by Zara Chase
Axel chuckled. “I raised three kids. You think I don’t recognize delaying tactics when I hear them?”
She wriggled into a more comfortable position and pouted. “You can’t blame a girl for trying.”
He wagged a finger at her. “No, but I can punish you for it.”
“Yes please!”
Axel roared with laughter, but instead of making good on his threat he stood up, closed the drapes, and blew her a kiss from the doorway.
“I’ll wake you when Riley gets back.”
“Spoilsport.”
“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll get all the sport you can handle with Riley and me in the house, and that’s a promise.”
Maddie hated to admit he was right, but she did feel soporific. Soporific, warm, and satiated, physically and emotionally revived, and a whole bunch of other things she’d never experienced before. It wasn’t just the mind-blowing sex but the way Axel had opened up to her about his early life, about the sacrifices he’d made for the sake of his sisters and brother. She suspected he didn’t often talk about those things, which made her feel privileged. She was also glad he hadn’t let her tell hers. Not that she would have done. She never talked about that stuff and would have made something up, but still…
Her eyes fluttered to a close. She’d take half an hour, then go down and keep Axel company until Riley got back.
When Maddie opened her eyes again, over an hour had gone by. An hour that was filled with the most erotic dreams. Except they weren’t dreams. It was more a case of her subconscious reliving all the things Axel had just done to her. Even so, she absolutely shouldn’t be sleeping the day away when the guys were trying to sort her problems for her, even if Axel had insisted upon it. She pulled on a clean pair of pale blue panties and a matching bra and threw a lightweight shift dress over her head. Maddie then thrust her feet into a pair of wedged mules and made her way downstairs.
“Ah, just in time.” The kettle clicked off, and Axel placed a mug of coffee in front of her. “Feeling rested?
“Hmm.” She blew on her steaming coffee and took a cautious sip. “Any word from Riley?”
“Yep, he’s on his way back and has news.”
“What news?”
“He’ll be here any minute, and we’ll find out together.”
* * * *
Riley used the key Maddie had given him to open her front door and was greeted by the smell of freshly brewed coffee. It gave the place a homely feel and calmed him just a little. And he sure as hell needed to feel calm because what he’d just learned from Pearson had knocked the stuffing out of him.
“Hey,” Maddie said, looking up from her perch at the kitchen counter when he walked in. “How did it go?”
Riley dropped a kiss on the top of her head, noticing how gloriously satiated she appeared. Leave it to Axel to do a thorough job. It felt odd walking in on a client and kissing her—odd, but kinda right.
Don’t go there, Maddox. Riley reminded himself that Maddie might be different enough to have tempted him to cross the divide between business and pleasure, but he still didn’t do happy ever after. Nor would he. Not ever.
“You look…er, content,” he said, sharing a look with Axel.
“Thanks, I feel remarkably relaxed,” she replied. “Which is more than can be said for you.”
“I agree,” Axel said, frowning. “What gives, buddy?”
Riley sat down and nodded his thanks to Axel when he placed a cold beer in front of him.
“I now know what this is all about,” he said, throwing a notebook on the table.
“What, from the guy who was following me?” Maddie asked. “How can you believe him?”
“The reason you knew he was following you is because he wanted to get your attention. He wanted to warn you.”
“Then why didn’t he—”
“He’s a former soldier and works full time at the vets’ center. He and your dad got along real well.”
“That’s my dad’s writing.” Maddie grabbed the notebook and flicked through it. “Why did this guy…what’s his name—”
“Pearson.”
“Why did Pearson have it?”
“Your dad asked him to hide it somewhere no one would think to look. He put it in a cupboard in his gardening shed at the center.”
Maddie shook her head. “I still don’t get it.”
“It was Pearson who first caught on to the fact that everything wasn’t right at the center. He told your dad and, well—vets are disappearing.” Riley ground his jaw, consumed by anger whenever he thought about what he now knew. “Men who’ve sacrificed everything for this country for precious little reward are being used as guinea pigs for a drug manufacturer.”
Chapter Eleven
“You’re kidding me!” Maddie cried. “I don’t believe it.”
“Unfortunately I do,” Axel said with less venom. “Let me guess, they’re testing guys with post-traumatic stress to see if it can be fixed retrospectively.”
“If they were doing that I could almost condone it,” Riley replied, standing up and pacing the length of the kitchen. “But this is nothing to do with the army. Well, not directly.”
“Shit!” Axel growled. “It’s a private drugs company targeting vulnerable vets with nothing left to lose?”
“That’s about the size of it. They pick guys with no families or permanent addresses. Guys who live on the streets but are still able to function, offering them big financial rewards for what they describe as little risk.”
“They must have to infect them with small doses of the diseases they’re trying to find a cure for without knowing how they’ll react,” Axel said. “The scumbags!”
“How do they get to the guys?” Maddie asked. “It’s not as if they can just wander up to them on the streets. They must need to screen them for suitability, or at least get to know something about them first.”
“Your father thought he knew how they do it, and we’ll get to that in a moment,” Riley replied. “As to the operation itself, it’s obviously highly illegal and breaks at least a dozen laws I can think of off the top of my head, so they have to be real careful. They need men who have a certain level of fitness, even if they are down on their luck, and who know how to follow orders.”
“So military types would fit the bill,” Axel said.
“Right. And like I said, they need to have no one who’ll start asking awkward questions if they go missing, because that’s what happens.” Riley flexed his jaw. “They aren’t seen again.”
Maddie gasped. “These men die?”
“Or become surplus to requirements,” Axel surmised. “They can’t be allowed to talk about what they’ve been through.”
“It was Pearson who noticed that a few regulars who’d been going to the center for years stopped coming by for a meal, a bath, and stuff like that,” Riley said. “And he did ask questions, but no one seemed to know what had happened to them. Then someone paid Pearson a visit one dark night and told him to back off.”
“Which, I’m guessing, was a big mistake,” Axel said.
“Right again. Up until then he’d just thought the guys had drifted to another state, somewhere warmer for the winter, and would have left it at that. The visit told him different.”
“And he told my dad?”
Riley nodded. “Yep.”
“How do you know that the men actually die?” Maddie asked.
“Pearson came across a guy he thought had drifted south but who turned up back on the streets here, a babbling wreck. Pearson had served with the guy, knew him well, and took him back to his place. His mind had gone, but in between the ramblings he learned enough to get the gist of what had happened. He’d been taken to a secure facility, kept in isolation, and made to take pills. He was told it would only be for a couple of weeks and he’d walk away with enough cash to make a new start. The guy got suspicious, stopped taking the pills, and managed to break out when he was waiting for an assessment.”
�
��Does he know where he was held?” Axel asked.
“Somewhere in Montana, he thinks. He hopped a train back here…somehow. Once he was back on familiar territory he just kinda withdrew and Pearson couldn’t get him to say much more that made any sense. Pearson said he was scared shitless someone would come after him.”
“They couldn’t afford for anyone to kiss and tell,” Axel said with a disgusted shake of his head.
“Is he all right?” Maddie asked. “We should get some help for him.”
“Too late for that.” Riley absently ran a hand across her shoulders. “Pearson got home from his shift at the center one day and his buddy was gone. So were his few possessions. It was made to look as though he’d taken off, but the place had been broken into. Professionally, same as here, but Pearson knew his buddy hadn’t left of his own volition.”
“This is big, Riley,” Axel said grimly.
“Damned straight it is.”
“So how do they get to the guys in the first place?” Maddie asked.
“Accordingly to your father’s notebook, it’s done through an intermediary at the center during the open evenings they have every Friday. No service man or woman is turned away. There’s food and all the other services these people require. They turn it into a bit of a party, according to Pearson, and it gets pretty crowded.”
“So it would be easy for someone to pick out suitable candidates,” Maddie said disgustedly. “Get chatting to them and fix up follow-ups.”
“That’s the way I see it.”
“Can’t be easy, though,” Axel said. “I mean, these guys talk to each other. How can the person know they’ll keep it to themselves?”
“The prospect of easy money, I guess,” Riley replied, shrugging.
“Does Pearson have any idea who it might be?” Axel asked.
“No, but it seems your father had a good idea. He was getting close—”
“Which is why he was killed,” Maddie finished for him, shuddering.
“It looks that way.” Riley resumed his seat beside her and took her hand. “But don’t worry, babe, we’re gonna get these people. For your dad’s sake and to avenge all the vets who’ve been taken in by them.”
“Why would people go to such lengths?” Maddie asked, shaking her head in obvious bewilderment.
“Do you have any idea just how lucrative the drugs business is in this country?” Riley pushed the hair away from his eyes and continued talking without waiting for a response. “America has just over five percent of the world’s population but consumes over eighty percent of the world’s painkillers.”
“Fucking hell!” Axel sounded stunned. “Remind me of that the next time I get a headache and I’ll go cold turkey.”
“But drug testing is tightly regulated, isn’t it?” Maddie asked.
“Right, which is why those out to make a quick buck are prepared to cut a few corners.” Riley ground his jaw. “The financial rewards are massive. So is the pressure to come up with the latest new wonder drug, even though there are already plenty of similar cures on the market. So what if a few rundown vets make the ultimate sacrifice along the way? They’re expendable. Besides, it’s just another way to serve their country, which ought to make them feel real proud.”
“So,” Axel said. “You’ve spoken to Pearson and presumably read the major’s journal. Does he give any indication as to who might be doing the recruiting?”
“No, that would be too easy, but my guess is someone in the military’s pulling the strings.”
Maddie gasped. “What, someone here in Virginia?”
“The guy that runs the center told me that a lot of serving personnel volunteer there.”
“Yes, but that would be like turning on their own.”
“Like I said earlier,” Riley replied, “money transcends all codes of honor. Always has and always will for a lot of people.”
“Besides,” Axel added, “if that isn’t the case, why is your friend Major Copeland so keen to bug your house and phone?”
“They know and aren’t stopping it?” Maddie looked fit to explode. “They know my father was murdered and won’t even admit it or try to investigate?”
“The military doesn’t like washing their dirty linen in public, babe,” Riley said, squeezing the hand he was still holding. “You know that.”
“Yes, but this is…well, it’s evil.”
“All the more reason to deal with it in-house,” Axel replied. “The military is fighting off savage cuts to its budget as it is. It could do without the horrendous press coverage this would generate.”
“I suppose so.” Maddie swirled a teaspoon between the fingers of the hand Riley wasn’t holding. “But we have to do something, guys. We can’t let this carry on.”
“We could go to the Friday night beano this week, act as volunteers and see if we can sniff anything out,” Axel suggested.
“We could, but somehow I think we’d stand out. We’re not local, and we’d create suspicion.”
“I could go,” Maddie said. “No one would suspect me.”
“No!” the guys said together.
“Hey, just a minute, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“So what are we doing here?” Axel asked.
Riley was about to give her chapter and verse on precisely what could happen, when the door bell sounded.
“You expecting anyone?” he asked Maddie.
“No.”
“Okay, stay here. I’ll get it.”
Riley slid the major’s notebook into a kitchen drawer, transferred his pistol to the waistband of his jeans, and walked down the hall. He peered through the spyhole and somehow wasn’t surprised to see Major Copeland standing on the stoop. This time he was alone.
“Major, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Riley asked, like he didn’t already know.
“Mind if I come in?”
“Be my guest.” Riley opened the door wider. “We’re in the kitchen.”
“It was you I wanted to speak to, as a matter of fact.”
Riley didn’t doubt it. The local rumor mill was obviously alive and kicking because it hadn’t taken the major long to hear of Riley’s visit to the vets’ center, which was obviously what he wanted to discuss.
“We’re still in the kitchen,” he said in a take-it-or-leave-it tone.
“Very well, if you’re sure Ms. McGuire won’t—”
“Rip you a new one?” Riley shrugged, almost enjoying himself. “Guess you’re just gonna have to risk it.”
The two men walked down the hallway in silence. Riley hoped that Maddie would have the sense to keep a lid on her temper in front of the major, justifiable though her anger might be. Until they knew whose side he was on it would be better to play a tight game.
“We have company,” he said, opening the door and ushering the major through it before him.
“Well, well,” Axel said with one of his slow, lazy smiles. “Why am I not surprised?”
Maddie looked as though she was about to let fly. Riley sent her a warning glare and she settled for a disgruntled look before submerging into a simmering silence.
Good girl! Copeland looked uncomfortable but had the sense not to try and sweet-talk Maddie. Instead he took the chair beside Axel that Riley pointed him to and got right down to business.
“I hear you were at the vets’ center today,” he said to Riley. “Find out anything I need to know about?”
Riley remained standing and leaned one shoulder casually against the doorjamb, crossing his arms over his chest. “That rather depends upon what you need to know.”
“Anything about the major’s activities there would be helpful.”
“And why would that be?” Maddie asked. “He died in a tragic accident, didn’t he?”
Copeland said nothing, and no one in the room made any attempt to fill the awkward silence that ensued. Riley sensed their visitor was trying to decide how much to tell them about his own investigation in order to learn more about th
eirs. Good luck with that one.
“I haven’t been entirely honest with you, Ms. McGuire,” he said eventually.
“No shit,” Axel replied.
“Most of what I do is classified. I couldn’t tell you if I wanted to.”
“What can you tell us?” Riley asked in an effort to move matters along. It was always the same with these pissing contests. Someone had to break first, and obviously the major had weakened his own position by running to them.
“Not much. You guys are civilians now.”
“No former serviceman is ever a really civilian,” Axel said quietly.
“So I’m told, but—”
“But if you don’t want us bumbling around in your investigation then you’d best level with us and trust to luck that we know how to be discreet.”
“Oh, I know you do. I checked you both out. You have friends in high places who speak highly of you.”
“Good to know,” Axel replied flippantly.
“We’ve always had suspicions about your father’s death, Ms. McGuire.”
“What!”
Riley moved toward Maddie and placed a hand on her shoulder, sensing that Copeland’s calm revelation was enough to make her lose it. She glanced angrily at Riley’s hand and attempted to shake it off. It didn’t budge. She expelled several deep breaths and he sensed her anger slowly subsiding. Hopefully she realized they’d find out more if they played it cool. He sat beside her and tapped her thigh beneath the table. She gulped down another lungful of air and gave him a reluctant nod.
“It was a hit-and-run,” Copeland continued. “But it almost certainly didn’t happen in this street, and it was definitely not accidental. We haven’t stopped looking for the people responsible—”
“Who can’t be charged with murder even if you find them,” Maddie said in a mordant tone, “because there’s no record of any murder having taken place.”
“If we find the people responsible, they’ll be charged with a lot more than one murder. Trust me on that.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? Sweep my father’s murder under the rug, like it means nothing at all, and get over myself for feeling short-changed.”