Mackie's Men (9 page)

Dr. John Fielding was thirty-eight years old, six foot four, and by her estimation two hundred thirty pounds. Blue eyes and his hair was a light brown, almost blond in color. He was considered a bit of a genius. He had served in a field hospital during the invasion of Iraq, and added a second tour in Afghanistan. He was graceful, and watching him workout on the horse and rings in the video she’d seen had been a pleasure. He had two groupings of tattoos, but the only one she could make out from the video had puzzled her. His forte as she’d read was in researching antidotes and developing vaccines against chemical weapons.

Liam Kennedy Klinger was the second son born to Drummond and Teresa Klinger. His older brother was Thornton Kennedy Klinger. From all accounts even the sister, Carla, was saddled with their mother’s maiden name of Kennedy for a middle name.

He was six feet four inches tall, thirty-six years old, and had reddish brown hair and blue eyes. He was also built almost as big as Darryl was. He had a few tats on his chest and shoulders, but he didn’t have nearly the intricate artwork that Darryl sported. He too had been in the Middle East fighting. Only he hadn’t been on the ground, he flew a bomber jet, and had a string of ribbons and medals to match his exploits. When he’d told her the three of them weren’t helpless, he hadn’t been lying.

The pictures in the dossier on her desk showed the three men at the gym, in a dojo, and in a wrestling ring. She knew that every man owned several guns, and those were just the ones that were registered to them. They were individuals that carried similar traits and each man wore the
same tat on their upper chest.
A three flamed fire was an unusual tattoo with vivid coloring, and she wondered at the meaning.

No matter how deep she dug, there was no mention of how they met, or any permanent female companions. Rumors and speculations ran from gay to kinky and straight when she spoke to a few people about any of the men. Maybe she would eek out some information on her date, but she wouldn’t hold her breath. The best she could hope for would be a pleasant dinner and conversation. At least for tonight.

She walked into the pub and wasn’t surprised to see the place was almost filled to capacity. She stood by the door to try to find Liam, but there were too many people blocking her line of sight, and it creeped her out a little. She hated crowds of people. In her profession, a crowd of people could contain who knew how many potential assassins. Deciding to walk further into the room, she began dodging waitresses and people balancing drinks in an effort to get to their tables without spilling the contents of the glasses. She glanced toward the bar and saw a tall man with a moustache and bald head waving his fingers at her to keep going to the back of the room. She pointed at herself and he nodded his head and smiled. She smiled back and kept walking.

Liam must have asked the man to watch out for her and direct her to his table. It was a nice thing for him to do, and for some reason, the knowledge made her feel warm inside. She still hadn’t seen Liam in any of the booths or at the scattered tables as she was almost to the back wall when her arm was grasped just above the elbow of her right side. She stopped in her tracks and slowly looked to see if she should have cause for concern.

“Liam asked me to bring you to the room, this place is always a crush on Friday nights. I told the dumbass that he should have picked a less popular place to have this meeting, but he figured that you would want to be in a public place the first time. And by the way, you look beautiful tonight.” Darryl Reynolds was talking and almost mowing people down as he pulled her along through the short hallway and she was surprised she hadn’t questioned his presence.

He didn’t even stop when they reached one of the small meeting rooms, he just opened the door and almost shoved her inside the room before he came in behind her and shut and locked the door. “Now she’s wondering if I’m going to try to kill her or fuck her. I told you that you should have picked a place that would be quieter,” Darryl said to Liam, even as he took her arm again and escorted her to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit in, before scooting her forward and sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the table.

The only thing on the table was a leather soft-side file case, and an electronic notebook. There were no drinks, not even a bowl of popcorn in the room, and she was getting the impression that she had been lured here for something other than for Liam to whisper sweet words into her shell like ears. Fuck, just her luck to be attracted to someone who wanted to use her for reasons other than a bed partner. Men like these didn’t go for scarred oversized women with brains, and she should have known better than to allow vanity to override reality.

So much for Laura’s giddy excitement that the handsome Mr. Klinger was romantically interested in Mackie. She’s chatted along as they finally picked out the pretty royal blue dress that was short enough to be fashionable, yet long enough not to show her ass when she sat down. The five inch heels did awesome things for her legs and the way she walked too.

Liam was still on the phone talking in French, if she wasn’t mistaken, and she was about done with this charade. It had been a good ten minutes since she’d walked into the room and sat down. She turned her inquiring eyes toward Darryl. “Is this a business meeting? I must have gotten the wrong impression when Mr. Klinger called earlier. I haven’t eaten dinner, being under the assumption that food would be on the schedule. So if you don’t mind, we can reschedule this meeting for another time. My stomach thinks my throat’s been slit, and it is making me aware that I haven’t eaten since early this morning. Call me tomorrow and I will try to fit you in my schedule for a meeting.” She stood and walked toward the door.
So much for a romantic evening, this was a big waste of time.

The old saying “for a big man, he sure moves fast” filtered through her mind, as Darryl Reynolds hand hit the doorknob before she had it in her outstretched hand. She turned her head and waited for his explanation before she did something physical to him that she might regret later.

“Settle down there, Liam is talking to his grandmother. Isabella Kennedy never stops talking until she is ready, and Liam loves the old girl so he let’s her compromise his time. You can understand that, can’t you?”

She turned around and folded her arms over her chest and stared at Darryl for a moment, then turned her gaze toward Liam. His face was almost comical as he rolled his eyes and listened to the person on the other end of the airwaves. He was nodding his head and she almost burst into laughter as he made a rolling gesture with his empty hand, another eye roll and she had to put her hand over her mouth as she choked on her laughter.

Darryl met her eyes and nodded his head. “She speaks English as well as one born to it, but insists on speaking in French because she has decided it is the only civilized language left in the modern world.” He nodded his head toward Liam who was pacing back and forth, now holding the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. “The interesting part is that Liam doesn’t speak French other than a few phrases that he learned in high school, and few of those phrases are something you would want to say to a ninety-four-year-old grandmother. Even if she was a former burlesque showgirl back in the late nineteen thirties and early forties.”

Mackie couldn’t stop the giggles, her eyes were tearing up from the pressure being held back from shouting in laughter. She had to look away from the pacing man, and she held her hand up to stop Darryl from continuing his explanation. He was still watching Liam and grinning.

She couldn’t speak, if she did open her mouth words would have to wait until she was finished laughing. His next comments finished her off, there was no stopping her from laughing out loud.

“Every time she’s around, John and I have to keep our backs to the wall. She has a habit of pinching our asses. One time she asked me if I was attracted to older women, and I made the mistake of saying I had met some very attractive ladies of a certain age.” He turned his head to watch her laugh and continued, “You can laugh, the old gal scares me. Don’t even get me started about her ninetieth birthday celebration. All I will say is that I don’t care how rude it might be, I won’t sit next to her again. You will have to ask John how it felt to have her lay her hand on his thigh during dinner and squeezing it. He dropped his glass of wine, and she insisted on helping him by dabbing at his crotch with her napkin. I had to get up and leave the room when she invited him to her room at the hotel to change out of his wet pants.”

Mackie was laughing out loud and the more he talked the harder and longer she laughed. Her eye make-up was probably leaving mascara trails down her cheeks but she couldn’t do anything about it. The old woman sounded like a hoot, and she would give a week’s paycheck to see the three men having to deal with a ninety-year-old wild child. She could only say “I, you, oh.” Not very coherent at all, but that was the extent of her attempt at conversation.

The shushing sound from across the room just added fuel to the fire. She bent down to pick up her purse to find a tissue, and overbalanced in the five inch heels. Luckily Darryl caught her and held her in his arms for long moments. He pulled a clean handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped her cheeks, all the while telling her more about the little old woman with the libido of a teenager.

“You think that’s funny, huh? Well you would have had the guys with the white jackets come and take you away when we had to dance with her at the Governor’s Annual Ball. She kept playing grab ass, and Liam had to socialize with the dignitaries while we babysat her. One old guy who had been courting the lovely Isabella for a while, challenged me to a fistfight over the honor of dancing with her. I gave in too easily and she didn’t forgive me for that. She sicc’d her dear companion the prissy Mz. Darling on me. Trust me, that woman was the bible thumper from hell. Sadly the delightful lady went to meet her maker last year.”

He finished wiping her face and ran the corner of the material under her eyes one last time, and said, “There, good as new.” He leaned further down and kissed her lightly on the lips, then placed another whisper soft kiss on the end of her nose before assisting her back to her seat, and retrieving her purse from the floor.

Surprise was the reason she didn’t deck him for taking advantage. At least that’s what she told herself. She hadn’t imagined the kiss, it was brief, but it happened. He had given her more human contact in the few minutes than she’d had in years and she didn’t know what to do or say about it. If she examined her feelings about it, she would be forced to admit that she liked feeling feminine. She refused to say or admit she felt almost safe in his arms as he wiped the tears of laughter from her cheeks. It was crazy. She needed to get a hold on herself and stop this shit before she turned into some apron wearing doormat. That wasn’t her style. Deciding to ignore what happened was her way of dealing for now and she nodded to herself in reassurance.

She tried to formulate a sentence and decided to continue the topic of Liam’s grandmother. Before she opened her mouth, Liam said something that sounded like well spoken French to her untrained ears, “
Grand-mère, s'il te plait, arrêtes d'appeler l'infirmière par des noms coquins, et tu ne devrais pas pincer les fesses de John le jardinier. Sois sage, et je viendrais te voir le mois prochain. Je t'aime
,”
and pushed the button to end the call. He tossed the phone on the table and she had to smile at the way his hands went to his hair and he pulled two fist fulls away from his head and groaned.

His hair spiked upwards and Darryl laughed. She turned her head to hide a smile. This had to be one of the strangest evenings she’d participated in for as long as she could remember. Who knew that these men were such comedians? Darryl had purposefully made her laugh, but Liam was unaware of the picture he presented to his audience. The hair spikes resembled short red toned horns and his face was red from whatever his grandmother had said at the end of their conversation.

Darryl spoke up and brought Liam’s attention back to the people in the room. “You’re horns are showing man, the sweet Isabella giving you advice again?”

Liam flipped him the bird and Darryl laughed out loud for the first time, and Mackie had to smile at his enjoyment at Liam’s expense.

Liam shook his head and gave her a long look, before holding out his hand expecting her to take it in hers. When she gave hers into his hand, he pulled her to her feet and stared at her for a heartbeat before pulling her closer and bending to kiss her lightly on the lips.