Secret Agent Boyfriend (9 page)

She turned a smile on Georgia. “Carson chose equally with you, my dear. He’s never been so happy.”

Georgia’s smile was warm, her gaze full of the happy secrets of new lovers. “Neither have I.”

Even with the pain of the past few months, Landry couldn’t help but count her blessings. She had two new sisters—women who had brought a renewed sense of family to both of her brothers—and, by extension, her. They
fit
, she thought as she took in her new sisters-in-law. Elizabeth, with her light blond hair, and Georgia, with her sassy red, fit in as if they’d always been there.

And as they sat next to each other and shared a knowing gaze, Landry sensed that the familiar was about to become...sisterly.

“So tell us a bit more about Derek.”

Landry kept her voice low, unwilling to risk Noah overhearing. “He’s here as we’ve discussed.”

“Oh yes, he’s definitely here.” Georgia shifted to the edge of her chair. “And he definitely notices
you
.”

Her gaze drifted toward Derek. He’d stayed true to his earlier promise—he hadn’t touched the grill—but he had taken up a very manly pose next to Whit, Carson and Noah. All four men held beers and had fallen into easy conversation. Their voices drifted across the patio—a rather heated discussion about the Padres’ and Dodgers’ chances for the season.

Whit and Carson may have known Derek’s real reason for being at Adair Acres, but they’d fallen as easily into the pretend situation as she had.

It shouldn’t be this easy.

When her brothers had told her Derek would be joining them, at her aunt Kate’s request, she’d been hesitant. Worse, she’d been insulted. Yet Derek had managed to captivate her in a matter of days.

He fit here. And the more time she spent with him, the more she felt that urgent tug that said he fit with her.

As her gaze once more took in the conversation circle around the grill, she couldn’t help noticing what an attractive foursome the men made. And she found herself wondering what it would be like to see all of them huddled together regularly.

“Well, isn’t that a charming quartet of testosterone.” Rachel’s voice interrupted her thoughts, and Landry glanced up to see her best friend smirking down at her, a bottle of wine and a fresh bouquet of flowers in hand.

Landry popped up and firmly tamped down the blush that threatened at being caught staring at Derek. “I didn’t think you could make it.” She gave Rachel a hard hug. “I’m so glad you’re here. I thought you had to go up to San Francisco for the day?”

“I got back early, and when I got Elizabeth’s message I thought an evening with friends would cap off a pretty good day.”

“What happened? It sounds like a toast is in order.” Georgia swapped a fresh glass for the flowers in Rachel’s hands before gesturing her toward a chair. “Let’s hear all about it.”

Landry lost herself in the moment, congenial conversation under the fading light of day. Surrounded by friends and her increasing family, a warm, comfortable hum had settled in her veins. Although the past several months had been the hardest of her life, it was humbling to realize the time had brought good things, as well. Two new sisters and a closer bond with her best friend.

And Derek.

Rachel laid a hand on her knee after Elizabeth and Georgia disappeared into the house. “You doing better after last night?”

She knew the conversation would ultimately swing around to the morning adventure in the stable, but Landry was hesitant to ruin the moment of calm. “Better. Last night’s girlfriend time went a long way toward making me feel better.”

“And things with the underwear model?” Rachel kept her voice low but her gaze ran high with merriment. “I do hope you’ve gotten to the kissing part.”

When Landry didn’t say anything, Rachel’s eyes widened. “You
did
get to the kissing part. Oh, please throw the single girl a bone here and tell me all about it.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“It’s the best friend code of honor to point out that if there wasn’t anything to tell, you’d have told me already.”

“I don’t tell you everything.”

“You told me on the phone two days ago you had a chip in your nail polish. If that’s not the definition of everything, I’m not sure what is.”

Landry laughed in spite of herself. “Maybe I was just savoring it for a while.”

“That’s a better answer.”

She was prevented from saying anything by the arrival of Derek and Noah.

“Did you and Whit fight it out for the grill?” Rachel shifted her attention to Noah, her gaze appreciative. Maybe it was the dying light of day or the poolside tiki torches one of the staff had lit earlier, but something in Rachel’s gaze caught her attention.

Was it possible? Rachel and Noah?

Landry let the thought swirl, surprised when she moved so quickly to how she and Derek might use that to their advantage in trying to uncover the truth about Noah’s background.

Oblivious to her thoughts, Noah grinned broadly, his gaze fully focused on Rachel. “Nah. I left Whit to the grill. It was his and Elizabeth’s idea to have a group dinner tonight and I figured the least I could do was let him do the cooking. Besides, I wanted to get the latest details from Derek on this morning.”

“What details?” Rachel went on high alert, her eyes darting to each of them.

Landry lifted her glass in a breezy wave. “We had a snake in the stable. It was no big deal.”

“Ignore Landry. She said the same thing this morning, and if it was up to her we’d just brush over this.” Noah patted her on the back before he took the seat next to Rachel. “It was serious.”

Noah ran down the events of the morning, and every time Landry tried to brush off the incident, Rachel shushed her until she finally stopped trying. Derek took the seat beside her and linked his fingers with hers. The warmth of his hand enveloped her fingers and she squeezed tightly.

She had an ally in this. A partner. And she was quickly coming to appreciate the fact that she wasn’t dealing with this alone.

Was that Derek’s real appeal? Or was it something deeper?

Yes, the man was devastatingly handsome. And she had a base attraction to him that she simply couldn’t deny. But it
was
something more. Something that went beyond sex or even the appreciation that he was there to help her.

Unlike the majority of the men she’d spent time with, she genuinely enjoyed Derek’s company. She’d dated plenty, of course. It wouldn’t do for Landry Adair, society queen, to be dateless to any event.

But she’d always felt as if she was going through the motions. Living up to expectations instead of spending time with someone she could come to care about.

“Both of you could have been seriously hurt.” Rachel’s heated comment and lurch across the small conversation area to pull her into a tight hug had Landry dropping Derek’s hand along with her train of thought.

As she held her friend in a tight hug, Landry knew Rachel wasn’t far off the truth. They could have been hurt by the threat in the stables.

But if she didn’t protect her increasingly vulnerable heart, the possibility of physical danger was the least of her worries.

Chapter 9

D
erek settled into the ebb and flow of conversation around the table. Although he and Landry had spent time in the hot seat discussing the morning’s danger, the group had sensed when it was time to move on to new ground, as well.

Topics ranged from Elizabeth’s pregnancy to Whit’s expansion of AdAir Corp to an expected new foal Noah was excited about. It was only now when they sat with coffee and after-dinner drinks that Derek realized he’d actually enjoyed himself.

Until thoughts of Rena Frederickson descended like a black cloud. He owed her better than a night spent in carefree conversation while she still sat in captivity somewhere.

“You okay?” Landry’s hand floated over his forearm, gentle as the soft evening breeze that blew around them.

“I’m fine.” When his voice came out on a strangled whisper, he took a sip of his coffee. “Fine.”

Her smile never wavered, but he saw the confusion in her gaze. Knew another moment of sharp guilt that he’d put it there.

Just like Sarah.

The insult vanished as soon as it arrived, but the moment of surprise lingered on. Landry wasn’t like Sarah. Aside from the fact that he and Landry had a pretend relationship while he and Sarah had been engaged and planning a wedding, the women weren’t the same.

Landry had proven herself a full partner. Even with her concerns about going behind Noah’s back, she’d soldiered on. Sarah, in contrast, had simply sat at a distance and bitched at him for his work ethic.

The guilt that had slithered in, dragging up thoughts of Rena, faded as he considered the past few days. The stress of the Frederickson case had been intense, but it was only with a bit of distance that he’d begun to understand how it had taken over his life.

Sarah hadn’t been wrong about that.

He cared about his cases, but something about this one had been different. Maybe it was the clues that pointed to a case of heinous debauchery. Or maybe it was just the last straw in a long line of them that had proven how frustrated he was by his work.

No matter how many missing persons he and his team found, there were always more. More individuals who vanished, their lives and the lives of their loved ones ruined by the evil choices of another.

Coming to Adair had been good for him. Prior to his arrival at the ranch, he’d been on top of Mark constantly. Other than their quick catch-up at headquarters the day before, he hadn’t been in touch with his partner. Instead, he’d given himself the gift of distance, even without really realizing it. Much as it pained him to admit it, maybe his team lead was right all along.

Distance from the Frederickson case was essential to solving it.

With that, he laid a hand on top of Landry’s and squeezed. He pressed his lips to the shell of her ear, pleased when a light quiver hitched her breath. “I am fine.”

She nodded. Her mouth opened, then closed again on whatever it was she wanted to say. His gaze searched hers, but she’d shuttered her emotions along with her lips.

Serves you right, Winchester.

Kathleen bustled out of the kitchen, a large cake held up as she navigated the pathway from the back door through the patio. The men leaped up at once but Noah was closest and took the cake from her hands.

Derek used the moment to once again observe Noah.

The man was comfortable here, that was obvious. His quick grin and wink for Kathleen—and her corresponding blush—as he transferred her masterpiece was easy and comfortable. His conversation earlier around the grill was relaxed and carefree.

The man belonged here.

Whether he really was a cousin to the Adairs or their lost half brother remained to be seen, but he was family. Derek could only hope that bond was strong enough to withstand whatever he and Landry discovered.

Noah whispered something in Kathleen’s ear that caused a giggle before she swatted at his shoulder. “You’re a tease, young man.”

Noah sneaked a finger-f of cream cheese frosting from the base of the cake and popped it into his mouth. “And proud of it.”

With the cake cut and distributed, everyone returned to their chairs. Whit had insisted Kathleen join them, but she’d made several excuses and vanished back to the kitchen.

Patsy Adair’s lingering influence, no doubt.

Derek let the other impressions come as they would, the relaxed, semifugue state a good way to see if anything new popped. Sometimes the most important things came into clarity when you stopped looking so hard.

Before they sat down to dinner, Landry had whispered her thoughts about Noah and Rachel. Using her observations as a guide, he focused on the two of them. They’d naturally paired off on their side of the table after everyone else took their seats.

Seating arrangements didn’t necessarily mean attraction or a relationship, but it did reinforce how natural the two of them looked together.

Could they use that to their advantage?

Rachel knew why Derek was at Adair Acres and the suspicions about Noah’s parentage. She could add her observations to the whole and maybe get additional details from Noah about his background and his formative years with his mother in Europe.

“I thought about something earlier.” Landry pushed aside her now-empty dessert plate with a pointed stare before she shot him a wink. “How long was our old stable manager gone before Noah took over?”

“A good year at least. I was spending a lot of time in San Diego but I seem to remember Mom mentioning something about how hard it was to find good help.” At the realization of what he said, Whit winced and turned toward Noah. “Sorry.”

“No offense.” Noah’s smile was congenial enough. “Not when considering the source.”

“You know—” Carson let the thought hang there as he swirled his snifter glass. “Mom’s ignorance might have had another implication. How many people did flow through the stable after Warren retired?”

Whit shrugged. “At least four or five different people. Probably twice that if you add in the usual turnover in support team.”

“That many people with access, codes and keys?” Derek picked up on the conversation and filed away a note to himself to check employment records later on his FBI log-in. “That leaves a lot of people with information on how to get on the property. Do you change security codes every time you have turnover here at the ranch?”

“No.” Whit shook his head. “We never had a reason to in the past.”

“Clearly we have a reason now.” Carson muttered the words before he laid his hand over Georgia’s.

Derek knew the Adair children were grown adults, but something in Whit’s comment stuck with him. Reginald and Patsy had created a cocoon here at the ranch. An environment ruled by wealth and privilege. Despite its obvious dysfunction, the ranch concealed another problem: isolation.

The pristine paradise had kept everyone who lived there separate. And in its seclusion, it had made them all sitting ducks.

* * *

Mark scanned his email, surprised when he saw nothing from Derek. He supposed he should be grateful for a few days’ breathing room but the sudden lack of communication was as unsettling as it was welcome.

The ball game blared from the TV behind him as he popped open another beer. He knew Derek cared about the Frederickson case. Hell, the bastard had lived and breathed the case like it was oxygen. And now he just abandons it?

Mark took another large swallow of beer and willed the nausea in his stomach to recede.

Derek had been bothering him for months now, and when things finally get moving the jerk goes radio silent.

He reread the fake letter he’d run through the lab. Just his luck, the inconclusive missive caught the attention of a lab assistant who laddered it up to the big boss. What he’d intended to use to simply keep Derek off balance and engaged in the case had turned on him. Their section chief was even questioning if Derek should be taken off leave and brought back in to finish things up.

He needed to get Derek involved again, and then he needed to end this.

Maybe it was just the natural course of things. He had Rena and her supposed kidnapper. Keeping them both holed up was growing tedious, but he’d come this far. There was no way he was letting it all fall apart now.

It was funny, Mark reflected, how the case of Derek’s life would be his ultimate demise.

The bastard’s interest in Rena Frederickson had been evident from the jump, his attention fully focused on her photo the moment it hit their desks. The poor little kid who looked like one of those sickly orphans you saw in those commercials that begged for a few cents a day to save them.

Derek had taken one look at the kid and had practically fallen on his sword to help her. Late nights. Weekends. Extra lab work and reports as he dug into her disappearance.

He’d gone along at first. The lost kid had become something of a pet project for the office, and his star could only rise by working on it. The mayor of Los Angeles had held her up as what was wrong with criminals and what needed to be stopped in his fair city.

And the big muckety-mucks at the Bureau had seen saving Rena Frederickson as their chance to cozy up to the mayor so he’d buy into their latest terrorism task force requests.

Politics. Life was all about it. And getting what
you
wanted, which was really what politics was when you stripped away the supposed layers of do-gooding and rhetoric, was his end game.

Derek never understood that. All he wanted was to save the kid. And it was his desire to be a freaking hero that had finally given Mark the in he needed to make Sarah his own.

Sarah.

He thought about her sweet body and lush mouth. She’d be his at the end of it all. She’d already let him know she was interested. Once he proved to the world that Derek was hiding behind a do-gooder attitude and had killed Rena’s supposed kidnapper in cold blood, Sarah would be fully his.

No more questions that maybe she’d been too hasty. Or hadn’t given Derek enough leeway. Nope. She’d see him for the monster he was.

Or, more to the point, the monster Mark was crafting him to be.

Sarah’s sweet face faded from his mind’s eye as Landry Adair’s sexy lips and high cheekbones took its place. Damn, but she was a looker.

It was a real shame she was likely to get caught in the cross fire, but it couldn’t be helped. The little present inside the Adair stables clearly hadn’t done its job, but he’d thought of a few other diversions, the first of which was set to go off tonight.

With one last swallow of his beer, he got up to go to the fridge and snag another cool one. It was going to be a late night as he worked through the logistics for his next trip down to Adair Acres.

* * *

“You need to play this one straight with me.” Carson Adair closed the door to the security room with a light click.

Derek pressed Pause on the computer terminal where he’d toggled back and forth between imagery for the past hour and turned to face Landry’s brother. The mild-mannered, jovial dinner companion of earlier was gone. In his place was the former marine lieutenant, straight as an arrow and at full attention.

“I promised you from the start I wouldn’t keep you in the dark.”

“What happened this morning down in the stables? Landry can gloss over it like it was no big deal, but do me a solid and tell me the truth.”

“Someone left your sister a rather nasty message. A rattler inside Pete’s feed bin along with the bag he was smuggled inside in.”

“What if it was left for you?”

“Me?” Derek bobbled the bottled water he’d lifted to his lips. “No one knows I’m here.”

“Don’t fool yourself. There are eyes and ears everywhere at this place. People know.”

“So take me through it. Who would use the off chance that I might be visiting the stables as a way to harm me? And further, that I’d suddenly engage in managing the animal’s feeding schedule?”

Carson took a deep breath before dragging his hand over his military-short hair. His bravado noticeably faded before he crossed to a chair behind one of the room’s four computer terminals. “She’s my sister. I’m supposed to protect her.”

“So am I.”

The urge to continue—to define what Landry meant to him—was strong but Derek held back. If he couldn’t explain it to himself, he’d be damned if he was going to try to define it to her brother.

“You see anything on the recordings?”

“Shadows, but nothing more concrete. You appear to have a ghost.”

Carson leaned forward, the bright blue eyes so like his sister’s backlit with curiosity. “Take me through it.”

Derek spent the next half hour walking Carson through all he’d found. The various images from around the grounds. The perimeter cameras on the front gates. Even the cameras they had throughout the stables. All appeared undisturbed, yet there were swaths of time he couldn’t account for on the time stamps.

“Here and here.” Derek hit Pause, then toggled backward frame by frame. “You have a quick jump in time, then that small shadow on the screen like something’s been covered over or blacked out.”

“Hell.” Carson leaned closer, his finger sweeping over the screen. “Right there.”

“Yep. Looks like it was around three this morning, best as I can tell.”

“Nothing matches on the front cameras?”

“Not at all. I’ve been through the footage several times and can’t see anything that looks unusual or has been tampered with.”

“Do you think we’re dealing with someone already here on the grounds?”

Derek had wondered the same and had kept a mental list since arriving at the ranch. Despite questions, he’d yet to see anyone who seemed suspicious or even overtly strange. “Everyone appears to love the family. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but the staff seems positively giddy with your mother out of sight.”

Carson grinned at that—his first since walking into the room. “My mother is a tyrant on the best of days.”

“Do you think she killed your father?”

Derek let the question roll, curious to see Carson’s reaction. The man had walked in loaded for bear—Derek figured he might as well use the cruddy mood to his advantage. When he got a short laugh and an exaggerated eye roll instead he had to reconsider his tactics.