Guilty Pleasure (25 page)

Marty turned and stared back at him in surprise and anger.

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

For a moment, silence filled the car. Mac took the turn that led to her parents’ home and pulled slowly into the drive. Putting the Lexus in park, he turned to stare at her thoughtfully for long moments.

“You were eighteen,” he finally said. “Khalid let everyone who could possibly be a threat to his future relationship with you know that he considered your heart his own. He was a much darker person then, Marty. A man with a lot of demons. A man who even your fathers were wary of at that time.”

Marty shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Believe what you like. But this one you can take to the bank. Khalid will catch up with you. When he does, he’ll show you exactly why he waited until he couldn’t wait any longer to take you. He’ll show you the demons that fill him. I just hope you’re woman enough to accept them.”

“Woman enough to accept the third he wants in that relationship? How about woman enough to figure out when he’s fucking lying to me?” She sneered. “Do you have any idea just how pompous you sound right now?”

“Woman enough to see beneath the actions, and to accept the truth of the man who just might not realize that he’s given you his heart,” he said softly. “And that, Marty, takes a woman who’s not just strong but also understanding. I wonder if you can be both.”

She couldn’t be both, she thought, as she prepared to get out of the car.

Turning from him, she threw the door open and stalked to the house as the front door opened and her mother stood framed in the doorway.

Her mother was home. Her father must have called her, must have told her what was going on. Virginia looked well rested, but concerned and angry. Her gray eyes locked on Marty as a frown marred her still smooth brow.

Marty wouldn’t discuss this with her. Not yet. But she could hide here until her fathers arrived and she found out exactly what they were up to with Khalid and Shayne.

Khalid remained calm, though doing so wasn’t as easy as he had wished it was, while riding in the back of Joe Mathews’s limo long minutes after Mac had taken Marty from the club. Joe, Zach, and Shayne were all silent. The silence wore on his nerves, nerves that were never tested this way until this night, until tangling with Marty.

The only man who appeared unaffected by any of this was Joe. He sat back in the leather seat and simply watched Khalid.

“This is a fucking mess,” Zach muttered to Joe from where he sat at his side.

“Of course it is,” Joe agreed. “We let our emotions get involved. It’s always a mess when we allow that.”

Amusement touched Joe’s voice as Khalid watched him coldly. Beside him, he could feel the tension radiating from Shayne. Tempers were simmering, and Khalid had a feeling that holding his own in check wouldn’t last much longer.

“Damn it, Joe,” Zach cursed, his voice low. “She thinks we’re all conspiring against her.”

“You are,” Joe pointed out. “All of you have been, by not giving her the answers she’s all but demanded of you. I didn’t make that mistake.”

“You trained her too well, Zach, if you didn’t want her poking her nose in places you didn’t want her.” Shayne sat watching them, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face. “And Khalid could have saved us all the trouble if he’d simply given her details rather than an insignificant portion of the events.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion, you damned spook,” Zach bit out angrily. “You only came back to the States to tell Khalid about his brothers, hoping that he would choose you as his third. And don’t think we’re not all aware of it.”

“Enough.” Khalid watched as Joe’s gaze glittered with interest as he stared back at him. “It ends now. Once we reach the house I’ll tell her what we must.” Not that he wanted to. Hell, one question was going to lead to another, and before he knew it, the truth of his own past would come out.

Joe’s brow arched. “I’d say it’s a little late for that. I’d suggest Kevlar, if I were you. She’s ready to shoot us all.”

“If she doesn’t, then I just might.” Khalid forced himself to keep his hands in place at his side, rather than around Zach’s neck for demanding that meeting, even though he knew Marty was with Khalid and Shayne.

“I feel like I’m throwing my daughter to the fucking wolves.” Zach glowered at Khalid and Shayne.

That was exactly what he had done; it was what he had done years before, when he had allowed Marty the opportunity to join the FBI.

He had allowed his lover, Joe’s wife, to convince him otherwise. He had given in to the woman and the child he had loved, and Khalid suspected he had regretted it every day since.

“She’s your woman now,” Shayne reminded him quietly. “Would you do anything differently? And while you’re contemplating your answer, Khalid, tell me, did you ever get around to telling her about Abram and Lessa?”

“It’s too late to consider what I would have done or what I have yet to do.” What he should have done. He never should have stayed away from her. He should have taken her when she was eighteen, when she was young enough to be convinced to be a lover rather than a warrior.

And Marty was exactly that. She was a warrior, and she had years of training in facing the war she had chosen. Pulling her out of the fire wasn’t going to happen now.

“I wouldn’t blame her if she shot all of us.” Joe wiped his hand tiredly over his face as the limo pulled into the driveway of his home. “God help us all. We’re going to wish we were all dead now. Virginia’s home.”

“Then get ready to start praying,” Zach warned him.

“I started doing that weeks ago.” Joe stared back at his friend in irritation. “She’ll kill you first, though. Think about that. She knows I would have never helped conspire in keeping anything from her. I’ve just never had the details.”

“Because you refused to read the files,” Zach said angrily.

“For whatever reason.” Joe shrugged calmly. “Still, I covered my back. Let’s hope you have as well. God help you if she asked you and you lied to her.”

“I’ve never lied to her,” Zach snarled.

The limo rolled to a stop as Khalid leaned forward slowly, catching the attention of both men.

“Her protection is no longer your concern,” he stated, his tone icy, filled with purpose.

“Khalid…” A frown line snapped between Zach’s brows. He was a father first, Khalid had always known that, but in his efforts to protect his daughter he had done nothing but harm her.

“She is mine now,” he stated, his voice harsh. “You will not interfere in that, nor will you interfere in her life any longer. And the next meeting you arrange, you will do so in a venue that she can attend. No more secrets, period.”

But he was guilty of his own secrets, and Khalid knew it.

Joe groaned. “Taking her out of it now will be impossible.”

“And now she could be facing a nightmare if my brothers manage to get their hands on her.” Rage ate inside Khalid like a corrosive acid at the thought of the evil his half brothers had focused toward him. “It is my past that endangers her, and I will ensure that it endangers her no longer.”

With an irritated flick of his wrist he jerked the door open, rather than wait on Abdul, and stepped from the car.

Pausing, Khalid watched as the other men exited the vehicle. Shayne was the last to step out. His gaze swept the area, eyes narrowed and piercing as he searched for any threats.

Marty was like this as well. Wherever she went, whatever she was doing, she was always particularly aware of her surroundings and all that was going on.

“Time to pay the piper,” he heard Joe mutter to Zach as they headed toward the house. “Virginia isn’t going to be happy with us. You know, if you paid attention to me more often, we wouldn’t get in nearly so much trouble.”

They often bickered like close brothers. Young ones, at that.

“No one holds a gun to your head,” Zach snorted. “That innocent act isn’t going to get you very far with her.”

“Farther than you’ll get.” There was a hint of amusement there that made Khalid want to shake his head.

At that moment the front door opened and Khalid nearly came to a stop as Virginia Mathews stood glaring at the four of them.

Shoulders tense and thrown back, her delicate frame nearly quivering with anger, her gray eyes shot furious daggers at all of them.

“Now Ginny, it’s not as bad as she thinks it is,” Joe started out. He held up his hands as though to halt the angry words before they poured from her lips.

“I can’t believe the four of you.” She didn’t limit her anger to her husband, her lover, or the men in her daughter’s life. Hell no. She was pissed at all of them.

Stepping into the house, the four men faced not just an angry mother but a furious daughter as well. Marty stood at the far end of the entryway, arms crossed over her breasts, her gray eyes narrowed on them all.

“Finished with your little visit?” She directed her ire at Khalid.

“For the moment.” He shrugged as though that anger didn’t faze him, when in fact he swore he could feel his balls drawing up in primal fear. She looked ready to kill. “I’m certain there will be more in the future, though.”

“Come into the kitchen.” Joe flexed his shoulders as though expecting a lash to descend upon them. “Hell, I’m going to need coffee for this.”

“And you think explanations are going to fix this?” Virginia asked incredulously. “Joe, I’ve warned you about playing with her life. I’ve warned both of you.” She shot Zach a fulminating look as well. “I have a mind to pack my bags and move in with my daughter. God only knows how the two of you have worked me over the years.”

Khalid kept his expression closed, cool. He noticed Joe and Zach did the same. It wouldn’t do to allow the graceful yet renowned temper of Virginia Mathews free. She was a spitfire, and one that knew how to slice the meat from a man’s bones at forty paces.

“Coffee.” As they entered the kitchen Zach headed to the coffeepot; Marty kept a wide distance between herself and everyone else.

She did that a lot
, Khalid thought.

“Marty, Virginia, please.” Joe indicated the chairs at the kitchen table. “Let’s sit down.”

They sat, albeit reluctantly, both women staring at the other two men as though they had grown fangs and horns in the past hours.

“Things are a bit complicated,” Joe finally stated, as Zach paced back to the table and everyone took a seat. “And it’s all Zach’s fault.”

Zach shot him a vengeful glare.

“With the two of you involved, that doesn’t surprise me,” Virginia snapped. “You deliberately make things difficult. And don’t even bother playing innocent with me, Joe.”

“We do what we have to do, Ginny.” The edge of weariness in Zach’s tone had Khalid’s gaze shifting from Marty’s angry expression to the resolute determination in Joe’s.

“Enough.” Joe leaned forward, his penetrating gaze locked on Marty now. “You’re angry, but without cause, Marty. No one here has lied to you. We’ve simply attempted to ensure you were kept safe while trying to apprehend Khalid’s half brothers, and whomever they sent here in an attempt to kill you that day your car was shot at. We know they were involved in it, but knowing it and proving it are two separate things.”

“Dad, I hate it when you talk around me.” Marty leaned forward, laying her arms on the table as she glared at Joe. “You called that meeting tonight, knowing I couldn’t be included in it because of where it was. You could have moved Khalid’s brother here, or to your house, and no one would have known. Instead, you kept it there, where Khalid had no choice but to lie to me, or to have me so curious that I followed. You used him.” She leaned forward, fury etched on her face. “And I don’t appreciate it.” Her gaze turned to Khalid, her eyes dark with anger. “And you. You allowed them to do it for most of your life.”

“No one used me, precious,” he assured her with a hint of steel in his tone. “If anything, I used them to achieve my own plans to destroy Azir Mustafa. We just haven’t managed it yet.” His gaze narrowed on her then.

“And the meeting tonight had nothing to do with you,” Zach finished for him. “That simple.”

“You had to get into that club,” Khalid growled at her. “Just as you had to get to that meeting, despite my best attempts to keep you from it.” He met her gaze directly. “You couldn’t wait for explanations; you couldn’t ask questions. Instead, you felt the need to slip around as though I would lie to you rather than meet your questions head-on.”

Marty stared back at him, wondering if somehow the world had tilted on its axis, or if there had been a particular mental plague that affected only the males of the species.

“As though questions were going to get me anywhere,” she snapped back. “You forget, Khalid, I know exactly how secretive you are, and every time I start to ask a question you conveniently have something else to do.”

“Something such as protecting you. It was my fault you were in danger. It was my job to fix it.”

Khalid seemed perfectly serious, and no one around the table was disputing his statement.

“What kind of game are you playing now, Khalid?” Indignation rose inside her. “Do I look as though I’m stupid? That I’m not well aware of the attempts you make to ensure my attention is diverted? That you’re hiding things from me? Perhaps if you weren’t so damned evasive it might be easier to believe you.”

Black eyes flickered with impatience as she glared at him, refusing to blush at the certainty that her parents would know exactly the tactics he used.

“It’s definitely difficult to tell you the truth. Your suspicious nature makes it damned hard to tell you what we suspect.” He grunted. “Nonetheless, it is exactly that, the truth. The meetings between Abram, your fathers, and myself are for an exchange of information and security concerns. Certain factions have become suspicious, though. To allay that suspicion, we meet at the club, to make sure that Abram and I never appear as though we are working together once again, as we did in the past with your godfather.”