Hunted (16 page)

They brushed the snow off their pants as best they could. Chandler reached for the door connecting the garage to the house, but hesitated before turning the knob.

“What’s wrong?” Ethan whispered.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said. “Once he gets past being angry, my dad is going to feel like a fool for trusting Claudia. I’d do anything to prevent that.”

“I know. And
he
will know, too. That’s what will ultimately help him.”

She turned the knob. The door opened without a sound. No alarm rang. It was a wide hallway with ceramic tile that was dark and rich-looking. The walls were painted a pale green and there was framed artwork on both sides.

If the back hallway was any indication, the house was every bit as impressive inside as it was outside. But still, he wasn’t getting the feel of Baker McCann, who’d seemed quite at home sleeping on a sofa bed in a small cabin.

Chandler motioned for him to continue down the hallway. Ethan had taken four steps when a dark figure stepped out of a doorway, wrapped a strong forearm around his neck and yanked him back.

“You’ve got five seconds to tell me what the hell is going on.”

Chapter Sixteen

Ethan hadn’t talked to his friend in more than a year but he’d have recognized Mack’s voice anywhere. “Hard to do if I can’t breathe,” he said.

Mack let go. Ethan turned to face him but he was already focused on his sister. “Hey, Cat-Eyes,” Mack said, hugging his sister hard. He didn’t let go for a very long time. When he finally pulled back, he added, “Nice to see you.”

Chandler had tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Mack shook his head. “It’s okay. It’s not a good day when you hear that your sister’s car has been found in some trees. With the explosion at the cabin, I knew something was terribly wrong. Unfortunately, I was on the other side of the world and it took a little finagling to get here. I was on a plane when you called. Once I landed, I tried you but you didn’t answer. That didn’t make me very happy.”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket. Ethan looked at the screen. Two missed calls. Both from Mack’s number. “I’m sorry,” Chandler said. “It was on silent. I didn’t think to check that. I never put my own phone on silent.”

Ted Matchmore had probably put it on silent when he’d been playing with her phone.

“I’ll forgive you this time, Cat-Eyes.”

Mack turned his attention to Ethan and pulled him into a rough hug. “I owe you,” he said.

Maybe now wasn’t the time to tell Mack that he’d spent a good portion of the past day and a half in bed with his sister. “You don’t owe me,” he said simply.

But Chandler wasn’t having any of that. “He saved my life. Not once. A couple times. I wouldn’t have made it without him.”

There was more than gratitude in her voice. Respect. Admiration. Maybe something bigger. It made him warm and when he saw Mack’s eyes narrow, he knew that his friend had picked up on it, as well.

“Ethan?” He reached out a hand, caught Ethan’s shoulder. Held it tight.

“Later.” If Mack wanted to get in his face about Ethan’s taking advantage of Chandler when she was in a vulnerable state, he was going to have to wait. Now they needed to find Baker McCann before Claudia Linder McCann decided to have any more of her goons start shooting.

“Where’s Dad?” Chandler asked, once again tracking closely with him.

Mack looked between the two of them and evidently decided to halt his inquisition. It was probably what made him a super secret agent—he had the ability to interpret, assimilate and respond quickly and appropriately.

That, however, did not keep him from giving Ethan’s shoulder a vicious squeeze before he let go.

“On his way back,” Mack said. “Should be here in about an hour, maybe less. He took off for the cabin when he got the call from the Colorado State Patrol very early yesterday morning. Hardly any commercial flights were going but he chartered a plane. I was going to meet him at the cabin but he texted me several hours ago and said to come here and wait. I’ve only been here about twenty minutes.”

“Have you seen Claudia?” Chandler asked.

Mack shook his head. “Nope. That was a relief.”

Ethan stepped forward. “We should let your dad know that Chandler is safe.”

Mack smiled. “It appears that all those years ago, we weren’t as smart as we thought we were. Dad knows the code. Has always known the code. When he saw the books, he put two and two together. That’s why he’s coming home.”

“Did he tell anyone besides you?” Ethan asked.

“I doubt it. They had already suspended the search. The weather in Denver isn’t bad but it’s still snowing and blowing in the mountains.”

“Did he tell Claudia?” Chandler asked, her tone worried.

Mack shrugged. “I don’t know, Cat-Eyes. She’s his wife, so probably. What’s the big deal?”

Chandler took a big breath and launched into the whole story. She did, however, leave out the part about Ted Matchmore and their brief capture. No need to pile more drama on top of drama. Not at this point.

Mack listened carefully, never interrupting.

When Chandler finished, she said, “I’m turning Claudia in. It’s going to ruin the company and I’m sorry for all the people who are going to lose their jobs because of her greed, but I can’t worry about that right now. I want to tell Dad first.”

“Good call.” Mack looked at his watch. “I hope to hell he hurries. Claudia is a wild card. No telling what she’s thinking.”

“Agreed,” Chandler said.

“Come with me. We’ll watch the front,” Mack said.

Chandler shook her head. “I’m staying with Ethan.”

Mack gave Ethan a long look before turning and leaving the room.

“He knows,” Chandler said.

Ethan nodded. “If he wasn’t sure, he is now. I’m not confident that he’s happy.”

“I’m his little sister. It’s always been his job to protect me, especially after Mom died and Dad was so distraught. He just needs a minute to accept that somebody else has taken over his responsibilities. Plus, you’ve always been his best friend. He sees you in that role. Not necessarily with me.”

With her.
He wanted that more than anything. And when this was all over, he was going to tell her.

He leaned forward and kissed her hard. When he finally pulled back, she was smiling. He grabbed her hand. “Your dad will be home soon and this whole thing will be over with.”

“A federal investigation is long and ugly and it may get worse before it gets better,” she warned. “They’re going to want to question my dad, want to know what he knew.”

“Baker McCann is one of the toughest guys I know. He’ll get through this. You all will.”

“I hope you’re right.”

It was fifteen minutes later when they heard the sound of an approaching car.

“Dad,” Mack called out.

Ethan gripped her hand. “Ready?” he asked her.

As ready as she ever would be. She heard the overhead garage door open, then close. Then the interior door. Footsteps.

When Baker McCann rounded the corner, she wanted to launch herself into his arms and to hold him tight. But she stayed in place. She was about to hurt him badly.

Her father saw Mack first. Then his eyes moved, taking in Ethan in the corner, resting only a second, before settling on her. “Chandler,” he said, his voice soft.

“Daddy.” She hadn’t called him that since she was a little girl but somehow, it felt right.

He spread his arms and suddenly she was in them. This man, who had been both mother and father for so many years, had always been her rock. That was why the chill that had crept into their relationship after Claudia’s arrival had been so difficult.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her face against his shirt.

He patted her back. “It’s okay, honey. Everything is okay now.” He rocked her for a moment, his big body swaying. Finally, he pulled back. “What the hell happened, Chandler?”

“I have something to tell you,” she said. “I...” She looked at Mack, then at Ethan, who gave her an encouraging nod. “This is going to be hard to believe but I know what I’m talking about. Information was leaked from Linder Automation. About one of our most secret weapons. It was sold, Daddy.”

“Who?” he demanded.

“Claudia,” she whispered.

Her dad dropped his hands and took a step back. “That’s a horrible allegation, Chandler. Look, I know Claudia isn’t your favorite—”

“Dad, I’m sorry,” Chandler tried again.

“There has to be some mistake,” her dad said. “Claudia would never do that. You’ve just never been able to see the good in her.”

Chandler could feel her heart squeeze tight. He didn’t believe her.

Ethan stepped forward and rested his hand across her lower back. Offering support. Trust. Resilience. “She’s not wrong, Baker. Chandler has done everything she could possibly do to ensure that what she’s telling you is correct. She almost died a couple times for her efforts. She would rather it wasn’t Claudia. But all evidence suggests it is.”

Baker looked at Ethan with hostility in his eyes.

Ethan didn’t flinch and he held her dad’s stare. If Chandler hadn’t loved him before, she loved him then. Ethan thought the world of Baker McCann. And he was risking all of that to support her.

“Just please listen to her, Baker.” He turned to her. “Tell him, Chandler. Tell him what you know.”

And Chandler went through the whole thing again for the second time in the past hour. When she told her dad about the car deliberately bumping her and sending her over the edge of the mountains, Ethan could see the veins in the big man’s neck stick out. When she talked about how close she’d come to being inside the cabin when it exploded, Baker grabbed the counter for support. And finally, when she told him about the security guard shooting at her, Baker sat down hard on a kitchen chair.

As Mack had done, Baker listened carefully, never interrupting. When she finished her story, the kitchen was very quiet.

After a long minute, Mack stepped forward. “We need to get to the authorities and let them sort this out.”

“Agreed,” Ethan said.

Mack looked at his watch. “I left a very sticky situation in South America. I need to go back now that I know Chandler is safe.” He turned to stare at Ethan. “You got this?”

“I got it,” Ethan said.

“Don’t screw it up,” Mack said.

Ethan knew he wasn’t talking about the investigation. “I won’t.”

Mack walked over and kissed Chandler on the cheek. He leaned close to her ear but spoke just loudly enough that Ethan could hear. “You could have done worse, Cat-Eyes. Much worse.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Then Mack gave Baker a hard hug. “Trust Ethan and Chandler, Dad. As much as it hurts, trust them. I’ll be back as soon as I can. We’ll rebuild the cabin. We’ll do it together.”

Her dad didn’t say anything but he did hug Mack and roughly pat his back.

Then Mack left, closing the door softly behind him. Again, the silence was deafening.

“I’ve got my dog in my truck,” Ethan said. “I’m going to let her out and feed her.” Before he left the room, he leaned close to her. “You did great. He loves you. He just needs a minute.” He walked out the way they’d entered the house.

Chandler studied her father. He looked old and weary and she knew that her announcement had shaken him to his core. But she also knew that Ethan’s quiet proclamation of support and Mack’s insistence that she and Ethan were right had sealed the deal.

“I should have known something was wrong,” he said, his voice soft. “I was so worried when I heard the news of the accident. And Claudia seemed as concerned. But then, when I was told about the cabin, and I was trying to fit the pieces together, Claudia was insistent that the two events didn’t have anything to do with each other. When I told her that I needed to be in the mountains, I wanted her to come with me. She said that she couldn’t, that she absolutely had to be at work for the next several days. Her work has always been important to her but I have to admit, I needed her.”

“Oh, Daddy,” Chandler said. Baker McCann had been disappointed on so many levels.

“When I got to Crow Hollow,” he added, “and I realized that you were still alive and with Ethan, I was ecstatic. When I told Claudia, she said all the right things but I could tell that something was wrong.”

Her dad’s words sunk in. “Claudia knows that I’m alive and with Ethan?”

“Yes, and it wasn’t the best news I’ve had lately,” a female voice said.

Chandler whirled. Claudia stood in the doorway, her arm extended. She had a gun pointed directly at Chandler.

“You’re a pain in the ass, Chandler,” she said. She had an ugly smile on her severe-looking face.

“I’d rather be a pain in the ass than a traitor to my country.”

Her stepmother shrugged. “This has become unnecessarily complicated. I knew you would run to that damn cabin that your father was always wanting me to visit. You should have died there. Those fools should have made sure you were inside rather than assuming that you’d died in the crash.”

“You should hire better help.”

Again Claudia shrugged. “Not my help. My customer’s help. They could mobilize more quickly than I could. So incompetent, though. It’s a wonder if they’ll even be smart enough to use the technology that I sold them.”

She was so proud, so brazen about her actions, that Chandler wanted to scratch her eyes out. But what she wanted most was to stop this before it went any further. Certainly before Ethan returned to the house and got caught in the cross fire.

“It’s over, Claudia. Mack knows. He just left. Even if you kill me and Daddy, Mack will tell everyone.”

Claudia’s eyes flared with anger. “I can handle your brother, Cat-Eyes. That’s what he calls you, right? Well, I think you just used up all nine of your lives.” She put her finger on the trigger.

Chapter Seventeen

As Ethan pulled his truck into Baker McCann’s driveway, he kept one hand on the wheel and used the other to pet Molly. “Got to go?” he asked the dog.

She barked in response.

He opened the door and before he could catch her, she’d leaped from the truck and was headed for the side of the house, opposite of the garage. “Molly,” he said under his breath. They didn’t have time to fool around. He followed her around the corner of the house and saw her squatting near a big pine tree that hugged the house.

He waited and looked around. The McCanns had at least an acre of yard. With all the fresh snow, it was beautiful. Untouched.

Except there were fresh footprints leading up to a side door. He got close. Small footprints. Pointed toe. Women’s shoes.

His vision narrowed.

He pulled his gun and turned the handle of the door. It opened. There was a laundry room on one side, a bath on the other. Making no sound, he ran toward the back of the house. When he got close to the kitchen, he heard Baker.

“Don’t do it, Claudia. It’s over.”

He heard a shrill laugh. “You’re wrong, Baker. Your son can throw around all the ugly accusations that he wants. I’ve covered my trail. It’s a shame that you won’t be around to spend the money.”

“We had plenty of money, Claudia,” Baker said.

The woman laughed again. “You know what they say, darling. You can never be too rich or too thin. It doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s too late. It was too late once I’d accepted the first payment. My customers aren’t exactly the type that you suddenly decide to stop doing business with.”

Ethan took another two steps. Saw the gun in her hand.

Saw her finger move.

Ethan shot her. The bullet caught her in the shoulder and she fell sideways, knocking into the wall. She dropped the gun and Ethan moved fast to secure it but Baker beat him to it. The man picked up the gun and with absolutely still hands, pointed it at his wife. She was clenching her right shoulder with her left hand, half sitting up, her skinny body propped up by the dark wood that framed the doorway.

Baker pulled his cell phone off his belt and dialed a few numbers. “We need the police and we need an ambulance,” he said.

Ethan pulled Chandler into his arms. He buried his face in her hair and filled his lungs with her scent. She was alive. And she was his.

He wasn’t wasting one more minute. “Chandler, marry me,” he said. “I love you. I will always love you.”

She lifted her face. There were tears in her beautiful eyes. “I’m losing track of how many times you’ve saved me,” she said.

He shook his head. “You saved me,” he said.

“I cheat at poker,” she said.

“I’m counting on that.”

“I get cranky when I have to share my desserts.”

“Won’t ever happen,” he said. “We’ll always order two.”

“I’m going to let Molly sleep on the bed.”

“Whatever.”

She kissed him. “Yes.”

“Yes, what?” he asked, his heart flooded with hope.

“Yes, I’ll marry you. I’ve loved you forever, Ethan Moore. It’s about time you noticed.”

* * * * *

STALKED,
the second book in Beverly Long’s miniseries
THE MEN OF CROW HOLLOW,
is available next month. Look for it wherever Harlequin Intrigue books are sold!

Keep reading for an excerpt form BLOOD TIES IN CHEF VOLEUR by Mallery Kane.