She averted her eyes as guilt slapped her with an exception. What happened in Iraq had nothing to do with Tony or Anna. She wasn’t going to put it on the table.
MacGyver regarded her with obvious suspicion. “You’re not just saying that until you get a chance to kick me in the stones, are you?”
Kellie cocked an eyebrow. “That depends. Are you planning to add your secrets to the mix? Like why you’re really helping me? And why you and Travis were looking for a US Marshal?”
MacGyver leaned close as his hands slid down to grip her waist. “That and anything else you’d like to know about me.”
His words filtered through the cold vacuum surrounding her heart, and she couldn’t look away from the desperate blue of his eyes. A tremor rolled through her as he pulled her against him. To her chagrin, her body reacted with goose bumps and hardening nipples as though flesh and blood had an agenda of its own.
Humor relaxed his expression as he watched her. “Has anyone ever told you how incredibly sexy you are when you go all ninja on someone’s ass?”
Kellie laughed. “No, and I think Jerry might disagree.”
“Obviously, the man doesn’t have a clue.” MacGyver winked as he stepped aside, gesturing toward the vehicle. “Let’s go find Charlie. I want to meet the man who raised such an obstinate daughter.”
The cabin up the hill turned out to be a three-story chalet-style house four times the size of her family’s summer cottage. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor promised an unobstructed view of the lake, a few hundred feet below. An external staircase led to a wooden balcony that lined the length of the house, in case all that glass didn’t give the owners ample access to the forested scenery. Had the marshal been authorized to commandeer this gorgeous home? She’d probably do well not to ask, since she wasn’t exactly on Jerry’s nice list right now.
The house and scattered outbuildings appeared deserted as MacGyver parked on the pavement in front of the three-car garage. As soon as she opened the car door, she heard Chip’s frenzied barking. Immediately, Pop stepped into view on the second-floor balcony. He still walked straight and tall at seventy-two, a testament to how he’d stayed in shape all his life. Fighting fire was hard work, and Charlie had been one of the best. His buff physique, coupled with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair and a sharp intellect, had attracted his share of female interest as far back as Kellie could remember. He’d never glanced away from her mother long enough to appreciate the attention.
“Are you all right, Pop?” Sudden relief left her weak in the knees as her stepdad started down the stairs, followed by the sleek black and white dog.
“Why wouldn’t I be? That marshal you sent made sure no one bothered us. Can’t wait to hear why I needed a bodyguard.”
Shocked, Kellie started to tell him she hadn’t sent Jerry, but MacGyver caught her eye and shook his head.
Chip rushed past Pop and reached the ground first, did a one eighty and barreled toward her, tongue lolling and tail wagging. Pop growled a command which, of course, Chip ignored. It was doubtful the dog even heard his master’s voice, so overjoyed was he to see her. She stopped, spread her arms wide and braced herself. Seventy pounds of excited, slobbering dog hurtled into her chest. With barely time to lock her arms around him, Kellie staggered backward and went down, the happy dog whining and licking her all over.
“Wish you’d never taught him that trick.” Pop grumbled as he came into view above her.
She laughed, trying fruitlessly to avoid Chip’s overactive tongue. “It was a lot cuter when he was a puppy.”
MacGyver appeared alongside Pop. “She taught that furball to knock her down?”
Pop gave MacGyver the once-over and apparently decided he was okay. “Yep. Smart girl…except for that.” He stuck out his hand. “Charlie Webster. Who might you be?”
“Matt Iverson. My friends call me MacGyver.” As they shook hands, MacGyver nodded toward her. “Think we should help her out?”
Pop flagged his hand as though shooing flies. “Naw. Hell, she can manage. I assume, since you’re with her, she meant to bring you. Let’s go in and have a beer.” He turned toward the stairs, not waiting for an answer. “What happened to that know-it-all marshal?”
MacGyver chuckled softly as Pop jogged up the stairs. With a grin, he stopped beside Kellie and offered her a hand. Chip bounced around by her side, apparently ready for the next adventure. Kellie locked arms with MacGyver and pulled herself up.
His smile warmed her as he brushed leaves and twigs from her hair. “I like him.”
She nodded. “Thanks. So do I.”
Chip raced up the stairs. MacGyver and Kellie followed at a slower pace. As soon as they stepped through the screen door, Pop handed them each a beer, twisted the cap off his and took a long swallow. Then he swept his arm toward a sunroom, bright with early afternoon rays just breaking through the cloud cover. A tile-covered, metal table sat dead-center, surrounded by white wicker chairs with blue cushions.
Pop surveyed her with the stern, somber expression she remembered from her childhood. “I believe you have some explaining to do. Perhaps MacGyver wouldn’t mind waiting downstairs.” Charlie’s stern consideration turned to the tall, muscular man who hadn’t left her side.
Knowing she had to own the mess she’d made didn’t make it any easier. Kellie glanced at MacGyver and noted he hadn’t moved. “He stays, Pop. I owe him an explanation too, so I might as well tell you both at the same time.” She strode into the sunroom, taking a seat facing the windows. Pop and MacGyver sat at either end of the table. Chip circled once and curled up in a sun spot.
“Bear with me, Pop, while I bring MacGyver up to speed. I know you don’t like to talk about Anna, but we can’t avoid it this time.” Kellie reached to pat his arm as he thumped his beer bottle on the table, and anger sharpened his aging features.
She looked toward MacGyver and found him watching her. His quick grin gave her the confidence to begin.
“Anna is my sister. My mother’s death was really hard on all of us, but Anna never really recovered. She began hanging with a bad crowd, lost her job and started drinking and staying out all night. Pop did what he could, but Anna wouldn’t listen. I called her from Iraq every chance I got, but then she started avoiding both of us. About a year ago, she disappeared without a trace. The police investigated, but they followed every lead to a dead end.”
She glanced at her stepdad, his stoic posture hard to read, before focusing again on MacGyver. “As I told you, I was in Iraq when my mother was diagnosed. I was a Marine—corporal to be exact—assigned as part of the Lioness program in Baghdad. We were charged with helping Iraqi women retain some dignity by having females search females coming and going at the gates.”
MacGyver raised one eyebrow as though he wasn’t familiar with the project, but since her last deployment wasn’t something she wished to elaborate on, she let it go. “It was four months before I could get home, and by then the detectives had pretty much given up.”
Kellie sneaked another peek at Pop. He stared out the bank of windows, his head turned away so she could only judge his reaction by half of his face. He sat ramrod stiff and had apparently lost interest in his beer, which told her all she needed to know.
Turning back to MacGyver, she made a pathetic attempt at a smile and was encouraged by the understanding that softened his eyes. Now, if she could only find the courage to tell her stepdad the truth.
As though he’d read her mind, Pop rotated to face her. She flinched from the accusation in his deep brown eyes.
“The stress was killing you, Pop.” She’d done the only thing she could think to do to bring some peace to his life. “Please forgive me—I lied to you.”
“What do you mean?” His gruff voice caught on the jagged edges of her heart, and she almost lost her nerve. Would have…if MacGyver hadn’t leaned forward and cover
ed one of her hands with his.
“I told you the trail was cold. That there were no more clues to follow. But there was one. Anna’s friend, Haley. Remember her? She had a brother in the Army. He was killed in Mosul last year. I went to see her to give her my condolences after I got home. We stayed in touch. I think, because I’d been there and knew what her brother had been fighting for, she got some comfort from talking with me. Anyway, one day she started telling me about Anna and what a good dancer she’d been.”
“Dancer?” Pop’s surprise was as great as hers had been.
“I didn’t know either, Pop. Haley broke down when she told me she’d gotten Anna a job in the same showroom where she worked. She said Anna was a natural. You know how pretty she was. She caught the eye of the boss. They started dating. She moved in with him. Haley said the last time Anna came around she had bruises all over her body, and she was scared. She begged Haley to help her get out of town. They made plans and arranged to meet, but Anna didn’t show up, and Haley never saw her after that. When she asked about her at work, management made it clear talking about Anna wasn’t healthy.”
Kellie jumped as Pop surged upward, sending his chair screeching backward a few inches, and slapped his hands on the table. “Who? Who was it? Why didn’t you tell me?”
MacGyver squeezed her fingers, and Kellie managed to swallow around the lump in her throat.
“Charlie, what do you say we hear her out and then decide what to do next?” MacGyver’s calm voice was a lifeline, and she quietly threaded her fingers through his, hoping somehow he’d understand her gratitude.
Pop massaged the back of his neck as he sank into his chair again.
“I couldn’t tell you. I was afraid I’d lose you too.” Kellie hated the way her voice trembled. “So I spent eight months learning everything I could about him. All of his dirty secrets, the people he controlled, the lives he’d ruined. And I came up with a plan.”
Pop shot from his seat and turned his back on her, staring out the windows. Tension vibrated in the air. Kellie glanced at MacGyver, and even he wouldn’t look at her.
“Tony Palazzi was her boss and her lover…and is probably the only person who knows what happened to her, or at least that’s what I thought until today. I had to get inside his circle no matter what it took. You taught me to play Blackjack when I was a kid. Remember, Pop?”
Charlie grunted. “You were always a quick study. One of the best at counting cards I’d ever seen.” He sighed. “Thought your mother was going to disown both of us.”
Kellie smiled at the memory. Mom had been sure Charlie was leading her daughter straight to hell. Clearly, her mother’s assessment had been spot on.
“Tony’s dealers were amateurs. I went back three days in a row and won eighty-five hundred dollars before two of his security people hauled me into Tony’s office. My plan had worked. I’d gotten his attention.”
“Damn it, Kellie. You could have gotten yourself killed. Why didn’t you go to the police?” Charlie yanked his chair closer to the table, observing her as he gripped the seatback and appeared to brace himself.
MacGyver leaned back, the warmth of his hand leaving hers. “I have to agree with Charlie on this one, Champ. What did you hope to accomplish by pissing Tony off?”
“I’d already decided I’d do anything to get close to him—earn his trust—until I either found Anna or learned what happened to her.” Heat washed over her face as MacGyver’s expression registered her meaning. Now that he understood how far she was prepared to go to find her sister—that she would have slept with the man responsible for Anna’s disappearance—she wouldn’t blame him if he wasn’t as eager to help.
She scanned both men’s faces, looking for some sign they at least sanctioned her motive. “You needn’t worry. I might be a good Blackjack player, but I’m apparently lousy at seduction. Tony wasn’t interested. He planted a small computerized device in my purse and threatened to have me charged with a felony for cheating in his casino. Then he made me an offer. I could either marry him within the week, or he’d make sure I got prison time.”
A dark cloud passed over Pop’s face, but he remained silent. She would never tell him Tony had also threatened to implicate him in the same crime. Pop already blamed himself for Anna’s problems leading up to her disappearance. Kellie wasn’t going to give him anything else he might assume guilt from.
“The wedding was supposed to be day before yesterday, but I overheard Tony talking to his uncle. He planned to kill me after the wedding, make it look like an accident and collect on a life insurance policy. That’s when I bolted and called you, Pop, and then I ran into MacGyver a few minutes later. I’m not sure why he and his friend, Travis, helped me, but I’m glad they did. I don’t think I’d be here now if they hadn’t.”
The silence was nerve-wracking when she finished speaking. Outside, the sun had vanished behind the rugged mountains, and thunderheads boiled to the northeast. Mother Nature would, no doubt, put on a show for them tonight.
Excitement and dread stirred in her stomach. “I’m sorry, Pop. You deserved the truth. I hope you can forgive me.”
Pop’s expression softened as he searched her face, and his brow puckered. “Kellie, I love you. Your mom wouldn’t like it if we let something change that. Enough said.”
Those were the exact words he’d spoken after every disciplinary action he’d ever undertaken with her or Anna. Kellie’s heart was nearly bursting with love for him.
MacGyver cleared his throat. “I guess it’s my turn. Kellie already knows most of this. I was in the bar waiting for an informant on a missing person Travis and I were hired to find—a man by the name of Jeremy Dahl.”
“But…that’s the marshal’s name.” Charlie leaned forward, and his eyebrows shot up.
“I know. Small world, right? The informant was a no-show. I was about to leave when I got a text from the man who hired us, changing the parameters of my search. He wanted me to meet a woman in a wedding dress.” MacGyver glanced toward Kellie. “I’d have left anyway—I was on my way to the door—if you hadn’t been headed for trouble from the minute you walked in. I couldn’t leave you there, drinking with those bikers.”
Pop snorted, and a grin sparkled in his eyes. “Now, that’s the girl that used to drive her mother crazy.”
Kellie smirked, her burden lighter, knowing Pop was no longer furious with her.
“I called Travis, and we got you out of there and took you back to my hotel. By that time, you were out cold. Travis recognized your name from a newspaper article he’d read. That’s when we learned you’d missed your wedding.”
Pop started to laugh, changing to a phony cough when she darted a glance toward him.
“I’m guessing the missing person was a bullshit story, but according to our sources, Dahl had gone to work for Palazzi a few days ago and vanished the same time you and a shitload of Tony’s money disappeared.” MacGyver frowned and raked his fingers through his hair. “For a while, we…Travis thought those three events might be related.”
Kellie bristled. This was the first she’d heard of stolen money. “Yeah? Did Travis think Jerry and I stole the money and skipped town?”
“Who the hell is Jerry?” Pop looked back and forth between them.
“Jerry is Jeremy Dahl, aka your US marshal.” MacGyver focused on Kellie. “And yes, for a few minutes, Travis did think you might be involved in the theft, but that was before we…before I got to know you.”
“Oh, right. You know…the marshal scared the shit out of me, showing up out of the blue. He told me you sent him to babysit until you got here. Did he take the money?” Charlie’s understandable difficulty keeping up made Kellie and MacGyver burst out laughing.
“I don’t think so, Pop, since he’s a US marshal. I didn’t send him. I think Anna may have…to help both of us.” She reached for Pop’s hand. “I almost forgot
the best part. The marshal knows where Anna is. She’s alive!”
“Where? Where is she?” A sheen of tears rushed to Pop’s eyes, and his voice morphed to a growl.
Kellie exchanged a glance with MacGyver. “I don’t know. We left to come up here and make sure you were all right.”
“A couple of my friends are keeping an eye on the marshal, so I’m confident he’ll be ready to answer questions when we get back.” MacGyver checked his watch.
Pop straightened. “What are we waiting for? I don’t feel comfortable in this big, fancy house, even if it is where the marshal thinks I’m the safest. I’m missing my cabin.”
MacGyver shoved his chair back and pushed to his feet, eyeing her questioningly when she didn’t move.
Everything was happening so fast. Suddenly, reluctance to learn what horrors Anna had endured made Kellie’s palms sweat. “I need some time alone to catch my breath before I hear what Jerry has to say. Would you take Pop down with you? I’ll walk back after a bit. It’s only a mile or so.”
“It’ll be dark soon.” MacGyver’s disapproval displayed across his face, and he started to wag his head.
“Kellie’s been walking these hills in the dark since she was sixteen. There’s nothing out there she hasn’t met head-on before.” Charlie winked, and the sorrow Kellie had been fighting for the past few minutes ached for release.
MacGyver shook his head. “That was before there was a lunatic after her. She’s not walking anywhere.”
“You’re right, Son. You’ll have to forgive a forgetful old man. I got so excited with the news about Anna, I forgot why we’re here for a second. Of course it’s not safe for Kellie to walk, but she might accept a ride, if you were to come back.” Pop gave MacGyver a smug grin, and Kellie rolled her eyes. “I’ll let you two settle this and meet you downstairs in the car. I’m looking forward to having a talk with that marshal.” Pop strode to the screen door.
Honor Among SEALs Page 14
