Mackie's Men (19 page)

Liam agreed with him, seeing her stride into the room, ignoring the man with the gun, she’d gone straight for the easier target, and kicked his ass. “Let me tell you something to really give you a stiffy. She’s not just good with weapons and explosives, she had Hitchcock swallowing his balls within seconds of walking in the door.”

They continued to talk about the fight, until they pulled into the driveway and parked in front of the barn. On the walk to the house, Liam confessed, “About Mackie, you’re not alone in feeling more than like for her. I’ve been in love and lust with her in that order since laying eyes on the woman, and it makes no sense, but it’s there and nothing has changed since then. My dad said the same thing happened when he met Mom, he wanted to pick her up and find a cave somewhere.”

The house was dark except for the kitchen light, and they tried to be as quiet as possible when they walked into the house. It wasn’t quite midnight but Darryl locked the door and headed upstairs with Liam two steps behind him. He slowly opened Mackie’s bedroom door and smiled when he saw the two figures spooning under the covers. The small amount of light from the hallway’s nightlights cast a shadow of his form near the bed, and he backed away, but waved Liam over to take a peek at the slumbering couple.

He envied John his place on that mattress tucked into the curve of Mackie’s back and thighs. If he weren’t so tired, he might have joined them. Knowing he would wake them if he did made him back away from the door and close it softly before heading to his room.

Mackie didn’t know what to expect when she went down the stairs to the kitchen the next morning. John had been gone for a while because his pillow was cold when she touched it, but she’d lain there for an extra ten minutes remembering the strange relationship that was developing between her and the three men that claimed to want to share her amongst them. It didn’t seem fair to her that one woman could possibly hold the attention and devotion of three wonderful guys, when so many women were desperately looking for just one man to hold her at night. In the past, she’d always fallen back on her self image and background to avoid entanglements with men she considered out of her league. These men had proven that her visible scars weren’t a deterrent, or ugly. Now she needed to battle her inner demons if she really believed they could build a relationship and life together.

She couldn’t remember a time that she hadn’t been lonely. Way back in the beginning when she’d escaped the drug house with all of the dead bodies lying in pools of blood, she’d gotten her freedom, but no one to take care of or be taken care of was left, she was on her own. Louisa had been a major disappointment, but who could blame her, once she had a home to live in and food to eat. The woman had stolen over half of the money and two of the deeds to properties close by, and left when Mackie graduated from high school. She had never looked back, and Mackie didn’t chase after the woman, even if she had cried after she saw Louisa drive away for the last time. The closest thing to a family she’d ever had was Laura and Thom, but they had kids of their own, plus they would be moving away from her too. As soon as Laura retired from public office next year, they’d be gone.

She refused to base her decision about the men on a need for company. She wanted to belong, to have a family of her own, but she wouldn’t allow desperation to be part of her reason for being with the men. She thought back to laying in the hospital bed talking to Laura and lying when she said she didn’t remember the men. She remembered them all right, and as soon as she’d gotten out of the hospital and settled in her room at the Senator’s house, the stalking began.

First, she’d researched Darryl Reynolds. There was nothing in the small pockets of information of what he’d disclosed to her yesterday, only his business dealings and a divorce over a decade ago. After talking to him and hearing his story, it made her wonder if having a family was worth the heartbreak she knew he’d faced at the time.

John Fielding was a wonder boy with several degrees that had been obtained during and after his hitch in the service. He had been photographed with a few stunning women, almost all tall and slender with varying shades of red hair. The pictures she’d seen had made her laugh when looking at his face. The women were hanging onto his arm as if he might escape at any time, and his face showed that he might if he could just get those long fingernails pried out of the sleeve of his suit coat. He had also developed several medical equipment improvements, and as with Darryl’s family, there had been no mention of them.

Liam was the center hub of the men, she could see that without having read so many articles that actually said nothing of a personal nature, other than the well known stats of the second son in a family that only had to sneeze to make a million dollars. He was considered a brilliant businessman, but a pitifully poor object for the matrimonial minded females looking for a well heeled spouse.

People who were interviewed joked the three men were joined in a bond so tight that if one were to die, the other two would eat bullets to keep him company in hell. Two women had been interviewed for an expose on the families of the rich and famous, and the women swore they had been in a very heavy sexual relationship with the three men, but they never elaborated on the break-up. Or even why they no longer enjoyed being a “Love Slave” to the kinky trio.

Individual women who had dated the men one on one smiled and said very little when asked about each man. All in all her research had been disappointing to say the least. No one knew about the elaborate security set up, the vital research, or even Dorian. If she’d still been in the FBI, she would have been able to access more in depth information, but from what she was seeing, there would be very little to discover.

The kitchen was empty, but the new pot of coffee was waiting for her to help herself and she wasted no time pouring a cup. There was a box of toaster waffles on the counter, and she looked to see if the box was empty. There was two left in the plastic package, and a small plastic pillow pack of syrup sat next to the box, so she popped the things down in the toaster and she grabbed a small plate and fork to eat her breakfast with.

The men came in from outside while she was washing her plate and setting it in the drainer. They brought in the crisp scent of sunshine and fresh air, and she smiled. “I wondered what happened to you guys. Thank you for the coffee by the way. I finished off the waffles, so you might need to put them on the shopping list.” She was standing in front of the sink, and the three men stood less than five feet from her, smiling at her without saying anything to break the awkwardness that she was feeling. “What? Look, I’m not familiar with morning after rituals, the few men I’ve been with have been gone within an hour after sex, so I need some kind of direction here.”

Liam stepped right up to her and bent his head to kiss her on the lips, but she turned her head and his lips landed next to her ear. “You can’t say good morning, or hello or,” his lips captured hers and his tongue sliding between her teeth silenced her for the length of time it took to steal her breath and his hands to roam over her hips and the cheeks of her ass.

He drew his head back and looked at her face with that drowsy look that his kiss had put there, and he smiled. “Good morning, beautiful. We walked in and saw you standing there with the sun behind you, and you have to forgive me, but you looked so delicious that it took me a minute to decide which part of the picture to start kissing. I’m just a man, sugar, the sight of you makes me stupid with hunger for you. The blood leaves my brain and goes straight south.”

The sound of chairs being pulled out from the table and someone pouring coffee intruded on the small moment, but she could feel the evidence of his words lying hard between his body and hers. He was hard, and she melted. “Like I said, I’m not familiar with how things work around here yet.”

He stepped back, held one hand out, and escorted her the four steps it took for her to reclaim the chair she’d sat in earlier. Her coffee had been refreshed and each man had a cup in front of him too.

Liam looked at each of them in turn, and began talking. “We have reason to believe the threat isn’t over with yet. Yesterday Hitchcock was spouting off at the mouth, and I saw him looking at Darryl across the room, and he was mumbling about how he was going to get his soon enough. Someone else is after Darryl, someone who apparently got the information from Hitchcock on Darryl’s whereabouts and tried to get to him at the Pub.”

Mackie looked toward the big man and waited for him to put a name to the suspected people that would wish him harm. He said nothing. In fact he appeared to be skeptical when Liam disclosed the possible threat.

John was watching Darryl too, and he was frowning. “Okay, man, spill. We can see that you suspect someone, or you’d be hitting the computer to look at the list you keep of possible threats and disgruntled ex-employees.”

GreyC decided to join the people. Apparently it was time they became used to being her slaves, since she traveled from lap to lap under the table top, and popped her head up from Liam’s arm, put both paws onto the table, and hopped the rest of the way onto the shiny wooden surface. She went to Darryl and sat in front of him curling her tail around her haunches.

It was too much of a coincidence for John and he burst out laughing. “See? Even the cat knows you’re holding out on us.”

Darryl patted his chest, and GreyC rose on her back legs to place her front paws on the place he’d used to signal her. She licked his nose and batted at his mouth, and he let her head butt him before he gathered her into his arms and began rubbing her belly. He looked up and began talking.

“The siblings are fighting with the old man over money as usual, and he tried to pull at my heart strings by reminding me that they are his kids too, and I should treat them better. They want new cars and he says he doesn’t have the money, but thinks that since I work for you, I should pony up and buy them cars. I said something like I’ll buy those two snot faced brats cars when I’m dead in the ground, because that’s the only way they’d get a penny from me.” He scratched the furball’s ears, and continued, “I guess he wasn’t joking when he said that could be arranged. I knew that he didn’t give a shit about me and my mom, but when he said that, I told him to bring it. Maybe he accepted the challenge.”

He looked at Liam and asked, “What am I worth dead? Maybe a few million? If they succeed in killing me off, they’ll think it’s Christmas, at least until the will is read. My mother’s estate is supposed to go to any children that I may have, if not, it goes to the family on her side. I made it that way so blood family would get it before him and his little leeches did. Letting them have what was my mother’s would be like slapping her in the face, and he caused her enough grief when she lived. So I guess dear old Dad is going the more direct route to the money, and he doesn’t know about the patents. He thinks he’ll get Mom’s money if I die.” GreyC bit his thumb when he quit petting her for a second and he frowned at the demanding feline.

She sniffed at him, walked out of his arms, and over to John for him to pay her, her dues. Everyone smiled at the cat’s actions, and Mackie felt like they’d passed some sort of test in her mind. GreyC knew better than to plop her butt on the table, but these new people were allowing her to get away with it, and she was taking advantage of the fact. “You know that she’s going to be hard to break from hopping on the table from now on, right? I almost had her broken of the habit back at my house, and at the Senator’s place, she wasn’t allowed in the kitchen or dining rooms. Now she’s testing her limits, and you’re falling for a furry face and naughty girl attitude.”

John looked at the cat and the cat looked at him, reached up a paw and patted him on the cheek. He gathered her into his arms and buried his face in her fur. Liam shook his head and grinned at Mackie.

“Your cat spent most of the night sleeping on my chest. This morning, she got pissed off because I didn’t get up early enough for her satisfaction, so she sank her claws into my chest to wake me up. When I sat up, she went flying to the foot of the bed, so she has been nice to me this morning, once she did her thing, and ate a slice of ham. She doesn’t seem to like that crunchy dry stuff you have in the dish.”

Mackie couldn’t believe what she was hearing and seeing from these men. “Have any of you ever had a pet before?” Three heads shook back and forth, and Darryl shrugged his shoulder.

“We had horses, but they were mostly show animals and my mother loved them.” He looked at his folded hands and seemed to be lost in memories.

Mackie grinned, no wonder they didn’t realize GreyC was playing them, GreyC was the first pet they’d ever had around. She should put a stop to spoiling the cat, but she decided to let them find out for themselves, just like she had to do when dealing with them.