Midnight Reckoning

by Rebecca Deel

  Micah’s frown morphed into a scowl. “Get the garage door, Valero.” He waited until she turned away before attempting to swallow the first boulder. He shuddered. Just as nasty as he thought, though it didn’t taste like anything. Sophie pressed the door opener. By the time she turned back around to face him, he’d manfully shoved down the last two rocks and guzzled the rest of the water. The woman had absolutely no pity and a wicked sense of humor.

  “Well,” Sophie drawled. “I see you survived after all.”

  “Shut up and get out of the cold.” He limped down the driveway with all the dignity he could muster and managed to climb inside without landing on his backside. Smart-aleck woman. He reminded himself of all the good, solid reasons to dislike Sophie Valero and found them less convincing. Just another reason to be suspicious of the beautiful, funny cat burglar.

  Micah eased his vehicle into the cramped space and turned off the engine. With the symphony of the popping and crackling of a cooling engine singing in his ears, he slammed his door shut and retrieved the ladder while Sophie closed the garage door again. After locking the ladder legs in place, Micah propped his cane between two boxes and moved to the ladder steps. “Any box better than another to start with?” Man, he hoped she had some idea where to begin. Otherwise, they were in for hours of work.

  “The three boxes along the top at the corner contain the latest papers. That’s probably as good a place as any to begin.”

  “Right.” Micah repositioned the ladder and climbed. Resting most of his weight on his good leg, he maneuvered the boxes one by one to his vehicle roof. Back on the concrete floor, he slid each box down the windshield to the hood. From there, he carried one box at a time into the house and dropped each on the kitchen table. “You want to do the honors?”

  “I’ll get you a knife. You can open them. I need to check my answering machine.”

  His eyebrows shot up at the knife she gave him. A machete-sized knife for a pocket knife job. Micah made a mental note to check Sophie for weapons the next time he made her mad. The woman could gut him with this weapon while standing a foot or more away. Good balance, though. He peered closer at the knife. Quality workmanship and material, too. After slicing through the packing tape, he ripped open each box and spread the flaps. He flinched. No organization, just papers dumped in each one. This search would take longer than the deadline. Wonder if the thug had a sense of humor or if the boss was patient? Knowing his luck lately, the answer to those questions was a resounding no.

  “Micah.”

  His head jerked up. He took in her pale face and stood. “Are you feeling sick?”

  “He called, left messages on my answering machine. You need to listen to them.”

  Micah followed her down the hall to her bedroom. Sophie punched in her code and handed him the handset.

  A deep male voice filled his ear. “I enjoyed my visit with you, Sophie. Can’t wait until we get better acquainted.” Micah frowned. No wonder Sophie looked so upset. The next message began. “Where are you, honey? I miss you already. Soon.” His hand tightened around the plastic, wished he squeezed the thug’s throat. “You sure looked beautiful last night, Sophie. Can’t wait to meet the baby.” The implied threat ignited Micah’s temper. Creep. “Two more days, beautiful. You and I will be together again. Maybe I’ll hold the baby this time. Can’t wait to see you again.” The answering machine clicked off. Anyone who didn’t know about the break-in and assault the night before wouldn’t think anything of the messages. The reality chilled him to the bone at the implied threat and stoked his temper to boiling.

  He dropped the handset into the cradle, barely checking the impulse to heave the phone against the bedroom wall. Sophie’s lips trembled, her arms wrapped protectively around her stomach. “Come here,” he said, voice gruff. When she inched close enough, he tugged her into his arms. Sophie buried her face against his chest. Her body shuddered against his. He tightened his arms around her, surprised she didn’t totally fall apart after hearing those messages.

  The last message was definitely a threat against his son. Micah’s jaw tightened. Over his dead body. No way was he letting that creep anywhere near Sophie or his son. He might not have wanted a family, but now he had one on the way, he planned to safeguard them against any threat.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Micah rubbed her back, an up and down motion he hoped soothed her raw nerves. No question, the thug was waging a terror campaign, hoping to break Sophie’s resistance and scare her into giving him what he wanted. Not a very efficient threat. How could she produce what the man wanted if she didn’t know what Sierra stole? How did he know Sophie had what he wanted?

  “I won’t let him hurt you or Junior.”

  “I know you’ll protect us right now. What about when you return to work? What if you stop him, but his employer sends someone else while you’re off in some foreign country?”

  “One hurdle at a time.”

  “Easy to say, Micah. You won’t be pacing the floor at night, taking care of a baby, worrying about his safety, wondering if you can protect him from the next thug planning to use him as a pawn in a game Sierra started.”

  Micah started to deny his son being a pawn, but hadn’t he been afraid of exactly that when Sophie told him about the baby? Some unknown criminal wanted to use terror tactics against his child and many known terrorists, home grown and foreign, had his name at the top of their hit list. They wouldn’t hesitate to use an innocent child in retaliation.

  Micah eased back enough to cup her face between his palms. “I don’t know if I will return to the Secret Service, Sophie.”

  Shock spread across her delicate features. “I thought you loved your job.”

  “I do.” He stopped, corrected his statement. “I did. I’ve been considering a career change since the shooting.” Not the total truth, but enough not to feel guilty.

  “Is your injury that severe?”

  His muscles hardened. “Not enough to stop me doing my job. I’m not sure I want to continue with them anymore.”

  “Why not? You don’t seem the type to give in because of Washington politics.” Her hand rose to his chest where a moment earlier her head had rested. Micah wondered if Sophie realized she rubbed over his heart, as though calming a jungle cat with ruffled fur.

  “Politics is part of it,” he hedged, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. How had his attempt to comfort her put him in the hot seat?

  “What’s the rest of the story?”

  Sophie didn’t know when to back off. Come to think of it, neither had Sierra, one of the many reasons he’d avoided her company. It had distressed David when he and Sierra were at odds. “You don’t let go when you want something, do you?”

  “Just now figured that out?” She grinned. “You’re a step slow, Winter.”

  “Look, I’m getting older, okay?” His face burned. “The front lines of the Secret Service is a young man’s game and I’m not young anymore.”

  “Open up.”

  He blinked. “What?”

  “Open your mouth.”

  “Why?”

  “So I can check for dentures.”

  Micah fought back the laugh threatening to erupt from his chest. “They’re original issue, baby.” Sophie had a wicked sense of humor in spades.

  “Then you’re not old, Winter. Are you restless?”

  She saw right through his subtle deflection of her original question. Add smart to wicked humor. “My parents are getting older and now David is gone. He and my sister kept an eye on them. I can’t leave it all to Nicole. She has a growing family of her own to care for.” Something inside pressed him to finish, admit the truth that had caused his career crisis since the shooting. “It’s too hard to have a stable family life if I stay with the Secret Service.”

  Sophie’s face went blank, washed clean of her curiosity and sympathy. “You’re not talking about your parents, are you?”

  “Go ahead. Laugh at me. I’m the one with
biological time clock questions. Being gone weeks at a time is a death sentence on relationships. Women hate celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmases alone.”

  “I just added another hindrance to any relationship hopes. I’m sorry, Micah.”

  He brushed her lower lip with his thumb. She was so beautiful. “Not your fault. We thought to give David and Sierra a gift of love. Now, Junior is our gift.”

  “That’s a beautiful thought.”

  Micah shook his head. “You are beautiful, inside and out. You gave your body to give Sierra her dream, yet when she died, you gave your heart to my son.”

  A trembling smile curved her lips as tears slid down her cheeks.

  Unable to resist, he lowered his head in slow motion, giving her plenty of time to draw away from him. She didn’t and, in the next breath, his lips settled over hers. Sweetness and warmth seeped into his mouth. He’d been right about the softness of her lips. His pulse galloped as he tugged her closer and deepened the kiss.

  Any other kisses he’d shared with women in the past no longer existed. He remembered no lips but hers, no taste other than Sophie’s. Probably the biggest mistake he’d ever made, yet he couldn’t deny disappointment when she eased her lips from his and stepped back.

  “We need to work on those boxes,” she said and turned away.

  “I’ll be there in a couple minutes. I have some calls to make.”

  Sophie paused in the doorway. “If you call Abbott, tell him to leave his attitude at the door.”

  “I’ll pass that along.”

  Micah waited until her footsteps faded before pulling out his cell phone. He scrolled through his contact list until he found Brent’s number. His friend answered on the second ring. “It’s Micah Winter. I need a favor.”

  “Name it.”

  Had to appreciate a friend who agreed to help before knowing the request. Micah hoped one day Sophie might trust him to that extent, for Junior’s sake if not hers. He explained about the break-in and requested Brent to install his top-of-the-line domestic alarm system. “I want the works, Brent. Motion sensors, cameras, adjustments to the garage door opening speed and I want notification of a security breach sent to my cell phone and laptop first, then to the police.”

  “Give me the address. I’ll have a crew out there first thing in the morning. Could take a few days to get everything up and running, though. Does the lady have somewhere to stay until her security is upgraded?”

  “Sophie is staying with me. Check my system and make sure there aren’t any problems. I don’t want Sophie getting hurt by someone after me.”

  Brent’s grim laughter sounded over the phone. “Yeah, you’re not popular in some circles. Can’t imagine why not. Who gets the bill?”

  “This one’s on me.”

  Silence met his statement. “She must be special. You already know the system isn’t cheap.”

  Micah debated how much to tell his old friend before he remembered Brent would probably oversee the installation of Sophie’s system himself. He smiled. Brent couldn’t miss the baby paraphernalia strewn throughout the house. “She’s pregnant with my son, Brent.”

  Brent whistled softly in the phone. “Never thought I’d hear you say that.”

  “Yeah, me either.”

  “She knows what you do for a living?”

  “Of course.”

  “Strong woman to deal with that. I’ve got another call coming in. I’ll get everything lined up and contact you about a key to Sophie’s house.”

  “Appreciate it, Brent. I owe you.”

  Micah’s next call went to Abbott’s voicemail. He left a terse message and his number. He slid his phone back into its carrier and returned to the kitchen where Sophie separated papers into piles. “I left a message for Abbott. Do you have an extra house key?”

  “I have Sierra’s.”

  “A friend is coming tomorrow to install an alarm system. You won’t be here to let him inside.”

  “I won’t?”

  “You’re not safe here. You’re returning to the cabin with me.”

  “I hope he has an installment plan. I won’t be able to pay him up front for his work.”

  “I’m covering this. Consider it my first contribution to your healthcare and Junior’s.”

  Sophie sighed. “Well, I guess we have to make sure you get your beauty rest. It’s not good for the elderly to miss their sleep.”

  He chuckled. “Thanks a lot.”

  “Hey, you’re the one getting too old for your job.”

  “Right. Anything interesting?”

  “No journals. Lots of junk, enough that I need to contact a shredding company. My office shredder would take forever.”

  “No problem. I have a friend who works in that field.”

  “Of course you do. Seems you have friends in every field.”

  “If it has to do with security, I know people. I have to in order to do my job.” He moved to the box across the table from Sophie and folded back the flaps.

  “Micah?”

  “Hmm?” He didn’t look up from the papers in his hand. Micah frowned. Bills from a few years ago. Why hadn’t David destroyed them? In the wrong hands, papers like these led to identity theft. If nothing else, his brother should have bought a small shredder and taken care of the papers with personal information on them.

  “Thanks.”

  “For what?”

  “The alarm system.”

  “Ah.” He shrugged, a smile playing at the edges of his lips at the aggrieved tone in her voice. Did the cat burglar have claws? “Thought you might be referring to the kiss.”

  “Got news for you, Winter. I’ve had better kisses.”

  Oh, yeah. She had sharp claws. If she’d been a real cat, fur would be raised on her back. “Have a heart, Sophie. I’m out of practice. I promise I’ll do better next time.” After a couple minutes passed without a response, he peered at her through his lashes. Her flushed face gave him a great deal of satisfaction. He hoped he’d stunned her into silence rather than embarrassment. The last thing Micah wanted was for her to regret the small intimacy they’d shared because he intended to repeat that kiss. Soon. The prospect already sent a surge of anticipation zinging through him.

  Minutes later, his cell phone chirped. “Winter.”

  “It’s Brent. Crew’s lined up for tomorrow on Sophie’s system. In the meantime, I found a few extras to add to her system at cost.”

  “Not necessary to do it at cost.”

  “I’ll stop by your place on the way home, around 6 o’clock. I want to check the cabin, see if anyone’s tampered with the equipment. Gives me a chance to see if we need to add more night security lights.”

  “Thanks.” Relief loosened the muscles bunched in his shoulders. “I’ll introduce you to Sophie.”

  “Later.”

  He looked up, noticed Sophie watching him. “Brent Maddox is coming to the cabin tonight to check my security system. He’ll start on yours tomorrow.”

  “Do you think he’d like a pizza or something? Maybe pepperoni with extra cheese or a meat lovers with a side salad and a large glass of Coke?”

  Micah grinned. “Hungry, Sophie?”

  “I’m always hungry, but pizza sounds good right now.”

  “The salad must be your concession to healthy eating. Where does the Coke fit in?”

  “I’m desperate. Don’t get between me and my soft drink, Winter.”

  “So noted.” He nodded at the empty box in front of her. “Anything?”

  “Receipts for Sierra’s oil paint purchases.” Sophie rubbed her lower back. “Slide another box over here. I’ll look through it while you bring in another box or two.”

  Micah studied her tired expression and drooping posture. “Sit. I’ll stack the contents on the table and place the box beside your chair. Toss what we need to shred in there. We can take anything important to the cabin and arrange a shredder to dispose of papers from there.”

  A slight smile cu
rved her lips. “I won’t argue.” She sank into the chair closest to her, sighed. “Carrying around 25 extra pounds is hard work.”

  Baby weight plus an interrupted night’s sleep. Yeah, he didn’t envy her the side effects of pregnancy. He emptied the box and returned to the garage. Three trips and a couple bruises later, Micah dropped the last box on a kitchen chair and sat next to Sophie.

  They worked in silence until his cell phone chirped again. “Winter.”

  “It’s Abbott. Is Ms. Valero with you?”

  “We’re at her house, going through paperwork.”

  “I’m in Bellevue at the moment. Give me thirty minutes to wrap this up.”

  “Fair warning. Sophie says to check your lousy attitude at the door. I wouldn’t test her. She’ll pitch you out on your ear if you aggravate her.” Micah wouldn’t be so nice if the detective upset her again. His fist clenched, ached to plow into Abbott’s jaw for what he did to Sophie.

  A bark of laughter and Abbott was gone.

  “Abbott?”

  “You’re not his favorite person right now.”

  “He’s a jerk.” She threw a pile of papers in the box on the floor.

  Micah piled another load of papers on the table in front of Sophie. “Hard to believe Sierra and David kept so much junk. I must have seen every Michael’s flyer since they married.”

  Sophie’s laughter filled the kitchen, a sound reminiscent of his mother’s, overflowing with warmth and love. “Sierra never tossed anything she might need.” She grinned. “Including jewelry.”

  “Got news for you, sweetheart. I’ve never known women to throw away glitz.”

  They worked side by side as shadows lengthened outside, enclosing the house in gloom. Thirty minutes later than Abbott promised, a car door slammed in the driveway.

  “I’ll let him in.” Micah rose, palmed his weapon, and strode to the front door. He checked the peephole before admitting the detective. Abbott had loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar. A five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw. Though Micah didn’t like the man, sympathy grew as he noted the policeman’s fatigue. Relentless hours wore on you until you worked in a dense fog of exhaustion. Looked as though Abbott had passed exhausted a week ago.