Secret Agenda

by Paula Graves

  “I really think I need a hospital,” he rasped.

  Megan opened her phone to send an SOS to her cousins, but a new text message popped up before she could. Called in the Mounties. Help’s on the way.

  In the distance, Megan heard the first wail of sirens. She looked at Evan, who managed a faint smile.

  “Boy, are we going to have a lot to explain,” he said.

  Megan slumped wearily next to Gantry, too numb to care.

  * * *

  THE NORTH CAROLINA AUTHORITIES weren’t thrilled to hear about a gun battle in the middle of the woods, but eventually they sorted out the hunters from the hunted. By the time Evan was finally released after hours of exhausting interrogation, cool, blue night was falling across the Carolina hills.

  Megan was nowhere in sight, but one of her cousins—either Jake or Gabe—sat in a chair in the waiting area near the police station’s front desk. He looked up at Evan as he approached.

  “No cuffs,” he said bluntly. “I guess that’s a good sign.”

  Evan sat in the chair next to him. “Have you heard anything from Megan?”

  Gabe—or Jake—shook his head. “J.D. and Luke are still back there, too. Jake was released before I was—he’s gone to see if he can find us something to eat.”

  So he was Gabe. “Any word about the guys who got away?”

  Gabe shook his head. “We saw a Sikorsky take off not long after the dudes in camo bugged out, so we think they’re probably long gone to wherever they came from.”

  Footsteps coming down the corridor toward them drew Evan’s gaze upward. His heart leapt at the sight of Megan’s pale, weary face. She was accompanied by Sergeant Blalock, one of the detectives who’d arrived on the scene just after an ambulance scooped up Gantry and headed for Wake Forest Baptist’s trauma center.

  Blalock looked angry. Fortunately, his ire didn’t seem to be directed at Megan. “We’ll comb this state ’til we find those squirrelly bastards.”

  While he appreciated the sentiment, Evan was pretty sure their camo-clad friends were long gone by now. He focused his attention on Megan instead, searching her face for clues to how she was faring.

  She looked tired. Still a little green around the gills, and he knew that might last a while. It didn’t matter that Merriwether had been trying to shoot her. It didn’t even matter that he was almost certainly the man who shot Vince Randall.

  She’d killed a man today. That fact would haunt her for a long while.

  She glanced his way, then looked away again, her expression shuttered. “Are we okay to leave now?” she asked the detective.

  Blalock looked pained as he said, “Yeah. I reckon you are. We have your statements and your stories all check out.” His expression shifted. “I guess once we heard the name Cooper, we should have figured out what was going on.” At her arched eyebrow, he smiled. “You think two showdowns with the Cordero drug cartel don’t make the news up here in the hills? Hell, I went in there and shook Luke Cooper’s hand myself. Damned near asked for his autograph.”

  Luke Cooper himself emerged from a door halfway down the hallway, looking grim. He spotted them up the corridor and headed their way, another detective close on his heels.

  “Are we done here?” he asked impatiently.

  “Yes, sir, you are,” Blalock answered.

  “Where’s J.D.?” he asked.

  “He’s talking to Duncan McElroy,” Megan answered. “We need to get to the hospital—if anyone finds out where Gantry is—”

  “I sent two of my men to guard him,” Blalock interjected.

  Evan wasn’t sure that would be enough. “Is there somewhere we can shower around here?” He didn’t want to barge into the hospital in sweaty, grimy clothes. Someone had retrieved his bag from the cab of the borrowed pickup truck and given it back to him right before he was cut loose, so he had a clean change of clothes. All he needed was some hot water and a bar of soap.

  Blalock looked them over. “Yeah, I reckon y’all might want to scrape some of that mud off. I’ll see what we can do.”

  He eventually pointed the men to communal showers near the officers’ locker rooms and handed Megan off to a female officer. Megan looked over her shoulder as she walked away, locking eyes with Evan briefly before she rounded the corner.

  He watched her go, tamping down frustration. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get a second alone with Megan as long as her cousins were around.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME DUNCAN MCELROY dropped them off at the hospital, Gantry was out of surgery to repair his nicked lung and was resting comfortably in ICU for the night. Two armed guards flanked his doorway, looking deadly serious about keeping him safe. But Megan knew Barton Reid and his hired killers were sophisticated enough to get past almost any level of security the local cops could provide.

  Luke and J.D. talked to the police officers and the nurses, and, after one of the guards spoke to someone on the phone, the two Coopers entered Gantry’s room. “They’re better guards for him,” Jake murmured to Megan, nudging her around the corner into the corridor. “They know what to look for.”

  “He needs to be deposed as soon as possible,” Megan said. “Get it on tape. Witnessed and signed off—”

  “In case he ends up mysteriously dead?” Gabe asked from her other side.

  She looked at him. “Shh. His wife’s probably right inside that waiting room.”

  She, Evan, and her cousins entered and found a small room furnished with comfortable-looking chairs and sofas. There were a handful of people scattered about the room, but it was easy to pick out Gantry’s wife. She was a pretty woman with curly dark hair and tear-stained eyes who sat on one of the sofas, her arms wrapped around a couple of sleeping children.

  She saw them coming and her eyes widened. “He said you’d be here. I just figured it would be morning.”

  “You spoke to him?” Megan pulled up a nearby chair and sat across from her. “How’s he doing?”

  “Better now, from what the doctors tell me.” She looked scared but hopeful. “I don’t even want to think what would have happened if he hadn’t been w-wearing body armor.”

  “Did he tell you what he was doing?”

  She nodded, shame burning in her eyes. “It’s all my fault. I p-put him in this position—”

  “Barton Reid put him in this position,” Megan said firmly. “He has to pay. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Her lip trembled but she lifted her head and nodded. “I do understand that. I have to deal with the consequences.”

  “We’ll figure out a way to help you with that, too.” Evan pulled up a chair next to Megan and leaned forward, his expression fierce. “I’m a lawyer. I can help you find good representation.”

  “I’ve already told the senior partner what I did.” She managed a bleak smile. “He’s agreed not to press charges, since the money was returned with interest. But he’s letting me go and he’s not inclined to give me a good reference.”

  “That’s something you can work with, isn’t it?” Megan asked, sliding a quick look at Evan. She hadn’t spoken two words to him since they’d left the woods, and even now, she didn’t know what to say.

  The last few days were a blur. It almost seemed like another woman’s life, a woman she didn’t recognize at all. Megan Cooper Randall didn’t run for her life. She didn’t hide out in Kentucky motels or hike through the woods evading camouflage-clad mercenaries carrying M16 rifles. She didn’t shoot people to keep them from shooting her first.

  She didn’t fall in love with a man she’d spent the last four years blaming for her husband’s death.

  Her breath caught with dismay. Had she lost her mind?

  Evan looked at her oddly, his expression full of heat. She felt an answering fire in the center of her chest and had to look away to keep her wits intact.

  “You’re really worried about his safety, aren’t you?” Mrs. Gantry asked.

  “We’re going to do what we
can to protect him,” Megan promised. “My family—it’s what we do.”

  She realized she hadn’t checked in with any of her brothers or sisters in hours. She gave Mrs. Gantry’s hand a gentle squeeze and stood, crossing to where Jake and Gabe sat near the door. She settled next to Gabe. “Have you talked to Jesse or any of the others? Are they still under surveillance?”

  “Talked to him while I was out looking for food,” Jake answered. “Their visitors have disappeared into the woodwork.”

  “I wonder if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” she said.

  “Not sure it’s either.” Evan dropped into the chair next to her. His shoulder brushed hers, and she felt an answering quiver low in her belly. “The one thing we know about the SSU is that they’re in it for the money. It’s why they were recruited in the first place.”

  “But from what we know of Merriwether, he was a true believer,” Megan countered. “How do we know there aren’t more of them out there?”

  “That’s why J.D. and Luke are in there guarding your Major Gantry,” Gabe said. “But it doesn’t follow that they’ll come after us now. Even true believers pick their battles.”

  “What is it about Barton Reid that would suck in a kid like Merriwether?” she wondered aloud.

  “The idea that there’s a better way of life than what we’re living now, I guess,” Evan answered. He pinned his intense gaze on her again, sending another tremor rumbling through her. “We’d all like to think there’s something better out there.”

  Jake stood up. “I’m going to head outside and give Jesse another call, see if there’s any news.”

  Gabe joined him. “I’d better give Alicia a call, too. She was already ticked off at being left behind.” He followed his brother out, leaving Megan and Evan alone, finally.

  Neither spoke for a few moments, the silence between them growing tense, until Megan could bear it no longer. “I guess I should thank you.”

  “For what?”

  She met his curious gaze. “For making me listen to you. When you first came to Gossamer Ridge. I didn’t want to hear what you had to say, but you wouldn’t take no for an answer. Thank you for not giving up on Vince. You were right. He deserved justice.”

  “I hope he gets it.” Evan’s brow furrowed. “I hope it helps you, too. I know how much you miss him.”

  “I do.” She saw a hint of dismay in his expression at her admission. “I’ll always miss him.”

  “I know.” He looked down at his hands.

  “But I think I can let him go now.”

  His gaze snapped up again. “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve had dreams of him, ever since he died.” She smiled at the memory of the comfort those dreams had brought her. “Lately, he’s been trying to convince me it’s time to move on.”

  “You really think it’s him?” There was no skepticism in his question, only curiosity.

  She met his gaze. “I think it is. And he’s right. He’s dead. I’m not. I have to let go and move on with my life.”

  “That must be painful to think about.” His gentleness brought tears to her eyes.

  She fought them back. “Not as much as I expected.”

  He took a deep breath. “Look, I know this is terrible timing and really the wrong place—”

  The look he gave her when he brought his gaze up to meet hers made her breath catch. His eyes blazed with miserable passion, terrible need.

  “I don’t think I can just walk away from you, Megan.”

  She blinked back more tears, terrified and overjoyed at the same time. “Good. I think.”

  He quirked an eyebrow. “You think?”

  “I’ve loved only one man in my life before now.”

  “Before now?”

  The giddy hope in his expression made her heart hurt. “I don’t know how to date or be in a real relationship,” she warned, feeling completely out of her element. “I’m probably going to be terrible at it. I wasn’t very good at it the first time—I got really lucky that Vince was the forgiving sort.”

  He clasped her hands tightly in his, joy rising in his eyes. “I don’t need you to be good at anything. I don’t need you to do anything. I just need you to be you.”

  Well, hell. There went the tears, burning down her cheeks before she could get them under control. She couldn’t help but laugh softly at the look of worry on his face.

  “I can do that,” she said. “I can definitely be me.”

  He brought her hands to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “Yes,” she said quickly, before either of them could let creeping doubt get in the way.

  He kissed her knuckles again. “Good.”

  “So, how are we going to do this? Am I supposed to move to North Carolina or something?” The doubts she’d been holding at bay began to slither back. She beat them back with ruthless determination. She would move, if that’s what it took. As much as she loved her home, her family and her beloved Chickasaw County, she was done with long-distance relationships.

  If Evan wanted her to be where he was, she’d go. She had to give this magic between them a chance to flourish.

  “There’s really nothing keeping me in North Carolina now, is there? I can take the bar exam anywhere.”

  “We could go to Kentucky,” she offered. “You might be able to see the place with new eyes now that you’re older—”

  He shook his head. “I do see it differently. But it’s not my home anymore.” He slid his arm around her shoulders, drawing her closer. “I thought I’d talk to Jesse about working at Cooper Security. I could be an asset to the legal department—”

  “You could,” she agreed quickly. “And I could put in a good word—I have clout there, you know.”

  He laughed softly. “I guess I should warn you, so you know what we’re dealing with here—” His smile faded and his expression became deadly serious. “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you already.”

  “You make it sound like a disaster,” she murmured, little bubbles of happiness bursting in her chest.

  “It might be, if you don’t feel the same way.”

  She thought carefully, aware that she owed him her certainty. A momentary flood of emotion and a hasty realization might not be strong enough to last a lifetime.

  But in the end, she realized the only true answer she could give him was what she felt in her heart.

  “I think I’m pretty much in love with you, too,” she answered, smiling at the relief in his eyes.

  He bent and kissed her deeply, apparently mindless of the fact that they were in a hospital waiting room. “There’s got to be a spare broom closet around here,” he murmured against her lips. “Maybe the parking deck—”

  As tempted as she was to follow him anywhere he wanted to go, she pushed him gently away. “Soon,” she promised. “We’ll ditch my cousins and find a way to be alone.”

  The feral look of desire in his eye assured her he would hold her to that promise.

  Epilogue

  Three months later

  When Megan made up her mind, she didn’t waffle around. It was just one of thousands of things Evan loved about his brand-new wife.

  One of the other things he loved about her was her surprising creativity, he thought with a wicked grin as she whispered her plans for their wedding night into his ear while they danced their first dance as husband and wife.

  The wedding had been a simple affair, thrown together with pioneer efficiency by Megan and the other Cooper women, sisters, cousins and in-laws alike. Her two sisters were her attendants, and Del Meade and his family had come to Gossamer Ridge for the wedding, giving Evan a best man who conveniently doubled as the entertainment. Del, Nola and their kids were playing up a storm and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

  Megan’s mother hadn’t been able to get away for the wedding—something about a seminar in Brussels she couldn’t get out of. But she’d called to talk to Megan the night before
, and she’d sent a lovely antique jewelry chest that might have been a more touching gift if Megan actually wore jewelry.

  He closed his hand possessively over his wife’s, running his fingertips over the simple gold band on her left ring finger. “When Jesse tries to cut in,” he said, “tell him no.”

  But Jesse wasn’t there for a dance. It took one look at his furrowed brow to see that something was up.

  “Someone went after Gantry and his family last night,” Jesse told them tersely.

  “Even with Reid back in jail again?” Evan asked, dismayed.

  “Are they okay?” Megan asked.

  “Yeah, they got to one of the safe houses we set up near Fayetteville. I talked to Gantry last night.”

  “You knew this last night and didn’t tell us?” Evan asked.

  “Didn’t want to ruin your wedding with bad news,” Jesse replied flatly. “But something else has come up.” He nodded toward the side of the banquet hall.

  Evan and Megan followed. They found J.D. and Luke Cooper waiting for them, along with her brothers Rick and Wade.

  “I asked Gantry if he’s been holding out on us,” Jesse said. “He admitted there was one thing he’d heard about while he was being jerked around by Barton Reid, something they might want to cover up.”

  “Which was what?” Megan asked.

  “Apparently, Merriwether was right. This is a lot bigger than just Barton Reid.”

  “We always thought that might be the case,” Rick said, “especially with the suspected mole in the CIA.”

  “Gantry told me he overheard Reid talking to another State Department official about ‘three generals,’” Jesse said.

  “Three generals?”

  “Gantry thinks it might be the three generals who were in charge of the peacekeeping mission in Kaziristan.” Jesse lowered his voice.

  “General Ross of the army, General Harlowe of the air force and General Marsh of the marines,” Luke supplied.

  Megan gave her brother an odd look. “Rita’s father?”

  Jesse’s lips flattened to a thin line. “The Marshes aren’t currently in the country. I tried calling.”