Fire and Ice (Guardians) (7 page)

"I take it, Maia wasn't happy about your latest gesture," Derek stated sardonically.

"No, I think she has frightened poor Laurie," Jack replied, still chuckling.

"She's not a hearts and flowers kind of girl."

"I'll say ..."

"Although she might be the guns and knives kind," Derek added.

Jack stopped chuckling and frowned. Derek cocked an eye brow and said, "What? Didn't occur to you that if you gave her a new semi-automatic, high-caliber pistol you'd get a better response?"

Jack's frown deepened.

"I've seen Maia's eyes sparkle enough times whenever Viktor sends her something new to blow up stuff with."

"Jesus Christ," Jack muttered as it dawned on him that his friend could be right. He was in uncharted territory. All the women he had ever dated loved designer labels and diamonds.

Then, as if picking up something else from Derek's statement, Jack asked, "Who, exactly, is Viktor to her? And don't tell me to ask Maia again because I know you've had enough dealings with both of them to form an opinion."

"Viktor and Maia had known each other for eighteen years. All I can say is that he was there when she needed him the most..."

"That would make her ..."

"Twelve when she met him. He was twenty-seven."

"I sure hope that it's all brotherly love," Jack murmured. He was getting a sick feeling in his stomach.

"Jack, I wouldn't worry that Viktor would stand in the way of your lascivious designs on Maia," Derek laughed. "She handles liaisons like yours very well. Look, I had doubts at first, but I thought better based on what I know about you so I'm assuming you're just having fun after staying monogamous with Isabella for almost eight months. I don't blame you for finding Maia and her situation intriguing. Am I right?"

"You could be," Jack replied blithely.

"Jack... " Derek said, frowning.

"Yes," Jack snapped to shut up his friend. What? Were they gonna talk about his feelings now? Christ! Derek could be such a girl.

"Good! Because you'd be relieved to know that Maia is used to these affairs."

"What do you mean?" Jack's eyes narrowed, not sure he was going to like what his friend was about to say.

"She has this ritual: three-week long vacations on an exclusive resort somewhere, hookup with whoever catches her fancy and when the vacation is over she moves on. It's the way she copes with her life, she says. For a few weeks she gets to pretend to be a girl in a hot affair with sex on the beach ..."

"She tells you these things?" Jack cut in incredulously.

"Sometimes over tequila when she's shit-faced enough to feel like sharing," Derek said as if in fond remembrance. Jack made a mental note about plying Maia with tequila.

"And Callahan?"

"A moment of weakness, she said. Callahan went gonzo when Maia disappeared for two weeks and he went all DA on Viktor. That got ugly," Derek said and then continued solemnly, as if in male camaraderie. "I have faith in your ability to keep your heart out of it, Jack. Let her go after this whole mess with the Russian is over."

***

Grace was preparing chicken and dumplings for dinner while Maia put the groceries away in the pantry and refrigerator. Grace's nephew, Kyle, drove up in a beat-up pick-up truck to deliver the order for the weekend: rack of lamb, eggs, some cold cuts, flour, apples (for the apple pie), butter, Halloween candy and a slew of other dried goods.

Maia invited Kyle to stay for dinner after making sure that Betty didn't need him back at the store. It was Kyle's evening off anyway so everything worked out well.

Kyle Banning was a big kid. He had dark brown wavy hair, chocolate colored-eyes and was built like a quarterback. No question, he had made more than a couple of high-school girls swoon. He also acted very mature for his age, a clear sense of responsibility already etched into his eyes.

"Do we even get trick or treaters up this way? The house is some way off from the main road." Maia wondered.

"You'd be surprised actually. Jack is rarely home, the local kids think this place is haunted so they come by to check it out," Grace replied as she dropped dumplings into the broth.

"What do you do when Jack is not around?" Maia asked curiously.

"I come in once a week to make sure everything is clean and running smoothly. When Jack has functions in New Park, he brings me in to take care of the apartment and sometimes the menu if it's just a sit-down dinner. If it's a large function he lets me oversee the catering. He keeps me on retainer and is a very generous employer."

"Have you worked for him long?"

"About nine years."

All this time, Kyle had been quietly staring at her so Maia looked over to him and smiled. "I'd offer you a beer but I don't want to get thrown into jail."

Kyle's color heightened a bit, he gave a half-grin and looked down at his glass of what looked like iced tea.
 

Yup, Kyle's was working up the charm with that sexy half-grin. The boy was going to be breaking plenty of hearts before he even got to drinking age.

"Dinner is almost ready," Grace announced. "Kyle, get the bowls and set the table."

Over dinner, Maia was careful not to talk about herself and asked about recreational activities in Westcove besides fishing, sailing and lying on the beach.

"You need to try hang gliding," Kyle suggested. "I'd be happy to show you."

"Sounds scary." Actually, Maia knew how to hang glide quite proficiently.

"I guess the busiest time of the year is still the summer, huh?" she continued with her lame line of questioning.

"Westcove is almost its own community of locals. We don't get the majority of the tourists. Most of the folks who live here are retirees and caretakers of those expensive beach houses you've seen around," Kyle clarified.

"Explains why Westcove Tavern was packed last night," Maia added.

"Westcove Tavern is an institution. Everyone in the Outer Banks comes up here for the burgers," Kyle stated proudly.

"Good people," Grace said.

Kyle's eyes clouded. "There have been a few shady men rolling around town lately, Aunt Grace. They've been here a couple of weeks. I don't trust them."

Maia tensed. She knew exactly who they were: those three jackasses from the beach.

"Have they been bothering you or Betty?" Grace asked worriedly.

"Ma wouldn't say anything, but one of our employees told me they came in to the grocery last week and talked to Ma for a while. Ma was angry afterward and she'd been tense all week," he said.
 

"If they've been harassing her she should report it to the Westcove Police Department. I'm sure Bill would look into it, and Rick too," the housekeeper said. "What could they possibly want? Should I talk to Betty?"

"They're probably extortionists, but I couldn't understand why they would think the people in this small town would put up with them. Seemed everyone here had each other's back. You go up against one, you go up against all," Maia said.

But even as she said this, she remembered Rick Tanner's words:
trouble has been trickling down from the bigger cities
. She was getting a really, really bad feeling about it.

CHAPTER FOUR

Jack loosened his tie and tossed his jacket on the back of the couch. It had been a long day and he had just concluded a meeting with Derek and his design engineers regarding the testing at the DoD site the next day. Everything was going smoothly apart from the fact that he could not get the thoughts of a certain redhead out of his mind. This bothered him.

He had learned to compartmentalize his emotions and priorities during his time as a Navy SEAL. He had joined the SEALs when he was twenty, and four years later during one of his breaks, he met Claire. She was not classically beautiful, but she had this way about her that just drew him to her and he had fallen in love immediately. Claire had grown up in a military family. She understood his life and never asked about the nature of Jack's missions. Still, there were times when they fought right before he was deployed and he had to detach himself from his emotions to focus on the mission. He proposed to Claire in his last year with the SEALs and looked forward to having a civilian life with her.

Jack came from money. His father was a well-known real estate developer who loaned him the capital to start McCord Defense Industries. Jack thought that life couldn't get any better: Claire was planning their wedding and he was getting his business off the ground. Then, two months before their marriage, tragedy struck. Claire, his sister and his mom were coming back from a dress fitting at a well-known wedding couture.

He remembered their last conversation. She was so excited after fitting her gown, she couldn't wait to call him and gushed, "Oh Jack, the dress fits perfectly, I can't wait for the wedding! I love you, Jack."

"You make me so happy, sweetheart," Jack had told her.

An hour after their conversation, his father called him. "Jack, son, there's been a terrible accident." His dad's voice was hoarse with suppressed tears, he could barely understand him. "Your mom, oh...God ....Anna ....they... they're at New Park Medical."

Jack had never felt so much fear in his life. Even as a Navy SEAL, when he was faced with danger he had maintained a certain emotional detachment. But this, not knowing if three people he loved so much were alive or dead, those minutes that had taken him to get to the hospital were hell.

The hospital was chaotic. His dad was a mess, Anna confirmed dead, and his mom and Claire were in critical condition. Claire's parents arrived and then Brett was charging in, followed by other friends and relatives.

 
It was then that Jack learned from the detectives who were gathering more information about the incident that their car had been side-swiped by a panel van on the highway. At 70mph, their car rolled over several times and went over the guard rails.

His sister died at the scene. Claire and his mom were airlifted to New Park Medical and were undergoing surgery.

Half an hour later, a surgeon came out. His face was blank, everyone held their breath. "Claire Stanton?"

Even as Jack stepped forward to meet the surgeon with Claire's parents he had already known deep in his gut ... she hadn't made it. All he heard was the doctor's "I'm sorry..." then every molecule of air seemed to have been sucked out of him as he barely registered Claire's mom's keening cry. Jack backed away, sank into a chair nearby and sat staring at the floor. He was numb. He couldn't even cry. Brett, who had been crying after finding out about their sister, laid a hand on Jack's shoulder.

His sweet Claire was dead.

Anna, lively, exuberant Anna, was dead.

After another hellish three hours, a different surgeon emerged to inform them that their mom had made it. She was still in critical condition with internal injuries but was expected to survive.

The van was found abandoned in a state park, cleaned of fingerprints. It had been rented with bogus identification used on the rental agreement. Foul play was immediately suspected as many witnesses reported that the van had deliberately rammed the car.

Jack was tipped off by one of his friends in the CIA that several names of Navy SEALs had been leaked to the leaders of the Colombian drug cartel against which the SEALs had carried out anti-drug operations.

Jack, with his father's backing, pressured Washington to launch an inquiry into these allegations. There was not enough evidence to sustain the inquiry and the case was dropped but Jack and the other SEALs who had been burned, took matters into their own hands. This was how Jack met Derek Lockwood who had just been recruited into the AGS. Using AGS surveillance and databases, they were able to narrow down the possible perpetrators to two of the drug lords and took them out in a mission that was off-the-grid.

There were no further incidents against the ex-SEALS.

Afterwards, Jack drove himself relentlessly into the growth of his company. Drawing from his experience in Special Ops, he was able to develop state-of-the art small arms weapons and devices and in just a few years had become a top weapons contractor for the DoD. With terrorism and individualized hostile sectors becoming the new face of the enemy, the old way of fighting with warships and tanks had become obsolete. Urban warfare requiring lighter weapons and technology that aided precision-strike missions led by smaller teams became the way of the future.

For two years after Claire's death, Jack did not date. He eventually resorted to one-night stands to slake his physical needs. When one of those encounters resulted in a three-month affair, Jack decided that he preferred monogamous arrangements over going to bed with a total stranger. Though his relationships were short and he did not love his girlfriends, he did care for them. He was quite fond of Isabella. It was disappointing that she turned absolutely psycho in the last month of their relationship. She started complaining about his work, wanted to go on a two-week European vacation and then finally demanded that he marry her. It was as if she had become a different woman.

And now there was Maia. He had never felt physical desire so consuming and he had never pursued any woman the way he did her. He kidnapped her, for Christ's sakes! Images of her writhing underneath him, moaning his name while he moved inside her, kept flashing through his mind. All. Fucking. Day. It was driving him crazy. He needed to have her soon. But he wanted more than a quick fuck. He wanted more from her but he did not know what and that unsettled him. Jack shook his head. No. This thing with Maia was going to be quick and simple. He'd fuck her a couple of times and be over her.

***

Deep in the underbelly of the stonehouse, Maia was in videoconference again with Viktor. She couldn't be happier with the setup here, a view of the North Carolina coast topside and a high tech facility below. It was almost midnight when Viktor texted her to set up an urgent meeting.

"Our data centers picked up data searches on your name originating from your location. The Westcove Police Department in fact," Viktor informed her.