Suspicions (The Battling McGuire Boys Book 3) (5 page)

No one threatens Ava on my watch.

No one.

* * *

T
HE
HOUSE
WAS
searched from top to bottom. Every closet. Every corner. There was no other sign of the intruder.

Ava’s hands were shaking as she watched Mark pull up the video feed from his surveillance cameras. This was the first time the stalker had actually left any kind of message for her.

Don’t trust him.

Did the stalker really think she was going to listen to him? She trusted Mark completely. He’d protected her on the worst night of her life. She’d never turn away from him.

“There he is,” Mark muttered.

She leaned over his shoulder and...sure enough, she saw a man slipping out of the house.

The guy on the video feed was wearing a black ski mask. And as soon as she saw that ski mask, Ava lost her breath. For a moment in time, she wasn’t standing there with Mark, looking at a computer screen. She was back at her old home, hearing the thunder of a gunshot and rushing toward her house. Her father was standing in front of the window.

Run.

And a man wearing a black ski mask was lifting a gun.

“Ava! Ava!”

She blinked. Mark was in front of her, breath heaving. His arms were around her and he was holding her tightly.
Get your control. Don’t break in front of him.
Not in front of Mark. He was one of the few who didn’t think she was already broken beyond repair. “He...followed me from Houston.” She thought of that drive. The darkness. The stretching interstate.

All that time, she thought she’d been leaving him behind, but he’d been with her every step of the way. Had he watched while she’d packed up? Had he been there? Every moment?

Now she’d brought him to Mark’s door. No, into Mark’s house. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and she pulled away from him. Ava started walking toward the front of the house. Her steps were slow but certain.

“Ava!”

She didn’t look back. She’d never wanted to bring danger to Mark, but now she’d put him right in the center of this thing—whatever it was.

But that black ski mask...that wasn’t just a coincidence, was it? Was the guy trying to tell her something?
Was he one of the men who killed my parents?
Because those two men had been wearing black ski masks that night.

She reached for the front door. Mark caught her hand and pulled her back against him. Ava tried to break free of him, but he just held her tighter.

“What are you doing?” Mark demanded as she turned in his arms.

“Leaving you.”

He flinched.

“I thought that was obvious.”

“Why?” He seemed to grit out that one word.

“I’m not going to have you threatened because of me! I won’t do that to you!” She owed him more than she could ever repay. Danger wasn’t what he deserved.

“He left me a message, too.”

Her breath caught.

“The fool told me to stay away from you.”

He’d been intimately close to her before the stalker had come calling on them.

Mark’s blue eyes glittered down at her. “That’s not going to happen. The last thing I’m planning to do is leave you on your own. He wants you to run away. He’s trying to put a wedge between us so that you’ll be out there, vulnerable, and he can close in on you.”

Ava winced. “But what about you?” She hadn’t considered the risk to him when she’d driven to his ranch, seeking shelter for the night.

“I can handle anything this guy wants to throw at me.” He said the words with such grim certainty. She wanted to believe him.

But, once upon a time, she’d thought another man could handle any threat that came his way. Then her father had died. He’d died protecting her, and in that moment, she’d vowed—
no one else will ever suffer for me.

“I want to leave,” she told Mark softly.

He shook his head. “No way, baby.”

It was the first time he’d ever used any kind of endearment with her. He probably didn’t even realize he’d done it. The word didn’t mean anything to him, but it had her body warming.

“Yes,” she said as she gave a faint nod. “I’m not going to let him hurt you. I’ll call the cops. I’ll get my brothers involved.” Because this situation couldn’t be hidden from them, not any longer. They would go into their extreme mode—she had no doubt of that—but she needed to tell them. A strange man had followed her, broken into Mark’s place—
he’s just getting worse.
More dangerous.

A faint beeping sounded then, coming from Mark’s study. His computer. He didn’t let Ava go. His fingers curled around her wrist, and he pretty much pulled her back to the study. She stared at the screen there and saw the black SUV that was pulling up to the ranch’s gate.

“You don’t have to tell them,” he said as her brother Davis’s tense features came into view. “I think they already know.”

* * *

“W
HAT
IS
MY
SISTER
doing at your house—”
Davis stalked into the den and headed straight for Mark “—in the middle of the night?”

Mark stood his ground. Ava thought about running for the door—leaving them both.

Instead, she cleared her throat. “It’s actually getting pretty close to dawn now.” Davis’s green gaze cut to her. She shrugged. “So that’s more like morning, not the middle of the night.”

He growled. Davis did that. He growled a lot. Once he’d had a much better sense of humor. Then he’d gone off and become a SEAL. Their parents had died—and Davis had locked down his emotions. Hard. Now there was pretty much just one setting for her brother...
ice.

“How did you know I was here?” she asked him.

“I didn’t, not until I saw your car outside.” He huffed out a breath. “I was coming by because we’re helping to monitor Mark’s security system, and when I saw there was some trouble out here earlier, I figured I’d better check it out.”

His words just weren’t ringing true to her, and Davis hadn’t looked her in the eyes while he’d been talking. When Davis lied to her, he never looked her in the eyes.

You’re fine, Ava. No one thinks you were involved in what happened to our parents.

He’d been looking right over her shoulder the first time he’d fed her that line of bull. She’d wondered then...had her own brother thought she was involved? Or had he just already heard the rumors that folks were spreading around town?

“Are you sleeping with my sister?”

Now
that
had her eyes flying toward Davis. Her brother was big—as big as Mark. They both had the same broad shoulders and golden skin. But Davis’s hair was dark, longer, and his features were rougher than Mark’s.

Instead of answering Davis, Mark glared at him. His hands were fisted.

Ava leapt between the two men because it sure looked as if they were about to come to blows. “Stop it!” Ava ordered. She turned her own glare on Davis. “Mark is my friend, okay? One of the few who stood by me over the years.” There had been plenty who turned their backs on her. Folks who actually bought into the story that she’d either planned—or helped to commit—the murder of her parents. “So back off!”

Davis narrowed his eyes, eyes that were a darker green than her own. “What happened here tonight?”

She hesitated.

“Tell him, Ava,” Mark urged her gruffly. “Your brothers will track down that maniac.”

Exhaling heavily, she nodded. “Someone...someone has been stalking me.”

Shock shot across Davis’s face.
“What?”

And she told him everything. From the pictures that had been moved to the cops who hadn’t believed her. She told him about how she’d packed up her bags and driven fast to Mark’s house...because—

“Why him?” Davis demanded. “Why did you tell him and not us?” He sounded hurt, and that was certainly the last thing she’d wanted.

“I had no actual proof that anyone was doing these things, not until tonight.” She pushed back her hair, suddenly feeling very, very weary. The adrenaline high was sure starting to wane. “Then he left those messages here for us.”

“What messages?”

“In my bathroom,” Ava confessed.

“And mine,” Mark added.

Davis’s gaze assessed her. “You were sleeping in the guest room.”

She nodded. Davis took off, heading down the hallway. In minutes he was back. His eyes immediately locked on Mark. “Did you get the same message?” he asked. “One telling you not to trust my sister?”

Ava glanced over at him. Mark shook his head. “No. Mine was different.”

Davis vanished. She figured he’d gone to read the message for himself.

“What did it say?” Her voice was quiet.

His expression unreadable, Mark murmured, “He told me to stay away from you.” His eyes glittered down at her. “That isn’t happening.”

Footsteps pounded—Davis was coming back. Fury was etched onto his face. “Based on what you’ve said, the stalker’s events are seriously escalating! I’ve seen twisted stuff like this before. Too many times, and it doesn’t end well. A man gets fixated on a woman...” His gaze snapped to Mark. “And he can’t let her go.”

Beside her, Mark tensed.

Then Davis was glancing back at Ava. “You’re lucky that you weren’t in that room when the guy broke in. Maybe he wouldn’t have used that glass just to carve a message on a wall. He might have tried carving into you.”

She held her ground. “You think I don’t know that?”

Mark swore. “Stop it, Davis. You don’t need to scare her.”

Right. She was already scared plenty, with Davis adding to her terror.

But Davis fired back, “Maybe she needs to be scared. These incidents have been going on for weeks, and she didn’t tell us. She’s lucky she isn’t already dead.”

Ava flinched.

Mark surged toward her brother. “Don’t.” His voice was low and lethal. “Don’t you tell her—”

“Ava is my sister. What is she to you?”

Mark’s turbulent stare jumped to her. She thought of the kiss they’d shared in the guest room. Of how very close they’d come to sharing something else, too.

“Ava is—” Mark began.

“He’s my friend,” Ava said, her words clear and strong. She didn’t know what else he might prove to be to her, but on that point, Ava was certain.

Davis opened his mouth to say something else, probably to launch some kind of attack at Mark, but she wasn’t in the mood for that. “He was wearing a ski mask.”

Davis’s brow furrowed.

“A black one.” She inclined her head toward the study area. “One of the video cameras caught sight of the guy leaving, so now we know—”

“He’s big, probably about six foot one, maybe six foot two,” Mark said. “Fit. And far too familiar with my home.”

Because he’d just walked right in the door.

“We should get the cops out here,” Davis immediately said. “Get them to run a fingerprint check and use their crime-scene team.”

Mark’s shoulders tensed. “He was wearing gloves in the video, so I don’t think the guy left any prints behind. And after our last experience with the cops, I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get them here again.”

Our last experience.
She knew just what he was talking about. For years, the McGuires had been friends with Austin police detective Shayne Townsend. Most of the cops had seemed to give up hope of ever finding the men who’d killed their parents, but Shayne had kept working the case.

Or so they’d all believed.

But when Brodie and his girlfriend had come under attack, they’d all learned the truth about Shayne. The police detective had accidentally killed an unarmed teen years ago, and he’d been covering up the crime ever since. He’d been blackmailed into breaking the law.

And maybe even blackmailed into covering up the identity of the men who’d killed her parents?

That was sure what some of her brothers suspected.

“You never know who you can trust,” Davis murmured, his head cocked as he studied Mark. “And who you can’t.”

There was something in his voice that put Ava on edge.

“We’re calling the cops,” Davis said. “And I’ll want to talk with your men.”

Ava shivered a moment, thinking about how close that unknown man had been to her.

Mark pulled out his phone. Spoke quietly.

Davis closed in on her. “Don’t trust him.”

“Right, I saw the message on the wall. I got it—”

“This message is coming from
me
.” His gaze slanted quickly toward Mark, then back to her. “I don’t know what you think is happening between you two, but there are things going on you don’t know about.”

Her back teeth clenched at that. She didn’t know about those things only because her brothers liked their secrets. “He’s your friend, too.”

“I don’t know what he is, not right now.”

The whole situation was insane. “He saved me that night.” She’d never forget her first sight of him. Terror had filled her, and then—Mark had been there.

Davis exhaled on a rough sigh. “Right before Shayne Townsend died I asked him who killed our parents.”

Her heart stopped before pounding again in a double-time rhythm. “What did he say?”

Mark was off the phone. And he’d—he’d closed in on them. “Yeah,” Mark said, voice roughening, “what did he say, and why didn’t you tell us before now?”

A muscle flexed along the line of Davis’s jaw. “I didn’t tell you because I know how Ava feels about her
friend
Mark.”

She hated the stress he’d just put on that word. “You’re friends, too—”

“Montgomery.”

“What?” Ava exclaimed. “I don’t understand—”

“The last word he said was...Montgomery.” Davis turned his attention on a still-as-stone Mark. “So I have to wonder...why did Shayne use his last breath to name
your
family? Unless...the Montgomerys are responsible for the murder of our parents.”

She hadn’t thought the situation around her could get any worse. But it just had—so very much worse. Because as she stared at Mark, Ava could have sworn that she saw guilt creep across his face.

Chapter Three

“Ava, let me explain,” Mark said as he followed her out to her car.

The cops had come out to the ranch. Uniforms who’d questioned them all and who’d collected pretty much zero evidence. Mark wasn’t exactly holding his breath when it came to those guys breaking the case wide open. They were still nosing around the place, but Ava was fleeing.

At his words, Ava didn’t slow down. Instead, she seemed to speed up as she hurried toward her vehicle. He reached out to stop her.

Davis caught his arm. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Most folks in Austin were afraid of the McGuire brothers. Their reputation preceded them just about everywhere they went. Grant, the eldest brother, was a former army ranger. Davis and his twin, Brodie, were both former SEALs. Mackenzie “Mac” McGuire had been part of Delta Force, and Sullivan, the youngest of the brothers, was an ex-marine. Yeah, most folks hesitated before trying to tangle with those guys.

Mark wasn’t most folks. And he’d never taken any crap from the McGuires. “The game has changed,” he said, his low voice carrying only to Davis’s ears. “I’m not just going to sit back anymore. I thought she was safe. Happy. But she’s not. She still wakes up screaming at night. And now some new jerk is out there terrorizing her.” He shook his head. “That’s not going to happen. She’s not going to spend her days and nights afraid. I won’t
let
that happen to her.” He’d do everything within his power to protect her.

He heard Ava’s car door opening. He forced his back teeth to unclench as he said, “Why didn’t you come to me about this Shayne Townsend mess weeks ago? I wasn’t involved in the murder of your parents! I had plenty of people here at the ranch who saw me right before Ava came galloping up!” The idea that he was involved was ridiculous. He was—

“I know you have an alibi. I already checked that.”

Davis had been investigating him?

“It was your father who didn’t have an alibi. No one could account for him an hour before the crime or an hour after.”

Mark felt shock rip through him. “He was my...
stepfather.
” Like that distinction mattered. Technically, Gregory Montgomery had adopted him. Of course, most folks didn’t know that Mark had hated the bastard with every bit of his soul.

“He committed suicide two months after my parents died,” Davis said.

Mark glanced over at Ava. She was in her car, appearing for all intents and purposes as if she was about to drive away and leave him.

“Sometimes guilt can drive a man to take his own life.”

Davis seriously thinks that Gregory murdered the McGuires!

And...and Mark couldn’t say that he hadn’t. Because he knew just how twisted Gregory could be.

Ava cranked up her car.

Mark jerked away from Davis. “Ava, wait!” He lunged toward the car. Her window was rolled down, and his fingers pushed through the opening and locked onto the steering wheel. “Wait,” he said again, his voice softer.

She didn’t look at him.

“I didn’t hurt them, Ava.”

She nodded. Blinked several times. Oh, no, was she
crying
?
He couldn’t stand it when Ava cried.

“I would
never
do anything to hurt you.”

Again, she gave the faintest of nods.

Davis was a few feet away, watching them far too closely.

“Where are you going?” Mark asked her. “You said you were starting a new job in Austin soon. You can’t just stay in some motel.” Not with that creep out there watching her. “Stay here. You’ll be safe.”

Her head turned then, and she finally stared into his eyes. He didn’t see any rage there. No accusation. Just the same trust that he always saw when she looked at him. “I don’t want to bring any danger to you. He was in your house. Whoever this guy is...I don’t want him hurting you.”

And I’d be destroyed if he hurt you, Ava. Can’t you see that?

“I’m going back to the ranch with Davis.”

“You hate staying there.” He knew Ava hadn’t stepped foot inside the main house, not since that night.

She shrugged. “There’s a guest cottage I can use.”

“You can stay here.” She’d been asking to stay hours before, and now she was running away.

But then Davis stepped forward. “We have better security at our place. He already got in here once. He won’t reach her there.”

Because the McGuire ranch had basically been transformed into a fortress after those murders. The brothers had wanted to make sure their home was always protected.

Even if that protection had come too late.

“I’m sorry I involved you,” Ava said. Her hands were curled around the steering wheel.

He leaned forward a bit more and caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “This isn’t over, Ava.”

“Mark, I—”

He kissed her. A fast, hard kiss, right on her lips. And yes, he knew Davis was watching. So what? It was time all the McGuires realized that Mark would be taking what he wanted.

And what he wanted most was Ava.

He pulled back and held her surprised stare. “I’ll be seeing you very soon.” She wasn’t getting away from him. Not this time.

* * *

T
HE
COPS
WERE
USELESS
.

He watched as they scurried around the Montgomery ranch. Were they seriously looking for clues? There weren’t any to find. He was too good. He hadn’t left any evidence behind, nothing that could be traced to him.

This isn’t my first ball game.

And Davis McGuire was there, too. Stalking around, questioning everyone.

Some of the idiots there actually stuttered when they talked to Davis. Like he was some kind of big deal. He wasn’t. None of the McGuire brothers were.

The only McGuire who mattered...that was Ava.

She’d left Mark. Good. She’d taken his warning. He’d already known that she was planning to move to Austin. He’d learned that during one of his trips to her place. He liked to keep tabs on Ava. To find out just what was happening in her life.

He was glad that she’d come back home.
Back to me.
He’d grown tired of waiting for her, so he’d started trying to...scare her a bit. Nothing too bad, of course. Just little nudges to make sure Ava realized Houston wasn’t the place for her.

She was back now. She’d left Mark.

So it was finally time for him to move in...

I’ve been waiting, Ava. So patiently. Now you will be mine.

* * *

A
VA
HATED
HER
family home. It was beautiful, a sprawling ranch with a bluff and a lake, surrounded by old-growth trees. Her father had once said it was a slice of heaven. He’d told her that when her great-grandfather had emigrated from Ireland nearly one hundred years before, he’d taken one look at the land and fallen in love with the place.

Ava didn’t think the ranch was heaven. To her, it was much closer to hell.

She parked her car near the small guest house and very much
not
near the main home. When she got out of the vehicle, she wasn’t surprised to see Brodie already heading toward her. Brodie and Davis—identical twins who were both way too keen on the overprotective vibe. One look at Brodie’s tense face and she knew that Davis had already spilled about the events of the previous night.

She thought he’d lecture her. Instead he pulled her into his arms, nearly crushing her in a giant bear hug. “It’s about time you came home.”

The words hurt. She knew he didn’t mean to hurt her. Brodie loved her. She knew that. But when Brodie looked at the ranch, she knew he saw hope for the future. He and Jennifer were getting married and planning a family. Ava had no doubt the two of them would be deliriously happy there.

When she looked at the ranch, she saw her father telling her to run. She saw blood and death.

“It’s...temporary,” she told Brodie as she pulled back. “I’ll start looking for a new place in the city as soon as—”

“He was wearing a black ski mask.”

Right. He’d definitely already gotten the update from Davis. She bet that every one of her brothers had—and, knowing them, they’d be checking in with calls or visits ASAP.

“Give us a few days to figure out what is going on, okay? Then we can get you settled in any place you want to go.”

Any place...

For some reason, she thought of Mark.

He’d kissed her before she left. Had Davis told Brodie that bit, too? Wasn’t a woman supposed to have some secrets?

Brodie eased back and headed toward her trunk. “Let’s get you settled.”

Her gaze slid toward the stables. Lady was in there. She used to love riding Lady. Riding fast and hard and feeling the wind whip through her hair.

“Ava?”

“You all should have told me about what Shayne said.” She glanced over at him. “I could have told you it was bull. Mark wasn’t involved.”

Brodie’s gaze became guarded. “Can you say the same thing about his old man?”

Honestly, she barely remembered him. The man hadn’t come over to their place very much, and he certainly hadn’t socialized often in the community. Gregory Montgomery had kept to himself, and there had been some rumors that he drank...heavily.

But since Ava had been the topic of plenty of rumors that called her a murderer, she hadn’t exactly believed those tales about Gregory.

“They were engaged once,” Brodie said. “Mom and Gregory Montgomery.”

“What?” She sure hadn’t seen that little tidbit coming.

“But then she met dad, and everything changed for her. She broke off the engagement to Gregory, she eloped with Dad...and, well, you know how the rest of that story went.”

The rest of the story ended with their parents
dying
.

“That’s why Mr. Montgomery didn’t come over much. Word is that he and our dad used to be good friends, but there are some things that can change a man.”

She looked at the lake. The water glistened. She should stare at it and think it was beautiful. Instead, a shiver slid over her as she gazed at the water.

“We’ll find the man doing this to you,” Brodie promised her. “No one messes with my family.”

No, those who’d tried—well, they’d found a lethal response waiting from Brodie in the past. “Is Jennifer doing better?” Ava asked. Because his girlfriend—
fiancée, now—
Jennifer had been attacked, and her attacker had died.
Lethal response.

He smiled. His dimples flashed. “She’s great. She’ll be back in town tonight, and she can’t wait to see you.”

Jennifer was an interesting woman. On the surface, Ava had thought the woman was a sophisticated, high-society type. Then she’d learned the truth—Jennifer was a tough ex-spy who’d worked to bring down some of the most vicious criminals in the world.

“What you see...” Ava murmured
...is so far from what you actually get.

She headed around the car and grabbed one of her bags.

* * *

A
VA
HEADED
INTO
the city during the middle of the day. She stopped by the art museum and checked in. She spent a little time talking with her new supervisor, Kristin Lang. Ava wasn’t scheduled to start for a few days, but she still wanted to get the lay of the land. After her chat with Kristin, she spent some time just walking around the place and admiring the art.

When she’d first started college, art had been her passion. On too many occasions it was the only way that she could get through so many of those long nights. She hadn’t wanted to talk to a therapist or one of the counselors at the college. After a couple of group sessions, she’d withdrawn from the group. Baring her soul to them had just made her feel even more broken. Instead she’d painted.

Ava had painted canvases full of darkness and rage. So much red—for the blood and the rage. Rage that would course through her so strongly. She’d been furious at the men who killed her parents and furious with herself because she should have been able to help them, but she hadn’t. She’d done nothing but run.

Some of her art teachers had seen her working at the studio. They’d wanted her to show her work.

But she couldn’t. It was too raw. Too personal. Too...much of her soul.

So when she’d gone to graduate school, she’d focused on art history. She’d lucked out by getting this job. She’d thought about applying for a position far away, maybe taking a job up north or in the east—

“Ava?”

She turned at the call and found herself staring into a pair of warm golden eyes.

Her gaze swept over him. “Alan?”

“I thought that was you!” He smiled at her, flashing perfectly even white teeth. Then he opened his arms and pulled her into a big hug. “It’s been so long!”

Years.

She pulled back. He’d changed from the boy she’d known so long ago. His features were sharper. His blond hair was stylishly pushed back from his forehead. His clothes—perfectly cut. Alan Channing had always been gifted with plenty of money and pull.

And once, he’d almost had her. At sixteen, she’d thought she loved him. She’d learned—just in time—that Alan wasn’t the boy she’d thought.

The night my parents died, I was supposed to be with him.

“I heard that you were going to be working here.” His grin grew even broader. “I was just appointed to the art museum’s board, so we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other.”

Her gut clenched at that news, but Ava forced a polite smile. “Oh, really? That’s just—” She broke off, unable to think of a polite lie because
That’s just terrible
wanted to spill from her lips.

“I’m not the same, Ava.” Alan’s voice deepened as his smile slipped. “I’m not the same jerk I was back then.”

She lifted her brows. “I don’t remember calling you a jerk.” Hmm...or had she?

Alan laughed. “Not now, but back then you did. Jerk and plenty of other things—and you were right. I didn’t realize what a total screw-up I was.” His face sobered. “Then...then your parents died. I saw how wrecked you were. Things changed for a lot of people back then.”

How wrecked she’d been? And she remembered that Alan had tried to talk to her—at the funeral, at school in the weeks that followed. But she hadn’t been able to talk with anyone back then. She’d been walking around in a fog, barely able to get through the days.