by Liliana Hart
Riley held his gun steady on Bekhit and walked closer to the wounded man. “I forgot to mention my wife was in the tent. She doesn’t like people going through our things. But she’s a hell of a shot. Pretty cool, right? She was one of those privileged rich kids that grew up shooting for sport. It comes in handy on occasion.”
“Thank you, darling,” Maggie said, coming out to join him. “And I don’t mean to be dramatic, but we should probably get the hell out of Egypt before this place is swarming with soldiers and looters.”
“I always said your wife was beautiful and brilliant,” Sam said, leaning down to pick up Jay’s weapon. “I say we truss these guys up, leave them for the buzzards, and catch the first flight out. I’m sure Cambodia wouldn’t mind if I showed up a few days early.”
“I’ve never been to Cambodia,” Maggie said.
“No offense, but you’re not going to be there this time either. Lord, you guys are loud. I’m going to have to bleach my eyes and ears to get those sounds and images out of my head.”
“I always love getting together with you, Sam,” Maggie said, her face flushed red with embarrassment. “We should do it again real soon.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but none of us are going to Cambodia. The smartest thing for us to do is head to the UK and immediately go to the press. Publicity is our only way out of this mess. We’ve got all of our documentation on the finds, and Sam had the video camera rolling during Bekhit’s confession of Walker’s murder. Not to mention we’re the only ones who have deciphered the code to get into Sector D. By the time we’re done with the press we won’t ever have to worry about retaliation from Bekhit or the Egyptian government. And they’re going to want to be real nice to us if they want to get into that room any time soon.”
“You put the book back in the room?” Maggie asked.
“While you were sleeping,” he nodded. “It brings danger to those who possess it. So they’re welcome to keep it. You and I have something precious that needs our protection.”
Maggie’s smile was radiant as she looked at him, the love shining in her eyes. “You felt it?” she asked.
“I did. It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever experienced. To actually feel life created.”
“Have you guys been doing drugs?” Sam called out. “You’re sounding a little crazy.”
“Shut up, Sam,” they both said in unison.
Maggie took his hand and placed it on her stomach. “I love you, Riley MacKenzie. Thank you for giving me our babies.”
He went to smile and then her words penetrated. “Wait a second. What do you mean, babies?”
EPILOGUE
Maggie considered herself a patient woman. Really, she did. But sometimes the MacKenzies tested that patience right to the edge of the canyon, until she wanted to push them all off.
“All I’m saying,” Cooper MacKenzie said, bringing in a stack of blankets into the bedroom, “is that you could’ve planned a little better.”
Sweat glistened on her brow and her hands fisted against the sheets. “I’m going to get out of this bed and kill you, Cooper MacKenzie.”
“I’d like to see you try, darling.” He gave her a wolfish grin and winked. “What I was going to say, before you so rudely interrupted with your puny threat, is that having a baby during a February blizzard in Montana isn’t the best idea.”
“If she can’t get out of the bed to kill you, then I’m duty bound as her sister-in-law to help her out,” Claire said, following her husband into the room and shoving him in the back. “It’s not like babies send out an invitation when they’re ready to come. And she’s two weeks early.”
“She’s progressing fast,” Charlotte said from the side of the bed. She held Maggie’s hand as another contraction seized her whole body. “She’s barely been in labor an hour and already the contractions are one on top of the other. I was in labor for thirty-six hours with Jayden.”
“I feel like I have to push,” Maggie said, panting.
“I imagine so,” Cooper said. “It looks like you swallowed a semi. I’ve never seen anyone so big in my life.”
“Shut up, Cooper, or you’ll be sleeping in the barn with the horses,” Claire said, giving him a dirty look.
He laughed and pulled her in for a quick kiss and then smacked her on the bottom. The entire MacKenzie family was practically crammed into the room with her. All except for the one person she needed to be there.
“I don’t know if I can wait,” she said, groaning through another contraction. “Where the hell is he?”
“They’re on their way,” Charlotte said, wiping her brow with a cool cloth.
“I just got off the phone with Thomas,” Cat said, sticking her head in the room to give an update. “The way he tells it, Riley scared the hell out of the horses they were trying to get in from the fields when the blizzard hit. He drove right through the fence in the south pasture.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cooper said, shaking his head.
“Thomas said Riley jumped out of the truck, jerked the reins on his horse, and knocked him straight to the ground. They tussled around a little because Thomas clearly thought Riley’d lost his mind and was itching for a fight,” Cat said, chuckling to herself, “so don’t be surprised if they come in with a busted lip or two. Riley tossed Thomas over his shoulder and threw him in the bed of the pickup. They should be here any second.”
“Lovely,” Charlotte said. “I do love this family.”
“Oh, God,” Maggie panted. “I’ve got to push.” She screamed and started to push just as Riley and Thomas burst into the room.
“I washed up in the kitchen, “ Thomas said. His eye was already starting to turn black and blood dotted at the corner of his lip.
Maggie breathed through the pain and didn’t look up as Riley took her hand and supported her back as she pushed.
“That’s it, Maggie,” Thomas said. “You’re doing good. This is going to be a fast one.”
Maggie collapsed against her husband and then got a good look at him. “I can’t believe you were fighting at a time like this,” she said, appalled at his appearance. “Is your nose broken?”
“Only a little. Thomas snapped it back into place. It’s been broken before so it’s no worse for the wear.”
“You’re all idiots. I can’t believe I’m bringing children into the world and their father is rolling around in a blizzard getting his face bashed in.”
“I take exception to that,” Riley said, wincing as she squeezed the bones in his hand to dust as another contraction came over her. “We bashed each other’s faces in pretty equally.”
“Shut—up,” she said, gritting her teeth through the pain as the urge to push came again.
“She always seemed so sweet,” Cooper said from the corner. “I’ve never heard those curse words come out of her mouth before.”
It was then with a final push and an exhausted cry of triumph that Maggie and Riley’s first child was born. A lusty cry filled the air and Thomas worked quickly to suction out the nasal passages and get the baby wrapped up and passed off to Claire’s waiting arms so they could get the baby cleaned.
“You have a daughter,” Thomas said, pressing his hand on top of her belly to make sure the positioning of the second baby was as it should be.
“I can’t do it again,” she panted, feeling the tightening of her belly as the contractions started again.
“You can do it,” Riley said, smoothing her hair back from her head. “It’ll all be worth it when you hold them in your arms. Just once more.”
She nodded and a sob escaped as he kissed her gently on the forehead. And moments later their second child was born. This time a son.
And when Maggie held their children in her arms for the first time, they both cried tears of joy.
“I love you always, Maggie MacKenzie. Even if you really don’t ever want me to touch you again.”
She smiled at him sheepishly and kissed her daughter on her dow
ny head. “I might have been exaggerating. I love you too, Riley MacKenzie. Even if you have a broken nose and two black eyes. It’ll be a great story to tell our children one day.”
“You and me, babe. We always have a hell of an adventure, no matter what we do. I can’t wait to see what else is in store for us.”
Chapter One
Marriage changed a man.
Cooper MacKenzie’s stomach knotted as he reached the top of the hill that looked down over Surrender, Montana. He put his black Tahoe in park, teetering on the edge of the point of no return, and ran his hand through his thick length of black hair that was long overdue for a trim.
Nothing had changed in the sleepy town of Surrender for the past three days. It was still tucked safely in the hollow of rolling green hills and calm blue lakes. A narrow row of shops and businesses lined each side of the bricked street. It was postcard perfect, with wooden sidewalks, matching black awnings, and antique light posts already flickering with a yellow glow. Hand painted signs sat in the windows and little pots of bright flowers were arranged neatly by the doors.
Three thousand people—give or take a few—relied on him to keep them and their livestock safe. Depending on who was doing the talking, the livestock were often more important than the people. Ranching was a way of life, and most of his time was spent looking for bobcats, bears, and wolves searching for food. The rest of his time was spent dealing with drunk and disorderlies and the occasional domestic dispute. Long winters and blizzards made people do some awfully strange things.
Fall was hanging on by a thread—the air filled with a biting chill and the smell of the first snow on the horizon—but the orange and red leaves still clung to the trees with perseverance.
It was past four in the afternoon, and with the change of season came an early darkness. The clouds were full and gray and it wouldn’t surprise him if those first flakes of snow came within the next day or so.
His hands rested on the wheel and his foot hovered over the gas, but something kept him from moving forward.
“Shit,” he breathed out, disgusted with himself. And then he put the Tahoe in drive.
He’d only been gone three days, but thoughts of Claire had taken his mind off the mission and invaded his dreams at night. The lack of focus could’ve gotten him killed. Almost had.
It didn’t take a psychologist to tell him he felt guilty for lying to her. Or at least lying by omission.
But he’d taken his marriage vows seriously. He’d promised to love and protect her. And sometimes protecting her meant keeping the darker side of his life to himself. He had military skills that went unutilized as sheriff, but the DEA had found plenty of use for him. He was helping to cripple one of the most dangerous drug rings in the country. At least a small arm of it. He was the good guy. So there was no reason he should feel so guilty.
Except for Claire.
He’d spent his adult life never having to explain himself to anyone or account for his actions. Not even the voters who’d appointed him Sheriff had the privilege of knowing what he did on his own time or outside the office. That wasn’t to say they weren’t curious. But most of them were polite enough to keep the thoughts to themselves. He was a damned good sheriff. No one could argue that.
But his life had changed the moment Claire had slipped the simple gold band around his finger. He felt the weight of it there and the significance of what it meant. And he began to realize that coming home to Claire was a hell of a lot more important than taking reckless chances because he’d been bored for the past six years.
He beeped his horn and waved as he passed Charlie’s Automotive. His sister-in-law owned the place, a blue metal building with white awnings and big bays for the cars she and her mechanics worked on. The bays were open, and it looked as if things were still busy close to the end of the day.
Cooper turned down his police scanner—not that much was coming through anyway—so he could hear the rough crunch on brick beneath his tires. Something about the sound reminded him of his childhood. It was good to be home.
He noticed the little shops were closing up for the night. Lights dimmed and the streets emptied as people went home to their families and little league practices. He passed the Sheriff’s Office and saw the unit parked out front. He could see Lane, his deputy, through the front window sitting behind the desk doing paperwork, the little TV flickering from the top of the file cabinet.
But it wasn’t the sight of his office that made his heart pound faster in his chest. It was the sight of the little white compact car parked in front of the library across the street. Claire was still at work, and part of him thought it might be best to keep driving and meet her at home, but he pulled into the space beside her instead and got out of the car, locking it behind him.
The Surrender Public Library wasn’t a huge building, but it was pretty. The rest of the connected buildings in town were a mixture of brick and clapboard siding. But the library was two stories of stone built more than a hundred years before, though its original purpose had been as a bank.
The builder had carved faces along the roofline, and what Cooper’s grandmother had told him—as told to her by her mother—was that the builder had been wildly in love when he’d started the carvings. He eventually married the girl and continued work on the library, but as the years went on his love for her dimmed and turned to bitterness and hatred, as it was said that she was something of a shrew and quite difficult to get along with. So the face of his wife he’d been carving into the building once started as beautiful, but with each carving she became a little more haggard, until the last face he’d sculpted was nothing more than an unrecognizable monster.
Cooper’s boots scraped against the concrete of the steps leading to the front door and it creaked as he opened it, the wood swollen with age. The hush of quiet was overwhelming—almost smothering—and he breathed in the scent of books and the new carpet that had been laid over the weekend. He’d never felt at home in a library or school, and those old feelings of inadequacy came rushing back. He’d been a lot better with his fists than he’d ever been with a book. And after his parents had died and he’d been discharged from the army, it hadn’t taken him long to realize he’d better learn to be damned good with his hands if he wanted to keep the family homestead from falling down around his and his brothers’ ears.
The library was empty as far as he could see. The children’s area had already been picked up and everything was in its place. He passed by the front desk, thinking Claire might be finishing up in her office or cataloguing books, but she was nowhere to be seen.
And then he heard her humming and frowned.
They’d only been married for six months, but spending that much time with someone, you couldn’t help but pick up on little quirks or habits. And the only time Claire hummed was when she was worried about something. He wasn’t even sure she realized she did it. But it was always a nameless tune, slow and sad.
He breathed out a sigh of relief. Focusing on her gave him the reprieve he needed. There’d always be time later to confess his own sins.
Chapter Two
Claire was a fool.
And it certainly wasn’t in her personality to not confront situations head on, but that’s exactly what she’d done with her husband. She knew he’d been lying to her. And yet each time she’d look at him, watching and waiting for the truth, but it never came.
She wasn’t so naïve to think that Cooper should share all his secrets with her. Being the wife of a cop was an adjustment, and she could see the burdens he carried, though she might not know the cause. And she didn’t expect to know. But she also hadn’t expected him to look her in the face and tell her he was going fishing when she knew damned good and well he didn’t need leather pants and his nipple rings to go fishing.
Which brought her to something else that was feeding her insecurities. Was Cooper working undercover in the BDSM clubs like he had when they’d first become involved? Or was she not enough for him—
not giving him those desires he craved—and returning to the sexual lifestyle he’d always lived?
She’d never been a coward. It was time to confront him and get to the bottom of things. The only problem was he had to return home before she could do it.
Claire replaced the last book on the shelf and stepped down from the ladder, and then she slipped her feet into the wicked black heels she’d gotten in France on her honeymoon. Her back ached and she was more than ready to call it a day. There hadn’t been a library patron to come in for more than two hours, and she was thinking no one would mind if she closed up fifteen minutes early. The fall and winter months, especially when darkness fell earlier each night, weren’t exactly great for boosting her numbers and proving that the library was worth saving. And the budget cuts most definitely showed it. Thank God the city library also doubled as the school library or she’d be out of a job.
It was another problem for another day. She sighed and moved between the stacks of books to the stairs. Her heels echoed on the marble and the temperature cooled considerably since the heat hadn’t worked on the second floor since she’d been a child. Another one of those budget issues that was far down at the bottom of the list.
Despite the cooler temperature, the upstairs was her favorite part of the library. It was easy to imagine it as it had been a hundred years before. Six large columns that sat two by two like sentries dominated the large open room. The floors were marble, and the glass windows etched so the view to the outside world was slightly distorted. Two long mahogany tables that were battered with age were used as study areas for students and drop chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
The tables were clear of clutter and everything looked to be in order, so she crossed to the bank of light switches and began shutting them down, leaving on the two recessed lights over the tables so the room was cast in a softer glow.
