by Jill Sanders
Feeling frustrated, he headed upstairs to change, knowing he would need a few more layers of clothing on if he was going to stay warm and protected. Mia was up there, dressing in all black jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. The fact that she was putting on her body vest had his gut twisting.
Damn, one of the major things that had attracted him to her initially was her ability to take care of herself. To be strong and unafraid in the face of danger.
Taking her shoulders, he looked into her eyes and saw a hint of it still behind the hazel color.
“You okay with this?” he asked.
Her shoulders straightened and her chin rose slightly. “Yes,” she said confidently.
“Good.” He pulled his gun from the safe hidden behind a small bookshelf. He’d gotten Gail’s permission to install the thing shortly after moving in, knowing they needed a place to store their weapons and ID’s. He tucked his weapon in the back of his jeans.
“Think you should take that?” she asked. “It’s not…”
“I’ll leave it in the Jeep, but I’m not going in totally exposed. Besides, plenty of people have guns. It’s Montana.”
“True.” She pulled on her black jacket and then bent down to pick up her boots, though he knew she would take them downstairs before putting them on and lacing them up.
It made him think about their living dynamics. It was so refreshing to know that they moved around the house as if they were meant to live together.
They climbed into the Jeep, him behind the wheel. He would drop her off a quarter of a mile from the old building and give her plenty of time to make it to a safe place to hide so she could watch over him.
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said as he drove.
“It’s my job.”
“Does it have to be?” he asked, glancing over at her.
“What do you mean?” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“It’s just… after what happened, I’ve been doing some thinking. I think both of us have.” She’d talked to him several times about the short murder stories she enjoyed writing. She’d even let him read a few and he’d been so impressed, he wondered why she hadn’t sent them into publishers already.
Hell, at this point, he’d do anything to keep her out of the line of danger. “What about your stories?” he asked. “You could…”
She was silent. “Brian, let’s concentrate on the task at hand for now.” Her voice was strong and sure. “I need to focus.”
“Okay.” He rolled his shoulders and pulled to the side of the old road. He could see a set of tire tracks heading up the hill. “Looks like just one other vehicle has gone up there.” He motioned to the window.
“Yeah, but we both know how many men and weapons can fit into one vehicle,” she said dryly.
“The mill is just up the hill about a quarter of a mile. I’ll wait…”—he glanced at his watch and noticed it was a quarter till—“fifteen before heading up. If I remember correctly, there’s an old loft in the place. There’s an outside ladder on the side of the barn you can climb up it and into the loft without being noticed.” Her eyebrows shot up, making him smile. “Chrissy Turner was my first kiss. The hayloft is a fond memory. It should provide plenty of coverage for you.”
“See you in fifteen.” She started to get out, but he stopped her by pulling her over to him and kissing her until he felt her relax.
“See you,” he said and she climbed out.
The minutes seemed to go by slower than any other in his life, knowing that Mia was hiking up the hill towards the mill alone, in the dark.
Finally, he turned on the Jeep again and made his way up the hill and parked next to an old white truck.
Seeing only one set of footprints going into the building, he spoke softly into the night, knowing that Mia was listening through his cell phone.
When he stepped into the building, using his flashlight to see the way, Reno was standing in the middle of a large room.
The man was dressed as he had been earlier.
“So.” Reno turned to him. “You made it.”
“Cool place.” Brian looked around. “I used to make out with Chrissy Turner up there.” He motioned to the loft area, hoping Mia was tucked away somewhere where she could watch and cover him in case anything went wrong.
“Yes, it’s one of the reasons we’ve decided to give you a chance. You know the area.” Reno moved slightly and Brian tensed as he got a glimpse of a gun holster under the man’s coat.
“Oh?” He acted casual. “Charlie told me you were looking for some more dealers.”
“I have something else in store for you,” Reno corrected.
“Okay, why this place? Is this a normal meetup location?” he asked, still glancing around as if he was curious.
“It used to be, but now we have to keep changing locations. Our last was… tainted.” Reno shook his head.
“Gary?” he asked.
Instead of answering, Reno started walking around him. “So, do you think you are up for it?”
“Well, you haven’t really told me what my job is yet.” He watched the man walk around him.
Reno walked over and picked up a black bag and tossed it to him. “To begin with, hold onto this. I’ll find you when I want it back.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Is this a test?” he asked after opening the bag and seeing it was stuffed with money.
“Could be. There’s ten grand in there. Even.” Reno glanced down at his watch and Brian got the hint that the man was late for something else. “That’s all for now.” He turned and started walking towards the door.
“Hey,” Brian asked. “What do I do with this?” He acted dumb, since he needed the man to assume he’d never done anything like this before.
“Hide it.” He shrugged. “Sit on it. I don’t care, just as long as you don’t spend a dime of it and, most importantly, don’t tell anyone you have it.” He started walking again.
“That’s it?” Brian chuckled. “What do I get paid for my part?” he called out to the man.
“Right now, nothing. Until you can prove your worth”—the man glanced back at him—“living is your payment.”
Brian understood the threat and swallowed, trying to show fear, but since it was being delivered by the skinny kid, he had a hard time acting.
“You’re going to kill me?” he asked.
The man chuckled. “Not you.” His eyes narrowed. “We’d hate to see anything else happen to that pretty girlfriend of yours.”
Every fiber of Brian started vibrating with anger. “You leave her out of this,” he called after the man as he climbed into the truck and peeled out of the gravel driveway.
“Shit.” He tossed the bag in his Jeep and waited for Mia to come outside.
“Coast is clear,” she said, climbing inside.
“He came alone. Cocky son of a bitch.” He motioned to the bag. “Ten K. I counted and looked for bugs. It’s clean.”
“Threats are nothing new.” She reached over and touched his arm. “It’s why I’m here and not some other agent.” She motioned to the road and he started driving.
“Yeah, I know,” he agreed, but he was still fighting the urge to hunt the guy down and punch him a few times.
Chapter 25
By the time they pulled into the driveway of the house, she was exhausted. It was more mental than physical. All her senses had been on high alert for the past few hours.
At one point, she had enjoyed the job, the rush, the thrill of it all. Now, she wasn’t as sure. She still liked kicking butt and locking up the bad guys. That would never get old. But putting herself and Brian in the direct line of danger, that was a different topic.
Besides, she was really getting into writing. She had more than a dozen short stories she was thinking of putting together for a book.
Brian had read each of them and hinted that she should send them into an agent to see about getting a book deal.
It was hard for her to
think that she could go from working undercover narcotics to being a mystery author. Not that she didn’t believe she could write, but… going from living the action-packed thrilling life of danger to just writing about it. Could she do that?
She glanced over at Brian and questioned if he could let go of the dangerous life as well. In every scenario she’d thought about their future together, she’d continued writing and he would work, but not continue with the DEA. At least not what they were doing now. It would be too dangerous of a career to have a family with. She knew that. Maybe that was why she’d chosen it in the first place. She’d never seen herself wanting a family of her own. Until now.
“That was fun,” he said dryly, causing her to refocus on the now.
“I’ve never heard of anyone asking someone to hold onto money before.” She looked down at the black bag on the floorboard of the Jeep.
“It could just be a test. To see if I’ll spend it or…” He shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Money laundering?”
“Normally, it’s through a business.” She thought about every angle the dealers could have for giving Brian ten grand to hold onto. There just wasn’t any, not that she could see yet. “You don’t have a business.”
He sighed. “I’m too tired to think about it tonight.” He started to get out, then stopped and reached down to get the bag.
She chuckled. “They don’t have to worry about you spending it. Now, losing it…” She shook her head and followed him to the back door.
They both froze when they noticed the smashed window on the mudroom door.
Brian’s gun was in his hands quicker than she could free hers. It might have been because her hands were shaking or simply because she was a little shocked to know that someone had broken into what she had come to think of as her private space.
Brian tossed the bag down by the hot tub and then motioned for her to call Tom.
She shook her head from side to side and motioned that she was going to follow him inside. The look he gave her had her narrowing her eyes at him as she pushed past him, her gun in hand.
Inside, she instantly noticed the destruction. Picture frames were ripped from the walls and smashed, furniture was tossed and destroyed. Seeing her laptop sitting on the floor, smashed to pieces, she realized it was a good thing everything worth saving was up on the cloud. All her writing, all her personal data was backed up regularly.
She moved from room to room, checking every closet, every dark corner of the house, while Brian disappeared up the stairs to do the same.
“Clear,” he called after she’d swept each room downstairs. “They found the safe, but couldn’t get in,” he said coming back downstairs. “I called Tom and Carter.” He stopped at the base of the stairs. “You okay?”
His hands moved to her shoulders and even though she’d tried to maintain a hold on her emotions, they were once again threatening to surface.
Why, after all these years, was she having a difficult time controlling herself now? Then Brian pulled her into his arms, and she knew the answer. She’d never had these kinds of emotions before.
When the doorbell rang, he opened the door and greeted Tom along with three other officers.
She stood back as the local PD moved through the house, rechecking the entire place to confirm it was secure. The entire time she acted like a concerned woman who had been out with her boyfriend and had come home to the break-in.
No one else on the force was privy to their situation. Only Tom knew who they really were, since he was chief of police.
So, she sat in a chair in the dining room as everyone came and went. To her surprise, Rea and Gail showed up just before the police left.
“Are you two okay?” she asked, hugging them both.
“Yes,” she answered, automatically. “We weren’t here when this happened.”
“I know, but something like this… it hits hard.” Rea took her hand.
“I’m okay, really.” She swallowed the pain. They were just things, not even her things. It was one of the main reasons she’d never gotten too attached to any one place or thing. Her own apartment was pretty scarce on items. She had secondhand furnishing, and for the most part, her walls were still bare. Most of the clothes she owned were packed in the duffle bag she’d carried with her. The most expensive item she owned was smashed into pieces on the living room floor.
Realization dawned on her and she turned towards Gail.
“I’m so sorry about…” She motioned around to the destruction.
“Sweetie, they’re just things.” Gail walked over and hugged her. “They can be repaired or replaced. You two can’t.” Gail touched Brian’s arm.
“Where can we start?” Rea asked.
“Start?” Brian asked.
“Of course. We’re going to stay and help you clean up,” his mother said just as the three McGowan brothers walked into the living room.
“It’s late,” she started, but since the guys were already righting the tipped over sofa, she decided not to argue.
Instead of fighting it, she started sweeping up all of the broken dishes on the kitchen floor while the men rushed around the rooms clearing all the broken furniture and returning all the heavy items to their rightful places. Then they disappeared upstairs while Gail tossed the destroyed cushions.
“Does the rest of the place look like this?” Gail asked, shoving the destroyed pillows into a large black trash bag.
“I’m too afraid to go up and look,” Mia admitted.
“We’ll stick to this down here until the guys are done upstairs.”
“I know that a lot of things were yours in here.” She dumped the rest of the glass into the bag.
“Old things.” Gail shrugged. “Things that the boys didn’t want or need.” Gail glanced over at the destroyed sofa. “The furniture I got at Restorations, the secondhand store in town.” Mia had driven past the place more than a dozen times but had yet to step inside. “It can be replaced. I’m just sorry you two are put out.” She turned towards the destroyed Christmas tree. “All the decorations and presents.”
“As you said, they can be fixed. I don’t think they actually stole anything.” Mia set the broom down and walked over to the tree. Bending down, she found the kaleidoscope necklace she’d purchased for her mother. The box had been stomped on, but the necklace was still in perfect condition.
“See, no harm,” she said.
“Oh, how lovely.” Gail stood over her shoulder.
“For my mother.” She sighed and tucked the necklace back into the small box. “Everything else is here.” She found all the other gifts she had purchased along with a few Brian must have gotten as well.
“You’ll need a new tree.” Gail sighed, after trying several times to stick the top of the tree back together.
“Yeah.” Mia stood up and dusted her hands. “That can wait until tomorrow.”
Gail turned and looked around. “If you want to stop off at Restorations and purchase new things, whatever is needed, just give me the receipts and I’ll reimburse you.” She tilted her head. “Unless you decide to purchase the home.” She smiled.
“We… haven’t decided yet.” Mia felt her heart skip. At this point, she couldn’t imagine leaving the place, not even after the break-in. Maybe that was why it had hit her so hard. She was already thinking of this place as hers.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job down here,” Gail broke into her thoughts. “Shall we head up and see how the men are doing?”
It was strange, the little library room had been left untouched. The barn door hadn’t even been opened up.
“Luckily, it looks like they missed this room,” Gail said, poking her head into Mia’s favorite room in the house.
“Maybe they ran out of time?” Mia suggested as they started up the stairs. “They didn’t hit the downstairs bathroom or laundry room either.”
“Men.” Gail shook her head.
“You’re sur
e it was men?” she asked, glancing over at Gail.
“They don’t view those rooms as important enough. It’s a good thing for us, anyway.”
Mia hadn’t thought about it that way. Still, seeing the destruction, she hadn’t doubted it had been a group of men stomping through the home.
Upstairs wasn’t in any better shape than the downstairs. She was thankful the men had cleared most of the destruction before they went up. Still, she could see the bags of trash lining the hallway that had yet to be carted downstairs and outside.
By the time they were finally alone in the house, there was a large pile of destroyed furniture and trash bags full of broken items in the garage. Gail assured them that she would have it all picked up the following day.
“Thankfully, they didn’t mess with any of the beds other than tossing the mattresses around,” Brian said, placing a large blanket over the bed.
“What a night.” She sat down on the bed that they had just put new sheets on. Then she remembered the bag of money on the back porch and jumped up. “Oh god.” She turned to him. “The money.”
Brian held up his hands, stopping her from running downstairs and outside.
“I moved it.”
“Where?” She relaxed slightly.
“To the safe.” He nodded to the bookcase he’d moved back into place. “It kept them out once.”
“Right.” She relaxed. “Why would they break in tonight while you met Reno?”
She pulled off her shirt and jeans and decided to sleep in her tank top and underwear, since most of her clothes were in the dirty laundry pile. She wasn’t sure that they hadn’t been… tainted and couldn’t imagine wearing something someone else had thrown around and stepped on. Not to mention, there were duck feathers on a lot of it, since they had destroyed all the plush pillows Gail had on each bed.
“Do you think tonight was a distraction to get you out of the house?” she asked. She didn’t know what had caused her to think it, but now saying it out loud, it made sense.
“No, how would they know you were out of the house as well?” he said, pulling off his own clothes and climbing in beside her.
