“Why don’t you go find something decent to wear?” Declan said. “I need to have a word
with Brant.”
“Why don’t you both blow it out your smokestack,” she said, heading over to the little
bar just off the kitchen. She poured herself two fingers of whiskey and took a healthy
drink, enjoying the burn as it settled in her stomach. “Let me ask you something,
Dec.
Have I ever given you the impression that I need any of you to make decisions for
me? Or judge the decisions I do make? I don’t recall saying a word that time you brought
Lisa Helmsley to Thanksgiving one year.
”
“You don’t want to start in on me right now, Darcy.
And you had plenty to say about Lisa Helmsley if I recall. But
I think you’re the one who has some explaining to do
this time around
. Or maybe I should just ask the SEAL team I have watching you guys for protection.
I’m sure they enjoyed the show.”
“Enough, Dec,” Brant said. “It’s none of your business, and you’re not giving either
of us enough credit.”
“Don’t bother to try and protect me,” she said, giving Brant his own words back. Having
each
other’s
backs was only something a
real
couple did. She’d forgotten that when she’d stood in front of him before. Brant didn’t
want anything from her but sex. Not her protection and not her love. He’d made that
clear. “He’s been lecturing me a lot longer than you’ve been around.”
She looked at her brother
and Brant
and
then
knocked back the rest of her drink.
“I guess I’ll go take a shower and change. I wouldn’t want to interrupt whatever important
business you have to discuss.”
She’d always been on the outside in her family. Always the one
they
saw as weak and unable to fend for herself.
The one they saw as reckless who should do nothing more than stick to her studies
and her books.
Growing
up in a house with four older brothers who were all domineering and bossy
had made it
s mark on her, and all she’d ever wanted was to feel like she could stand on equal
ground with them.
Declan took her arm as she walked by and she could see the warning in his eyes, along
with the worry and love. She knew he meant well
, but she didn’t need any more unsolicited advice at this point. She’d already made
her decision.
“The beach is secure,” Declan told her. “SEAL Team 2 has watch over this area of the
beach.
You’ll need to watch yourself and your behavior
.”
“
I’m twenty-eight years old. I can take care of myself. And
I didn’t sign on to
help with this mission to
have my private life spied on. Tell SEAL Team 2 they’d better watch for threats and
nothing more.
After all, I’m on my honeymoon.
”
She smiled sweetly and glanced over her shoulder at Brant, giving him a look hot enough
to melt butter. She could practically feel Declan vibrating beside her.
“
We just want to keep you safe
,
Darcy,” Dec said evenly. He was one of those people whose voice got softer and more
level the angrier he got. “
Don’t try to make our jobs harder by being stubborn.
And if you’re going to act like a child by cavorting around the beach without thought
or care to your safety, then you deserve what you get.
”
“Sure, Dec. You know I live my life just thinking of different ways to make you guys
miserable.
I guess I should apologize for
not having enough common sense to do what’s right and for
being such a fucking burden all the time.
”
She hated
the tears in her voice,
but she’d had a hell of a last twenty-four hours. She chalked it up to exhaustion
and realizing she had a long road ahead of her where the men in her life were concerned.
If she didn’t love them so damned much she wouldn’t have bothered.
With her chin held high, she pulled her arm from Declan’s grasp and made her way into
the bedroom.
***
“I’m assuming you have a reason for being here,”
Brant
asked Declan
, going over to the bar to get his own drink
.
He’d heard the tears in Darcy’s voice just as he was sure that Dec had.
“You’re really walking the edge to the limits of our friendship,” Dec said.
“Like Darcy said, it’s none of your business.”
“No, but I’ll be the one still here when you walk away again. Do you think we didn’t
know something happened between you four years ago? None of us are stupid. You practically
disappeared off the face of the planet after you were sent to protect her from del
Fuego’s men. We should have sent someone to protect her from you.”
“Yeah, maybe you should have,”
Brant
said softly. “You don’t have to worry this time. She’s making the rules.”
“She’s not Vivian,” Dec said.
“You think I don’t fucking realize that?”
“I think you don’t realize that Darcy has loved you with everything she has for years,
and you’ve given her nothing in return because you’re so caught up in the past you
can’t see what’s standing in front of you.”
“I asked her to marry me,” he finally said, his frustration bordering on the edge
of violence. Nothing would feel better than slamming his fist into Declan’s jaw at
that moment.
“What more do you want from me?”
“What did she say?” Declan asked, his mouth twitching in what looked suspiciously
like a smile.
Brant stared at Declan, trying to read the other man’s thoughts, but that was like
trying to read a book without pages. “She said no,
”
he finally said, giving into his frustration and
slamm
ing his fist against the bar.
B
ottles and glasses
rattled, but none tipped over
. “So like I said, Darcy is calling the shots this time.”
“Good. You deserve to have to work for it a little after what you put her through
the last time. Whatever happened between the two of you changed her.
”
“I’m assuming you broke in here for a
different reason than busting my ass over your sister.”
“That’s just a secondary benefit,” Declan said. His
face went back to the unreadable mask he normally wore. No one could accuse Dec of
letting emotions get in the way of a job.
“We’ve got a hell of a problem.”
“Of course we do.”
A knock sounded at the door and Brant and Declan both pulled their weapons
up
, the air going still and silent around them. Declan slipped back into the bedroom
and Brant went to the door. Two bellmen waited on the other side with their luggage,
and he put the gun away as he opened the door.
“Just leave it in here,” he said. “My wife is in the shower.” Brant tipped them well
and locked the door behind them.
“
The
my
wife
certainly comes off your lips easily,” Declan said, coming back into the living area
with
a manila envelope in his hands.
“Shut up, Dec.”
Declan shrugged and
poured the contents
of the envelope out on the kitchen bar,
flipp
ing
on the bright overhead lights. Brant knew the news was bad when he saw the photographs
of five innocent faces.
“A group of girls disappeared from their hotel about three o’clock this morning. They’re
here with their school for two weeks to
study the ruins.
A very exclusi
ve private school that had excellent security and brought along their own guards.
Three of the guards are dead. The other two critically wounded. The girls were taken
from their beds, and we can’t find any witnesses who are brave enough to speak up.
The youngest was fourteen. The oldest is eighteen. Five girls total.”
Brant closed his eyes in horror at the thought of what would happen to those girls
if they weren’t recovered soon. “Ramos is suspected?”
“More than just suspected at this point. And it proves he’s getting ready to make
waves in the worldwide drug market. In that group of girls are the daughters of a
U.S. senator, a member of British parliament, the Canadian Prime Minister, and a Supreme
Court Justice.”
“Shit.”
Dec nodded and said, “We expect a ransom demand at some point. There’s a bill on the
Senate floor right now about sending more agents and soldiers into Mexico to help
crack down on the cartels. It’s backed by Senator Robert Mitchell, and he’s taking
a no leniency stance against those caught.”
“Let me guess,” Brant said. “Senator Mitchell’s daughter was one of those kidnapped.”
“Two daughters, actually,” Dec said. “The bill has the full support of the Mexican
government, but I think Ramos is going to ask for that bill to be expunged in exchange
for the lives of those girls. We know for a fact he’s bought most of the local authorities
in his territory. The poverty level is so great that they almost have no choice but
to accept his offer and turn the other cheek when he runs the drugs.”
“Have any glyphs been found to lead to a drop site?”
“Not yet
.
Shane’s SEAL Team is scouting the area where the girls were taken. He’ll let us know
when they find the glyphs, and we’ll need Darcy to decipher them as soon as possible
so we can get to them before it’s too late.”
“That’s a hell of a lot of pressure to put on a person. She’ll make herself sick trying
to get to those girls in time. And she’ll blame herself if it all goes wrong.”
“Which is why we’re not going to tell her about those girls,” Dec said. “I don’t want
that on her conscience if we don’t make it in time.”
“You can’t keep that information from her,” Brant argued. “If you have the balls to
pull her in on a mission like this then you need to have the balls to keep her apprised
of what’s going on and tell her the truth.
”
“You don’t want to lecture me on the truth, my friend. When are you planning on telling
Darcy about
Vivian
?”
A cold sweat broke out on Brant’s body at the thought of Darcy finding out the one
thing that would really make her walk away for good. “Never,” he said, almost choking
on his fury.
“That’s what I thought.”
Declan turned his back and went to the sliding glass doors that led out to their private
beach, and Brant watched him impassively, wondering for the first time if he could
really trust the
MacKenzies
to keep his secret.
“I won’t tell her,” Dec said, reading his mind. “But you don’t give her enough credit.
She loves you. And maybe you need someone to listen.”
Declan slipped outside and was gone from view before he could blink, and Brant rubbed
his hands over his face and head, wishing to God he knew what was right and wrong
anymore. The lines had become blurred somewhere along the way.
Darcy knew the moment he came inside the bathroom. She could feel his presence like
she could feel her own skin, and already her body was responding to his nearness.
She kept her back turned, scrubbing away the hours of travel and lovemaking, but
she stopped as his arms came around her. His lips kissed her shoulder while his hands
caressed her stomach, working the lather of soap across her skin, down her thighs,
avoiding the swollen folds between her legs.
Her head dropped back on his shoulder and she pushed against him, feeling his erection
against the small of her back. His hands worked their way back up her body until he
held the heaviness of her breasts in his hands.
“You feel so good,” he whispered against her ear. “I always want you.
Even when I’m away from you.
You hold that power over me, Darcy.”
“Then we shouldn’t waste the time we have,” she said, turning in his arms. Her nipples
rubbed against his chest hair and he turned them so she was backed against the shower
wall—his cock already probing as he pulled her leg up to surround his hip.
“Not yet,” she moaned, shivering
as he barely pushed inside of her. “It’s my turn.”
The heat in his eyes had her licking her lips in anticipation, and she pushed him
away, kissing him once on the lips before beginning her exploration. The first time
they’d been together, he never gave her the chance to touch and explore, and the last
time had been too fast and furious. But this was her time, and she wanted—no needed—to
touch him in a way she’d always remember.
She placed light kisses across his chest, circling his nipples with her tongue, and
feeling the low growl of appreciation deep in his chest.
And then she knelt slowly in front of him, nipping gently at the small indentations
above his
hipbones
and licking a trail down his thigh.