Maggie's Hunt

by Karen Woods

  Maggie closed her eyes briefly. Then she looked at him, tenderly. “I love you, Hunt.”

  He smiled at her. “Maggie . . . .”

  “How bad was the shoulder?”

  “Not horrible. You are going to have a scar.”

  “Nerve damage?”

  “The doctor doesn’t think so.”

  “How is the hip?” Maggie asked tightly.

  “Not good. You are going to be bedridden and in traction for several weeks as the hip knits. There will be another operation to remove the steel pins that are holding your hip back together. They were able to reconstruct it. Then there will be a long period of physical therapy to regain the mobility.”

  “But I will walk again?” Maggie questioned. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life in a chair?”

  “You are going to have to work at regaining your ability, Maggie. It won’t be fun. It’s going to be a lot of hard, painful, work. If you won’t do it, you will never walk again. And there is the possibility that you will always have a limp, even if you do regain your mobility.”

  Maggie closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. “Okay. I can live with that. Thanks for being straight with me.”

  “I don’t ever want to be less than straight with you,” Hunt said quietly.

  “You’ve been here all night?”

  Hunt nodded tightly as he wondered if he should tell her about the attempt on her life.

  “Go back to your hotel, Hunt. Get some sleep,” she said gently.

  “Maggie . . . .” he began hesitantly. “Michael has arranged security for you until the rest of the members of the group who abducted you are taken.”

  “Is that really necessary? Surely, it is over?”

  “No. There was another attempt on your life last night, or early this morning, rather.”

  Maggie drew a steadying breath. “Tell me about it?”

  And he did. “The syringe,” Hunt continued, “Contained a lethal dose of heroin.”

  Maggie shuddered. “I wonder why they just didn’t kill me straight out and get it over with. The man whom I shot said something about their not getting paid if I died accidentally.”

  Hunt touched her face gingerly. When he spoke, it was hesitantly, “You’ve got quite a shiner there. I could kill them for hurting you.”

  “You’re a little late, there.”

  “Maggie . . . .” Hunt said.

  “They didn’t rape me, Hunt,” she assured him.

  “I know,” he told her gently. “The doctor told me that.”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “You want to talk about it, Maggie?”

  “I was alone. I saw them only when they wanted me to write that letter, make the phone call, and when they brought my meals.”

  “The police will want to talk with you. Are you up to talking with them?”

  “I think that I want to rest a while. I’m very tired,” Maggie replied.

  Hunt leaned over her and kissed her lightly. “Then, rest, Maggie mine, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  It was noon before Maggie awoke. A nurse brought in a tray for her. While she had been asleep, they had disconnected her from the IV that had been hydrating her.

  Maggie looked at the beef broth, fruit flavored gelatin, sherbet, and coffee. Even that meager food looked good to her.

  The police came, took her statement, and went. Maggie napped again. But, like always, when she awoke, Hunt was there. He had changed clothes and had shaven.

  “You could spoil a girl,” Maggie said.

  “Nah, you’re already rotten,” Hunt replied teasingly.

  Maggie laughed softly. “Gee, with friends like you, who needs enemies?”

  Hunt smiled at her. He sighed. “I’ve got a registered letter for you, Maggie. It’s from Guy Faulks.”

  Maggie nodded slightly. “Probably putting me on extended leave. It’s company policy.”

  He handed her the letter. “You want me to open it for you?”

  “Please.”

  Maggie watched as Hunt took the little pocketknife she had tucked up his sleeve in the van and opened the letter.

  He removed the letter from the envelope and unfolded the two-page document. He quickly scanned it, frowning.

  “Well?”

  Hunt grimaced. “You’ve been removed from your position and put on extended medical leave without pay. But, the company insurance policy will continue to pay your medical bills. Someone named William McNaught has been named to fill your job.”

  “Bill McNaught is a good man. He’ll do a fine job. He was my deputy in London. The job probably should have been his to begin with,” Maggie said.

  “This doesn’t bother you?”

  “It’s business, Hunt. Faulks can hardly sit dead in the water while I am recuperating, can it? I wish that they hadn’t put the leave on a ‘without pay’ basis. But, I understand that. I’m going to have to look for another job when I am back on my feet.”

  “There won’t be a position for you at Faulks?”

  “Possibly not. Probably not. With this not having been a political kidnapping, but an action against me, personally, I’ve become a liability to the company.”

  “The fact that it was not a political action has not been released to the media. The police are keeping that quiet while they are trying to track down the rest of the people involved in your kidnapping.”

  “Oh,” Maggie said, surprised. “I guess that I can understand that.”

  Hunt cleared his throat. “Do you have any idea what you want to do now that you aren’t in pharmaceuticals?”

  “I really don’t know.”

  “Marry me, Maggie, I can arrange it with the Spanish authorities. I’m sure that we can get a priest in.”

  Maggie shook her head. Even that movement worsened the pain in her shoulder. “No, Hunt. It wouldn’t be fair to you. I think it would be better if you and I parted ways now.”

  Hunt looked at her in disbelief. “You told me that you love me.”

  “I do love you, Hunt,” she told him, fighting the tears which threatened, refusing to give in to them. “I love you too much to see you hurt. When they pushed you out of the van, I thought that I would die from the pain. Then when they fired that Uzi in your direction, I knew that I would die from the pain of having been the cause of your death. Hunt, I can’t be responsible for your safety. If whoever is after me were to really hurt you, I would never forgive myself. Please understand that.”

  He took his white linen handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the tears from her face. “Maggie, sweetheart. Please don’t overreact to this. We are not in a normal situation.”

  “I don’t know why I thought that I could stand a chance of living a normal life, of having a marriage and a family. Someone out there wants me dead. He, she, or they, just tried to publicly ruin Michael by putting me in a situation where he would either have to be painted as a heartless man who would let his stepdaughter die or, just as politically damaging, as a hypocrite who speaks out of both sides of his mouth where terrorism is concerned. They’ve killed Jarod, killed how many of the men who were hired to protect me, and given you injuries that could have been much worse. I am not giving them another chance to get you,” Maggie said.

  Hunt smiled at her. “No one is going to get me. I’ve increased my personal and business security several fold during the last week. Besides, you have no proof that this is the same person behind the kidnapping was responsible for the tampering of your brakes.”

  “Don’t patronize me, Hunt. They could have killed you. I know that I saw them shoot at you after they kicked you out of the van.”

  “If they had wanted me dead, I would have been dead by now.”

  He wasn’t going to tell her about the 9mm hole in the shoulder of his dinner jacket. That wasn’t anything that she needed to know, just now.

  Maggie fought a shudder as the image of Hunt lying dead along the side of a Spanish motorway became sharp within her mind. As she shu
ddered, a shaft of pain hit her.

  “I’m safe, Maggie mine. You are a little worse for wear, but you are going to be all right.”

  Maggie looked at Hunt with pain in her eyes. “That man early this morning, the one with the heroin, he could have killed you when you stopped him.”

  “He would have killed you, if I hadn’t.”

  Maggie nodded slightly. “I know,” she said on a sigh.

  “What makes you think that it is the same person responsible for all this?” Hunt asked.

  “Well, I would really hate to think that I’ve angered two different people to the point of murder,” Maggie answered. “I know that I can be abrasive at times, but this is ridiculous.”

  “I see your point, Maggie mine. But, Michael and his security people are reasonably certain that the man behind Jarod’s death was acting out of an obsession with you, an Eros mania, if you will.”

  Maggie sighed. “Having looked in the mirror practically every day of my life, I have a difficult time understanding that.”

  “I don’t,” Hunt told her quietly, intensely.

  “Really, Hunt . . . .” she dismissed.

  “Really, Maggie.”

  “Back to the reason that I think that it is the same person responsible. I’ve just got a ‘gut feeling’ about this,” Maggie said. “I really can’t explain it any more than that.”

  “I’m not going to discount your ‘gut feeling’, Maggie. Let’s assume the worst: that we are looking at one or more conspirators who are plotting harm to you. We can beat him/her/them at their own game, Maggie mine.”

  Maggie looked at him with questions in her eyes.

  “If you, out of concern or fear for me, break the engagement, you will be giving him/her/them exactly what he wants: to separate you from others, to make you more vulnerable to his next attack,” Hunt said, reasonably.

  Maggie closed her eyes. She sighed. “I see your point,” she said. “Am I being unreasonable for worrying about your safety?”

  “Oh, Maggie. It does my heart good to think that you care about me that much. I’m not going to push you. But, I wish that you would reconsider marrying me soon.”

  Maggie smiled at him. “Michael used to loudly wish that I would someday find a man just as stubborn as I am.”

  Hunt smiled broadly. “We are quite a pair, you know.”

  Maggie laughed. “I know. All right, Hunt. Make the arrangements.”

  From her hospital bed—with her brother, John, sister-in-law, Emily, stepfather, Michael, stepfather’s wife, Susan, Natalie and Chuck Ferra, Danielle Faulks and her grandfather, Guy, and Hunt’s parents, Hank and Helen Thomas, as witnesses—Maggie took the solemn vows by which she became Mrs. Hunter Thomas.

  Michael popped the cork from an excellent bottle of Spanish sparkling wine after the priest pronounced the nuptial blessing. Maggie allowed herself one glass of the bubbly. That indulgence meant that she would not be able to allow herself the option of taking a pain pill for several hours, until the alcohol was all gone from her system. Not, that Maggie frequently gave into the pain, but she found from time to time that her tolerance for the pain was considerably less than it was at other times. She only hoped that her wedding day would not be one of those times.

  Natalie had brought her a beautiful white satin and lace nightgown and coordinating bed jacket which Maggie worn for the ceremony along with a mantilla of the same lace that was on the gown and jacket.

  Guy stood beside her bed. “Maggie, thank you for inviting me.”

  “How could I exclude you? You are almost like an uncle to me. Dani, Natty, and I were so close as teenagers. I wanted both Dani and Natty here. They would have both been upset if I had not invited you, as well.”

  Guy nodded tightly. “I understand. By the way, you were right about young Matt Stern. He’s been discharged. We caught him with his hand in the till.”

  “I would be so good in that position,” Maggie said ruefully.

  Guy nodded agreeably. “You would have been. But, we can’t hold it open for you. Sorry.”

  Maggie smiled sadly. “I’m going to miss Faulks.”

  “The business won’t be the same without you, either,” Guy said.

  “I understand your position, Guy. I want you to know that.”

  “Thank you,” Guy said.

  “But, I definitely want my pay for the vacation, sick leave, and personal leave that I have coming. And I do expect the company’s insurance policy to pick up my medical expenses.”

  Guy laughed. “That’s the old Margaret. Now I know that you are going to recover.”

  Michael’s beautiful, raven-haired, wife, Susan, walked over to the bed. “Talking business on your wedding day,” she chided. “For pity’s sake, Guy, don’t you have more sense than to wear the poor girl out.”

  Guy smiled tightly at his half-brother’s wife. “Just as beautiful and charming as ever, Susan,” he replied with a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

  Susan smiled at Guy. “Now, Guy . . . Why don’t we try to be nice to one another, for a change?”

  Guy looked at Susan, with distaste written clearly on his face. “Probably because we neither one can stand one another,” he replied quietly, coldly.

  “Gracious,” Susan said, disdainfully. “Just as diplomatic as ever, aren’t you?”

  “How is the election looking?” Guy asked, sidestepping Susan’s disdain.

  “Looks good,” Susan answered with a smile. “Michael and I will have to get back to the States soon. The nomination has been secured. Barring any more public relations disasters, Michael should easily become the next President of the United States.”

  Natalie bristled at her aunt’s tone as she walked up to the bed. “The kidnapping wasn’t Maggie’s fault. Besides, you can’t buy the level of publicity Michael got out of the coverage. He came out of this looking pretty good.”

  “Well, at least some good came out of it,” Maggie said dryly.

  Natalie turned red. “You know that I didn’t mean it that way.”

  Maggie reached up with her right hand to take Natty’s right hand. “I know, Natty. How is that precious baby?”

  “Just fine.”

  “Remember, I want to be the godmother,” Maggie reminded her.

  “Of course,” Natty assured her as Guy and Susan walked off in separate directions. “I wouldn’t dream of asking anyone else.”

  “Good.”

  “Leave it to you, Magpie, to have one of the most unique weddings in the history of the world,” Natalie said quietly.

  “You know me,” Maggie replied.

  “Don’t mind Susan. She’s always been a cat,” Danielle said as she came to stand beside her shorter, and just as blond, cousin.

  “I learned a long time ago to disregard Susan. I think that it is amazing that people don’t see through her,” Maggie said quietly.

  “I do know what you mean,” Natty replied.

  Maggie sighed.

  “You’re getting awfully tired, aren’t you?” Natty asked.

  “Yes.”

  “All right, people. Magpie won’t ask you to leave. But, she is still recovering. Let’s all make our good-byes so that she can rest,” Danielle said, pitching her voice loud enough to be heard by all the guests.

  Maggie looked at her long-time friend. With the exception of the fact that Dani was about thirty years too young to hold a position as responsible as the one which she held, she was every inch the proper headmistress of an exclusive girls’ school. Tall, slender, regal, elegant, charming, commanding, authoritative. There were some people who would have called Dani Faulks by considerably less flattering terms.

  “Thanks, Dani.”

  “You rest. I expect you and Hunt to come to see me in when you are on your feet. Palm Beach is such a nice area. It will be a good vacation for you. I certainly have the room for guests,” Dani replied gently. “Rest now. I’ll be back tomorrow before I have to go to the airport.”

  “Thank you for comin
g, Dani.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it,” Dani said firmly, her periwinkle eyes sparkling. “You concentrate on getting well.”

  In less than two minutes, everyone except Hunt had made their good-byes and had left.

  “Alone, at last,” Hunt teased.

  “This isn’t exactly the way that I had imagined spending my wedding night,” Maggie said ruefully.

  Hunt laughed. “We’ve got years ahead of us, sweetheart. Don’t worry about it. There will be plenty of time for us once you get back on your feet.”

  “I love you, Hunter Alexander Thomas.”

  “The feeling is quite mutual, Margaret Mary O’Shay Thomas.”

  Later that night in the city of Madrid, a disguised, voice spoke into a public telephone, “You blew it, badly.”

  “We are going to make another try tomorrow.”

  “Forget it. You’re fired. I’m handling this myself from now on. Your money is in the Grand Cayman bank we agreed on. Leave Spain quickly. The police are on to you.”

  Then the caller hung up the telephone and walked away, making plans to rid the world of Maggie O’Shay, once and for all. Only now, it would be more difficult with Hunter Thomas in the way. But, that wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle. The pair of them would simply have to be eliminated in some sort of joint accident. Preferably one which took out a host of others as well, in order to eliminate further suspicion.

  Chapter 14

  In the long weeks of hospitalization that had been their marriage to date, Hunt had not once missed spending a day with her. He had been there on her good days, on her bad days, on the days that she had simply wanted to crawl into a hole and die. He had brought her a small electronic keyboard, one of the better ones made, for her to use once her shoulder had healed enough to move the arm without much pain. He had insisted that she play for him. He had brought her manuscript pads and had encouraged her to write down her music. And always there were flowers, both cut and potted. At times, she thought that her room might as well have been a florist shop.

  Oddly enough, the potted plants seemed to thrive under Hunt’s care. Maggie thought that was some special gift. Of course, houseplants tended to commit suicide when they saw Maggie coming. If Hunt had a green thumb, then hers was strictly brown.