Chapter Twelve #3
gone somber. “Truths no one else would because he doesn’t know you. It’s one or
the other, man. It’s sexist crap or it’s the fact that she looks like the woman
you love and the boys don’t. Do you think they don’t wonder?”
“My sons know how much I love them.” Every word was said
from gritted teeth. Vivian’s father looked like he might explode at any moment.
“Alex, did you see how alive she was?” Big Tag asked. “She
was more animated and excited than I’ve ever seen her.”
“Because of the adrenaline of almost dying,” McKay shot
back.
“Yeah, mate. Some of us get addicted to that. Those kinds of
people tend to go into things like the FBI or Special Forces,” Mal replied with
a calm ease. “Or flying experimental aircraft.”
“Or the Agency,” Oliver supplied helpfully.
“You can drag her home, but you’ll have killed something in
her. Something that came from you and your wife, some piece of her that can’t be
fulfilled in any other way.” This was the conclusion he’d come to. He didn’t
know if Vivian would change her mind somewhere down the line, but she needed
this for now. She needed to test herself. “You can make her come home and
likely she’ll go back to finishing her doctorate and become the intellectual,
quiet daughter you seem to want, but the light will be gone and you’ll be the
reason for it. Can you live with that?”
The fury on McKay’s face fled in an instant and he took a
step back. “I don’t want a quiet daughter. I never said that. I only want her
safe.”
“No one is safe,” Oliver said, sounding far more sober than
he usually did. “My brother is an intellectual. Ask him about the scar on his
shoulder sometime. Violence can find us at any time. In any place. Tragedy and
betrayal don’t care what profession you’re in. They don’t ask if you made sure
to lock all the doors and keep yourself as safe as possible. They come and we
deal with them. The only fight we can make against them is to live our lives to
the fullest.”
“Eloquently put, Oliver,” Big Tag said.
Oliver frowned. “Is something wrong with Tag? He’s never
said a nice thing to me before.”
“I was nice to you as a kid, until you started hitting on my
wife and daughters,” Big Tag replied.
McKay ignored them. “What she did was reckless.”
“I agree.” Mal wasn’t going to lie.
“But I can’t do anything about it,” McKay said, his voice
hollow. “No one can do anything.”
“Oh, I think I can,” Mal said. “Your daughter and I are
going to have a long talk at the end of this, and there are going to be rules
set out for the rest of this mission.”
McKay’s mouth turned down. “I don’t want to know how you’re
going to enforce this, do I?”
“I suspect he’s going to spank her.” Big Tag sounded cheery
now.
“He already does that practically every day,” Oliver said
with a sigh. “Sorry. The walls aren’t as thick as you think.”
He ignored Oliver, looking to Vivian’s father. “Mr. McKay, I
understand that I’m too old for your daughter. I’m not educated enough. I don’t
fit in her world. What we have is for now because she needs it, but I promise
I’ll do everything I can to make her happy and keep her safe while we’re
together.”
McKay seemed to think about that for a moment. “What do you
get out of it? And don’t tell me sex. It’s clear to me that’s not your biggest
concern.”
Well, he’d been honest with the man this whole conversation.
He wasn’t going to stop now. “I get to spend time with the most extraordinary
woman I’ve ever met. I get the chance to help her, to protect her and care for
her. I get the chance to be her man for however long we have.”
McKay’s eyes closed, and there was something new in them
when they opened again. Something almost like respect. He held a hand out.
“Captain Mays, I’m Alex McKay, Vivian’s father. Please call me Alex.”
Big Tag sighed. “Thank the universe.”
Mal took her father’s hand. “Call me Mal.”
It was a start.
* * * *
Vivian looked to the door that Mal and Oliver had
disappeared behind hours ago. Her stomach was tense. They hadn’t arrested her,
but it felt like that hadn’t been the same with the men. She’d been told they
were waiting for their interviews in a holding cell.
“What is taking so long?”
“Well, my darling, you were involved in a mass shooting in a
city that almost never has them,” her mother replied.
“But they have to have the security footage by now,” Vivian
said and then realized the problem. “Unless they took out the cams.”
Her mother nodded. “I suspect they did or this wouldn’t take
hours since the real suspects are dead. If you had taken a team with you, they
would have immediately known something was wrong.”
“We made the decision to go in tight.” She should have known
her parents would walk in and judge everything. They weren’t like that
normally, but with her in danger they would question every decision Damon and
the team had made. “It was a lunch. I was literally there to meet the people
who are adjacent to our target and give Oliver my opinions.”
Which was that Edward and Tatiana were both awful humans.
Both had panicked. They hadn’t cared that the bodyguard who was supposed to
protect them had died. All they’d cared about was their own hides. It was one
of the reasons she’d gotten them out as quickly as she could. Tatiana had
already hurt Oliver. Who knew how much more damage she could do.
“You should never go in without a full team,” her mother
insisted.
Charlotte snorted. “You’ve been out of the field for a long
time, Eve. Babes, you know I love you, but you’re letting Alex panic you. It
was a lunch. Was Damon supposed to suspend all his operations so his highly
trained team could…watch them eat? Comment on the menu? I would have done the
same thing at this stage of the game.”
“They would have been able to figure out that a mass
shooting was about to occur,” her mom replied, though not with the vigor she
had before.
“Is it a mass shooting? I mean personally I think it was a
thwarted kidnapping.” Aunt Charlotte looked cool and chic like she hadn’t
recently flown seven hours and walked right into chaos. The woman seemed
unflappable. “The question is who.”
Vivian had been in with the police for several hours. She’d
walked out to find her mom and aunt waiting. “What do you know that I don’t?”
She’d been told her father and uncle were talking to the
police with Damon, but she wasn’t sure she believed them. Oh, she was certain
that was what they told her mom, but she didn’t trust her dad to not try to
find Mal and Oliver.
Charlotte took a sip of the coffee she’d had brought in. “I
know that the men Vivian killed have a record for assault and kidnapping. They
should be in jail, but the evidence went missing right before trial and they
were forced to drop the charges. Apparently they’re known specifically for
corporate kidnappings.”
“In the UK?” It was almost unheard of here, though she knew
it happened a lot in some developing countries.
Charlotte shrugged. “Most of them are never talked about.
The ransom is paid and the whole thing is swept under a rug. I’m interested
because there were at least four people in that room with ties to large corporations.
Probably more. I’ll know once I get a list of who was there.”
So her aunt had already been at work. “They talked about a
blonde. I think they were after the young woman who was having lunch with us.
Tatiana Tottenham. She’s the heir to an energy company. She’s marrying the
future Earl of Lindley. She’s a terrible person, but I’m sure she’s worth a lot
of ransom money.”
“Or they were after the other blonde sitting at that table,”
her mother pointed out.
“Why?” Vivian asked. She knew she would have to ask this
question about a thousand times since Mal would want to talk to her about it,
too. “I’m not in Tatiana’s league. Not even close. You and Dad have money, but
it’s wrapped up in the company and investments. Besides, who would kidnap the
daughter of a security firm with intelligence and syndicate ties? I know I’m
not directly related to the Denisovitch syndicate,
but tell me Aunt Charlotte wouldn’t bring them in if I got kidnapped.”
“You know I would.” Charlotte winked her way. “She has a
point. Vivian isn’t worth the same amount as the Tottenham heiress. She’s a
therapist. Do they want her session notes?”
“I know you’re right, but I have a feeling,” her mother
explained. “Something’s wrong.”
Vivian knew what was wrong. She wasn’t in her safe spot
behind a desk. “Mom, I was good today.”
Something had happened when the first shots were fired. She
hadn’t panicked. Her body had gone on full alert, and she’d known what to do.
She’d gotten low and moved through the fog, breathing only when she had to. She’d
studied the restaurant layout before they’d ever entered it. Mal had asked her
to. He’d said Oliver didn’t care, but he didn’t feel right without her knowing
the layout. She’d known where the door to the kitchen was and that it led
outside. So after Tatiana had her obviously trauma-fueled freak out, she’d
checked on Oliver and then led the people around her to the door.
“You were reckless today,” her mom said.
“You were awesome today,” her aunt countered, looking at her
mom with a WTH expression. “She took out the bad guys, saved her team, and
doesn’t have a scrape on her.”
But Mal did. Oliver did, too. He probably had a concussion,
but Mal had fallen. His leg had come out of socket. She hadn’t even been there
to make sure the EMTs helped him. What if he was still in pain?
“She had a way out,” her mom said to her aunt. “She found
the door that led to the outside. She was lucky it was close.”
“It wasn’t that close,” Vivian replied. “But I studied the
building before we went in. I knew exactly where it was. I was lucky that there
wasn’t a third person there, but I think the kidnappers believed it would be a
quick in-and-out thing. They were counting on shock and awe and that none of
the bodyguards would be carrying.”
“Yes, Damon is dealing with that,” her aunt said with a sigh
that let Vivian know she was glad she didn’t have to explain why Mal had a