Chapter Two
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Apparently, this was going to be a day of surprises, but Caroline hoped this visitor, this stranger, wasn’t as nasty of a surprise as the one Nash had already doled out.
That Bodie had escaped.
And that he was likely on his way to kill her.
This woman obviously didn’t think that though. In fact, judging from her second question, she appeared to believe Caroline was the one in control here, that she was somehow after Bodie.
Not totally off the mark.
Caroline had already made up her mind that this time she’d be ready for the sonofabitch. This time, she wouldn’t have her back turned to him. This time, she would see the attack coming. This time, she wouldn’t be eighteen years old and way too trusting. She’d face him head on and make him pay for what he’d done to her.
Of course, Nash might have the same idea in mind.
That was why he kept moving in front of her despite Bodie being nowhere in sight. However, she supposed this woman, whoever the heck she was, could be just as much of a threat.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” Nash repeated, and he sounded more than a little dangerous.
Looked it, too.
He’d probably just come from an op because he was wearing dark camo pants, combat boots, and a black tee that showed off all those incredible muscles. Something she probably shouldn’t be noticing at a time like this, but she would have been blind not to have seen them. As her crusty granny would have said—the man was built like a brick shithouse.
The woman shifted her attention to Nash, dismissing him with an annoyed flick of a glance before looking at Caroline again. “Where’s Bodie?” she yelled. “You’d better not have hurt him, you bitch.”
Caroline huffed. “Listen, bitch,” she fired right back. Her days of backing down from a fight were long over. “I haven’t hurt Bodie. I haven’t even seen the piece of shit. What makes you think I have?”
The woman snapped back her shoulders and seemed to rethink what she’d been about to spew. “You’re lying,” she muttered, and she repeated that a couple of times before she sagged against her car. It was as if her legs had given out on her.
“I’m not lying, and you’d better tell me who you are right now,” Caroline demanded.
“I’m Jordana McKenna,” she said, the fire no longer blazing her voice or her expression. She looked defeated.
“McKenna?” Nash and Caroline questioned in unison. It was a toss-up as to who was more shocked and confused by that.
Since McKenna was Nash’s surname.
And Bodie’s.
“Oz, do a search on Jordana McKenna,” Nash instructed without taking his eyes off their visitor.
Caroline figured he was talking to his AI app that was a staple among her mother’s operatives. She got confirmation of that when his phone began doling out some details.
“Jordana McKenna, nee Harris. Married to Bodie McKenna for four months and one week.”
“Oz, pause,” Nash said, and he made a sound of disgust while he popped in an earbud. “You married a convicted felon?” There was plenty of disgust in his voice, too, when he asked that of their visitor.
Jordana’s chin whipped up. “I married a man I love. A man who loves me. And he was wrongfully convicted.”
“Beg to differ on that last part, and I’ve got the scars to prove it,” Caroline muttered.
She saw Nash flinch just a little and understood it hurt for him to be reminded of what his brother had done. It didn’t matter that Nash hadn’t been part of the attack, and he sure as heck hadn’t condoned it. It also didn’t matter either that he’d basically disowned Bodie before that godawful night. Nash still felt responsible, maybe believing he could have done something to stop it even though he hadn’t been within a thousand miles of the attack.
Later, Caroline would tell him that she didn’t blame him. But for now, she had to deal with his sister-in-law. A woman who was possibly delusional. Then again, she’d heard of other seemingly stable women marrying inmates.
“You lied to the police about your so-called attack,” Jordana insisted. “That’s why Bodie went to jail.”
All right, maybe not unstable, but rather gullible to believe a man who was behind bars for attempted murder. Caroline didn’t bother to try to set her straight, but she wondered how Mrs. McKenna would react if she hiked up her top and showed her the thirteen scars from the stab wounds on her torso.
While she was debating doing just that, Caroline heard the wail of a police siren in the distance. So, the cavalry was on the way. Probably her mother, too, and it twisted at her to think that her place, her sanctuary, would soon be crawling with people.
Maybe one of them a would-be killer.
“Where is Bodie?” Jordana repeated.
“You tell me,” Caroline countered. “What makes you think he would come here? I mean, since you don’t believe he tried to murder me.”
The woman’s mouth tightened. “He might feel as if he has to settle an old score with you.”
“Right,” Caroline muttered. “Wonder how many times he plans to try to stab me this time to settle that old score.”
“He didn’t stab you,” the woman shouted, and with the concern amping up on her face, she glanced behind her as the siren grew closer. When she whipped back toward Caroline, the fury had returned to her eyes. “So help me, you’d better not try to manipulate his feelings. You’re a weak spot for Bodie, and I don’t want you trying to brainwash him or something.”
Caroline wanted to laugh. Jesus. What a piece of work. This Jordana idiot and the asshole Bodie deserved each other.
But she immediately rethought that.
She couldn’t wish Bodie on her worst enemy, and while this woman was a delusional pain in the butt, she wasn’t an enemy. In fact, she was someone to be pitied since it was possible Bodie would turn the knife on his bride if he got the chance.
“Oz, continue background info,” Nash said, but this time the AI’s response must have gone through his earbud because Caroline couldn’t hear it.
A cruiser came tearing up the road toward her house. Not a county one but rather San Antonio PD, which was a good forty miles away.
“SAPD probably had a tail on her,” Nash muttered to her. “Jordana’s from San Antonio.”
That made sense. There had to be an intense manhunt going on to find Bodie, and the cops would reason he might go to his wife. Apparently not though since Bodie had taken the exit toward her house. Of course, this could be some kind of ruse by Jordana to try to distract her so that Bodie could sneak up on her.
That sent Caroline firing glances all around her. And she silently cursed. It was already happening. This place she’d carved out for herself was starting to feel no longer safe, and she hated Bodie for that. Of course, she hated him for a lot of reasons, but that was one more to add to the list.
“I’m Detective Malley,” a tall, blond-haired cop said as he bolted from the cruiser. He drew his gun. So did the female brunette in a uniform who came out from the passenger’s side.
“They’re legit,” Nash explained, obviously getting some kind of info through his earpiece. “SAPD sent them out. Detective Jace Malley and Officer Amanda Gonzales.”
“Is Bodie McKenna here?” Malley called out.
That was apparently the question of the day. “Not that I know of,” Caroline settled for saying.
“You’re Caroline Maverick?” Malley asked, and he seemed to do a mental doubletake when his attention landed on Nash. “And you’re Nash McKenna from Maverick Ops.”
It shouldn’t have surprised her that Malley had immediately linked Nash’s name with her mother’s company. Maverick Ops often got a lot of publicity. Mostly good press for the rescues and such they’d done.
“And you’re Bodie’s brother,” Malley added to Nash. “Where is he?”
“No idea whatsoever,” Nash replied. “But his wife seems to believe he’ll be coming here.”
“Not because Bodie still loves her,” Jordana said lightning fast. “He loves me now. He married me.”
Caroline went ahead and rolled her eyes and didn’t hold back a very loud huff. “Insecure and gullible,” she muttered.
“And rich,” Nash supplied. Info he’d almost certainly gotten from Oz. “Her daddy is Leland Harris, owner of many, many businesses in central Texas. Jordana is his only child and lives off a trust fund.”
Caroline had to wonder if Jordana had used some of her money to help Bodie escape. Maybe so husband and wife could ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. If so, then it clearly hadn’t turned out the way Jordana had wanted.
“Where’s Bodie?” Malley demanded from Jordana.
Jordana opened her mouth, closed it, and again seemed to go through the rethinking process of what to say. “I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it past her to have murdered him and hidden the body. You should look inside that big building. And her house.”
“He’s not inside the big building,” Nash supplied. “I haven’t searched the house yet.”
“We’ll do that,” the female cop said. “We’ll search the Mercedes, too, in case he’s hiding in the trunk.”
That shot some alarm through Caroline, and it twisted away at her that Bodie could still have that effect on her.
“Open the trunk,” Malley told Jordana, and he looked up at Nash and Caroline. “We tailed her here so we know this vehicle is registered to her. It was also seen in the vicinity of the prison around the time that Bodie escaped.”
“I was visiting my husband,” the woman howled as she used the keypad to pop the trunk. “I had no idea he wasn’t there.”
“So, he didn’t fill you in on his plans for the future?” Nash asked, and this time, he let the sarcasm reign.
Jordana’s eyes narrowed again. “He wouldn’t have wanted to involve me in something that could get me in trouble. And it probably wasn’t his idea to escape. Something must have happened. Someone must have threatened his life, or mine, for this to have happened.”
Caroline didn’t get a chance to respond to that because she heard the whirring sound of a helicopter. She looked up, thinking that it might belong to SAPD, but then she spotted the logo on the tail.
Maverick Ops.
“Great,” she grumbled. Her mother was here.
And Ruby was piloting the helicopter. Of course, she was. She had done that plenty of times during her military career.
All conversation halted to an abrupt stop, mainly because it was impossible to be heard over the sound of the chopper, but Caroline noticed the noise didn’t stop Nash from doing his whole protector thing. He still had his gun drawn, and he moved back in front of her.
Caroline kept watch, too, because, hey, she wasn’t that clueless teenager.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her mother land the helicopter in her pasture and cursed at the wildflowers that were crushed. Ruby made a quick exit, heading straight toward them.
Her mother was wearing a dark gray business suit, but she still managed to look as if she had on a uniform—complete with her rank. Of course, she’d worn a uniform for so many years, twenty-three of them, that it was probably imprinted on her body or something.
Caroline tried, and failed, not to scowl about that.
“That’s Ruby Maverick,” Nash said when he saw the female cop shift to take aim in Ruby’s direction.
“Yeah. It is. I recognize her from her pictures in the media. She’s head of Maverick Ops, and Miss Caroline Maverick here is her daughter,” Malley supplied, and he motioned for his fellow cop to stand down while he resumed his search of the trunk of the Mercedes.
“It’s empty,” Malley announced. “But I’ll have the CSIs go over it and the interior in case she gave her husband a lift somewhere.”
“I didn’t,” Jordana insisted.
“The CSIs will still go over it,” Malley fired back, and he obviously wasn’t any more pleased with the woman than Caroline and Nash were.
Malley turned when Ruby got closer and gave her a nodded greeting, along with a “Ma’am.”
Ruby nodded a greeting in return, and with her gaze sweeping around the grounds, she continued toward Nash and her. Once she reached them, she lifted her hand just a fraction as if she might touch or hug Caroline.
She didn’t though.
Must have remembered her military bearing, Caroline thought with all the rancor that went with pretty much any thought about her mother.
No PDA for Colonel Maverick.
In fact, not much parenting either. Or no big part in being a wife. That had culminated in her mother not even being near her husband’s bedside when the aggressive form of cancer had claimed him.
Hence, the rancor on Caroline’s part.
Her father had been her world. The best dad ever. And he should have had his wife by his side as he’d drawn his last breath. Instead, said wife had been thousands of miles away, saving the life of someone else. Someone she likely didn’t even know.
“Thank you for getting here so fast,” Ruby told Nash. Hearing her words caused Caroline’s attention to shift back to her. “Has there been any sign of Bodie?”
“None.” Nash tipped his head to Jordana. “But that’s his wife, Jordana Harris McKenna.”
Her mother dropped her usual poker face expression for a raised eyebrow. “I knew he’d married. I kept tabs on him,” she tacked onto that when she glanced at Caroline. “Did his wife help him escape?”
“To be determined,” Nash said, and he fired more glances around. “Look, it’s probably best if Caroline stays back from the door, but I’d like to go inside and check the place with the cops.”
“I’ll wait here with her,” Ruby was quick to say, and she eased back her jacket to put her hand over a gun in a shoulder holster.
“Great,” Caroline muttered, but she didn’t nix the idea.
Her house did indeed need to be checked, and while she was ready, willing, and able to take on Bodie, it would be stupid for her to turn down backup.
Even when backup was her mother.
Caroline stepped further back into her workshop with her mother taking over Nash’s position when he headed into her house. The female cop stayed with Jordana, clearly standing guard.
“I’m getting some of the details of Bodie’s escape,” her mother commented, tapping her earpiece. “I’m betting he had help, and his wife has the money to make it happen.”
There were so many ways Caroline could take this conversation, but she went with the one that’d surprised her. “You kept tabs on Bodie?”
“Of course I did,” her mother said in her no-nonsense way. “He tried to murder my daughter, so I wanted to make sure he…behaved himself in prison.”
Caroline tried to wrap her mind around what that meant, and she silently cursed. “You thought he might try to arrange for someone to come after me?”
“I considered it,” her mother confirmed. “And I took steps to make sure it didn’t happen.” She paused, said one single word of profanity. “I didn’t take enough steps though to keep you safe, and I’m sorry about that.”
That rift was still there, but that didn’t mean Caroline wanted Ruby to beat herself up about something that was totally out of her control. Then again, maybe her mother believed she could indeed control everything.
“You sent Nash,” Caroline reminded her. “He came in all John Wick and ready.”
“He’s Bodie’s brother,” her mother muttered after a long pause. “I didn’t want you seeing him to trigger any memories for you.”
Caroline shook her head. “I don’t associate Nash with my memories of Bodie. I associate Nash with…”
Too bad she’d even added those last four words. And now her pause had caused her mother to glance back at her. In that glance, Ruby managed to study Caroline’s face, and whatever she saw there had her muttering more profanity.
“Don’t worry,” Caroline said, not bothering to take the snark out of her voice. “Nash won’t touch the boss’ daughter even if I want him to.”
Her mother would have almost certainly had a stinging comeback for that if Nash and Malley hadn’t run out of her house. Caroline’s heart dropped when she saw Nash’s expression.
“What happened?” Caroline asked. “Did you find something in my house?”
“We haven’t finished searching it yet. But a drone spotted someone matching Bodie’s description,” Nash spelled out, looking Caroline straight in the eyes. “If it’s Bodie, he slipped into the woods. Those woods,” he added.
And Nash pointed directly behind Caroline.