by Lexy Timms
“BRIDE?” Dani’s mother shrieked, and broke free of her hug. She was still trapped under Dani’s legs, but her mother’s face glowed with happiness.
Luke’s mother leaned forward and offered her hand, so dainty she might have been meeting the Queen of England for the first time. “Hello, I’m Elaina. I’m the mother of the groom. How do you do? It’s a pleasure meeting you.”
Which was, of course, the moment the police ran in.
“WAIT, WAIT.” LUKE HELD up his hands. William had dealt with the police. That had turned out to be the easiest part. William owned the police. Rather, they did his bidding and were the backup he’d referred to. Luke wasn’t close enough to hear everything, but a quiet word with one of the men in a police captain’s uniform and the captain suddenly became attentive and ready to follow William’s every command. And to see that everyone else followed those commands as well.
A circle of police stood watch on the lawn while they tried to track down the missing daughter of one Mrs. Pinal. Luke shook his head as he moved past half a dozen men talking excitedly into their radios. Whatever they were doing certainly looked like it was efficient enough, but something was bothering him, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on just what. He wandered back into the house to see what was going on in there.
The group had split up, and who knew what sort of story William had given the local authorities that kept them out of the building and out on the lawn while the house was explored from top to bottom. Not that there was much that had gone untouched. Dani’s mother had already done quite a thorough examination of things, leaving only the bathrooms, which were summarily dispatched by William himself. Edwin kept a half pace behind, maintaining a hangdog expression that quite clearly said he wanted out of this rodeo, but wasn’t liking the idea of trying to dismount from the bull.
Luke shook his head, only just refraining from saying you needed to surround yourself with clowns to accomplish that feat, because it seemed a little too apropos. Shaking his head, he returned to the living room and found himself caught in the middle of a conversation between mothers, which didn’t bode well for either him or Dani from the look of things. A retreat to the kitchen where Marcus was applying hydrogen peroxide to Dani’s scratched fingers seemed almost better by comparison once you got past all the swearing. Mostly from Marcus.
“For heaven’s sake, sit STILL. You’re worse than a cat. How do you expect me to get the splinter out?”
Luke leaned on the kitchen counter and shook his head. “One of you is going to have to tell me something. How the hell did you get out of Florida and show up here almost before we did?”
Elaina looked up and shook her head. “Oh, honey, quit being so melodramatic.” She glanced over at Dani’s mother, with one of those looks that mothers the world over share when their offspring are acting particularly idiotic. “Your father got the daughter’s phone number, gave it to his people, who did a reverse look-up, discovered her name, found out her address, and relayed it back to his people who then gave it to him.”
“You were paying attention all those years!” William’s expression was joyous as he bounded into the room, energy seeming to be somewhat restored, even if he’d come back empty-handed. Edwin trailed along behind him, a morose shadow that looked uneasily from his ex-wife to his new... love interest? Luke felt bile rise into the back of his throat, and he had to look away before he said something that he knew he was going to regret.
Please tell me I’m imagining that look.
“Of course, dear,” Elaina said, waving him off with one hand as if inconsequential. “Now be quiet. I, on the other hand, did something much more effective and much quicker.” She paused for a moment. “I asked Mrs. Pinal for an address. And voilà! Here we are!”
“I think what has the boy confused,” William said, more than a little nonplussed at this point, “is how you arrived in Houston so quickly.”
“You remember the Marstons, don’t you, dear?” She looked at Luke, whose face betrayed a complete lack of recognition. Elaina sighed in frustration, “Well, no wonder it took you so long to find the right girl. I mean, it was worth the wait.” She smiled at Dani. “But it was enough to drive me to drink, trying to set you up with girls only to have you ruin every attempt, I mean...”
“We borrowed a plane,” Edwin cut in, throwing himself down in the only chair that wasn’t spitting stuffing all over the room. Why in the hell Dani’s mother had thought there might be a ceramic bird inside a wingback chair was anybody’s guess.
Elaina looked at him briefly and said quietly, “Yes. We borrowed a plane. From the Marstons.” She looked at Luke. “She was the black-haired girl with the thick glasses. ‘Course, that’s nothing she could help...” Elaina looked to Edwin, who had taken her hand, glancing down in surprise at it, but allowing it to stay. Luke shuddered. “We borrowed their plane.”
“And who flew the plane?” William asked, then stopped himself as every eye in the place went to Marcus, who had just come out of the kitchen with Dani, and looked somewhat put off by the sudden display of attention. “Of course, I should have known.” His expression turned sour as Marcus held up a hand.
“We were on a jet. HOW THE HELL DID YOU OUTRUN AIR FORCE ONE?” Luke asked, his voice rising in frustration, as it seemed that no one was going to give him a useful answer to the thing he was asking.
Much like in boot camp.
Luke’s expression darkened. The incident with the lieutenant had started somewhat like this.
“Air Force One?” Dani’s mother echoed, and looked at her child in horror. Dani’s mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything. She held up her hands and shrugged. Luke found himself counting bandages on fingers. By the time he got to three he was pretty pissed off.
“I’m sorry, we haven’t met.” William walked to her, his hand extended.
Luke threw up his hands in disgust and made a sound of frustration.
“I told you when we landed, boy. There is a municipal airport a couple of miles from here. We landed more than two hours before they did, but we had to wait in traffic. They had a clearer shot. Except someone apparently got word out to our mystery lady, here, and she beat us all.”
“Er... that was me,” Edwin said, looking much more satisfied now that he’d been holding Elaina’s hand for several minutes and she hadn’t taken it back yet. “I called her as soon as we got the address.” He turned to Dani. “In Atlanta, I said that I would take you to her. So, I have.”
Dani scowled. Luke could just see the argument brewing. This time it was his turn to give her a look, like the ones she’d been shooting him in the car the entire time he’d been having a... discussion... with his own father. She stuck her tongue out at him. He vowed to find another use for that tongue before the day was out.
“What I want to know is,” William said, taking back his hand when she didn’t take it. “how is it that you happened to be in Houston when the call came in?”
“I’m sorry.” Dani’s mother rose from the chair she’d moved to after her reunion with her daughter. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” She gave him a long look that took him in from head to toe, and made a face as if she’d found something disgusting on the bottom of her shoe. “Who the hell are you?”
“That’s the man I told you about. The Puppet Master.” Edwin had somehow ended up on the couch with Elaina. He had both her hands in his now, and looked for all the world like he was about to burst into song.
“Would you happen to be William McConnel, by any chance?” Dani’s mom smiled.
Luke froze just seeing the smile; how his father didn’t die of hypothermia on the spot was beyond him.
“I do carry the burden of that name,” William answered, ignoring the subtext with the air of a man who was well used to arctic conditions.
“Maria.” She declined to offer a last name. “And I don’t believe, sir, that you have an explanation due from me.”
“I could hold you...” William offered.
>
“It wouldn’t be the first time a man held me,” she said, shooting a glance at her former husband that proved she disliked every man in the room equally. “But that didn’t end up well either.” She turned to Edwin. “We talk because we share a daughter and a mission. We’ve invested our lives in gathering the information on that stick.” She turned to Luke. “I understand I have you to thank for its very existence, thank you.” Her glance was cool. Assessing. Though her tone was somewhat warmer. “I see what my daughter sees in you, though. He’s quite pretty,” she said as she turned back to Dani.
Dani smiled uncertainly. Luke wondered if she’d decided her mother was friend or foe yet. “Yes, he is.” Her eyes were wary. Hurt.
“Hey...” Luke couldn’t finish the thought, not with so many people in the room. But Dani met his eyes and words weren’t necessary.
“I’m afraid I must insist on some answers,” William said, interrupting the moment with a complete lack of awareness that there was a couple here trying to have a moment. “You seem to be ahead of us. How?” His jovial demeanor was gone as the silence in the room lengthened. “Now.”
“Mr. McConnel.” Maria clipped the words hard. “I have been ‘gone’ for twenty years. I completely missed my own daughter’s life! I agreed to infiltrate the Rhinehart family. I even agreed to find out information, but when things went bad your predecessor declared me to be expendable. My life meant nothing. I was cast adrift. And I had some very important people looking for me.”
She turned to Dani. “I am sorrier than I can say for missing your life, my daughter. I received news about you, pictures, I even got to see a copy on a video tape of your ballet recital. If I had tried to contact you, to hold you like a mother should, you would have been killed. Please understand that. I couldn’t be so selfish as to put you at risk. But I never stopped thinking about you. Not for a single day.”
“So, what did you do?” Elaina asked, having settled comfortably on the couch with Edwin’s arm around her shoulders, and looking like she needed a bowl of popcorn and a soda to make the experience complete.
Maria sat down on the chair and stared at William as she answered. “Since my own people had thrown me to the wolves I had no one to help me but Edwin, and he could do very little being under constant scrutiny. I found other resources to continue my fact-finding.”
“Wait,” Dani interrupted, and turned on Edwin, who at least had the grace to not look quite so smug as he practically spooned Luke’s mother on the couch, something Luke had been trying steadfastly to ignore for the last ten minutes.
Dani, on the other hand, wasn’t beyond interrupting someone else’s romantic moment. She launched herself at her father, grabbing his shirt and dragging him upright. Luke almost went to his rescue. Almost. He met his mother’s eyes, yet she didn’t seem perturbed in the least that her love interest had become part of the play.
“You told me that you thought she was dead. You said she showed up a few years ago.” Dani turned back to her mother, dropping Edwin, who suddenly seemed much older and smaller than he had a few days ago. Hell, he’d been shrinking steadily ever since William had shown up.
“How in the world did you get updates on me, if Daddy thought...”
Dani froze. The question she was asking caught in her throat. Every eye in the room slowly turned to Marcus for the second time since this whole strange conference had begun.
“Yes,” Marcus said, and his sigh could be heard clearly even from where Luke sat all the way across the room. “It was me.”
Chapter Eleven
“Again,” William said slowly, “a man with unexpected depth.” William looked at Marcus, as though truly seeing him for the first time.
Dani didn’t even want to ask, but needed to know the answer all the same. “How long?” she asked, closing her eyes for a moment, and bracing herself for the answer.
“How long have I known she was alive? Sixteen years and seven months. How long have I worked for your father? Sixteen years and six months. How long have I been passing your life and memories to her?” He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms and thought a moment before answering. “I suppose, sixteen years and four months.”
“Quite odd for a hired man,” William murmured, a certain tone to his voice that put Dani’s hackles up, though she couldn’t quite say why.
“So I’m told,” Marcus answered, just as evenly, just as carefully.
“Enough.” It was Maria who interrupted the standoff, which was something of a good thing. Dani was already looking around the room for something she could use as a projectile. “If your agency had half a clue what the hell it was doing, I wouldn’t still be hiding twenty years later and ending up in a fight with my own daughter!”
“I was not aware your original assignment came from my office.” William shrugged, as though that absolved everything.
“Pontius Pilate washing his hands,” Elaina murmured.
“That is an inappropriate illustration, as it was not I who assigned her,” William muttered to Elaina, righting a chair and sitting down heavily.
“You were really good,” Dani said, maybe a little grudgingly, but having to admit that it had been a while since she’d had quite that good a workout.
Maybe not since Luke and I... Dani ducked her head, hoping no one in the room would notice she was blushing and ask why. This was something she really wasn’t about to share with anyone except maybe... She raised her head, and caught Luke’s eye. Oh yeah, he’d noticed all right, but his smile was reassuring.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“Thank you! You bested me, though, I have to admit. Is your hand all right? Nothing broken or terribly bruised?” Maria reached for her daughter, clucking over the bandages. “That glass... I tried so hard to avoid that.”
“It’s okay. I’ve had worse.” Dani looked at it critically, flexing her fingers carefully. “Where did you get your training?”
“Well, I’ve been hiding out for twenty years under assumed names and trying to collect evidence. I didn’t really have much else to do.”
Dani shook her head. “I can’t believe you fought in high heels!” She studied her own footwear rather critically. She’d been attached to her boots for a long time but, in retrospect, being stylish had its finer points.
“You did what?” Luke’s mother interrupted, sitting up suddenly. “In those?”
Maria nodded, and looked at her feet, lifting one ankle to show off the strappy black shoe. “It’s a vanity, I know, but on the other hand, the heels can actually be a formidable weapon.”
“As I well know,” Dani said ruefully.
“So sorry, my angel.”
“My heels break off all the time...” Elaina murmured, staring sadly at her own brown flats.
“These are reinforced. There’s a bit of steel that runs through the shoe and into the heel; makes it difficult through airports, though,” Maria answered.
“Ladies, please.” William held up his hand, and waved it.
Dani ignored him, leaning in closer to look at the aforementioned heel. “It looks quite normal. I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Later dear,” Elaina said and pushed William’s arm down, as it was blocking her view. “Really? Where did you get them? I doubt they would have a pair in my size, but they do look adorable.”
Dani was trying to keep from laughing as she looked between the men. They’d tuned out at the mention of shoes and were looking either bored, confused, or annoyed. She glanced around at the room, still festooned with rubble from her mother’s searching. There was a stack of mail on the dining room table that had survived an avalanche of cutlery. Mostly bills, the occasional two-for-one offer on inedible fast food, and catalog for Cat Lovers. No sign of a cat, though. And there was also a flyer for an event in town. World’s Largest Bridal Show. It promised to be a “Texas-Sized Exhibition” of dresses and cakes and rings.
Thinking of the travesty of her almost-wedding, the way “Uncle” Benny h
ad arranged everything, Dani allowed herself a moment to be... a bride. She picked up the flyer and examined it with a slightly wistful expression. Something caught her eye. She stole a glance at the others. They didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her, other than her mother... that’s something not easy to say. She pulled out her cell phone and tapped in a few ideas.
“What’s that you have?” William asked suddenly.
Dani huffed and showed it to him. “I didn’t get a real wedding,” she said, a slight coquettishness in her tone. She didn’t want to overplay it, but... “I’m hoping that we have time while we’re here, as it only runs today.”
William smiled indulgently and handed it back to her. “If you want to indulge yourself, child, be my guest. There really isn’t anything more you can do here, anyway.”
Dani felt triumph alongside a strong desire to belt the man. She was starting to understand Luke’s dislike toward him.
She rested her gaze on Marcus as he sat there quietly, watching the exchange. He smiled and shrugged. Dani whispered to him, “Loan me five bucks?” Marcus’ eyebrows shot up. He nodded.
“EXCUSE ME!”
The conversation regarding shoe stores and favorite designers had gotten well out of hand by the time William interrupted. Elaina and Maria turned simultaneously and stared, eyes hard and unfriendly. Dani shook her head as the door behind them opened and closed, an aide coming in and whispering something to him. He looked at the aide for a long moment and nodded, getting to his feet hastily. He turned back to the group. “The information I’ve been waiting for isn’t good. As I feared, it’s no longer just us looking for the stick. If I had to make a guess, I would say that the recent furor in Orlando tipped off someone to our goal.” He shot daggers at his ex, who simply smiled back at him as though he’d just announced the winner in a country fair cattle show.
