She pushed his hand away, wiping at the sugar. “It was worth it. Remind me I said that when I can no longer fit in my pants.”
“I don’t know how you turned out so normal,” he said honestly.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” One side of her lips tilted. “If it wasn’t for the fact I have her eyes I’d think I was swapped at birth.”
“You can dream.” Mac cleared his throat.
Her gaze grew pensive. “You think these murders are related to the Pioneers in some way, don’t you?”
He shrugged. He couldn’t comment on an ongoing criminal investigation. And he was reminded what his number one priority was. His job. Not Tess’s wellbeing. “I’ve been put in charge of the task force investigating the murders. Someone else on the team will need to question you further.”
Her expression turned wary. “You still think I could be involved?”
He shook his head. “I don’t, which is why someone else is asking the hard questions.”
“You’re abandoning me to the wolves again.” She seemed unimpressed and unsurprised and he felt like shit. “Feels like a habit when it comes to you and your law enforcement pals.”
Mac gritted his teeth, but he couldn’t ignore the fact he wasn’t objective when it came to Tess Fallon. She didn’t need to know that though. He glanced at the clock and swore.
“What?”
“I’m missing a task force meeting.”
“Can’t you call in?” she asked. “I’ll drive.” She dug out some earbuds from her bag and dangled them in the air. “I’ll lend you these so the evil daughter of the dead white nationalist leader doesn’t hear any damning evidence she can feed to…. Christ, someone, equally nasty.”
With a resigned sigh, he pulled to the shoulder and climbed out, walking around the hood, grateful that the storm was abating though snow covered the surrounding fields and hills. Tess slid behind the wheel, adjusting the seat as he climbed in.
He dialed the number and plugged the buds into his ears. “Don’t say anything. Okay? I’m hoping to be in charge of my own field office one day and I’m pretty sure I already broke fifty FBI guidelines this trip.”
She gave him a cheeky salute and pulled out onto the highway. He paid attention to the road signs because she didn’t realize it yet but they were going on a detour. One that might rekindle all sorts of memories neither one of them wanted to deal with, but might jog something useful loose. Guilt eased through him but he pushed it away. He had a killer to catch and the sooner that happened the faster Tess could go back to her quiet life in the ’burbs.
* * *
The house was empty. He had his hand on his dick sprawled on the couch, watching an NHL game contemplating whether or not he could be bothered to jack off. He’d had sex earlier but was still feeling horny.
His cell rang. Anticipation made his nerves spark as he checked the number. He’d been waiting for her call. “Is it time?”
“Not yet,” she said briskly. “Something came up.”
He knew better than to ask questions, but he was weirdly disappointed. He wasn’t sure he could do what she asked—part of him was terrified of messing up and the other part couldn’t wait to prove himself.
“Things are about to get intense. You’re sure everything’s in place?”
“I’m sure.” Although it wouldn’t hurt to double-check. He got up off the couch and headed upstairs.
He heard her swallow and a familiar pang of longing shot through him. Pathetic. He lifted the mattress and used the sheet to pull out the file and flicked it open. The information on all the potential targets was right where he’d hidden it. He frowned. Shit. Where the hell was the thumb drive?
“Are you sending another message tonight?” he asked, prolonging their conversation while trying not to freak. He checked under the bed. Nothing. Maybe it had fallen out in the filing cabinet. He jogged back down to the den.
“Yes.” Her voice was flat.
“Is it…”
“Is it what?” she bit out sharply.
“Is it easy?” he snapped back. God. Why was she always such a bitch?
A few seconds of surprised silence filled the space between them.
“It gets easier with practice. You’ll be fine. Just think of it the same way as bagging your first buck.”
That was an analogy he could relate to.
“I think it’ll be tomorrow, but don’t do it until I tell you. The timing has to be exact.” She sounded like she was distracted. Maybe she was already on the next job? “You remember everything I told you?”
“I remember.” Wear dark clothes with no insignia, a ball cap, avoid the street and surveillance cameras she’d marked on a map for him. Don’t be seen. Don’t get caught. Figure out the exit route before he went in.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Take care,” he said, but she’d already hung up.
He dug down to the bottom of the drawer and felt around. Nothing. Where the hell was that thing?
He went to the kitchen and fetched rubber gloves from under the sink. Then he pulled out a chunk of files and felt around some more. The jump drive wasn’t there. Taking a deep breath to stop himself from freaking out, he withdrew the rest of the files and checked inside the drawer and underneath. Then he checked all the other drawers.
He started to sweat. Encrypted on that thumb drive was the master copy of their plans and potential victims. In the wrong hands, it could ruin everything. Where the hell was it?
He scrubbed his face. He couldn’t afford to make a stupid mistake. He carefully put the files back, checking inside each one before sliding it in. Then he went through every drawer in the den, every pot and jar where someone might stash a data stick, including all the computer bags and backpacks in the house.
Panic bubbled in his heart, making it hard to catch his breath. She’d kill him if someone else got their hands on that information before the time was right.
An image of Tess going through the filing cabinet stopped his heart.
She must have taken it.
But why? Did she suspect? Or had she simply needed a thumb drive and borrowed it?
Something about the way she’d been watching him lately made him nervous.
He wiped his brow and stood, making sure the room looked like it had before. The hockey was still playing but he didn’t care anymore. He took off the gloves, pulled on a plain black hoodie and a navy ball cap.
He lifted her keys off the rack. He didn’t want to hurt Tess, but one way or another he needed to find that thumb drive.
His sister wasn’t getting in the way of his revenge.
Chapter Fourteen
An hour later Tess jerked awake, having briefly dozed off.
Mac was driving again. The snow had stopped falling. A thin, white blanket covered the entire area, and pale clouds hung heavy over the nearby hills. Mac’s conference call had been one-sided and unrevealing. The take-home message had been they hadn’t caught anyone, but no one else had been murdered. Yet.
They passed through Twin Falls. She’d seen signs for Crater of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.
As the miles sped by, a measure of foreboding stirred inside her that she couldn’t explain. Tess got out her cell phone to look at a map, but there was no signal. She found a printed map in the glove compartment and spread the paper awkwardly over her lap. She found the road, tracked their position with her finger. The compound itself wasn’t marked on the map but the town of Kodiak to the southwest was. Her pulse gave a little burst of acceleration. “We’re not far from the compound.”
Mac inclined his head, but didn’t comment.
“I’ve never been back.” She whirled to face him. “Have you?”
“Not since the days after the raid.” He tapped the side of his hand against the wheel to some internal beat.
She stared up at the darkening sky. It was only mid-afternoon, but seemed more like dusk. She shivered. She’d never wanted to ret
urn to this part of the world, but now she was so close the pull was magnetic. Something was drawing her. Some unanticipated compulsion. Or maybe it was the desire to lay her ghosts to rest. To know that that part of her life was well and truly history. “Can we go? Do we have time?”
There was an eight o’clock flight they were both hoping to catch, but Mac looked like he was debating with himself, too. Eventually he nodded and took the next right off the highway.
Much of the state was covered in desert, mountains, and forests, but this part of southern Idaho was fertile farmland. Wide open fields butted up to more hills and forest.
He took another turn and they were climbing, the shape of the hills familiar in the dim, distant memories of her childhood. She flashed to sitting in the back of the truck eating ice cream, chasing the melting drips with her tongue and giggling like a banshee as Ellie did the same.
God, she missed her sister.
She closed her eyes. If the police hadn’t shown up she would likely have endured the same fate as that beautiful soul. The idea of Walt or Eddie touching her made her want to gag. Instead she’d been rescued and raised with love and kindness by the sort of person her parents had feared and despised. A nice person. A wise person. A woman of color who saw the world in all its different shades.
Tess opened her eyes. “I always loved the landscape around here.”
Her breath misted the glass and she wiped her sleeve against the condensation. McKenzie turned up the heat again. She wanted to ask him if a visit to the compound had been on his agenda all along, but he’d hardly planned on her being at the prison, or that a winter storm would shut down the local airport.
“It’s pretty,” he conceded. “Not as pretty as Montana though.”
“That’s really where you’re from?” she said, surprised.
“Born and raised.” One side of his mouth tipped up and she spotted dimples she hadn’t known existed.
She ignored the effect his looks had on her heart rate and settled back to stare out the window. “You still have family there?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “My dad raised me, but that was more by accident than choice. My mom died of cancer when I was a kid.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” She worried at a hangnail. She gave in to the desire to find out more about him. “You miss her?”
He nodded, but his expression closed down.
It wasn’t her business but there were no real rules as to their relationship. It was unchartered territory—or maybe she was kidding herself. Maybe she was legitimately a suspect and he understood the rules. It didn’t matter. The little sparks of attraction that kept flaring up were nothing compared to the history that doused it. She may as well just enjoy his company. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
But Cole might have… She pushed the thought out of her mind. He’d been with her when the DJ had been shot.
Could someone be trying to set him up? That seemed as unlikely as Cole pulling a trigger on another human being.
“I don’t miss Francis,” she said abruptly. She shuddered. “Eddie reminded me I have her eyes.”
Mac nodded again, confirming what she already knew.
You always were a worthless little bitch. I should have drowned you at birth.
Her birth mother’s last words rang out in her mind. No wonder Tess didn’t mourn her passing.
“If ever there was someone who shouldn’t have had kids it was Francis Hines. And to have five?” she said. “Insanity.”
“The Pioneers weren’t big on birth control as I recall,” Mac noted wryly. “Too busy trying to found their republic.”
Tess huddled deeper into her jacket. She hadn’t been able to get warm since Eddie had jammed his forearm across her throat.
“I don’t think I’m going to have any kids.”
He glanced at her. “Why not?”
“What if I turn out like my parents?”
“You won’t.”
“What if my kids turn out like them?” she pushed. However irrational it might sound, it was a genuine worry.
“Nature versus nurture, Tess. How’d your little brother turn out?”
Emotions tangled her in knots. “He’s a sweet kid.” But something was going on. And he still hadn’t called her back.
“There you go, then. For what it’s worth, I think you’d make a wonderful mom.” He sent her a smile, and those changeable eyes of his eased into a dirty blue.
“I never thanked you, not properly. For the work you did undercover.” She faced him, determined to get out what she needed to say. “Without you I’d either be dead, raped, or a white nationalist nutcase.”
“You were never like the rest of them.” He grinned and physical awareness danced over her body like a feather drifting over naked skin. That stupid crush of hers was alive and well and making a full come back. But he didn’t have to know about it. It didn’t mean anything. He was a good-looking guy and there was no reason not to admire the view. As long as she didn’t do anything stupid like trust those smiling eyes or those cute dimples.
She could feel him watching her out of the corner of his eye.
“I never felt like them,” she said. “I never fitted in with them. I’ve never fitted in anywhere.”
Mac nodded. “I know how that feels. You don’t have to make any big decisions yet, you know. You’re still young—”
She huffed out a laugh. “Thirty isn’t young.”
“Compared to thirty-nine it is,” he said dryly.
She snorted. “Thirty-nine isn’t old either. And I bet you fit in just fine with those other agents in the Bureau. In fact, I bet the female agents fall all over that easy charm of yours. I’m surprised you don’t already have a wife and a passel of kids—” She cut herself off and winced. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I forgot about your divorce.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Heather never wanted kids.”
“But you married her anyway?”
“Who said I wanted kids?” he asked in surprise.
“I remember you at nineteen. You hung out with the kids more than the adults.”
“The kids were nicer.”
They both grimaced.
He turned his attention back to the curves in the road. “Heather was all wrong for me. I don’t even know why I married her.” Then a hint of red hit his cheeks.
It was amazing a man his age could still blush.
“I guess you just remembered,” Tess said dryly.
“The sex was good,” he admitted. “No reason to wear a ball and chain though.”
“Especially if it feels like a ball and chain.” She wasn’t about to tell him she hadn’t had good sex in so long she could hardly remember what it was like. She didn’t want that to end up in some FBI report.
College, probably. With a boy she’d been in love with, but who’d gone off to follow his dreams when she’d been helping Trudy raise Cole. Her little brother had only been eleven and she’d refused to leave him. She’d gone to school in Georgetown to stay close.
She thought about her last boyfriend who’d ruined so many things in her life. “Relationships are overrated.”
“Sounds like I’m not the only one who’s been burned.”
She pulled a face. “Vibrators are a lot less hassle than men.”
His lips twitched. “Not as much fun, though.”
“Fun?” She huffed out a laugh.
He shot her a look. “Sex is supposed to be fun, right?”
“I’ve obviously been dating the wrong type of guy, but then I knew that.” Her own cheeks burned a little. While she couldn’t believe they were having this conversation, she could far too easily imagine having sex with Mac. She eyed the five o’clock shadow roughening up his cheeks, imagined it scraping her skin.
She’d just bet sex with him was fun, but it wouldn’t be worth the price she’d end up paying.
“What?” His voice deepened.
Catching his gaze, she realized he had o
ne eye on the road and one eye on her lips.
“Nothing.” She knew this banter wasn’t real and wouldn’t lead anywhere and that made it safe. She was a pariah in law enforcement circles. Career kryptonite. She made a joke of it. “I can’t believe I’m discussing my sex life with a Fed. I didn’t think FBI agents even had sex.”
He started choking. “Are you kidding me? FBI agents are considered hot in law enforcement circles. Now DEA or ATF…those guys struggle with image.”
Her attention shifted to the scenery around them. And there, on the left, was the jagged peak that had loomed over her every day of her young life.
Her heart gave a terrified squeeze.
Mac had been keeping her engaged in conversation to distract her from this traumatic homecoming. She reached out and gripped his forearm, hoping he realized she was silently thanking him. Words were impossible.
He turned right again and she shifted in her seat as her old home came into view. The rusted barbwire fence had been replaced, but the shape of the fields was achingly familiar. Even the cows looked the same.
McKenzie pulled up on the side of the road, careful not to slide into the ditch. He left the engine running. A seven-bar gate barred entry to the old driveway.
They stared at the compound, each lost in their own thoughts. The signpost that used to stretch proudly across the top of two tall, wooden pillars had been painted over in dark gray, possibly to stop this site from becoming a mecca for white nationalists.
Three of the cottages had been demolished, as had some of the older outbuildings. The barn where Walt had tried to assault her still stood though. That barn signified both the good and the bad of her childhood.
Growing up on a farm, doing chores and taking care of the animals hadn’t been a bad thing. Having a sister whom she’d loved with every ounce of her being hadn’t hurt either. And whether she liked to admit it or not, Kenny Travers had also made life bearable.
But the beatings whenever she didn’t do exactly as she was told, the incessant chores, the lack of formal education, the lack of friends, the constant barrage of hatred and bile and force-fed propaganda as they tried to destroy her ability to think critically or develop her own opinion.
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