughing, playing the game of friendliness. The groups of single men or women caught her eye. Not many here yet, but as the evening wore on, she had no doubt the number would increase as the couples left the get-together. Very few stopped by her table to say hello. Didn’t surprise her. She wasn’t one of them anymore. Wasn’t privy to the cases hanging open in the department. Wasn’t laughing at the jokes being bantered between the departments. When had it stopped being fun to come to these barbeques?
She leaned toward Josh. “How did he know we were in your truck?”
“You’ve heard of eyes in the sky?”
“Sure.”
“Grey’s got eyes in the bushes.” He shrugged. “Probably got a few drones here and there, too.” He leaned over as if to give her a peck on the cheek. “Be careful what you say.”
No kiss, just a whisper of breath. Shouldn’t have been surprised. Everything would be for show while they were here.
Finished with her food, she headed to the bar that had been set up on the lawn and Josh followed, his hand still at the small of her back, only this time she sensed it was more of a guidance mode, because his eyes were busy surveying everything and everyone in the confines of the yard.
“You do realize most of the people here are off-duty police, don’t you?” She leaned against the granite high-top bar and pointed to a bottle of white zinfandel for the bartender to pour.
“I know who they are.” He took a fresh-drawn beer offered to him by the guy manning the kegs.
Detective Cummings walked up beside them. “Maybe he’s been away so long he forgot how to trust the Riverfalls Police Department.”
“I didn’t see you there. Where have you been?” She stiffened as he eased his arm around her shoulders and scrunched her against him.
Josh didn’t overreact. Instead, he nodded as if he and the detective were old friends, or at least friends. But that didn’t mean he’d forgotten the detective’s welcome at the hospital. “Good to see you, Cummings.”
“I doubt it.”
“I doubt it, too. But this is a party.” Josh swiped his fingers across the still-visible mark on his cheekbone from the shove to the pavement. “I’m sure two men such as ourselves can play nice for at least a few hours.”
She felt the 450-degree oven-like weather they were all living in suddenly notch up to broil in this private conversation. “Like I said, where were you? Grey’s been looking for you.”
“Just keeping an eye on possible problems.” Cummings nodded in the direction of the horseshoe pit, then stepped back and sipped a gold liquid on the rocks from his clear plastic cup. “I’m always looking out for you.”
“Seems to be a lot of looking out for Macki going on around here.” Josh angled his body partway in front of her. “Any particular reason, or is that just par for the course?”
Cummings chuckled and glanced at the patio door Grey had walked out of a moment before. He nodded in answer to the lieutenant’s one-jerk wave that he was needed. “Unlike you, we’ve been here for Macki all along. And for the record, we take our responsibility to watch out for her welfare very seriously.”
If Josh felt the jab of words, he didn’t let on.
“Don’t forget that, Mr. Slater. I promised Blake to watch out for her.” Cummings took a step and turned toward the house, deliberately bicep-knocking the cup of beer from Josh’s hand. Cummings stopped. “And I intend to keep that vow forever.”
She rounded her eyes in anticipation of the exchange of blows about to happen right in front of her. “Josh, let’s—”
Never taking his eyes from the man in front of him, Josh grabbed a handful of napkins from the bar’s countertop, wiped the front of his shirt, and tossed them back on the tile. The guy by the keg brought him a fresh beer.
Josh eased his other hand in hers and tugged. “Didn’t Lieutenant Grey say he wanted to show us something inside the house?”
She sighed with relief and closed her fingers around his. “Yes. Yes, he did. I forgot.”
“That’s one problem I don’t have.”
“What is?” She pasted a smile on her face once again.
“I don’t forget anything.” His usually expressionless face crinkled with a cheek-rounding smirky grin as he shot Cummings a look of disgust. “Ever.”
“And here I thought you two were going to play nice.” She looped her arm in Josh’s and tugged him to her side, then did the same for Cummings. “Oh, well. Maybe another time.”
…
High-cranked air conditioning, and from what Josh could tell, an expensive money-worth-it dehumidifier greeted them as they stepped through the sliding glass doors. Today, that felt like pure paradise.
Macki wandered toward the sound of women’s laughter and the hum of chitchat as it trickled from the great room, while he lingered near the door pretending to watch people at the pool. Lieutenant Grey walked out of the kitchen with a plate of appetizers and motioned for a few men he’d invited inside, plus Josh and Cummings, to follow him to a room across the hall.
Josh didn’t like being out of sight of her, but as long as he could hear her voice every so often, he’d feel okay. After all, if someone were going to snatch her, they’d have a lot of good-guy cops to deal with in and out of the house, never mind escaping the compound-type yard that surrounded the place.
“Any of you guys up for a game of eight ball?” Grey asked.
“Not my game.” Cummings took up residence at a high-top table in the corner.
Josh shook his head. “Not mine, either.”
The sleek and vibrant shuffleboard along the far wall counterbalanced the other end of the room lined with pinball and slot machines. From the leather upholstery to the gun cabinets, sports memorabilia to the wall of ego, the surroundings shouted, If you don’t like it, leave.This was a lawman’s room filled with weapons and toys and bravado.
Grey picked out a cue from the wall rack as the other three men in the room took theirs. First, steaks of every size and type on the main grill outdoors. Second, an open bar stocked with everything from champagne to premium liquor to three kinds of beer on tap. And now, what appeared to be a custom wide-legged mahogany pool table complete with leather mesh pockets and imbedded badges on the top of the rails.
Riverfalls must be paying its police above-average salaries. Way above.
“Nice place.” Josh heard a distant giggle from Macki.
“I like it.” Grey’s shot only succeeded in moving the balls around the table. “My wife gets to decorate the great room and the changing rooms for the women, and I keep the rest of the place the way I want.”
“Really? She must be one heck of a woman to let you have final say on the house.”
“Oh, this isn’t our home, this is the pool house.” Grey chugged the rest of his drink, then walked to the small bar on the bookshelf and poured another shot of bourbon topped with a splash of water from the built-in sink. “Our house is on the other side of that small stand of trees to the right. This place here is my refuge.”
Josh didn’t remember the Greys being wealthy when he was in high school. In fact, far from it. Peggy had borrowed money from Macki many times for small things like lunch or a milkshake after school.
“Must be nice.”
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Leaning toward him as if sharing a joke, Grey chuckled. “Helps when your wife is rolling in money.” The man paused and leaned closer. “If you play your cards right with Mackenzie, you could have the same.” He winked and elbowed Josh.
He didn’t react to the words or the jab against his side. The lieutenant had made sure to get his elbow to slide along Josh’s ribs and under his arm until it touched the gun tucked in the chest holster. “Doubtful. I’m not much on having a woman take care of me.”
Grey’s lips tightened into a straight line. “Give it a try sometime. You’ll never know what you’re missing if you don’t take a taste.”
“The lieutenant’s got a private poker room in the basement.” Cummings joined the conversation. “And one hell of a shooting range.”
A split-second eye-blink and nostril flare rode Grey’s face before he stroked his fingers across his lips then stacked his cue back in the wall bracket. Guess he didn’t like Cummings sharing his private basement business. The men busy at eight ball kept right on playing. Evidently, they’d been there enough times to know when not to bother the lieutenant.
Josh stored the info in his mind then let it go for now as he steered toward the wall covered with photos. Some signed by sports figures, some by entertainers. Lots of pictures of Grey, along with the men in blue. Some local. Some not. One frame holding pictures dating back over a hundred years caught his eye, and he leaned in to read the names.
“That’s a picture of all the Riverfalls police who fell in the line of duty in the 1900s.” Cummings pointed to the empty space on the wall next to the time-honored display. “That’s where the frame for the 2000s usually hangs.”
“Usually?” Josh noticed Grey had left the room. Good time to share some pretend camaraderie and get some answers.
“Yeah. Had only been Macki’s dad, Blake, and Thompson. The frame’s at the shop being updated.”
“Thompson?”
Cummings’s jaw worked along with a deep swallow. “He’s the one who took my place the day of the explosion. He died alongside Blake.”
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