MARCUS (Dragon Security Book 4) (14 page)

Megan

“How is she?” I asked, gesturing to Cadence Price. She was on the couch beside Marcus, her head resting on his shoulder as she gave her statement to the local police. She shuddered as they brought the body out of the bedroom, hidden in a black body bag. Marcus whispered something in her ear and she turned her attention back to the detectives, but what little color that had been left in her cheeks was gone now.

“She had no choice,” Hayden said, as though that explained it all.

I nodded, wishing there was something I could do or say to help her understand that. But there was no getting around the fact that she’d taken a life. And Cadence was a nurse. It must have been horrifying for her, given that she dedicated her life to helping people. She’d volunteered to be that woman’s surrogate, for goodness sakes!

“Do we know what the motive was?”

“No. She didn’t say anything, apparently.”

I turned away. “Get them to a hotel as quickly as possible. Then bring in a team to clean up the mess. We don’t want to leave her too many reminders.”

“Where will you be?”

“Blake Zimmerman is waiting at the morgue to identify his wife’s body. I have a couple of questions for him.”

The moment I’d gotten the call about the shooting, I’d flown down on my father’s other jet—the bigger jet was already here because it’d brought Vincent and Hayden—with Blake Zimmerman at my side. I hadn’t told him everything. He didn’t learn of his wife’s death until we arrived. I’d let the cops tell him, hoping to catch something on his face that would offer more by way of explanation. He was clearly devastated, but there was more than that there. And I wanted to know what was behind it.

I drove my rental to the morgue. Blake was alone, sitting on a low bench outside the viewing room.

“They’re preparing her body.”

I sat beside him. “Did you have any idea that your wife had followed Cadence here?”

“No. I thought she was with friends.”

“Did you know she was in Abilene before this?”

“No.” He looked at me. “She told me that she was going to Austin to be with friends. I had no idea.”

“And the night at the restaurant?”

“Annie was home with me. That wasn’t her.”

I studied his face. He looked me in the eye when he said it. I believed him.

“What about the cabin?”

He looked away again.

“Do you own an AK-47 assault rifle?”

“Is this an interrogation?” He stood, turning on me, anger snapping in his eyes. “My wife was just murdered. Do you really think now is the time?”

“I think it’s the best time.”

He glared at me before turning to face the wall so that he didn’t have to look at me.

“I own an assault rifle. But I own a lot of guns. It’s my legal right.”

“I’m aware.”

“But that doesn’t mean I knew my wife was going to do this.”

“Did you know there was an insurance policy on Cadence?”

“I did.”

“Did you know you and your wife were the beneficiaries?”

“Do you really think we needed the money?” He looked at me then. “I was very successful in the NFL, Ms. Bradford. You’ve seen my home.”

“I’ve also seen your bank records. You spend more every month than you have coming in.”

He frowned. “Isn’t there some law against that?”

I smiled softly. “The cops are going to see the same thing. They’re going to have the same questions.”

“Those accounts belong to my wife, and she had a spending problem. I have other accounts that are in the black. I didn’t need the money.”

“But your wife did?”

“Look, Ms. Bradford, my wife had problems. She had this heart condition and it left her depressed most of the time. She treated her depression with shopping. I was okay with that, I could afford that. I let her do her thing, she let me do mine.”

“Having a baby. Whose thing was that?”

“Mine. Annie…she never wanted kids. She didn’t want anything to do with it. But she promised to behave whenever Cadence was around so that she would think that we were both wholeheartedly in on it. But the baby was to be mine. Annie wanted nothing to do with it.”

“Was she jealous?”

He snorted. There was pain in his eyes as he met mine.

“I was never a good guy, especially when it came to women. I used and discarded more women than I’m proud to admit. Until Annie. Until I met the love of my life. But it was all just a cosmic joke.” He ran his hands over his head. “Annie was cut from the same cloth as I am. She used and discarded men like I did women. And I was one of those men. The only reason she married me was the money. When I put her on a budget, all the rules went out the window. She and I…we hadn’t shared a bed in months. Couldn’t even be in the same room without fighting. The only reason she didn’t leave me was because I continued to fill her accounts every month.”

I stood and went to him. He crumbled when he felt my touch.

I held this huge, hulking man as he sobbed for the love he could never truly have. His pain reminded me of my own. I knew what it was like to continue loving someone who no longer loved you.

He never moved on. But I could.

I should.

Cadence

I woke in the hospital, groggy as I came to from the sedative the doctor had insisted on administering the night before. The sun was shining brightly through white blinds, filling the room with an opaque sort of light. I could see the IV in my hand and feel the heavy bandages on my shoulder. I had a headache and knew it was a side effect of what little chloroform I’d breathed in. My body ached everywhere due to the bruises and muscle aches from the last few days’ adventures.

It was over. Despite the nightmare that I would always have to live with, I was relieved to know it was over. The cops had explained that Annie was cheating on Blake and she’d hoped that my death would allow her enough money to escape him, thanks to the life insurance policy I had foolishly allowed them to take out on me.

It was over. I was afraid to wonder what that really meant.

I reached up to touch my forehead, to wipe away the thin sheet of sweat that hung out there. But someone took my hand, catching it before it was more than a few inches from the mattress.

“Cadence?”

Marcus, his face gray with worry and exhaustion, stood and leaned over me.

“You’re here.”

“Of course I’m here. Where else would I be?”

He kissed me gently, his lips the best medicine I could ever need.

I touched his face, my finger brushing against a butterfly bandage holding a small section of his skin together.

“I guess I cut myself breaking through the doors at the bungalow.”

“I’m sorry.”

He chuckled. “I’ve been shot at for days and this is the only wound I got. I think I’m pretty lucky.”

“Maybe your luck will wear off on me.”

“Maybe.”

He kissed me again. “So, the doctors say that you’re free to go this afternoon. I thought we’d rent a car, take a leisurely route back to Texas. Get to know each other a little better without the whole bullets flying and everything.”

“Yeah? And then what?”

He studied my face for a long moment. “I don’t have a lot to offer you, Cadence. I live out of a crappy hotel that has a weekly rate. I don’t have many belongings. I make good money, but I’m not worth anything like what you are.”

“Money doesn’t matter.”

He brushed a piece of hair out of my face. “I want to see where this might go… if you’re up for it.”

I hesitated, watching the emotion dance in his eyes. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m not really easy to live with. I like to steal all the covers and I like my kitchen organized in a particular way. And I don’t really like dogs. Are you a cat person?”

Amusement came into his eyes. “I can give it a try.”

“My apartment is kind of small, but we can look for a house. I’ve always wanted a backyard.”

He groaned. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”

“If you’re sure you want to put up with me. I can be a little difficult.”

“Very difficult. But I think it might be worth it.”

I drew him close to me, nibbled on his bottom lip a little. “I love you,” I whispered. “I know it’s only been a few days, but I know in my heart that I love you and you’re the family I was meant to have.”

“I love you.”

He kissed me roughly. I think I heard the door open, but whoever it was backed quietly away as we clung to each other, a few tears spilling between us.

But they were happy tears.

Megan

“More names,” Sam said, setting a couple of pieces of paper in front of me. Listed alphabetically were lists of many names, some were French in origin, some not. They were names associated with a terrorist cell that was active in France two years ago when my asset, Dominic Gil, was working with a CIA operative in Paris. Emily Greene was killed several weeks ago for a set of files she kept on her computer, files that were her attempt to reveal the hierarchy of that terrorist cell. We think she was successful, but before we could see all the files, a computer virus corrupted them. Sam was working to fix that.

“I’ll have Hayden and Dante check them out.”

She nodded. “Are you headed to your family thing?”

I glanced at myself in the handheld mirror I’d been using to apply a subtle amount of makeup. I didn’t wear makeup often and when I did, sometimes I didn’t recognize the face that looked back at me in the mirror.

“I think Cole and Amber are going to announce that they’re pregnant. That that’s why they moved up the wedding a few weeks.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“I don’t know how to feel about it. I love Cole and Amber…she’s good people. And she makes him so happy.”

“But?”

“But I’m jealous as hell and I can’t make myself stop feeling jealous.”

“That’s understandable, Megan.”

“I know, I just…” I looked at her. “I miss Luke. As much as I lecture myself, and remind myself that he didn’t want me—that he was the one who chose to walk away—I miss him.”

“I do, too. And I’m angry for what he did to you and for what he did to the rest of us. He was my friend, too. And Peter’s and Cole’s and Hayden…” she shook her head. “He had no right to just leave us all behind like that.”

“I wanted to believe he had a good reason, something he couldn’t tell us. But the longer he’s gone, the harder it is to believe that.”

Sam came around the desk and offered me a hug. “I know about you and Dante.”

I blushed. “I should have told you.”

“I know why you didn’t. But I think it’s good for you. You need to move on and maybe this is the first step.”

I sat back, studied her for a minute. “The thing is I don’t think being with Dante is moving on. It feels like moving sideways.” I blushed a little, my thoughts roaming over his body, his touch. “He reminds me of Luke.”

Sam’s eyebrows rose. “Does he?”

“His voice. The way he looks at me. His touch…” The blush deepened. “I don’t know what it is, Sam. I know in my head he’s not Luke, but my heart thinks something much different.”

“He’s not Luke.” She took my hand and drew me close to her. “I wish you wouldn’t do this to yourself. Luke…he’s gone. He might come back, but the longer he’s gone, the less likely that is. You have to learn to accept that. You can’t punish yourself this way forever.”

“I know. But, like I said, my head knows one thing, but my heart thinks a totally different thing.”

She leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Go hang out with your family. Be happy. This will all work out if you let it.”

That I knew, too. I guess I just wasn’t ready.

Cole lifted a glass of champagne as PJ, our nephew and Amber’s beautiful little boy, squealed in Momma’s arms.

“To family. To friends. To love and happiness and respect.”

“Here, here,” Daddy said, holding out his own glass.

Amber looked up at my brother, simply beaming. She was so clearly in love that it was almost painful to see. And Cole…the feeling was very mutual. It was written in every line of his handsome face. My little brother, who slept with all of my friends in high school with the exception only of Sam—which I think always offended her a little—who spent his time in the military moving from place to place, leaving dozens of broken hearts in his wake, had finally found a woman who won his heart and made him want to be monogamous. I never would have believed it possible. But here he was, so clearly in love. And not just with Amber, but with PJ, too.

Peter would be pleased to see that his former lover had found happiness and that they were raising his son together, raising him with love and respect and everything a child deserves.

“So tell us,” Momma suddenly demanded. “Why are we rushing this wedding? What happened to a Christmas ceremony?”

“Can’t it just be that we’re anxious to make our family official?” Cole asked.

“No,” Momma, Daddy, and I said in a chorus.

Amber blushed, but Cole just laughed. He knew us. And he knew we knew him.

“We’re pregnant!”

There were cheers and laughter. Somehow I ended up with PJ in my arms, and he was laughing, clinging to me as if I was the most exciting amusement park ride he’d ever been on. Not that, at nearly a year old, he’d ever been on an amusement park ride.

And I was there, a smile plastered to my face, but feeling hallow inside.

This was supposed to be me. That was the selfish thought that floated around my head the rest of the night as I listened to Momma pepper Amber with questions, as I watched them plan out the birth of another grandchild, another happy future unrolling for someone other than me.

This was supposed to be me.

Two years ago, it
was
me. I was at my wedding rehearsal dinner, laughing with my family, looking into the eyes of the man I loved, so ready to be his wife that I would have said my I do’s right there at the table.

And now…

I drank too much. I held it well, but I drank too much. And I smiled, said all the right things, even offered a little advice of my own. No one would have guessed that it came from this huge black hole in the center of my soul. That there was nothing left of me when it was done. I’d given it all.

I took a taxi, well aware that I couldn’t drive myself. Somehow he was there when I stumbled up the front walk.

“I was waiting,” he said, gesturing to the swing that was slightly hidden in the depths of my front porch.

“You should go,” I said. “They’ve all found happiness. Cole and Vincent, Dominic and Marcus. They all found happiness. You should go, take a case, and find some pretty little thing of your own.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I can’t love you.” I shook my head, making the vertigo that was threatening to overwhelm me just grow and swallow me whole. “Because I will never stop loving him no matter how desperately I want to. And I want to. I want to move on with my life. I want to be able to fall in love again. I watch Cole with Amber, Marcus with Cadence, and I see what they have. I see how they’ve somehow managed to grab onto the impossible. They found true love. But me?”

I sighed, running my hand slowly over his jaw, wishing it was the same jaw I’d touched a million times since high school. Wishing he was the one who made promises to me in the dark, who held me when life got too hard, who made me strong. But it wasn’t.

“I had that once. I had perfection. And it wasn’t enough for him.”

Pain flashed through Dante’s eyes. He lifted me into his arms and pushed open the front door, carrying me into the bowels of the house I bought to share with Luke. There were memories everywhere, his face laughing at me from the corners.

“It was all just a fucking joke, wasn’t it? He promised to always love me and when it came time to sign the contract, he just couldn’t do it. All those wasted years…all that wasted time. He simply couldn’t do it.”

“Megan,” Dante whispered, his voice filled with emotion, “it wasn’t a joke.”

I shook my head. “It was. Because he wasn’t sincere.”

He laid me on the bed, his hands moving over my face, my shoulders. He slowly began to undress me as I lay there, too drained to even move.

“People are complicated,” he said. “Sometimes they have to do things that don’t make sense on the surface, but with some explanation…”

I shook my head. “There’s no explanation that could change this. It’s been two years. If he was going to come back, he would have.”

I sat up, pulling my pencil skirt up around my waist as I climbed onto Dante’s lap. I kissed him with all the passion I could master—which was probably not much—reaching between our bodies to touch him, to pull him free of his clothing.

“Make me forget.”

It was all I had to say. He lifted me and threw me down on the mattress, his hands almost punishing as he explored my body, touching and biting and tasting every inch. Even in the state I was in, even with that big hole in my soul, he took me to heights no one else had ever managed. I screamed in his arms that night…screams like none I’d ever uttered before.

If I couldn’t have love, at least I could have this.