UnLoved Forever

by Lexy Timms

And they couldn’t have driven? It was hardly likely a woman who owned her own business would live far from where she worked. Something was up, something William wasn’t telling them. “Why the rush?” Luke asked, glancing out the window, noting they were following a main thoroughfare. A cluster of strip malls and office buildings lay just ahead.

  William looked at Luke and at Edwin then turned to the pilot and said, “We’re going to the other channel; stay on this one and get there asap.” The pilot nodded. Luke could tell he was less than interested in the conversation. William made a big show of changing the channel on the control for the headphones while the other two mimicked him.

  “We got word,” William said, once communications had been secured, “there are two other players in this game. Possibly more. Right now, we have the British moving in, and a Middle Eastern concern.”

  “I get the Middle East not being on our side, but aren’t the British supposed to be our allies?” Edwin said, sitting back in surprise.

  Luke glanced over at him, wondering since when Edwin had placed himself on the side of the good guys. Hadn’t he been about to use that information entirely for his own gain?

  “The Middle East does not have a reputation for liking Americans, as you said. The Brits, however, while they might have the best intentions in the world, from what we understand, might not be wanting to share everything on that stick.”

  “Meaning they have secrets they don’t want everyone else to know. Fair enough. But something has been bothering me,” Luke admitted. “If this thing is the culmination of twenty years of intel, why is it suddenly a scramble now?”

  “Because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut,” Edwin snapped.

  Yep, there it was. The bitterness and resentment Edwin had been harboring all along, carefully concealed under a certain self-involved helpfulness. He was still playing the odds, thinking he could get that USB before the others. He’ll disappear when he does, Luke realized, feeling the burn in the pit of his stomach—seething anger that Dani would be disappointed in her father yet again, especially as she was just starting to trust him for the first time in years.

  “Actually, yes. The FBI is interfering with the case, trying to leverage their association with the local police and their agency in Houston. My office is doing everything they can think of to keep them off your trail, but the push is coming from my level. Someone in Washington does NOT want that stick to come to light.”

  Great. So that made a majority. Everyone in the helicopter blamed him for... well... everything. With the exception of the pilot, though it was still reasonably early. He was sure he had plenty of time to piss him off, too. Luke was starting to wish he’d gone to that damn wedding show after all. “So, because I reported to my superior, the way I am supposed to do, all this hits the fan and now I’m a what, a wanted man?”

  “No.” William shook his head. “You’re the wanted man. You are not only rogue, but now you have quantified as a ‘domestic terrorist’. You and your fiancée both.”

  “Dani?” Edwin reeled back in shock. “You’re saying she’s not safe?”

  “Not as long as the stick is out there.”

  Interesting. He wasn’t as heartless as he pretended. But Dani... Luke’s fingers beat a rhythm against his leg. The last thing he wanted was to be cooped up in some flying breadbox while the woman he loved was in danger, but she was also a trained professional who could handle herself. He was worried, even furious, but she should be okay. They’d stayed out of the way of the FBI thus far. They’d hardly likely be at some bridal expo. Her father should realize that.

  He darted a glance at the other man. The man was distraught.

  “Then why did you let her go to that... thing?” Edwin’s hands were bunched into fists. Ready to hit William because...

  Damn it. He should have seen it sooner.

  “Bait!” Luke yelled as the realization hit. He reached out and grabbed William by the collar. The only thing that kept him from dragging the man from the seat and sending him out the door of the helicopter was the fact that he was still strapped in. “You’re using her as bait, you bastard!”

  “It’s not like that; I have people at the convention center! She won’t be alone for a moment.”

  “MOM’S THERE, TOO!” Luke reminded him, shaking him hard, which wasn’t near as effective as he would have liked.

  “SO IS MARIA!” Edwin roared from beside him, proving that he still had feelings for his ex after all.

  William’s hand came up, hard, his wrist hitting Luke’s and breaking contact. He straightened his shirt and tie, and sat back, unruffled. “Exactly! See? She’s not alone!”

  Luke stared at him in disbelief. “You son of a bitch! This is so you! You use people and leave them!”

  “Do you have any idea what that woman did before you came to protect her? Do you? You think you had black ops? She could match you step for step. She’s been through tougher shit than you have, and suddenly you think she’s spun glass?”

  “What are you saying?” Edwin’s eyes grew large. “In the military, she was classified as a computer programmer.”

  Luke blinked. While it had been obvious that she’d had some damn fine training, hearing it from his father’s mouth was a little unsettling. That Edwin thought she was a computer programmer was even more so. Just how little had he kept track of his daughter?

  “She was a Ranger,” William snapped, throwing his hands in the air. “The ones who parachute behind enemy lines for exercise and gather up bodies on their way out! Does no one ever speak to anyone anymore? You’re marrying her, after all!”

  Luke opened and closed his mouth. This really wasn’t the time to explain that he’d only known Dani for a few weeks.

  William rolled his eyes. “That’s who you want to protect like a baby in a barn fire? Boy, that girl would only find you slowing her down. As for your Maria, might I point out that she’s been underground for twenty years and spending all that time training in everything she could? Gentlemen, you call me names and think me callous, but let me point out to you that there are two women who. Do. Not. Need. Your. Help!”

  “I suppose Mom is a trained assassin, too?” Luke snapped, crossing his arms and sitting back, because holding himself in tight was the only way he was going to keep from breaking the other man’s face right now.

  “Of course not!” William scoffed. “She is an excellent shot, though. At least, she was. She’s won several trophies.”

  Luke looked at Edwin, who looked like he’d just found out that the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus were all made up.

  On the other hand, was he really any less shocked? Black ops. Ranger. Hell, just what kind of career path was she on?

  And seriously, she was willing to settle for a buttoned-down fed like himself? “I... I need to time to take this all in.”

  “Go ahead...Wait, time’s up, we’re here.” William pointed to the helipad in front of them. “Anything you can’t deal with is your problem now.”

  William was out the door and running before the helicopter set down. Luke threw his door open and nearly pulled his head off as he jumped out, but the headphones popped off first. He was pulled back into the seat for a moment before he collected himself.

  “We are in a hurry!” his father said when Luke reached the door to the roof.

  Luke flexed his fingers, reminding himself that the best way to keep Dani and everyone else safe right now was finding that damned USB stick. Punching out his father was only going to delay things unnecessarily. “All right, all right!”

  The three of them raced into a hallway where an elevator waited patiently for them. The ride down seemed a pointless waste of time as “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” played by a small orchestra piped through the speakers.

  They stopped for passengers three times.

  At the first floor they pushed through the crowd, apologizing, and ran through the doors into the street, Luke swearing under his breath and wondering why he hadn’t just
followed his first instinct and taken the stairs.

  Out on the street, things went to hell in an instant.

  “FBI!” Luke heard the cry, and ran harder. A shot rang out behind him and police cars swerved, blocking the street behind the three men. The local police was running interference for the fugitives? Luke shook his head, and wondered just what the hell kind of paperwork that was going to generate.

  They ducked into an alley and knocked over a newspaper machine as they came out the other side. William ran past a man drinking a cup of coffee, and nearly splattered the cup in his haste to tear open the door of the small bakery just on the other side.

  Edwin and Luke were right behind him. The man dodged and spun, holding his cup high over his head to keep it safe, only to drop it anyway, splashing his feet as they tore around him.

  “Doughnut addiction?” he cried, shaking the coffee from his shoes.

  William skidded to a halt in front of the counter, where a young lady was boxing an order of doughnuts into a white pasteboard box. “Ms. Pinal?”

  “I’m Cathy. Ms. Pinal is the owner; I just work here.”

  “Where is she?” William demanded.

  “I’m in the middle of...” She gestured toward the doughnuts, then to the middle-aged woman who hovered in front of the display case, her lips pursed as she considered her options.

  “It’s very important!” Police cars screeched to a halt outside, sirens blaring.

  “FBI HAS JURISDICTION IN THIS CASE!” The outrage could be heard through the door. The man who dropped his coffee was standing against the window, arms in the air.

  “Where?” William asked again, flashing an ID in a leather case. “Government business; we need to know.”

  Cathy’s eyes were wide. The doughnut box tipped off the counter, sending krullers rolling in all directions. “I...” She looked from the customer who was pressed against the cabinet, staring in fascination at the melee outside, to the mess on the floor, and finally just grabbed a piece of paper off the counter and flung it at him. William caught it while Cathy grunted, seemingly unable to speak for fright, pointing furiously at it.

  Luke leaned over William’s shoulder to look. It was the same as the flyer Dani had slipped to him at the house. “Oh, SHIT!”

  “Homeland Security!” a new voice called, in the fracas outside. “Jurisdiction is ours!”

  “Is HS on our side?” Luke asked in a stage whisper.

  “Let’s not find out!” William turned to the girl. “Back door?”

  Face pale, she pointed to the curtain that separated the store from the kitchen. The man at the window wet himself. William, Luke, and Edwin ran through the back room and crashed through the exit door just as a car pulled up, blocking the alley and giving them really no choice at all.

  The driver pulled a gun, pointed it straight at William, and shouted, “GET IN!” in a thick British accent.

  NOW THAT THEY KNEW the destination, they couldn’t get there fast enough. Dani chafed at the delay, watching the highway signs for the exit, wishing that they’d stolen the helicopter when they’d had the chance.

  “Patience,” Maria murmured, patting Dani’s leg and sitting back as though there weren’t empires about to crumble.

  “How do you do that? I mean, stay so calm?” Dani asked after a moment. She leaned back, trying to imitate her mother, but found herself on the edge of her seat moments later, without having remembered moving. “I’ve never been good at this part. I mean, give me something to do, and I’m there. But just waiting?” She shuddered, remembered too many long nights before action, too much time waiting on orders.

  “Practice. You’ll find by the time you’re my age, these rare moments must be enjoyed. Or even taken advantage of.” She smiled. “And it gives us a chance to talk.”

  “Talk?” Dani faltered, suddenly preferring combat. Any combat. “I can’t imagine what we have to talk about. It’s only been, what, forever since you left.”

  “That was all explained—”

  “No. You made excuses. There’s a difference.”

  “Dani!” Elaina’s soft protest was barely audible from the front seat.

  Maria half-turned, and reached for Dani’s hand, folding it carefully between her two palms. “Honey, I can’t expect us to find resolution in the space of a car ride. Like everything else in life, relationships take time to form—and they take time to heal. I made some decisions, and while I wish like crazy that you hadn’t been hurt by those decisions, I still stand by them. I did what was best for me to do at the time. For both of us. I hope someday you’ll come to accept that. In the meantime, I’m asking for only one thing from you.”

  Dani stared down at their clasped hands. Her mother’s hand was warm. Callused. Strong. She couldn’t remember ever having held her mother’s hand before. She supposed she had, back when she was small, but that was been so long ago.

  But she was here now. Real. Alive.

  “What?” she asked finally. “What do you want from me?”

  “A chance.”

  Dani’s head shot up. “A chance? For what? To run away again?”

  Maria flinched, but didn’t look away. Her eyes held hers, eyes so like her own that it was like looking in a mirror. “A chance,” she repeated. “A chance for me to try to be a mother, if it’s not too late. A chance to make things right in your world.”

  Dani looked away, staring out at the traffic without really seeing it. She thought about David back in rehab. How the uncle she’d always adored lay dead in some morgue somewhere. Or maybe he was already buried. Dead by her hand.

  No, there was no making things right in her world. Not by a long shot.

  Soft fingertips touched her chin, turning her head so that Dani could see her mother’s face, could look into her eyes and see the tears gathered there, threatening to fall. “I know it’s chaotic right now, but you can’t forget the good things. Even when things got their worst, I remembered the good in the world. I remembered you. You have so much more in this world than a USB stick. Your mother loves you, whether you’re ready to hear that or not. So does that man in the front seat, who’s pretending not to listen right now. But more than that, there’s a man who loves you, who wants to marry you. The time will come when all this has passed, and you can have your true wedding. Let it be a fresh start for you, away from all this intrigue. All this drama.”

  But Luke wasn’t her true fiancé, and even Marcus didn’t know that. She and Luke had been lucky enough to find each other, but luck had turned fickle of late. When tomorrow came, when there were no more thumb drives or intrigues to drive them, what would happen to her and Luke then? She opened her mouth to say so, wanting to make someone understand that none of this was true, that the whole thing had been a farce from the very beginning, when the car swerved suddenly and darted into another lane.

  “Seven o’clock!” Marcus called out. Elaina looked at her watch; Dani and Maria turned in their seats to look out the rear window.

  “Red Dodge?” Dani asked after a second, noting the careful distance that the driver kept despite heavy traffic.

  “Yeah. Been back there since the first main road after we left the house.”

  “Take the next exit,” Dani said, turning around again to face forward. “Nicely. Like we’re all fat and happy.”

  “Hey!” Elaina objected, glancing critically at her waistline. Maria dug into her purse and pulled out a handgun. “Oh, that’s lovely,” Elaina said, easily distracted, a large smile on her face. “Can I touch?”

  “I thought William searched you,” Dani said, looking at her mother with new respect, “back at the house.”

  “Keep something in mind, my angel,” Maria said with a wink. “Most men view a lady’s purse as the source of all things icky. No man wants to rummage in a woman’s purse, that’s why they invariably choose to dump it all out and let her put it back together.” She showed a hidden zipper. “I had this specially made. The fibers around the pouch disguise the sha
pe of the gun, and even let it pass through x-ray machines without sending off a warning.”

  “My dear,” Elaina cried, pausing in a reverent stroke of gun barrel that had Dani feeling like she was interrupting something. “Please! You must tell me where you shop! I had no idea of any of this!”

  Maria smiled modestly, retrieving her weapon and pausing to check the load. “Well, this was a custom order.”

  “Well, can you connect me with the vendor? I would love one of my own, just for family, after all.” Elaina smiled sweetly.

  Maria coughed. “I’ll see what I can do,” she said as Marcus hit the turn signal to indicate they were getting off at the next exit. The red Dodge immediately moved into the slow lane. Marcus pulled up the hill, turn signal indicating a left-hand turn, and the Dodge followed suit.

  “Yep, confirmed!” Dani said, having shifted to where she could see without being blatantly obvious about it. “They’re not very good at this, are they?” She pulled her seatbelt, testing the attachment. Maria did the same. Elaina pulled hers, though it was obvious she didn’t know why she was doing it. The result was the same. It held, and she would be as safe as she could be under the circumstances.

  Marcus, eyes firmly fastened on the road in front of him, quietly said, “Ready.”

  “GO!” Dani called, and Marcus gunned the car. The light was red, and he ran it. Traffic careened sideways to avoid the sudden intrusion, and collided with each other as he blew through the intersection and headed for the on ramp in front of him.

  The red Dodge, two cars back, suddenly rammed the vehicle in front of it, shoving it into the car ahead and pushing them both into the intersection. One climbed the median and collided with a car already stopped from Marcus’ machinations. The other car spun, and the Dodge now pressed against the passenger door, shoving it sideways across the intersection. The Dodge was straining, pushing hard against its victim, when the car being shoved blew out the driver’s side front tire and spun again, smashing into the guard cable that strung from the edge of the overpass, covering the drop-off to the freeway below. It hung there, a half ton of steel suspended by a thin cable. Dani winced, murmuring a prayer that everyone would be all right, her hand clenching the seat in front of her.