She Who Dares, Wins (12 page)

T
HEY WERE STUCK IN TRAFFIC
just outside London, but Katie didn't care. For the life of her, she couldn't remember feeling so light and free as she had in those greenhouses.

When he gave her the rose and named it after her…well, it was the most romantic gesture anyone had made for her. Katie had seen a lot in her days as a police detective. It had hardened her against the world, forced her to put up shields she hadn't even known were there.

Seeing the world through Mac's eyes had changed that. The lightness in her heart was addictive and she craved more of it.

“Can I ask you a question?” They were stopped at a traffic light and Mac turned toward her. “Why did you leave your job as a cop?”

She chuckled. “What, you can read my mind now?”

He gave her a questioning glance.

“It's weird because I was just thinking about that.”

“Why?” he asked.

Shifting in her seat, she faced him. “Today was… Well, I've been working so hard for so long that it was
like coming up for air after being underwater for a really long time. I left my job four years in because I was already burned out. Grandpa Joe and my dad have been cops all their lives, but it wore me down. I don't think I realized how much until today.”

“Huh. If you needed to get away from that kind of work why did you go to the Stonegate Agency? Seems like more of the same to me.”

“No. Not at all.”

Mac moved the car forward in traffic and they almost made it to the light that time.

“When I was a cop, most of what I saw was the dark side of humanity. Stonegate, well, it's been insanely busy, but we have really interesting cases—everything from corporate espionage to finding lost people. I'd say eight out of ten cases end up being incredibly rewarding. That sounds like a lame commercial, but it's true.

“My problem is I came down to help bring Mar, who inherited the agency from her mom, up to speed. She's brilliant, but was just out of graduate school. She hadn't done a lot of fieldwork and suddenly this entire multimillion-dollar business was dumped in her lap. She was drowning. There were case files and billing, and I was so caught up in helping her keep things afloat, my life once again became the job.”

Mac squeezed her hand.

“If nothing else comes out of this, you've helped me to remember I need balance. I'm going to be an old woman before I'm thirty if I don't stop it.”

Mac laughed. “Katie, one thing you'll never be is old.”

She leaned across the seat and kissed his cheek.
“Thank you for that. So how does a hot guy like you end up working with flowers?”

He chuckled again. “You never hold back, that's for sure. Uh…” He turned the wheel and finally were on a street without traffic. “My family, I guess. My mom was a botanist who taught at the university near where we lived in SoCal. My dad was a corporate landscape designer. I kind of rebelled in my teens and decided I would be a rock musician. I even had my own garage band.”

Now it was Katie's chance to laugh. “Oh, no. What was the name?”

“Black Satan.” Mac rolled his eyes.

Katie couldn't imagine the man beside her in a band with that name. She couldn't stop laughing. Finally she caught her breath. “I remember you mentioning this before, but you never explained the situation. So, what happened with the band?”

“You know.” He affected a cool rock-star voice. “We just couldn't keep it together creatively. And by that I mean the drummer was making out with the bass player's girlfriend behind his back.”

Katie bit her lip to keep from laughing again. “And which one were you?”

Mac gave a dramatic sigh. “The bass. I caught them in my backyard out in the gazebo. I busted up his drum set pretty bad. He told my mom, and I was grounded for a month. Plus I had to work in her gardens and greenhouse for two months to help pay back the damage. Every minute was pure torture.

“Then one day, my mom showed me where she'd spliced two roses together and created a new one, and I was hooked. I became a complete and total nerd after
that. Sold my guitar and used the money for science camp that summer. I was sixteen.”

“What did your friends think about that?”

“Well, hell. I was sixteen. I didn't tell them about the camp. I made up some elaborate story about a family vacation. Lied through my teeth. But that camp set me on a new path. I finished high school in six months and went straight into university.”

“Wow. That's awful young.”

“Too young, really. The good thing was I still lived at home those first couple of years and went to the university where she taught before transferring to Harvard. My mom insisted. And my mom always gets what she wants.”

“Oh, you're preaching to the choir on that one,” said Katie. “My mom rules the house. Crazy thing is, she's Italian, and we're sort of known for being loud, but she never raises her voice. Just gives you the eye, and she has a gift for the guilt. Every conversation goes the same way with her. Guilt, gossip about the neighbors, guilt, gossip about the family and she finishes off with a good dose of—”

“Guilt,” Mac answered for her.

Katie laughed. “Exactly. But I love her. I love them all, but taking the job at Stonegate was the best thing that ever happened to me, even though it's kind of consumed me, too. The day I left, my mother gave me the scariest look. Then she pointed a spatula at me and told me to behave myself.”

They pulled up in front of the university. Before getting out of the car she acted like her mother and gave him “the look.” She and her brothers had feared that
more than their father's disappointment, and that was saying something.

Mac did a fake cringe. “Our mothers need to meet,” he joked as he handed her the keys. “I'll see you in a couple of hours?” Mac asked.

“Actually, I'm going to walk you up to the lab and then I'll go.”

“Katie, the security guard is right there. You don't have to worry.”

She gave him “the look” again.

“Sorry.” He quickly held up his hands in surrender.

She smiled warmly. “You're learning,” she said.

 

A
N HOUR LATER
she met Roland in his office. It was a small glass enclosure, so at least they had some privacy.

“Any more from Caroline?”

He shook his head. “She told her barrister that she didn't have anything more to say and she didn't know anything about another accomplice. Bunch of bollocks, if you ask me.”

“She's lying, but she's too selfish to protect someone, so whoever this is he or she must be part of her plan.” Katie chewed on the inside of her lips. “How is the sketch going?”

Roland sat down behind his desk. “Right now it looks like half of the white males in London. There are no real distinguishing features.”

“Do you have a copy?”

He found one and handed it to her. “I thought you could show it to Professor Douglas. Maybe it will jog his memory.”

Katie eyed the sketch. There was something about
the face that seemed familiar. She was good with faces. She had to be when it came to her work.

“I'll take this over to the lab,” she said quietly as she gathered up her things.

“Do you recognize him?”

Katie shrugged. “It looks like someone I met a few days ago at the faculty party, but I can't be sure. The eyes are different and the shape of the jaw. I'd like to see what Professor Douglas thinks and then I'll call you.”

Just as she arrived at the university the man's identity flashed in her mind. She tried phoning Mac, but he didn't answer.

Nerves on edge, she called Roland and filled him in. “Mac's not answering his phone. It's probably nothing, but—”

“We're on our way.”

Katie hung up and ran. Mac might be in trouble. If anything happened to him, she would never forgive herself. She hit the door to the building so hard the guard was up and out of his seat before she'd got to him.

“Are you the only one on duty?”

“Miss?”

“Listen, I need you to lock down the building. The police will be here any minute. Don't let anyone but them in or out. Do you understand?”

“I say, miss. This isn't how we do things—”

“A man's life is in danger. Please!”

The guard frowned, but removed his keys as if to lock the doors.

Katie took the elevator, then sped toward Mac's office, but she paused for a moment when she heard familiar voices coming from a conference room.

The door was ajar; she listened.

“You must understand I would never willingly hurt you,” she heard a man say. She recognized the voice, confirming her assumption about the sketch.

“I simply didn't know what to do, and I wasn't thinking clearly.” The man was upset, she didn't want to startle him by swinging open the door.

“It's completely logical,” Mac said, obviously trying to calm the man. “Phillip, I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing in your shoes.”

Phillip. Yes, she was right.

The other man sighed heavily. “The police will never believe me.”

“Yes, they will. We'll make sure of it. When they see the letter she had delivered to you, they won't have any trouble putting the pieces together. The woman is insane.”

“But she said if I went to the police I'd regret it forever.”

“My friend Katie can help us with that. She'll know what to do. She's smart. She'll know exactly what must be done to protect you from that lunatic.”

Katie edged the door farther open and saw Phillip sitting at the end of the table with an antique pistol in front of him.

Phillip hadn't noticed her yet, and she was only two feet from the gun.

As she grabbed for the weapon, the man suddenly jerked in a spasm. She and Mac rushed to keep the man from falling out of his chair.

Katie moved the weapon to her waistband and helped Mac lower the convulsing man to the floor.

Phillip's face was ashen and contorted in pain.

Katie pulled her phone from her pocket.

“Ms. McClure, is everything all right?” Roland yelled through the phone. She could tell from his breathing that he was running.

“Mac is fine, but we need an ambulance now. His friend Phillip is having a heart attack.”

“We're in the lobby. Medics are with us.”

“Phillip, help is here. You're going to be all right?”

The sick man's eyes began to droop.

Katie squeezed his hand in hers. “Phillip, stay with me now. You have to try to stay calm.”

“But Mac…”

“Mac is fine, thanks to you. I know what happened.” At least, she had some idea. “I don't want you to worry about all of that right now. I want you to focus on taking slow steady breaths. It's important that you—”

“I can't go to jail. I won't…”

His eyes drooped again.

Katie didn't want to make promises she couldn't keep, but she didn't want the man to die. “I don't know all the facts—just what I heard through the door—but it sounds to me like we all know who is at fault and it isn't you, Phillip. Relax. I'm going to help you and so is Mac.”

She didn't think it possible, but his skin was even grayer.

“Ms. McClure?” Roland was outside the door.

“We're in here.”

The medics rushed in and Katie and Mac backed away. She noticed Mac's hands were shaking slightly, and she couldn't blame him. He'd been through so much.

More than anything she wanted to comfort Mac. How could she care this strongly for a man she'd met only a few days ago?

She didn't know the answer, only that she did.

And the idea of having to leave him was ripping her apart. More than once today she'd thought about quitting her job at Stonegate, but they were still playing catch-up, even with Katie consulting on every case. Her friend Mar needed her, and Katie wouldn't let her down.

Katie also knew there was no way Mac, even if he wanted to, could just up and move back to the States. His research was here.

They were at an impasse, one that left her sad and alone once again.

M
AC AND
K
ATIE STOOD
in silence as they rode the elevator up to her suite. She could have insisted on taking him back to his apartment in Knightsbridge, but she didn't. He took that as a good sign that she wasn't quite ready to say goodbye.

He wasn't.

“I need to make a few calls and let the gang at Stonegate know what happened.”

“That's fine,” Mac said as they exited the elevator. “If you're hungry, I'll order some food.”

“Oh, thanks,” she said.

They were being too polite, each unwilling to point out what stood between them.

Katie went straight to her bedroom and shut the door. He could hear her chatting.

He picked up the in-room dining menu and saw something that made him smile. The spa had something he knew she would love. He quickly ordered food and the spa treatment. Katie deserved it after everything she'd done.

She'd been so brave in that room with Phillip. She'd
taken control and treated him with respect, even though she didn't have the whole story at the time.

Phillip had come to the conference room on the pretence of talking to Mac about the research. Then he had pulled the gun out of his jacket and asked Mac to sit down while he explained something. He'd gone on to tell him that he'd received a death threat from Caroline. She'd told him step-by-step what he had to do, from renting the car with cash to running Mac over.

Only, Phillip couldn't do it. He was on his way to tell Mac when he'd been blinded by the sun and accidentally clipped him with the car.

“I panicked,” Phillip told him, worry etched on his face. “All those people were watching and I didn't know what to do, so I drove away as fast as I could. Praying you were safe.”

Mac believed him. That explained why the car had been at such an odd angle. Phillip had been pulling up to stop and Mac had been right in front of him.

Phillip had confessed the gun he'd brought wasn't even loaded. “Though I wish it were. I'd off myself here and now, and be done with this awful business. She's going to send someone to kill me now. I don't think I can take the waiting.”

Thankfully, Phillip had survived the heart attack. Mac had refused to press charges against the man, although there wasn't much he could do about saving his job. The dean refused to see reason.

It was all such a waste.

Katie came out of her bedroom dressed in her exercise clothes.

There was a knock on the door and Mac answered.

“Good evening, sir, we're here with the—” Mac cut him off with his hand.

“Hold on one second. I'm going to take her out on the terrace—you get everything set up.”

The man gave him a knowing smile.

“Come on, Katie, we'll enjoy the view from the terrace,” Mac instructed.

Pushing his hands away, she tried to look around him as he grabbed their coats. “Mac, it's like thirty degrees outside and snowing. I'm not going out on the terrace.”

Mac pulled her coat over shoulders and gently led her to the door. “Come on, it's beautiful outside.”

Katie tried to resist, but she let him guide her through the door. Hopping from one foot to the other, she said, “Mac, it really is cold out here.”

Mac wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her for a full minute.

“Okay, yes. That's warmer,” she said softly against his lips.

Turning her away from him, he wrapped his coat around her. He squeezed her tight.

It was one of those perfect moments. The lights twinkled like glitter in the night sky.

Katie sighed in his arms.

“It's like a postcard, and if it weren't so dark I would take a picture.”

“That's the point. These moments are all ours. No one else can own them.”

Her shoulders tensed.

“We could have so many of these moments that we won't know what to do with them,” he said, thinking of the future.

Every time she thought about having to leave, he saw the pain in her eyes. He knew it, because he felt the same way.

She twisted so she could see his face. “I don't think we should go there.”

“We're going to have a future together, Katie. Whatever is going on between us, it's good. I'm not saying it won't take some work. But we have to try.”

“I want to believe you. Part of me wants to let go and allow myself to feel all of this. But I come from a world where there really aren't happy endings.”

“That's not true, Katie. Remember what you told me about your job. You said since you made the move to Stonegate that things have been better, and the cases do have happy endings. And you told me that story the other day about your friend Mar who found romance in an unlikely place. They made it—why couldn't we? I want to be with you.”

She moved away toward the terrace wall. “We've known each other such a short time. I want you, too—I think we both understand that. But you live here, and my life is in Texas.”

“Does that matter so much, really? We're both involved in our work and don't have much time to date. I can manage to come to the States in the interest of research at least once every two months or so. And you said the company has cases in Europe all the time. Maybe you can take some of those on. You can stop by on your way home from wherever you are.”

She sighed again. “You have thought about this.”

“Haven't you?” Mac gently pulled her chin so he could see her eyes. “Tell me you haven't thought about trying to make this work somehow?”

Katie closed her eyes. “It's useless. I'm sorry. I have to be practical. I can't live in a world of maybes and fairy tales. The real world doesn't work that way, Mac.”

“I don't know, Katie. I think happy endings are just like any experiment. You plug in the right variables and you never know, the equation might work.”

Mac heard the door shut in the room.

Taking her hand, he led her back inside the suite to the bathroom.

The lights were out, but there were at least thirty candles, and the bath was filled with rose petals.

Expecting her to squeal with delight, he was surprised when he saw her expression.

“Have I mentioned in the last few hours that you don't play fair, Dr. Douglas?” Her face was grim.

“Not when I want something as much as I want you.”

With that, she was in his arms.

Mac kissed her with everything he was. He would find a way to make it work. She was his Katie, and she would be until the end of time.