Chapter 6
“You’re at the Lucky Parrot.” Dane wasn’t asking.
“What is it?” Annoyance overrode the crumb of guilt she had. She tried holding the phone so Dirk couldn’t hear their conversation, but she was afraid that was impossible.
“There’s more to the threat against the Lucky Parrot than a thug out to extort money.” He paused. She waited him out, deciding it was best to say as little as possible with Dirk within whispering distance.
“It could have something to do with a special-ops brother I once knew and loathed.”
“I’m coming home. Now.” She didn’t bother sharing the triumph she felt. Her instincts were improving. She’d suspected the shakedown had been all about some enemy or other of Dane’s. But a special ops enemy was cause for alarm.
She put her phone away and looked at Dirk’s disappointment. She felt nothing. Not even a speck of empathy. Her mind was all about Dane right now and she felt her gut revving up, the adrenaline getting ready to rush.
“It was good to see you again, Dirk. I’m truly sorry about your father.” She forced herself to give him that much.
“Just like that? You’re leaving?” She stood and slid out of the booth away from him.
“I’ve moved on, Dirk. I’m marrying someone else. I’m sure you’ll find someone.”
He stood in front of her. She knew he wasn’t boorish enough to try and physically stop her from leaving, but she almost wished he would so she could put him on his ass. She slid a look over at Billy sitting at the bar and her good-for-something-sometimes brother got off his stool and came over.
“We’re not done. I’ve come a long way. And you’re too gorgeous—”
“Time to go, Dirk.” Billy took his arm and Dirk moved, heaving a sigh.
“I’d like to see you again. One more time before I go.”
She didn’t bother answering him. Instead she stepped around him and walked out the front door. Then she ran to the Jeep.
*****
“Why do you suppose Dirk is so hot to rekindle all of a sudden?” Shana asked him.
Of all people. Dane figured the question was only half rhetorical after she’d told him all.
“His tremendous ego took a severe blow. He needs to reconcile to even the score maybe.”
She shrugged. “Now tell me about this special ops enemy of yours.”
They sat at their dining room table eating pie and sipping tequila. The drapes in the front of the small beach shack were drawn against the early evening darkness, but he could see straight through the kitchen out the window over the sink where the lights twinkled off the harbor.
Dane told her about his past experience with Quinn and Acer and how they’d deduced he’d come back to town based on Acer’s intel. He bit his lip when he wanted to suggest she stay home.
“Does this mean you didn’t buy an old-fashioned wedding gown full of layers of lace and tulle for me to rip off your body on our wedding night?”
“Not yet. But now I have a mind to for real.”
He looked at his watch. “There’s time now. We don’t need to be at the Lucky Parrot for a few hours.”
*****
It was barely eight o’clock. Still early for their so-called appointment with doom, but that was the way Dane liked it.
He slid into their booth at the Lucky Parrot after Shana, crowding her to one end.
They might be early, but he was past ready.
The last thing he needed now was coffee, but that’s what they had as they sat waiting for the place to close down.
“You ready for this?” He shouldn’t have asked.
“Don’t worry. I can switch gears from blushing bride-to-be to tough security detail as quick as you can switch from horny groom-in-waiting to killer operative.” Her chin was up and her eyes twinkling with mischief looking like twin five-karat emeralds.
He would have got lost in those eyes if it weren’t for Cap coming in the door just then, not to mention the coffee ramping up his adrenaline.
Cap headed straight for them, looking all business except he wasn’t in uniform.
“You’re wearing street clothes. That meant you’re up for street business?”
Cap took a chair opposite their booth.
“Could be.”
Dane nodded. He let go of Shana’s hand. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding it. Or maybe she’d been holding his hand. Either way it was bad form.
Tom came over to them.
“I sent the staff home. The place is empty except for us.”
“Why don’t you go home too, Tom?” Shana asked. She was the only one of them who would bother asking. Or who could get away with asking. Tom was a tough guy and he’d sooner jump off the Martha’s Vineyard ferry and swim to London than back down from whatever was coming.
“You realize this isn’t your fight,” Dane reminded him.
“The guy threatens to burn down my place, it’s my fight. I don’t care who the hell he is. Besides, what kind of friend would I be if I left you knowing the guy is out to get you?” He held the rag in his hand.
“I’ll be behind the bar operating the camera. Don’t worry—I’ll get everything.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Dane half-joked.
“You’re kidding?” Cap said. “He’s not really filming this, is he?”
Dane and Shana both nodded.
“Great. Just great.”
Before Dane had a chance to tell Cap he ought to go home because he was expecting Acer, the front door opened and he went into full alert.
Two men stumbled through the front door. Shit. Dane rose to greet them. He’d need to get rid of them. Fast. Shana reached out to grab his arm and stop him.
“It’s not the bad guys.”
He knew that, but how did she? Stepping out of the booth, he turned to her, expecting an explanation without asking.
“Shana, my love. You look more gorgeous than ever.”
Dane spun around and looked at the man who spoke and then at his friend. It was Billy and the damn ex-flame, Dirk.
“What the hell are you two doing here?”
“That’s what I want to know.” Shana came to Dane’s side and held onto his arm. He wasn’t sure if she was sending a message to Dirk or a message to him, but the message was that she was with Dane.
“You’re not married yet. I came to talk you out of your mistake.”
Shana flashed a vengeful look at her brother before turning on Dirk.
“I told you we have nothing more to talk about. Dane and I have important business here tonight. You can’t stay.”
“It’s a public place,” Dirk took a step toward her, ignoring Dane. Ignoring good sense and trying his patience. Dane decided to give Shana another ten seconds to handle this before he intervened to settle it his way. Fast and with a measure of violence.
“Barkeep. Two Nob Creeks, please. No ice.” Dirk looked over to Tom. Tom looked at Dane. Dane shrugged. Then he spoke with a deliberate, low rumbling voice. As sure as it was quiet.
“You can stay if you want, Dirk. Sugarpants failed to introduce us, but I’m Dane. Her fiancée.” He smiled one of his bared-teeth type of smiles, the kind with such a thin veneer of politeness that the violent intent was unmistakable.
Dirk stared him down and didn’t bother with the polite smile or any other kind of smile. In fact, he broadcast his hostility for all to see. So Dane continued.
“You and Billy can stay and have your drink, but I want to tell you two things. First, there will be no further discussion between you and Shana. Second, the business we have tonight may get violent and I will not guarantee your safety.” Dane watched him shoot a meaningful glance in Shana’s direction, so he added, “Neither of us will guarantee your safety.”
That was as much a warning for Shana as it was for Dirk. She had too ingrained a habit of trying to save everyone at her own expense. That would not happen on Dane’s watch. Especially not with this guy. He flicked a glance at Billy to see how he took it.
The young man looked damned excited. Shana had warned Dane that Billy was the reckless brother.
As far as Dane knew, the whole family was nuts.
But they were Shana’s nutty family, so they were his too.
He gave Billy a nod, but stopped short of saying another word when he saw the back door of the bar begin to open.
He’d been positioned to keep watch down the short hallway leading to the back exit as well as the front door.
It took a few beats for the door to come fully open.
By then everyone had turned in that direction.
It took another several beats for the man shadowed there to step forward from the hall into the open of the bar.
By then Cap stood with them, forming a cluster a few feet from the bar almost dead center in the dining room.
Perfectly positioned in front of Tom’s camera, Dane realized in a random thought.
He put his hand on his Glock, which he’d tucked in the back of his jeans under his shirt, and stepped in front of Shana.
Todd Mangas aka Quinn Starkey stopped six feet from them holding a Russian semiautomatic at his side. There was no doubt it was him. He was older and shorter and leaner, but the unforgettable scar was there, slicing through his otherwise unshaven gray stubble.
Quinn’s eyes bored into Dane’s and Dane stared back unblinking. Then Quinn flicked his gaze around the room, sizing it up and probably searching for Acer.
Where the hell was Acer? Dane hoped his comrade in arms would come through the back door any second now with his guns blazing.
But that didn’t happen.
The pin-drop silence stretched for another beat then ended with a string of epithets from their out-of-town guests.