Chapter 1
1
Mateo rolled his shoulders as he stepped out of his truck. He had to slam the door shut twice to get it to take, but he was beginning to love the damn thing anyway. Gonna take a lot of work to get her fixed up. A lot of work and a lot of money, but it would be worth it.
The tan and cream fifty-year-old Dodge looked out of place on Gideon’s fancy-assed circular drive in front of his brick colonial-style house. Too bad his teammate had such a long private drive so his neighbors couldn’t see the type of redneck friends Gideon hung around with.
Seeing all the mommy SUVs and vans, he lifted his face into the pouring rain, savoring the peace, until he heard a crack of thunder. The birthday party that started at putt-putt golf and games must have shut down a little early and they all ended up here.
He’d really been hoping to get here half an hour before the rugrats so he could get some peace and quiet but the traffic had been a bitch. Damn, he’d really wanted to sit back and chill with one of Gideon’s good beers before the chaos ensued. Oh well, it wasn’t meant to be.
Of course, none of his teammates’ cars or trucks were around. They were all watching the game out at the pub that was having two-for-one drinks out near Norfolk, instead of the local watering hole. He hadn’t been able to join them because today was his mom’s birthday, and he always lit a candle at church in her honor.
Always.
So, he’d told his friends he’d meet them at Gideon’s house and help the moms run roughshod over the herd.
Jogging over to the garage door, he flipped up the panel and keyed in the nine-digit code and grinned. Only Gideon would have a nine-digit security code. The garage door started to rise and Mateo shook his head like a dog to get the water out of his curly hair.
“Jase!”
He looked up to see who had called his name, but it was anyone’s guess. There were four little kids huddled around the door leading from the kitchen to the garage.
“It’s Mr. Mateo. Can’t you see?”
Now that was Amber, Bonnie’s daughter, and she was definitely chastising her twin brother.
“Who’s Mr. Mateo?”
Mateo squinted and saw a dark-haired boy asking the question.
“He’s on Jase’s SEAL team. Jase is our new dad,” Amber’s twin brother, Lachlan, said proudly.
Mateo winced. He didn’t recognize the little boy that Lachlan Drakos was telling about the SEAL team. Mateo needed to let Jase know he needed to have another talk with his adopted son about discretion.
Lach jumped off the top step from the kitchen, straight onto the garage floor, bypassing four steps, and launched toward him. Mateo braced when the boy tried to take him out at his knees.
“I thought we agreed to call Jase, Dad. And Mom says you need to stop doing that and use the stairs,” Amber Drakos said. The seven-year-old sounded thirty as she admonished her twin again.
“So, don’t tell her,” Lachlan called over his shoulder as he clung to Mateo, then he started talking at a rapid-fire pace.
“We can’t play in the yard, cause of the rain. That’s a bummer. His yard is humongous, and it has a pool! But Gideon has cool video games, even ones mom won’t let us play. But we can play them with you, right?” Lachlan peered around Mateo’s leg to see outside. “Do you think the lightning will knock down a tree or hit the house? I heard about that happening to Tina’s best friend’s older brother’s girlfriend’s dad. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it? Lightning hitting a tree, I mean.”
Bright blue eyes, partnered with a gap-toothed grin, stared up at him. Mateo shook his head as he looked down at the kid. “What have you been eating?”
“There’s cake,” Amber said.
“And because the putt-putt park closed down on account of rain, they gave us each a candy bar.” The dark-haired boy scrounged an empty wrapper that was smeared with chocolate out of the front pocket of his jeans.
Well, that explained all the hyperactivity.
The boom of thunder was so close it reminded Mateo of a howitzer.
“Cool!” Lachlan yelled out.
“Who all is here?” Mateo asked Lachlan.
“Everybody.”
“Not everybody,” Amber answered as she sidled closer to Mateo and shook her head at her brother. “Some girls from my softball team are here, and a bunch of Lachlan’s friends from his Tae Kwon Do class. So are Mom and Mrs. O’Rourke with her baby Iris, an’ Mrs. Ericson, she’s Sasha’s mom. Oh yeah, and Miss Amy is teaching us kitchen stuff. I heard Mr. Ryker tell my mom that Miss Amy was his woman. My mom and Miss Amy growled at him.” Amber took a deep breath, then continued. “This house is so cool, Mr. Mateo!” Amber was practically jumping up and down. “The backyard is bigger than our school’s playground. Do you think Mr. Gideon would let us practice softball here?”
Mateo held back a laugh. The idea of little girls throwing balls through Gideon’s windows wouldn’t go over well.
“Let’s get inside. I’m all wet. Maybe one of the five ladies can get me a towel.”
Amber held out her hand. “Come with me, I know where the towels are.”
He looked down at Amber and noted her attire. “Why are you wearing your bathing suit? You’re not going to go swim in the pool, are you?” None of the women could have thought that was a good idea.
“Nope,” she said as she popped the ‘P.’ Then she giggled. “We had to change into our swimsuits so Mom could put our wet clothes in the dryer. She can do the same thing for you.” She paused and tilted her head. “Mom says it’s going to be a madhouse once the game’s over and everyone leaves the pub and comes back with the pizza.”
It seems like a madhouse right now, and I haven’t even made it into the house!
“Hey kids, I thought you wanted to learn how to make guacamole. If you do, you better come inside.”
He looked up and saw Amy Linden standing in the doorway, looking mighty fine in a blue one-piece bathing suit. Ryker sure was a lucky man. Amy had worked in the restaurant industry forever, so it made sense that she was tempting the kids into the kitchen so they wouldn’t be pestering everybody to play Gideon’s PG video games.
“Hey Mateo,” Amy waved, as the kids hustled on by her. “Come on inside. We’ve got plenty of towels, and I’ve got a load of clothes in the dryer. I bet Gideon wouldn’t mind if you grabbed one of his t-shirts and wore that until yours was dry.”
She was right, and the idea of getting dry sounded pretty good.
When he stepped into the house, it was the chaos he expected. The TV was turned on at mind-numbing decibels. He didn’t need to look at all the seven-year-old girls dancing around the kitchen with their friendship bracelets, to know it was Taylor Swift singing. Hell, the youngest man on their SEAL team, Landon Kelly, was always playing and singing along to her songs. If he wasn’t such a big bruiser, he probably would have had the shit knocked out of him by now.
“Mateo, I got a hole in one and came in second at putt-putt.” Lachlan told him as Amber handed him a towel.
“You didn’t come in second,” a little, brown-skinned girl stomped over to him with a scowl. “We had to leave because of the rain before I could take my turn. If I would have made a hole-in-one in the clown’s nose, I would have come in second, and you would have come in third.”
Aw, shit.
Lachlan looked over at the girl, who was both mad and hurt. “You’re right, Priya. I shouldn’t have said that. Mom said that the game was called on account of rain. That means there’s no winners or losers. I’m sorry.”
It was like the sun came out with a rainbow the way Priya smiled at Lachlan. “You wanna go see my iPad? My mom let me download a new maze game. It’s really hard.”
“Sure. Let’s go into Mr. Gideon’s game room. Only Roy and Heather are in there. But let’s ask Miss Amy for a soda first. She knows where the grape and orange ones are.”
Now they were both smiling.
He felt someone taller than a kid coming up behind him before he heard Bonnie’s laugh. “Looks like my son has made a friend.”
“It was touch-and-go for a moment, but he pulled it out. He’s a peacemaker at heart.”
“That he is,” Bonnie agreed.
He hadn’t seen her since her and Jase’s big wedding in Springfield, Missouri. Jase had sixteen brothers and sisters, and that was his hometown.
“Married life seems to have agreed with you.” He grinned down at the grown-up version of Amber.
Bonnie blushed.
And isn’t that cute as hell?
“It does. Every day seems to get better and better.”
“Do you need to put me to work? I might not be in a command position at work, but I’ve watched Kostya often enough that I think I can help bring some order to this chaos.”
She gave him an evil grin. “Oh, you do, do you?”
“Well, as long as there’s hazard pay.”
“I’ll get back to you on that. First, I’m going to go get the girls to turn the volume down on the TV. I might be a Swiftie, but even I can only take so much.”
He grinned down at her. “You’ll have my undying gratitude.”
Bonnie winked at him as she headed to the TV room.
“Want some chips and guacamole?” Amy asked as he walked toward the kitchen. Another roll of thunder rumbled, and he saw two girls move closer to the kind woman who was teaching them how to make the dip.
“When is my mom going to come and get me?” A pale little girl wearing a tutu asked him as Amy handed him a plate of chips and guac. He was surprised that such a tiny girl felt comfortable addressing him; usually they shied away because of his size. Maybe her dad was really big. Mateo crouched down, so he was at her eye level.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Leslie, what’s yours?”
“I’m Mateo.” He held out his empty hand. She put her small hand in his and he gently closed his fingers around it and shook it. “I’ll find out where your mom is, but Leslie, I think with all this rain it would be safer if she didn’t drive for a little bit. It’s really slippery and we want her to be careful, don’t we?”
“But I want her. I don’t like the thunder and lightning,” she whispered. “It’s scary.”
“Honey,” Amy crouched down on the other side of Leslie. “Mrs. Ericson is going to take you home, remember? She planned to do that after you had pizza. But if you want us to call your mom before that, we can.”
Mateo watched as the little girl’s brow crinkled as she considered her dilemma. “Will there be the pineapple kind of pizza?”
“I’m sure there will be,” Amy nodded.
“Then I’ll stay,” Leslie smiled shyly.
Mateo looked at the other girl, who was now trying to hide behind Amy. She was a little taller and looked just as pale and scared.
“Are you scared too?” Mateo asked her.
She nodded and put her arm around Amy’s leg. Now that was the reaction he was used to.
“Where I come from in Argentina, we had thunder and lightning storms all the time. When I was a little boy, my mama would have me and my little brother sing so that we could tease the sun to come out and play again. Do you want to try that?”
Leslie nodded her head and gave him a sweet smile, whereas the other girl looked skeptical. “What do you think, Amy? Does that sound good to you?” Mateo asked.
“Absolutely. Maybe we could go into the TV room now that it’s quieter. By the way, this beautiful girl is Laura. Her daddy is supposed to be here pretty soon to come and get her.”
“But not if the roads are slippery. Can we call him, Miss Amy?”
“How about if we get Mrs. Ericson to call him? She has his number on her phone. Would that be okay?”
Laura nodded.
Amy turned to Mateo. “Laura and I are going to find Mrs. Ericson. In the meantime, why don’t you and Leslie go teach everybody the sun song?” Amy smiled at Mateo as she took the little girl’s hand and left the kitchen.
“Lachlan said you’re Mexican. Are you going to sing the song in Spanish?”
“I’m Argentinian,” Mateo explained. “Argentina is in South America. I’ll teach you all the song in English and then in Spanish. How about that?”
“That’s so cool.” She was missing two front teeth, the same as Lachlan. As they started down the hall to the TV room, he heard the faint sound of a dog barking over the sound of Taylor Swift singing and the washer and dryer running.
“Leslie, why don’t you go sit down and keep watching the Taylor movie with everybody? I’ll teach you the song in a few minutes. I have to go check on something.”
“Okay. She plopped down on the other side of Lachlan.
He was a popular boy.
Gideon’s dog Lucy hardly ever barked. The big black Russian terrier was too well trained. This was not good. Mateo felt a prickle on the back of his neck. He hurried to the back of the house to see if someone had put her outside, which didn’t seem possible. Not if there was thunder and lightning. He stepped out into the great room that encompassed the dining room and also allowed him to see into the kitchen and gave him great views over James Lake, Gideon’s pool, the back lawn, the patio and as far back to the neighbor’s metal fence. Amber hadn’t been kidding. They could play a softball game out back.
Lucy had to be in the mudroom. That’s where Gideon would sometimes pen her up. He strode past the back window of the great room, then noticed that Gideon’s leather couch had claw marks on the back. Shit, the prickle now felt like cactus spines.
What the fuck?
“Hey Mateo, that’s a great idea on the song,” Bonnie said as she passed him with a big bowl of potato chips.
“Is Lucy in the mud room? Why is she barking?” he asked Bonnie instead of replying to her question.
“Lucy was barking up a storm when we got here. She was scratching at the sliding glass door, so I let her out to do her thing, but nothing. When I finally got her back in, she kept barking and she was scaring the kids. It took some doing, but I was finally able to wrangle her into the mudroom. It was so out of character for her, but luckily I’m used to big dogs,” Bonnie said.
“Did you call Gideon?”
“I didn’t want to ruin their good time. I figured he’d be home soon enough. She probably saw a squirrel or something.”
And there was the reason for the prickle. Mateo had his phone out of his back pocket in an instant as he double-timed past the laundry room to the mudroom.
“Mateo, you should have come. We’re in overtime. Ryker owes me money.” Gideon was laughing.
“I’m at your place, and Lucy is acting strange.”
“What the hell do you mean, strange?” Gideon’s voice was instantly sharp. “Describe it to me. It’s important.”
“Putt putt got rained out. The women and kids got here before I did. When they got here, Lucy was barking up a storm and scratching at the sliding glass door. She’s even clawed your leather sofa. When Bonnie let her out, she didn’t take a dump. Bonnie called her back in, and she was still barking. Bonnie said it was tough, but she managed to wrangle her into the mudroom.”
“Fuck! She’s on alert. Shit, man, I need to be there.”
“What would she be on alert for?” Mateo started counting how many kids he’d seen in the TV room, the game room, the kitchen, and the dining room.
Fuck.
Too fucking many.
“I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. I left her inside. She must have seen someone fucking with the backyard. I want everybody out of the house. I know I’m over-the-top right now, but these are kids, Mateo. Get them the fuck out of there. Dammit, I need to be there!”
Mateo thought of Lachlan, Amber, and Nolan’s baby girl. “That makes two of us who are losing their shit. I’ll get them out of here.”
Gideon had disconnected and Mateo slid his phone in his back pocket as his hand hit the door knob of the mud room.
“Mr. Mateo, are you getting Lucy out of time out? I want to play with her.” Mateo looked behind him and saw Lachlan had followed him and winced. Pray God he had heard nothing that scared him.
“Where’s your mom?”
“She’s making everybody sing, since you weren’t there.”
Mateo let go of the doorknob. “Well, I’m headed there now.” He didn’t go as fast as he would have liked, because he wanted Lachlan to keep up. Damn, he wished he knew the headcount of all the kids here at Gideon’s house. As soon as he stepped into the room, Bonnie looked up at him and quit singing.
“Hey kids. Now that you know the song, why don’t you sing it on your own? Mr. Mateo would love to hear you sing.”
She got up off the couch and rushed over to him. “Lachlan, go back to the couch.”
The kid didn’t whine, he just did what she said. It must have been her tone of voice. “What’s wrong, Mateo?”
“Gideon wants us to get everyone out of the house. I want you out and down the drive to the street. Lucy doesn’t bark that way unless something is wrong. Since she was clawing at the door to the yard, he thinks she saw somebody doing something, and she was trying to alert you.”
Bonnie’s face paled, but she nodded her head. “I’ll get everybody outside,” she promised.
“Do you know the headcount?”
“Yeah. Besides Lachlan and Amber, we have eleven little girls, six boys, Amy, Maggie, and her two-year-old daughter, then there is Fern Ericson, she’s one of the boys’ mothers. Laura’s dad is due to pick her up soon. I’ll ask Fern what Laura’s dad’s ETA is. Laura and one boy went upstairs to go look out a window to wait for him to show up.”
“You tag all the women and round up the kids and load them into the cars and go down the drive until you hit the street. Wait for me there.”
She stared up into Mateo’s face for a brief moment. She must have seen something, God knew what, but she nodded. “Time for coats?”
Mateo shook his head.
“Got it.”
She turned back to the room full of children.
“Hey kids, we’ve got another game we’re going to play. You know the grown-ups are going to come here with pizza, right?”
“Yay!” one girl yelled out with a fist pump.
“Well, we’re going to go outside right now, and go hide in our cars so we can make them think we’re gone. Won’t that be funny?”
“That’ll be great!” the same girl yelled again.
“That’ll be fun,” a young boy piped up.
Seeing that Bonnie had everything in hand, Mateo headed back to the mudroom, taking his phone out of his pocket on the way.
“Status?” Gideon asked when he picked up.
“The kids are being rounded up to go out to the cars right now. I don’t want to add chaos to the mix. Where’s Lucy’s leash?”
“She doesn’t need one. She’ll head straight to the patio door.”
Mateo eased open the door to the mudroom, and Lucy tried to lunge past him. Mateo shoved her back as he looked behind him.
“Down, girl. You head straight for the door, got it?” He opened the door wider, and Lucy bounded out of the room. Mateo ran after her. She skidded to a stop in front of the sliding glass door, then clawed at the glass. Mateo unlocked and opened the door and Lucy shot onto the patio like a bullet from a gun, then ran toward the pool as lightning flashed.
“What’s your ETA?” he asked Gideon.
“We were already getting ready to head home. Now we’re heading east on the expressway, but there’s a wreck that has traffic stopped. I’d say we’re fucked…”
“But?”
Mateo looked over his shoulder and didn’t see anyone in the great room, dining room, or kitchen, which was good.
“I’ve already put an SOS out to the rest of the team to head to my house to help you figure out what’s going on. I sent out a text to Kane McNamara of Night Storm to get the word out and see if anyone can head west on the expressway two miles west of Rosemont. But Mateo, unless one of the team members gets to you fast, you’re on your own. I’ll have them text you when they’re close. Are the women and kids safe?”
“Bonnie took care of that.”
“Good.”
“What should I do with Lucy?”
“Trust her. If she’s fired up, then she saw someone or something. Let her take the lead, just like we have with our mission dogs.”
“Gotcha.”