Unlucky in Love

by Lexy Timms

  Luke saw the worry on her face. She’d realized the vulnerabilities same as he had. Not that the rest of the group had caught on. Linda was shifting nervously, reaching for Katie’s hand.

  “How did they know where we were?” Sam asked no one in particular. “Unless someone told them.” That last question directed at Luke.

  Luke chose to ignore him.

  “No one knew where we were going,” David insisted, but he stole a glance Luke’s way as well. “I deliberately told no one where we were heading so that we didn’t have to deal with the babysitters.” David also pointedly looked in Katie’s direction.

  “David, just call Dad,” Dani said. Her jaw was clamped shut, and she seemed to float on the balls of her feet. Luke was impressed. The woman was battle-ready.

  “That’s rich!” David laughed, and paused in his texting, making Luke wonder who he’d been talking to if it wasn’t his father. “You want me to call him? You of all people…”

  “David, this isn’t a joke. This is a threat. This is a death threat. Call him or I will.”

  Luke wasn’t sure why it would have been worse for David if Dani did the calling, but David’s superior, mocking grin dissolved and a petulant little boy remained. “Fine,” he said, putting all the sulk into that one word that he could. He stared at his cell phone, seemed to sigh, and tapped it twice.

  “Hi, it’s me, we’re…. Yes, I know. I know! Okay…okay… they can come along next time. Yes. Okay!” David rolled his eyes at his sister and glared at her. This better be worth it glared from every fiber of his stance and stare. “Listen! I got another note, like the one last night. No, it’s scratched into the side of the damn car. Yes, we were off… we were away from the car for about an hour or so. I don’t know, when I came back it was just…” David set the phone down for a moment and closed his eyes. “Yes, you don’t have to… no… fine, fine, fine, okay.” He held his hand over the phone and glared at Dani. “He’s sending a helicopter. Do you believe that?”

  “There’s nowhere to land out here.” Linda looked around as though a helipad might have been waiting here all this time, and she’d just missed it.

  “No,” Sam said, “but the airport is about 15-20 minutes from here. If he sends a car…” In the distance, Luke heard the sounds of approaching sirens.

  “I think your ride’s here,” Katie said. Luke thought she looked rather pleased. “Maybe they’ll take you away.” The smile that crawled over her face was pure mischief.

  “David, what the hell’s going on? Who’d you piss off?” Dani paced, her hands on her hips. Luke imagined her in a cop’s uniform and blinked, quickly trying to erase the sexy image from his mind. Now was not the time.

  “You know Dad’s going to go ape-shit, right? He isn’t going to let us have any free time at all now.” David looked at her, a sour expression on his face. Luke couldn’t tell if Dani missed it or ignored it. He was betting on not seeing it. David was her blind spot. “Well, me, anyway. You can go back to walking through Europe and he won’t care.”

  It stung, Luke could see that. The boy was being a spoiled brat. Look how pathetic my life is. But that remark about her father not caring, it hurt. Luke could see it on Dani’s face. The shock of that verbal slap soon gave way to anger.

  David, oblivious, turned back to the cosmetic damage on the van. Sam was tracing the gouges like he wanted to be sure it was real. Dani was working up to a full head of steam. Luke discovered that his hand had grasped her arm, that he was already moving her away from the others without any conscious thought to do so.

  The deadly glare was on him now. Remembering her pin-point accuracy at the dance, he turned to be slightly less exposed to her knee. Not that it would make a lot of difference if she was determined, but it was something.

  “Think!” His voice was a harsh whisper, his mouth next to her ear as he shot a quick look back at the others, who were thankfully paying them no attention at all. “If you fight him now, the cops will get in the middle of this. So will your father’s security team. You’ll be taken out of the game.”

  She jerked her arm free, rubbing the skin there with all the melodrama of a 1920s movie actress. He ignored it.

  Heaven help him, she could be a spoiled brat sometimes. Almost as bad as her brother. “Let the cops treat it like a prank the way they did at the party. You don’t want them taking this away from you, do you?”

  Dani was shaking she was so upset, but her eyes were registering. At least she was listening.

  “They can’t force me to leave this alone,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “Yes, they can, and they will. If you’re found arguing about this with him, they’ll start their investigation with you.”

  “I’ve got nothing to hide!”

  It was a lie, but it was interesting to see that she believed it. Or at least she did right now.

  “Even if that was true, which I suspect it isn’t, they’re wasting time looking in to your background instead of tracking the person responsible. Let them think it’s a joke.”

  Dani stared at him for a minute and turned and walked away, retreating to where Linda and Katie were huddled in varying degrees of shock and disbelief. Anger radiated from every step, but she’d listened. At least she’d backed down. That had to be worth something.

  Luke turned to find David and Sam staring at him. David wore a smug expression, but Sam’s mouth was hanging open.

  “You’ve got balls,” David said with a shake of his head. “I’ll give you that. She must like you, Luke Milligan. She didn’t castrate you on the spot.”

  “Then let’s hope she likes us all, shall we?” Luke smiled.

  David’s face clouded over and then he laughed. “I think I like you, Milligan,” he said after a moment. “I see what she sees in you. You’re not a typical numbers-cruncher.”

  Luke thought of a dozen different things to escalate the war of words, but the larger picture meant taking the occasional lump. He smiled and nodded. Then he wandered, he hoped, in a slightly less obvious direction than directly after Dani, who had continued past the girls and had instead headed out toward the road. It was a smart move, one he should have thought of, though by now whoever had come out here would have been long gone. He wondered if anyone of them had heard anything. Problem was, David and Sam had gotten pretty noisy while climbing, shouting insults at each other and being stupid idiots.

  “Who would want to kill David?” he said to her back as he followed her. She whirled on him, fists clenched.

  “Who the hell are you? And stop with the fucking games. You’re no pencil-pusher. Want to make a bet that you just started at Markland? Or that you’re not good at your job? How long do you think it’ll take me to find out that no one knows who even hired you?”

  Luke set his jaw. Even if some of that happened to be true, he wasn’t about to get trapped into a whole new set of lies to justify himself. For that matter, he was pretty secure that his cover story was fairly solid. He’d even been hired legitimately, even if his résumé had been a little on the creative side. “I only want to protect your brother, same as you,” he said finally.

  She stared at him, and for a moment her eyes focused on something distant, something in her mind. She cut her gaze back to him, but the panic in her expression was gone. She was determined, she was ready for a fight, but she was cooler now. “That’s not an answer.”

  “What answer would satisfy you now?” He sighed, shoving a hand through his hair, wincing when he found a new set of bruises along his shoulder that he hadn’t realized were there until now. Damn, that pile of rock had beaten the crap out of him. “I’m someone who’s actually trying to help. Oh, for fuck’s sake! I happen to like you, and hate to see you going through this alone.”

  “I’m not alone.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  For the first time, she seemed to realize just how far they’d come from everyone else. Maybe it crossed her mind that she was standing a quarter mile from the next
nearest human being. All of this played across her face, and for a moment he saw the terrible haunted vulnerability in her eyes before the wildness returned.

  “What do you know about me?” she snapped, and turned as the distant sirens suddenly grew louder. They both listened a moment, trying to determine just how far out they were.

  There wasn’t much time, Luke guessed. “I know that you’re hurting. That you can’t shoulder all of this alone. I know you feel like your father’s ignoring what’s right in front of his eyes, and that you’re worried sick about your brother. Look…I know you’re not in the market for a lover right now, you made that perfectly clear. But could you accept a friend?”

  She glanced back at him, her eyes going to his outstretched hand. “I…”

  Whatever she was going to say was lost as the first emergency vehicle came tearing into view. Luke and Dani wound up having to jump out of the way as it thundered past.

  Luke suddenly realized just how many cops were converging on the place. Somewhat uneasy he shot a look at Dani, who was already stepping forward to talk to a policeman in a car that had pulled alongside her.

  There were definitely too many cops out here. Too many who might recognize him.

  He melted back into the trees.

  Chapter Eleven

  A poor man’s son disappears in the woods, a few rescue workers spend a day trying to find him. Edwin Rinehart’s son and heir’s borrowed van is defaced, and half the city’s police and fire department are mobile in minutes.

  The vast number of men and vehicles was staggering. Luke kept his mouth shut and kept out of sight until he was positive there wasn’t anyone he knew. Thankfully he’d been recruited from out of state, standard procedure to keep his cover intact in just such an emergency.

  Okay, maybe not this kind of emergency. He wasn’t sure his bosses could ever have predicted this absolute fuck-up of events that had been manifesting ever since Edwin’s pretty daughter had turned up.

  Suddenly uneasy, Luke hung back and counted emergency vehicles. If nothing else, the number of police and fire trucks that came barreling down the dirt roads showed him that whatever evidence he could get on the Rinehart family, it had to be good. Really good.

  On the other hand, he had a difficult time condemning the actions of Atlanta’s finest. They crawled under the car and spotted a suspicious device connected to the bottom of the vehicle. No one wanted to use the word ‘bomb’, so no one did. That didn’t change what it was. Things escalated from that point, the haste with which they were removed from the area showed that concern for the public’s safety truly was foremost in the minds of the first-responders.

  Thankfully, the helicopter landed on schedule at the airport as the two police cars were dispatched to escort the group to safety. Luke stared for a long time out the back window at the pristine forest and wondered who the hell was lurking back there in the trees. They passed a S.W.A.T team on the way in as they were on the way out, and he had no doubt that a bomb squad would be in close pursuit, followed by the news media.

  Which was all the more reason why it felt good to be getting out of there.

  Turning to face forward Luke met Katie’s eyes, and to his surprise she smiled back despite how pale her skin had grown under her tan. To make her smile he let her know it wasn’t his first time in the back of a police car, but it was the first time he’d been treated this well, and then proceeded to spin a story of a prom gone very wrong.

  Not a word of it was true. The whole thing was part of his elaborate backstory that he’d had to memorize before taking this job. As he elaborated, adding details that even had the cop smiling in the front seat, Luke realized that he wasn’t altogether sure who he was anymore. When had the backstory become so easy? Why were his own high school years so vague? Not for the first time, he wondered if eventually the line between truth and reality would grow so muddied that he’d lose track of Luke McConnell entirely.

  Luke and Katie had taken the back seat, leaving Dani in the shotgun position. The better to pester the police officer about details of the investigation, Luke suspected. He watched as David and the others filed into the other car. Dani was visibly upset about taking a different car than her brother, but had reluctantly acquiesced when he’d seemed to want Sam and Linda with him. The fact that he’d deliberately snubbed her wasn’t lost on Luke, and he wondered how much it had to do with him.

  Katie, for her part, seemed to be inseparable from Dani, and visibly held a grudge that Luke was there and that he was the one sitting next to her. The twenty minutes to the airport were taken up with Dani’s endless questions. Luke had to admire her tenacity, even if the policeman driving the car didn’t. The poor man wore a rather stoic and long-suffering expression by the time they got there, and seemed more than happy to leave the three of them with his compatriots there. They’d parked and already the cop was back on his radio, one finger raised to press into his ear so that he could hear better. Dani and Luke lingered, perhaps longer than necessary, casting uneasy glances at each other as they tried to decipher a rather heavily coded conversation.

  “Copy that,” he finally said into the air and glanced at the two of them, noting their avid attention with something like a grimace.

  “Well, at least I can offer some good news,” he said finally “The bomb squad discovered that the device attached to the vehicle was an empty plastic box.”

  “You mean like it was part of the car?” Katie asked from over Dani’s shoulder, where she’d been lingering since getting out of the car.

  “No. Someone zip-tied it place,” the officer said with a frown. “To make it look like a bomb. But it was a fake. Someone sure doesn’t like you.”

  Luke couldn’t see Dani very well from his seat, but when he turned to look at her her face was a study of anger. Whoever was playing these games had no idea who they were messing with. Dani was out for blood.

  Luke stepped out of the vehicle and offered a hand to Dani, who seemed frozen in place. Not far away the helicopter sat on its pad, rotors already beating as David, Sam, and Linda crowded inside.

  “Room for one more!” Marcus, the head of security, shouted from within.

  Luke tilted his head. The head of security being here made sense, but of all people safe to travel by road he should have relinquished his seat.

  “Katie,” Dani said, glancing from the copter to the taxi which was waiting nearby, “go with them.”

  But Marcus was having none of that.

  Seeing Dani’s hesitation, he actually got out of the copter and trotted over. “Dani! You’re a Rinehart,” he shouted despite her hand signals to the contrary. “Regardless of what you call yourself. Get over here!”

  “You could walk home and let the girls go…” Luke shouted, tired of this whole mess. Marcus shot him a glare. “Ms. Rinehart!”

  Dani stepped back into a fighting position. Luke raised an eyebrow.

  “Make me!”

  Luke stepped in close to her. She allowed it, but her hard stare never left the security chief’s. “Go,” Luke whispered to her. “I’ll take care of Katie. You need to be with your brother.” That got her. She looked at Luke, and he could see the indecision there. The desire to do the right thing by Katie, who was obviously scared out of her mind, and the need to be with her brother. Finally, her shoulders slumped, defeated. Her eyes went to Katie’s.

  “It’s okay,” the girl said, though it was plain that okay was the last thing she felt. “I’m sure Mr. Milligan will see me home.”

  Luke sketched a half-bow.

  Dani looked back at the helicopter; the rotors were churning faster, the pilot’s way of hurrying her up. Dani hugged Katie tight and shot Luke a warning glance. He barely resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her. Honestly, what kind of man did she think he was? And what kind of man was he?

  Other than a liar? Other than someone who was here for the sole purpose of imprisoning her father for the rest of his natural life?

  Yeah. T
hat.

  Katie was staring, a forlorn and lost expression on her face as Dani trotted off to the helicopter, followed by Marcus. Watching the two of them was like watching a guard dog running after a leopard. Luke’s heart went out to her. The poor kid might as well have said goodbye to her last friend.

  “I don’t believe I’ve been told your last name,” Luke said gently, making no move to touch her.

  “I’m sure it won’t upset your day, Mr. Milligan.”

  Luke exhaled. I don’t know what I did to this one, but damn! “Well, let me offer you a taxi…”

  “Thank you, but I’m perfectly capable of summoning a cab.”

  “Look, princess.” Luke was running out of patience. “I don’t know what I did to piss you off. Hell, I don’t even know you. But whatever it was, I’m truly sorry. You don’t want to be nice to the hired help, fine, go back to your ivy walls. I’m done with the lot of you.” Luke spun and began the long walk to the building and, hopefully, civilization. Let her have the damn cab.

  “Mr. Milligan,” Katie said. Luke spun. She hadn’t moved. “Are you a friend of Dani’s or David’s?”

  “What the hell difference…”

  “Please,” Katie said, closing her eyes and clutching her fists tightly. “Just tell me how you know them.”

  “I don’t know David,” Luke said finally. “I met Dani yesterday. I’m here entirely by accident. It was a mistake, and one I’m still paying for. Anything else you need to know?”

  Katie walked up to him slowly. Luke had seen hurt dogs with that same expression. “I’m sorry, Mr. Milligan. I thought that you were a friend of David’s.”

  “And any friend of his…?”

  “Deserves what he gets, Mr. Milligan.”

  Luke looked at her for a long moment. “May I offer you a ride, Ms…”

  “Linnear,” Katie said, and searched his face, for what he couldn’t say, but whatever it was she accepted what she saw there. “Thank you, Mr. Milligan,” she said softly, maybe even apologetically. “I think I would welcome the company.”