Secrets and Satin: A MacKenzie Novel (Romantic Suspense) (MacKenzie Family) (16 page)

“I think you’re out of your damned mind,” Cade said the next morning. “You can’t think to actually meet Vassin without any backup.”

“Tell me how you really feel, MacKenzie. I don’t think the rest of the people on this floor heard you.”

Elena had manipulated the security f
eed in the hallway and elevator so he and Jade could sneak down to Dec’s room. The team was already gathered around the breakfast table downing gallons of coffee and looking at the maps he and Jade had already studied until he felt like his eyes would start bleeding. And it seemed like Cade was in a pisser of a mood.

“Call me crazy, but it just seems like a bad idea to go waltzing into enemy territory alone and expect to walk away again.”

“There’s no other way,” Max said patiently. “We’re between a rock and hard place until the senator’s daughter is located. We have to play out this farce and hope Vassin stays on the hook. As long as he thinks I’ve got a product to sell, he’ll be willing to bite. If we scare him away, he’ll probably kill the girl and leave the country. At least for a while. This is the only way we have a chance of getting them both.”

Cade paced back and fo
rth in front of the window, his scowl black as irritation came off him in waves.

“What’s with him?” Max asked Brant. “He’s usually an asshole, but he seems to be in fine form this morning.” Max’s brows raised in surprise as Cade growled at him.

“He talked to Bayleigh this morning,” Brant answered. “She said she’s been getting pains every once in a while, but she thinks it’ll be a few days yet until the baby comes.”

“Damned woman said she was going into work,” Cade said, turning to face them. “Can you believe that? I told her no one would want to buy lingerie if she was giving birth in the middle of the floor.”

“It’d be a hell of a statement for birth control,” Brant said, smiling.

Cade shot him a scowl and continued his pacing.

“I told you to take the next flight out,” Dec said patiently.

It was obvious to Max they’d been having this discussion long before he and Jade showed
up.

“She told me not to come home.” Cade was so clearly insulted by this Max had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “She said I had to stay because the family needed me and that the baby would be ready by the time I got
back. Apparently, she can see into the future now. Doesn’t she know babies come when they want to?”

Max felt some unknown emotion swell inside of him. Cade might bitch and moan and worry, but he would stay
and do this mission because they needed him. When Bayleigh called to tell him the time was near, he’d be out the door and on the next plane in a hurry, but he’d stay as long as he could. Max knew the MacKenzies considered him part of the family and that any one of them would be there to back him up if needed.

“
I swear this is the last time we’re doing this,” Cade went on. “Pregnancy takes a perfectly sane and intelligent woman and turns her into something not even I would want to face in the dark.”

“You said you weren’t going to do this again the last time she was pregnant too,” Declan said. “Clearly her vow to make you sleep outside for the rest of your life didn’t take.”

Cade
stopped his pacing and grinned. “It turns out she changed her mind. I’m hard to resist.”

Jade and Elena snorted out a laugh, and Max felt a pang of jealousy at what Cade and Brant both had. They knew their love
with their wives was secure and would never be thrown back in their faces. They’d found women who complemented them in every way—women who would stand by them no matter what.

“May
be if we got back to work, it wouldn’t worry you so much,” Dec said. He pointed to the area of the map where Vassin had designated as the meeting spot. “There’s nothing out here but desert.” He looked over at Max, his brows drawn in thought. “We’re not going to do you much good if you need fast backup unless we came in by air.” Dec scratched at the scar along his jaw and gave him a steely look out of eerie gray eyes. “The closest cover is more than a mile away in this mountain area, but there aren’t any easy roads to get there.”

“No,” Max said, shaking his head. “You’re better off continuing the search for the girl
and waiting it out here. Vassin’s more than likely going to be pissed after our meeting. If your gut’s telling you she’s in northern California, then you and the team should head in that direction.”

“Yes, because I always leave my agents high and dry without backup in the middle of a mission.”

“That sounded surprisingly like sarcasm,” Jade said. “I think he’s starting to mellow.”

“Ha, are you kidding me?” Cade asked. “I’ve never known anyone who needs to get laid so bad.”

“Max met a very nice prostitute last night at the boxing match,” Jade said, tongue in cheek. “I’m sure he’d be glad to introduce you.”

Dec growled and said, “If you guys could step off my balls for a minute I’d like to get this hashed out. I can read between the lines as to why you don’t want backup from us,” he said to Max
. “But have you considered all the variables for what you have planned?” Dec turned his attention to Jade. “What do you think? The sun could be a problem, depending on where you have to set up.”

“The sun will be directly overhead. It’ll be fine.”

“You know, sometimes it’d be nice for you to actually say whatever the hell you’re thinking so the rest of us know what you’re talking about,” Cade said irritably. “That cryptic bullshit gets old.”

“Amen to that,” Brant said, lounging back in the chair. 

“
The plan is simple,” Dec said, his smile not at all comforting. “Max is going to meet with Martin Vassin. Alone.”

***

Red sand kicked up from beneath the tires of the Jeep as Max navigated off the main road, following the coordinates that had been mapped out for him. The sun was directly overhead, a red ball of flame that reflected off the sand and made the eyes water with its intensity.

Dec hadn’t been kidding when he’d said there was nothing for miles around. Desert stretched out in all directions
, except for the range of mountains directly in front of him. It took him more than half an hour to reach the designated area, and he wasn’t at all surprised to see two black Jeeps similar to his own and another helicopter. Men lounged against the sides of the vehicles, their weapons visible and dark sunglasses covering their eyes.

Max stopped the Jeep and watched as a man got out of the back seat of one of the vehicles.
Martin Vassin wasn’t a big man, but he carried himself with an air that only a man who thought he was important could manage to pull off. Despite the hundred degree temperature, his suit was dark and crisp, and he adjusted his tie before his men gathered at his sides. His hair was dark and silvered at the temples and his complexion was pitted with scars. He was a gangster in a three-thousand dollar suit. Nothing more, no matter what title he tried to give himself to pretty it up.

Max pulled on his baseball cap and opened the door of the Jeep, letting his feet sink into the sand. His eyes stung, even through the protection of his sunglasses
, and already he could feel the grittiness in his teeth.

Vassin’s guards took a protective stance as he came closer, and Max almost smiled at their confusion. They wanted him to be afraid, to know who was running the show
, and Max wasn’t giving them the satisfaction.

Impressions were important to a man like Martin Vassin, and he knew exactly what they saw when they looked at him.
They saw a man carelessly dressed in old jeans and a T-shirt with a baseball cap pulled low over his shaggy hair. It didn’t matter that Max could’ve bought and sold Martin Vassin a hundred times. Appearance mattered to him and it was part of his power trip to look more sophisticated, more powerful than his enemy. Max knew exactly how to play him.

“I don’t see a suitcase full of money,” Max called out as he stopped
about fifteen feet away, drawing his line in the sand.

Vassin’s smile was sharp and cruel. “I was under the impression a man such as yourself didn’t need my money.” His gaze raked Max from head to toe. “Perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps the rumors are true and you are no longer the one to control the Devlin fortune.”

“My fortune is fine. Much larger than yours the last time I checked. This is a business transaction. If you don’t have the money, then I don’t have the information. It’s simple enough.” Max turned his back to head back to the Jeep and he felt the movement behind him.

“Just a minute, Mr. Devlin. You don’t expect to leave here so easily, do you? I want that information. And I plan to get it.”

Hands grabbed the back of his shoulders, and he was spun around to face Vassin again. His men had spread out, and the two restraining him checked him over for weapons before taking a step back.

“He’s clean,” one of the guards called out.

Vassin’s brows rose in surprise. “You’re either very brave or very stupid, Mr. Devlin.”

“I’ve been called worse,” he said, shrugging.

Vassin chuckled, his eyes filled with curiosity. “This is what we’re going to do. You and I are going to get in the helicopter and go to my home. You’re going to give me the locations for the weapons convoy, and once you do and the information has been verified, you’ll be free to leave. Without my money.”

“And if I choose not to go with you?”

“Then I’m going to put a bullet in each of your knees and leave you lying here in the desert. You won’t die right away, but the buzzards will still feed off your flesh. I’ll come back again tomorrow and see if you’ve changed your mind about giving me the information.”

“Huh,” Max said, taking off his cap and running his fingers through his hair. “That’s pretty creative of you. But I think I have a better idea.”

Vassin’s smile grew bigger. “I can’t wait to be enlightened. You’re an entertaining man, Mr. Devlin.”

Max held up the hat in his hand seconds before a sh
ot rang out and a bullet flew right through the center of it. Vassin’s men had their weapons up, pointing at Max, but Vassin was smart enough to wave them back.

“The next one is centered to go right through your forehead,” Max said. “
Your toy soldiers might take me out, but not before you join me. Are we clear?”

Vassin nodded and waved a hand for his men to put their weapons away, and they all did as he asked.

“Now let me tell you what we’re going to do. I’m going to walk back to my Jeep and drive away. My price has just doubled again. I expect to see half of the money delivered to a place of my choosing within the next six hours. You’ll call me in exactly five hours and fifty minutes for the location. If it’s not in my hands in six hours, I’m going to get on a plane and fly to London, where I’m supposed to meet Jarron Sikes. He’s very interested in the information I have to offer. And he knows better than to try and fuck me over.”

Vassin’s expression turned deadly at the mention of his closest competitor.

“Once you show your good faith with the first half of the payment, you and I will meet again at a time and place of my choosing, where you’ll give the second payment to my associate and I’ll relay the information you’ve purchased.”

Max wadded the ball cap in his hands and smiled at Vassin. “Six hours,” he repeated. And then he turned around and walked back to the Jeep just like he said he would. He didn’t let out the breath he’d been holding until he was back
on the main road, speeding toward the city of sin. 

It took almost two hours to drive back into the city, and by then Max was starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t liked the calculating look that had come into Vassin’s eyes just before he’d left, and he knew without a doubt Vassin would be thinking of a way he could double cross Max. Again.

His phone vibrated against the passenger seat, and he picked it up, expecting to hear Jade’s voice on the other end of the line.

“I’ve got a confirmation from Shane,” Dec said instead. “The girl has been spotted at Vassin’s California residence, but we’re going to wait to coordinate the rescue with your next meeting. We don’t want to take the chance of them killing her.”

“He’s got less than four hours until the first delivery has to be made
, but my gut isn’t feeling all that great about the transaction. He’s going to try to screw me over.”

“Have him make the first drop in a public place. The casino should work nicely for what you have in mind, and the rest of us can spread out to watch for any tricks.
We’ll already be in place long before he contacts you.”

Max’s anxiety eased some after he hung up the phone. The ball was in his hands, and it was his show to run. He only wished that one small nagging piece of doubt wasn’t eating away at him.

***

Jade took the mountain pass instead
of the desert road that Max had to take, so she was back to the hotel long before he was. She changed out of her dusty clothes and got in the shower, scrubbing away the sweat and grime of the afternoon. That hadn’t been an easy shot to make, and the conditions up in the mountain where she’d set up had been less than ideal.