Love Me Or Let Me Go

by Kelly Lucille

  He blinked at her words. Like her bite it gave him just enough of a surprise reaction to get him out of his worries. Then he sighed and let his head fall back to the bed. Closing his eyes, he rubbed his free hand over his face, resigned but still not wanting to voice the dream out loud. It had been as if he was the man taking such joy in Miranda’s death. Thinking about the emotions of the man, because it had definitely been a man, made his stomach clench and his bile rise. No fucking way was the sick fuck getting his hands on his Mira. No fucking way.

  When she pinched his nipple, he opened his eyes to look at her again. He sighed out a beleaguered breath and finally said it. "I saw you die. Someone took great delight in the fantasy of you dying. It was..." He ground his teeth and looked away from those beautiful green eyes. "Bad." A true understatement.

  He felt her slip from his hold and he looked back at her. She only shifted closer, sliding all that warm soft sweet smelling skin up and over him, until she covered him like a blanket and her hair cocooned the two of them in fragrant silk. She did not smile and assure him she was alright, or that it was just a dream. Which would have done jack shit. What she did was so very Miranda that it took his breath away. She studied him inside and out, laying over him in a warm naked tangle, and then she leaned down and kissed him. He closed his eyes at the soft feel of those lush lips. And clutched her closer above him, so that she was imprinted on his skin.

  Her taste as addicting as always, she let him take the lead, understanding that he needed it. She not only let him devour her with his lips, she helped. Her tongue wrestling with his and her hands at his neck holding him close. She leaned back and kissed him on the chest where she had bit him. Then she sighed and laid her head down, as if she was going to blithely go back to sleep. And from her thoughts he knew she was not worried at all.

  Why aren't you worried? You know what it means when I dream something.

  He felt her lips smile against his chest and glared down at the back of her head where she lay so content.

  "You don't want me to worry, remember?" she teased. She actually teased him. At a time like this. "We'll figure out what it means in the morning, when we aren't so worked up, and our minds have a chance to process it." Then she went on and for the second time he wondered if he would be able to find his breath again. Besides, what do I have to be worried about. We both know you won't let anything happen to me.

  Mac closed his eyes. This time it was not worry or fear, but profound emotion for the woman in his arms that had them closing in reaction. He wrapped his arms around her and yanked her higher so that he could bury his face in her hair and just breathe her in. Some of the fear clutching at his belly released its hold and he settled, for want of a better term. Because she was right. He would not let anyone get to her.

  He would die to keep this woman safe. But the release of that fear did not mean she was getting any sleep tonight.

  He rolled with her in his arms until he was the blanket, and he could feel all of her.

  "Mac," she grumbled. And would have protested more, but his lips were already on hers again. And this time he had no plans to stop with just a kiss.

  He didn't give her a chance to argue, his big hand traveling down her body with precision strokes that had even her thoughts stuttering to a halt. Then he tasted her groan, felt her clutch him closer, and knew once again, and without a shadow of a doubt that this woman was made for him, and he for her. Then he set about reminding them both of that fact.

  ***

  Miranda had wondered what the next morning would bring, after the night they'd had. But she did not expect him to basically order her to safety while he stayed to deal with the threat. Maybe she should have though, she thought, studying his stern face. She was not sure what surprised her more, the fact that he was trying to get rid of her the day after they got back together after six years, or the fact he thought it would work.

  "You expect me to run?"

  "I expect you to stay safe while I deal with whatever is coming."

  "While you deal with it?" she asked raising a brow and crossing her arms. "That does sound familiar."

  "Damn it," Mac growled. "You are not taking this seriously."

  "Why, because I am not agreeing to hide like you want me to?" She shrugged. "What makes you think I am in any more danger than you are?"

  "It was not my throat that sick fuck was imagining slicing." His voice dropped to deadly calm at the words, and Mira forced herself not to flinch at the anguish in his eyes. Well, that and a whole heaping of rage.

  "But you do think this is connected to the..." she had no idea what to call it. Alien encounter just sounded ridiculous. But nameless ones which was her second thought was not any better. Mac growled, clearly reading her thoughts. She shrugged in almost apology. "You think it's connected?"

  "I know my father was not the only one that other mind touched all those years ago, and it's very possible from what I felt from this bastard targeting you, I was not the only one he kept in contact with. I think he has recruited, for want of a better word. Whoever this man is, to do the job he is too far away to achieve."

  "To end the threat he sees in you and your father?"

  "That was the impression I got."

  "Then why go after me at all? I am certainly not going to come up with some kind of way to defeat the aliens when they come here." She loosened her arms and spread them. "Not really my wheelhouse."

  He looked grim and she could feel he did not want to answer, but she gave him a look and he grudgingly answered her. "I got the impression you were more of a bonus for the job he had to do."

  Mira grimaced. "Lovely," she muttered and then shook it off. "But that does not change that it is you that is the real target. You and probably your father.

  "My father is being escorted back to his own lab under guard. You are going to go with him until I find this bastard and break every bone in his body, including his neck."

  That made her give another grimace, but it did not stop her from shaking her head. "It still does not change the fact that you are the primary target. And I am not about to go into hiding while you use yourself as bait to flush this guy out. And don't tell me that is not exactly what you and the Major discussed while I was in the shower. The walls are not that thick, and I am not that naive."

  "Whoever this is, he has been planning it for a long time. Which means it could be someone you already know. Probably is someone working at the lab."

  "I would have felt something like that," she argued but he did not need to give her that condescending look, when they both knew she did not delve deeply into people if she could help it, and some of them had natural walls that kept any but the most surface emotions hidden from her. Something she had always been happy about until now.

  "Does murder have an emotion?" he asked bluntly.

  Mira grimaced, but had to give him that. Even if someone was thinking about outright murder, unless they were in a rage or were conflicted about it, she would not know anything about it, and even if she did get strong emotions from someone it did not follow that they were contemplating anything but a bad break up or an argument with their significant other. She just felt as if she should feel something...off, if she was in the presence of a killer. Which meant she was being naive, she thought. Knowing he could both see her consternation and listen to her thoughts as she argued with him. She sighed and let that go. None of it changed her answer anyway. "I am not leaving you alone to face this, and you are the deluded one if you think I am.”

  He gritted his teeth, his jaw already like granite hardened as his emotions went straight to black. "You are going to safety with my father," he growled through those set teeth. And she felt his implacable iron will behind those words. She just hoped he could feel hers, because she was not budging.

  "No."

  "God damn it, Mira. I need you safe so I can find this guy. You stay here and all I will be thinking about is your safety."

  She snorted in the face of his ange
r and frustration. "And if I go you won't give me a second thought? Who do you think you are trying to convince? Me or yourself?"

  "I cannot have you in danger," he finally said after a short pause. "Not you. Not ever." His blue eyes had taken on the intensity of his feelings, and those were like a searing heat against her senses. "Don't ask that of me. If he has studied me at all he will target you, because I will let this whole fucking world burn before I see you harmed."

  When she could breathe past the emotional whiplash of his feelings, she walked to him and took his hand. She did not want to fight with him, but this was too important. "I get what this means to you, but I am not leaving you to face a mad man." Before he could pull away, or rage at her some more she spoke quickly. "What makes you think I will be safer anywhere else?"

  "Anywhere else is safer. Don't you get that. This is not about an alien menace coming from the skies like I thought. It’s about a human, one damaged and changed to do the work for him. I don't know if there is more than the one. But the fight is not going to be alien vs. human like I thought. It’s going to be human vs. human, and I don't know if I will see the threat until it is too late. Anyone could be the assassin. Anyone he had a life time to influence."

  "And they are after you." She reminded him softly. He practically tore away from her to pace the floor in his agitation.

  "My father," he started but she interrupted him.

  "Your father is not the one that has been dreaming about this for thirty-six years."

  He stopped before her and grabbed her arms. "I need you to go."

  She looked at him and felt his desperation, and his need to keep her safe. And his worry. That she would be harmed, she wondered, or that by protecting her he would lose her all over again. Both she guessed, catching the hard anger and wisps of desperation. And worse, the despair.

  She laid her hand against that gritted jaw. "Has it not occurred to you that if whoever this is that you caught in your dreams is already here, then I could walk out that door and any of the people sent to guard me could turn out to be the one person you are trying to hide me from. I saw this movie.” She said in an almost playful tone. Before she sobered again and spoke the unvarnished truth. “We are better together. Maybe it is time we both accept that. And no matter what you think. You are not alone fighting this fight."

  "Fuck!" he growl shouted, running his hand though his hair in his frustration. Because she was right, and they both knew it. "I had it wrong, all this time I thought it was the alien threat finally here, but it was someone I have probably already met who wants to kill my wife. And he got by me.” He turned and looked at her. His frustration and fear clear in his fiery eyes. “I don't know who to trust," he finally acknowledged.

  "Trust me," Mira said, taking his hand back and holding it steady. "We stay together and the rest will work itself out."

  His striking blue eyes met hers brimming with determination and the fear of what he could fail to protect her from. "I need you safe."

  "I'm safer with you." She reminded him. And while you are keeping me safe, I will be watching your back. She assured the both of them. Silently.

  CHAPTER TEN

  In the spirit of not alerting the person they now knew was watching them, Mira went back to her usual routine. A few floors down and behind tight security it might be, but she still had to hold her ground and ignore Mac's grumbling about it. What he thought was safe would be hiding in the apartment under guard. Instead he had to be content with sticking as close as humanely possible to her while she went about her business, and he pretended to do the same.

  Mira wanted to work and there was no budging her on that. And she needed space. Mac had always been an intense personality, emotionally, and physically. Fear for her life had not changed that.

  If anything, having all the secrets revealed between them had made their connection that much tighter, and since the night of the dream Mac was focused on nothing but her, finding the threat. When days went by and nothing happened, it did not lessen that focus. Though in the eyes of the rest of the lab it looked like he was joining his father in his research. Mira knew the last thing on his mind was sequencing genes. Not to mention that when he was not focused on her exclusively, she could feel the friction between him and his father. But then she was fairly certain everyone in the lab felt that friction. Not that they were talking to her about it. Just as she had feared, knowing she was Weer’s daughter in law created a boundary between them and her that she knew would take time to remove. She had hope that as soon as they realized she was not going to go reporting their words to the man himself, or his son they would return to treating her as they had before.

  At least it was obvious quickly that Mac and his father were not close. To say the least.

  You could try talking to your father, she sent to Mac, when she could not stand the tension any longer. Even from her small office, behind thick windows of glass, she could feel the stress in the lab.

  The two men were working side by side, with the rest of the lab thinking Doc Weer was bringing his son up to speed on the work they were doing. But in reality, all Mac was doing in the lab was studying the people who worked there, and with his abilities he was seeing a lot more than even their security checks had shown. And of course, he was hovering around her.

  He ignored her words in favor of glaring at Nevada, who had been assigned a new area to watch when Major Franks had assigned him to the lab itself, and not just the post directly outside it. More than one person had looked at him with curiosity when the move happened, but Franks had simply announced that new security measures had been ordered from higher up and no one really questioned it. But it was not lost on Mac that the man liked to look at the women, and since Miranda was one of them, he was occasionally caught staring at her. When Mira looked up and found the man’s eyes on her, she just gave him a dismissive look and moved on. Mac did not take it quite so well.

  More than once Nevada had been the unfortunate victim of an unexplainable accident. Mira had lost count of the number of times someone passing had accidentally dumped coffee, tea, water, or whatever else happened to be passing close enough to the big soldier that could be used.

  This time when she saw one of the lab techs returning to his post with a fresh cup Mira felt the need to intervene,

  Do not even think about dumping anything else on Nevada, and certainly do not use poor Luke to do it. But she was too late. Nevada was once again looking at her, and poor Luke was not paying attention. But it was Mac who wobbled the man and his cup until he fell into Nevada.

  The coffee sloshed, hitting Nevada's uniform and Luke started his apologies, even as the soldier cursed.

  For goodness sake Mac. She said in exasperation glaring at him.

  Nevada grabbed the lab tech by his collared shirt and shook him with a growl. Miranda stood, understanding even if Mac did not that Nevada was just waiting to blow.

  She went to save Luke. Mac got there before she did.

  "Let him go,"

  "That's the fourth fucking time someone has spilled coffee on me since I started working inside the lab. Are you going to try and tell me it's not a fucking conspiracy?"

  Even as Luke blustered and tried to apologize Mac used his mind tricks and forced Nevada to let the man go. Leaving a look of such astonishment on Nevada’s face as he stared at his hands that Luke had his chance to escape. Nevada did not even notice. He looked from his hands to Mac and narrowed his eyes. "Motherfucker." It was at that moment Mira knew he understood that it was Mac causing his issues and no one else. Mira started across the room again wondering if she was going to have to break up a brawl.

  "In the future, you want to keep accidents from happening I suggest you keep your eyes on your business and off the ladies of the lab," Mac growled. Nevada might outweigh him by a good fifty pounds of bulky muscle, but they were nearly eye to eye and Mac was no slouch in his own right. "And when I say that, I mean keep your fucking eyes off my wife." Though the words were
low, the words and the tone stopped Mira in her tracks.

  She knew Mac was pissed, she could feel it, but she had not realized until that moment he was past caring what he revealed to Nevada. Which meant maybe she had locked down her senses more than she realized.

  Before a fight really did break out, Franks came through the security and headed for Mac, and from the look on his face bad things had happened. Mira sucked in a breath, because what was showing on his face was only a taste of what was happening in his brain.

  Mac, she said into his mind.

  I see it, he growled back. Forgetting Nevada in a second. He headed for Franks, and she did the same. They all met at the same time and stopped in the middle of the lab. Franks looked at both of them.

  "What?" She asked, but Franks did not have to say anything. She felt a kaleidoscope of fear and anger press down on her from Mac and she turned his way.

  My father. Mac said the anguish in his brain even if it was not showing on his face. The bastard has my father.

  She moved into his arms and did not complain when they closed too tightly around her. She looked up into his face. Mac squeezed her and nodded for Franks to lead the way out of the lab so they could talk.

  Not a word spoken to enlighten the watching lab techs and doctors about what was happening.

  "Tell me all of it," Mac said when they were finally in the Majors office with the doors closed.

  "We don't have all the intel yet, but a message came through the secure line. Offering a trade. You for your father. And Mac," the Major said grimly. "If you are not at the address supplied within the hour, he has threatened to kill your father."

  ***

  Anything happening?

  No, and I don't like it.

  She would have liked to reassure him that he was wrong, but she was feeling it too. The noise of the bustling lab was doing nothing to make her feel secure. It would have been worse, she assumed if she was alone. But that did not change the fact that all she wanted to do was find a quiet place away from everyone. And that sounded like such a bad idea. At the same time the more time passed, the more she felt...hunted. It was a strange sensation, because she could already see no one was paying her any attention. Still, she could not shake the feeling someone was watching. And danger was coming.