Authors: Aimee Laine
“What’d I do?” She shook her head. “Look, you guys asked me here. I’m here. Now tell me what I need to do so I can get back to my crazy life and leave James to his.” She shook her head and mimed wild hands in the air.
“I think it’s time to strategize,” Charley said. “Shall we move to the dining room? The table will give us a wide expanse on which to draw, color and finish our plans for tonight.”
24
Wyatt snuggled into Charley as the rest of the group left the island. His arms wrapped around hers from behind, and she clung to them at her chest.
He rested his head on her shoulder. “Why doesn’t the government have you guys locked up in some lab, running tests?”
“Who says they haven’t already done that?” Charley craned to the side and added a not-so-subtle kiss to his cheek. “There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know that doesn’t matter anymore. Some of us managed to make peace with and capitalize on our abilities. Others are still flitting about trying to find the right home for theirs.”
“Like Maggie?”
Charley shrugged. “When I hung out with you in high school, I listened to so many of the kids’ woes and whines about what they were going to be when they grew up. Girls wanted to be doctors, writers, or just stay home and produce loads of babies. Guys wanted to be police, football pros, or rock stars—their bands worse than anything I’d ever heard. Everyone wants to be someone else or a grown-up with a purpose and an exciting or glamorous way to fulfill it. It’s a fantasy that gets us through the tough years.”
“And some of you actually get to do that, which I think totally rocks, and I am so jealous.” Wyatt mimicked the voice of his younger generation.
“But sometimes it gets old. I have been under the government’s control—well, I have my fair share in making decisions after so many years—but I’ve been there long enough to know we have to find happiness in our lives and go for it.”
“Then why didn’t—” He stopped when she tensed.
Charley turned, laid a hand against his cheek. “The grass will not be greener no matter how much we try. Learn to live with what you have, love what you choose, and it’ll stay green on your side of the street.”
“Very philosophical.” Wyatt added a kiss to the side of her neck.
“You guys coming or not?” Stuart asked from the doorway before he disappeared.
“We have some ass kicking to do,” Charley said. “No one messes with my boy and gets away with it without some payback. I’m still wondering why they decided to move forward without him as bait.”
“That means we take extra precaution.” Wyatt stood first and led Charley into the foray of conversation and plan review.
James walked back in, his shoulders slumped more than Wyatt had seen before. Wyatt stole a glance at Charley who nodded her head in James’s direction.
“Be right back.” Wyatt had plenty of his own experiences with one woman. Some advice might be worthwhile. He beckoned with a nod of his head, and James followed outside.
Wyatt took one side of the porch, James the other. They mirrored each other’s casual slouch. Birds sang, wind whistled and the blue sky warmed. Hands in pockets, each with one shoulder against the house’s frame, both of their gazes ran across the yard.
“Want some advice?” Wyatt asked.
“Nope.” James stuffed his hands further into the pockets of his jeans.
“Excellent. So somewhere around sixteen years ago, you guys stood in my way and kept Charley out of my life.” From the corner of Wyatt’s eye, James tensed. “Now, you did it for very good reasons, and I can see that … so many years later.” He motioned with his hand while he talked.
“But?”
“But you can’t let time issues stand in the way. Do you hate Maggie or love her?”
When James chuckled, Wyatt had his answer.
“And given the boy looks an awful lot like you, the exception being that superbly red hair, I’m guessing he’s yours and Maggie’s?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think so,” James said. “She just never told me.” He kicked a rock onto the sidewalk with the toe of his shoe. It banged against the rail of the porch and left a ding in the wood.
“Full of secrets around here.” Wyatt shook his head and kicked his own rock. “Seems to me you all are old enough not to have to play these games. What are you? Two hundred plus, like Charley?”
“A little younger,” James said. “Charley’s got a hundred on me and a hundred twenty on Cael. Lily’s the baby at only sixty.”
“How did you meet by the way?”
“Me and Maggie?”
“Yeah, sure, but you and Charley?”
“One of her assignments. I’d been hired by the Chilean government. She was there on ‘business’.” James kicked another rock, but a half-smile emerged. “We ended up in the same place at the same time, quite literally. She’ll have to tell you the story sometime. She has that way with people. She and Cael?” James looked up at Wyatt who nodded. “Same exact thing.”
“What about Lily?”
“Hers is another story altogether.”
“Maggie?”
James turned away again.
“I believe you gave Charley some advice before. I’d highly recommend you consider following it. The age of letting time heal all wounds is gone.”
With that, he moved to the door and let himself back in. Everyone except for Sophie, Chase and James stood together. Loud mutters and curses bounced around as they dissected the park’s blueprint one last time.
Whoever chose the spot had no idea of the opportunities it gave Wyatt’s group. Trees and brush surrounded the gazebo and would allow them all to remain hidden. His department had wired a few trees for sight and sound that morning. The park’s staff, as well as Detective Bland and his group, had jumped on the chance to help.
A ‘Charley-like-person’ need only show up, and they’d snag their man or woman on the spot. He just had to convince Charley to stay away.
• • •
“They want me, and they want me alone,” Charley said to Wyatt for the fourth time.
She thought their plan rather creative—he’d disagreed, agreed, and changed his mind a dozen times. They’d argued over who should do what, when and how. Even Maggie had come to Charley’s defense and cited the plan as foolproof.
She laid her hands on the table and dropped her head between them. After two hours of discussion, James and Cael had relaxed, Maggie began to file her nails, and Lily whipped up and served a tray of sweets.
At least someone believes this will work.
“With four of me, we’re safer,” Charley said again. “Lily has to go last because she can’t hold form as long as the rest of us. So she’s our backup to the backup. Maggie gets us started because she can get out of nearly any situation in a pinch. Then me. Then Cael if we need him, but you’ll all be within range for sight and sound.”
Wyatt shook his head … again. “There’s just something off.”
“The fact that four of us will look alike right down to our attire? Are you afraid you’ll end up kissing Cael?” Charley asked.
“As long as he doesn’t use his tongue.” Cael dissolved into laughter that affected everyone but Wyatt.
Charley forced the sigh back at Wyatt’s continued press that she remain with James in the van. “Do you want to go over what we know again?”
He nodded.
“There are at least two women. Not so bright by the sounds of it. Dissension and confusion in the ranks. We have their leverage, Wyatt. They really want me, probably to settle some sort of old score I don’t know about. We want to kick their asses. Simple as that.”
Wyatt leaned backward, stared at the ceiling and rubbed the back of his head. “I guess.”
“According to Detective Bland, there’s been no movement in the garden today,” Cael said.
“Stuart? You’re still okay with holding down the fort?” Wyatt continued to stare skyward.
“I got her covered—I mean, us, covered … here,” he tapped his side piece.
Charley couldn’t help but grin.
“So that puts James and me in the van, you four on the field, and Stuart, Sophie and Chase locked down here,” Wyatt said.
“I think the problem I have lays with the unknowns. What and who are they, what will they have at their disposal, and what are their intentions?”
“We’ve got the police behind us and can call in others for help,” James said.
“I know, I know.” Wyatt’s cell whistled.
The entire room turned to him as he walked out to answer the call.
“You have your ringtone as a whistle?” Charley asked to his back.
He pointed one finger in the air.
“Look at the picture he has on it of you,” Stuart said.
“From when?” Charley asked.
“From sixteen years ago. I saw it when I met him at his office.”
“The photographer’s prom picture?” Charley shook her head. “A sixteen-year-old picture. Wow.”
“Boy, Julz was pissed when she saw it delivered at school,” Stuart said. “Wyatt must have taken a picture of it and saved it on his phone.”
“I suggested he should consider her.” Charley flinched with the thought.
“Yeah, but he didn’t.” Stuart grabbed one of Lily’s petits fours. “Heard she married some guy in Florida last year.” He popped a chocolate pretzel into his mouth.
“You still eat a ton, don’t you?” Maggie sneered as she motioned with her nail file in the air. “And you still talk nonstop.”
“And you’re still as bitchy as ever. Lucky for me, I only got thirty-four years in that, and you get what? A few hundred?”
Cael and James snickered as she did the same.
“Ninety-five so far.” Maggie leaned toward Stuart who sat just a foot or so away from him.
“Be careful what you do, I got a gun—”
“Uh, no. You don’t.” She twirled his semi-automatic around her finger.
Stuart slid his chair back with a force that bumped it against the wall. His hands moved about, and he patted himself down. “How—”
“I told you Stuart, she’s very talented,” James said from his perch against the wall.
Wyatt walked back into the room as Maggie handed Stuart his weapon. He turned to Stuart, switched to Charley with one eyebrow cocked, and with his cell in hand, he pointed between the two of them before he faced the floor.
“What’s up?” Cael stood at rest against the wall, arms across his chest. His low-hung jeans gave him a casual air, but Charley knew his mind worked overtime.
Wyatt popped back up. “Ah, that was Sheila. She apologized for being unavailable earlier. Apparently, my department head has called a six o’clock meeting, and Sheila’s been trying to get me out of it with no luck. She sent the tap record, too. There was a log-jam on our end, and she had to get it from the phone company.”
“You have to leave?” Charley asked.
“Yeah, but I’ll be back in plenty of time.” Wyatt checked his watch. “I’ve got an hour to get downtown. The meeting can’t last more than an hour or two, three tops … so I’ll be back by nine, ten at the latest.”
“I don’t like the feel of this. It’s too convenient,” Cael said. “Your assistant calls you out of nowhere with this?”
“I don’t, either.” Charley clung to the back of the chair, her nails biting into the wood.
“Sheila doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Wyatt waved away the undercurrent of worry. “She’s been my assistant for four and a half years. She’s loyal and dependable and—”
“Doesn’t like Charley,” Lily said.
Wyatt twisted toward Lily. “Why would you say that?”
Lily shrugged. “Girls know these things.”
“And I kinda knocked her over with Wyatt’s door.” Charley turned her head away from the group.
“You what?” A mischievous smile lit Maggie’s face.
Charley knew the opportunity to prove she’d messed up would be far too great for Maggie to let go. “She was in the way, and I was mad.” Charley waved it away as Wyatt had. “I apologized. End of story.”
“She’s involved.” Maggie leaned back in her chair. “I’ll lay money on it. Who else knew the two of you were together? Who else would warn you, Wyatt?”
James fished in his wallet. “I got twenty.” He laid it down in the middle of the table.
“I got ten.” Cael laid it on top of James’s.
“I’m in.” Stuart dropped his own ten as Maggie added a twenty.
Lily shook her head, opened her eyes wide. “Too rich for my purse.” She laughed.
“I got fifty says she had nothing to do with it.” Wyatt dropped his bills.
• • •
“Be careful.” Charley stood on the threshold, Wyatt’s back to the outside. She held his hands at her sides, her fingers entwined with his.
“I’ll be back in time, I promise.” He laid a kiss at the edge of her lips.
“Never promise what you can’t guarantee, Wyatt.” She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his. “Just be careful.”
The intensity of the kiss reached south. They’d be apart for a few hours, he’d return, they’d get to the park, and the bad guys would go to jail. The manpower had been allocated; Detective Bland had assured them of it.
Afterward, they’d start their life together.
“You better go. Don’t want you to be late.” She patted his chest.
“Nine o’clock.” He ran a finger down her nose and tipped up her chin for a more subtle and sweet kiss. “See you then.”
He knew she watched him walk away. Her gaze burned into his back. He returned the wave she offered as he drove out of their drive.
All we gotta do is get to midnight, and all this will be over.
Wyatt followed the curve of the road. The narrow lanes and tree-lined paths took him through their small town and out onto the freeway to the inner sanctum of the big city. He maneuvered around a school bus, sped up—reaching seventy according to his dash—and changed lanes so he could keep up with the faster traffic. He slowed as the cars around him did the same. The freeway at rush hour did not bode well for a timely arrival.
At least I’m going against the flow.
He checked his rearview mirror and the sides before he changed lanes again. Cars filled the road and moved left and right like mice in a maze.
Which goes faster? Get in it and get the cheese.
As he neared his exit, he shifted to the right and, with a hundred other cars, slowed to a stop. The light before him blinked yellow, police directing traffic right and left. Wyatt inched forward with the rest of traffic. Once through, he punched the accelerator. The cause of the odd delay remained a mystery. He’d still have to find a spot to park and walk to his Director’s office.
“Six o’clock meeting, my ass,” he said out loud as he changed lanes again. Behind him, blue lights spun, adjusting from light to dark as the bulb inside rotated.