You cant stay here tonight, Abby. This is unlivable.
She squared her jaw. Ill make it work.
You dont have to make it work. Just grab some clothes, some toys for Little Bit and lets get the hell out of here. We can regroup and figure out what to do next once were settled.
Her brow creased. Settled where?
He looked down at Stevie, who was toddling toward the ruins of the broken crystal box. Picking him up to keep him out of the sharp shards, he settled the wriggly little boy on one hip and met her troubled gaze.
At my place, of course, he answered.
Chapter Three
Abby stared at him, her mind racing through a checklist of reasons why moving herself and Stevie into Luke Coopers house was a very bad idea. Beyond the tangled history between them, which was reason enough, shed be putting Luke at risk at a time when he was supposed to be helping her find out what Matt had hidden and where. At least one of them needed to be able to get around San Diego without a team of thugs dogging every step.
Thats just not a good idea, she said.
Whats the alternativebook a room in a motel? Do you think motel security is worth a damn? Luke shifted Stevie on his hip and met her gaze with a look of calm skepticism. Stevie turned his head toward her and gave her an almost identical look. She didnt know whether to laugh or to cry.
She couldnt argue with Lukes logic, however. She couldnt afford a few unexpected nights at a motel, and shed probably be in even greater peril holed up with Stevie alone in a place where nobody knew or cared who they were.
We dont have to complicate this, Luke said. Theres plenty of room for you and Little Bit there.
Her lips twitched at the nickname hed apparently settled on for Stevie. You dont owe us anything.
He started to say something, then narrowed his lips to a tight line. After a moment, he said, I can put you to work, if itd make you feel better.
Cooking and cleaning?
He arched an eyebrow. No. Ive eaten your cooking.
She made a face, relieved by the lightness of Lukes tone. Better than the constant strain of the past hour. Ive gotten better. You might be surprised.
He smiled at her. You always found ways to surprise me, Abs. His smile faded and he looked down at Stevie, who had rediscovered the hawk pendant and was twirling it around his sticky little fingers. What do you say, Stevie? Wanna come stay with your uncle Luke for a few days?
Abby struggled not to react to Lukes words, but guilt burned in her chest like acid. She should have told him the truth three years ago, when she realized she was carrying his child inside her. At the time, with Luke in a war-torn country continents away, settling on the easy lie hadnt seemed so wrong, especially given how abruptly and finally hed left her bedand lifeafter their night together.
But now that he was here in front of her, holding his son without even knowing it, she knew shed been a coward. And Lukes bad behavior at the time didnt change the facts.
He had a son. He had a right to know.
When this was over, and everything had settled back down to normal, shed tell him, she promised herself. Shed tell Luke he was Stevies father, and then theyd figure out how to go on with their separate lives from there.
Okay, she said finally. For a couple of days.
He gave a quick nod, as if to affirm she was doing the right thing. Can I help you pack?
Just keep Stevie occupied, she said, heading for the bedroom. Inside, she picked through the mess the intruders had left and found a few days worth of clothes for her and for Stevie, which she packed in an empty gym bag she found tossed against the wall under the window. She added toothbrushes, vitamins and a few other things Stevie would need into his diaper bag. His favorite book. The stuffed rabbit he didnt like to sleep without. Blinking back tears, she headed out to the living room.
She found Stevie sitting quietly in the wooden rocking chair near the corner, watching Luke sweep up the broken crystal box. Luke looked up as Abby entered, a faint frown on his face. Matt gave you this, didnt he?
She followed his gaze to the gold wildcat set into the cut crystal of the boxs top. For our wedding. Matts nickname had been Wildcat, and at the time hed given her the box, shed thought the gesture wildly romantic, as if he were giving himself to her symbolically.
She hadnt realized that the box was almost all of himself he intended to give to her or any other woman. His first love was intrigue, and hed have sacrificed anyone and anything for that beguiling temptress.
She took the piece of crystal from Lukes hand. It was warm, but only from the heat of Lukes fingers. She dropped it in the trash can by the kitchen nook and retrieved Stevie from the rocker, settling him on one hip. With the gym bag in her other hand, she looked back at Luke. Lets go.
He caught up with her at the door, taking the bag from her hand. He loved you, the best he knew how, he murmured as he opened the apartment door for her.
She knew he was right. Matt had loved her in his own way. Shed loved him, as well. For all his faults, hed been a hard man not to love.
It just hadnt been enough.
THEY LEFT ABBYS CAR at her apartment and took his Mustang, transferring Stevies car seat before they left. As Luke navigated through light traffic on the way back to University City, he found himself glancing in the rearview mirror now and then to check on the sleepy little boy, whod fussed a bit when Abby had told him they were going on a trip.
Hes past his bedtime, Abby murmured. Hell probably be asleep by the time we get there.
Luke looked at her. You look pretty worn-out yourself.
Her lips curved. Gee, thanks.
Ill call my supervisor tonight and tell him Im working from home the rest of the week. It was one of the perks of his job, directing his own schedule, for the most part. Now that the case in Rancho Santa Fe was over, he just had some paperwork to fill out and some loose ends to tie up, most of which he could do over the phone or by e-mail.
What are you doing now? she asked, stifling a yawn. Jobwise, I mean.
Security work. Protective detail, investigations. That sort of thing.
Her chuckle was low and warm, like cello music. He felt a rush of pure male heat flood his veins in response. So, basically the same kind of work you did in the corps.
Basically, he agreed, proud of how steady his voice emerged, despite the tremors going off low in his abdomen. He tried to concentrate on her question rather than his libido. Compared to the corps, my jobs a day at the beach. Sometimes literally. He grinned. What about you? Where are you working these days?
I freelance with a couple of local school systems that dont have full-time speech therapists. A few nonprofits that need temporary translation services. Some private tutoring. She turned to look over her shoulder at Stevie. I do some consulting work for Homeland Security, too. Linguistics stuff relating to wiretaps, that sort of thing. Im looking to branch out, though. Bring in a little more money so we can afford a real house.
MSI might be interested in her services, he thought. For a moment, his first thought was to mention her to Dave Malkin to see if he could find her some more freelance work.
MSI might be interested in her services, he thought. For a moment, his first thought was to mention her to Dave Malkin to see if he could find her some more freelance work.
But he quickly quashed the notion. The last thing Abby and her son needed was to have Luke in their lives, even hanging around the periphery.
He was dangerous to know.
Luke, what if we dont find what Matt took? A tremble in Abbys voice belied her calm expression. What if these people are wrong and he didnt take anything from them to begin with?
Were going to sort it out, I promise. He wasnt yet sure how, but the one thing he knew, as surely as he knew his own name, was that he wasnt going to let anyone hurt Abby or her son. Hed spent the past three years wishing he could have done things differently with Abby Chandler, and this was all the chance he could expect to make up for his mistakes.
He had no intention of letting her down this time.
He made the turn down his street and scanned the area, looking for anything that seemed out of place. He recognized all the vehicles parked within a block of his bungalow and didnt see any strange people walking the streets. He lowered the car window as he made a pass down his street once without stopping. He could hear the muted sound of music coming from within a couple of the houses, and here and there dogs barking, but nothing seemed out of sorts.
Didnt we just pass your house? Abby asked.
Yeah. I wanted to drive around once, just to make sure everythings calm. He circled the block, moving neither too fast nor too slow, and kept his ears open. A block over, a beagle was baying frantically at something in the backyard of a small yellow stucco house located directly behind Lukes own backyard.
Might be a squirrel or an opossum driving him nuts.
Or not.
Luke pulled up the short drive to his garage and reached across to press the door opener. The whir of the doors machinery seemed deafening to his ears, though he knew from testing the security system that the sound of the garage door opening wasnt nearly as audible in the house.
But if someone had managed to bypass his silent alarm and made it inside his house, would the faint noise of the garage door opening give them warning that he was on his way?
Is something wrong? Abby asked softly.
He met her worried gaze, not surprised that she was able to read his body language so well. Shed always seemed to know what he was thinking and feeling more clearly than he had known himself. Im cautious, he admitted.
Why dont you have a security system?
I do, he said with a smile. Its a silent one. You tripped it, by the way.
Im an amateur. These people arent.
He forced himself to smile. So well be cautious. You and Stevie stay here in the garage. Ill lock the side door from the outside, so nobody should be able to get in. Youll have the door opener if you need to get out, and Ill leave the car key here with you. He removed the Mustangs ignition key from his key ring and handed it to her. If you dont hear anything from me in ten minutes, get out of here and go to the nearest police station. Tell them everything you know.
He could tell from the look on her face that she had no intention of going to the police. But he wasnt going to sit out here in the garage all night arguing a hypothetical.
Once I make sure the house is safe, Ill come back and get you. He got out of the car and closed the drivers door behind him, bending to look back in the open window. Were going to figure this all out, Abs. I promise.
In her eyes he saw her desire to believe doing fierce battle with disillusionment. He wondered how much of that disillusionment was thanks to Matts lies and how much was a product of his own grave mistakes.
He slipped out of the garage and locked the door safely behind him, walking the flagstone path to the house with care, knowing that one slip onto the pebbles below would alert anyone lurking inside his darkened house of his approach.
He eyed the side-door lock to see if it had been tampered with. Everything looked just as hed left it. But he wasnt so egotistical as to believe there was no way an intruder could get past his security setup.
He closed his hand around the Glock at his belt and slipped it from the holster. Falling back on years of urban combat training, he entered the door fast and low, sweeping the kitchen for any signs of occupation.
It was empty.
He almost let his guard down at that point, listening to the familiar silence of the house. But he hadnt spent a decade in the Marine Corps just to forget the hard lessons.
He scanned the kitchen once more, looking for any signs of something out of place. The lack of disorder only amped up his tension. Because somewhere in his gut, he sensed he wasnt alone in the house.
Which meant whoever was waiting somewhere behind a door or around the corner was damned good at his job.
There were times to fight and times to regroup. Deciding which time was which was something hed learned over almost ten years in uniform. Suicide missions were last-ditch options. Much smarter to beat a strategic retreat, then regroup and make a plan of attack from a more advantageous position.
Especially when you had a two-year-old boy and his mother waiting in the garage to be collateral damage.
He turned quietly and edged toward the back door. He almost made it there before he heard a metallic click a few feet behind him.
Major Luke Cooper, United States Marine Corps. Retired. The slick voice behind him ended with a soft clucking sound. So young for a retiree. Battle fatigue?
Luke started to turn around.
Id appreciate it if you lowered your gun, the man behind him added in what Luke guessed, from what Abby had told him, must be a Boston Brahmin accent.
If you think Im going to put my weapon on the floor and go down without a fight, you dont know much about the Marines, Luke said, his voice calmer than the roiling sensation in his gut would have suggested.
I dont think either of us needs to use our weapons, the other man said, his tone slightly amused. In fact, I think we probably want the same thing, dont we?
Luke lowered his Glock to his side but didnt holster it. He turned around to find the man Abby had described from her earlier encountertall, muscular, dressed in black from head to toe. The ski mask fit him snugly, hiding all but a circle of pale skin around his sharp blue eyes and two thin, hard lips. He held a nasty-looking Colt M1991 in his left hand.
I suppose we want the same thing, Luke agreed, but I doubt well agree on what to do with it.
The thin lips curved into a humorless smile. Well, I guess well have to deal with that when the time comes. Meanwhile, Mrs. Chandler has told you what my employer wants.
Actually, she doesnt seem very certain what it is were looking for, Luke countered, wondering how many other people were hiding in his house. One more? Two? Three? Hed feel a lot more confident about what he needed to do next if he had some way of knowing what he was up against.
Captain Chandler took something from my employer. He wants it back.
Something? Thats a little vague.
Youll know it if you find it.
Also vague. Luke cocked his head. Your employer must not think very much of you if he couldnt even tell you what youre threatening women and children to find.