“Canadian bacon,” Mitch answered.
“Yum. I wish I could live in that spy shop. Then when I get hungry I could walk over here.”
His comment was too much. Mitch’s laughter merged with Heidi’s. Her son was an entertaining, lovable little character with a huge imagination. He surmised Heidi had a full-time job on her hands keeping up with him.
“I’m glad you had fun in there.”
“I loved it! Do you think your friend would let me look around again sometime?”
“Zack…”
“Whenever you’d like. Just ask your mom.” Mitch reached for the sack at his side. “While we’re still on the subject, I wanted you to have this.”
Zack took it from him. “What is it?”
“Look inside.”
The boy’s hands were trembling as he pulled out a box, but it was fastened up tight.
“Here. Let me help you.” Mitch undid everything. “These are walkie-talkies that fit on a bike. You can let a friend put one of these on his bike, and then when you go riding, you can talk to each other while you spy.”
Mitch didn’t know what he expected, but was surprised when Zack lowered his head and didn’t say anything. “Hey…if you don’t like these, I’ll take them back and get you something else you’d rather have.”
An anxious expression crossed Heidi’s face. “He loves these, don’t you, honey?”
Zack nodded.
“Then thank him for the wonderful gift.”
“Thanks, Mitch.” The boy’s shoulders were shaking.
“What’s wrong, buddy?”
“Nothing,” he said, but it came out muffled.
At this juncture Mitch was racking his brain to figure him out. On impulse he said, “Don’t you have a bike?”
“Yes.” Zack finally lifted his tearstained face. “But it’s got training wheels and I don’t know how to ride it without them.”
That pretty well explained everything. “You don’t need training wheels. I’ll show you how to ride your bike.”
“You will?”
The hope in his eyes reminded Mitch of himself when he was a boy, always having to wait for someone to show him how to do things when they didn’t want to.
“Of course. It’ll take about fifteen minutes. After that you’ll be cruising around the neighborhood with your friends and using your walkie-talkies.”
Zack jumped up. “Will you show me tonight?”
“There’s nothing I’d like more, but that’s up to your mother.” Mitch darted Heidi a glance.
“Mom? Come on! Let’s go home.”
Heidi looked frantic. “Are you sure you have the time, Mitch?”
That wasn’t all she was asking. He sensed she was afraid. That was because their relationship was moving in a direction over which she felt she had no control. Mitch had news for her. He’d been feeling out of control since the moment Roman had introduced them at the office.
“I can spare an hour if we leave now. I’ll follow you to your house.”
“Th-that’s very kind of you,” she stammered.
Zack scrambled out of the booth clutching his present tightly. Heidi caught up to him. Mitch put some money on the table and followed them out of the restaurant to their respective cars parked in front of the firm.
En route to her house, they passed a church with a big flat parking area in the back, the perfect place for Zack to practice. When they reached her street, he followed her into the driveway of the charming, white-brick rambler. He’d been over here before, but not in daylight.
It had pale aqua shutters and cut-out window boxes full of orange-and-pink flowers. Their design was reminiscent of those he’d seen in the Swiss and Austrian Tyrol when he’d vacationed in Europe on leave from the military.
Mitch drove up behind them and waited until they’d brought Zack’s bike and helmet out of the garage. He retrieved his tool kit from the trunk of his car so he could remove the training wheels. “I’ll put your bike in the back of my car and we’ll drive around the corner to the church. You’d better go with your mom because she has the car seat for you. Does that sound okay?”
Zack nodded with excitement.
“I’ll follow you,” Heidi told him. “In case you were wondering, he wouldn’t let me or my brother teach him.”
“I know how he feels. A guy wants his own father at a time like this. Barring that, I guess an ex-Marine will do.”
She studied his features for a moment. “If anyone understands, you do. I can’t thank you enough for your generosity to him.”
“Let’s hope I’m a good teacher.”
“The thought never crossed my mind you could be anything else.” With a smile he felt permeate his body, she turned away to get in her car.
He backed out and drove to the church. The sun wouldn’t be setting for a while. They had enough time for Zack to get the hang of cycling before Heidi took him home to bed.
When Mitch had left TOSH the other morning, he couldn’t have imagined what was awaiting him back at the office. Since meeting Heidi and her son, his world had undergone a dramatic shift.
* * *
HEIDI STOOD AGAINST THE front of her car to watch. Zack fell off his red bike several times, but Mitch was right there to help him get up and try again. It took exactly twenty minutes before Zack was riding around the parking lot by himself. “Mom! Look at me! I can ride my bike!” Joy burst out of him.
“I’m looking!” she shouted back. “That’s terrific, honey!” She couldn’t believe how much they looked like father and son from a distance. Zack was a little taller than average for his age and they both had the same dark-blond hair. Anyone seeing them would think they belonged to each other.
Soon Zack rode up to the Nissan with Mitch jogging alongside him to make sure no fall happened at the last second. Both faces were wreathed in smiles. Mitch held on to the bike as Zack got off and ran into her arms. She leaned down to hug and kiss him. “You did it! I’m so proud of you.”
Over his shoulder she looked up at the man who’d just made her son’s day and mouthed a thank-you. You’re welcome, he mouthed back. He looked like he’d had a good time, too.
“Mitch is going to show me how to attach my walkie-talkie.” Her son was so happy he seemed to have grown another inch.
“Not tonight, honey. You’ve got school in the morning. We need to get you home.”
“Your mom’s right,” Mitch said before the protests could start. He put the bike in the back of his car. “We’ll take care of that tomorrow.”
Tomorrow? A little thrill passed through her.
“But before we leave here, I’ll show you how the walkie-talkies work. Tonight you can send messages to your mom from your bedroom.”
“Yay! They’re in the car. I’ll get them!”
Quick as a wink Zack reached into the back of the Nissan, grabbed his present and gave it to Mitch. In another couple of minutes he’d set them to the same channel frequency and the two guys walked around talking and saying things like “Roger” and “Over and out.” Heidi knew for a fact her son had never had such a marvelous time. Thanks to Mitch, his confidence level was over the top.
Mitch finally wandered up to her and handed her a walkie-talkie. The brush of his fingers was like touching a live wire. Maybe the contact had affected him, too, because his eyes seemed to go an even darker brown as they met hers. “Press this button and hold it down while you talk. If you press this other button, it acts as a loudspeaker.”
“It’s easy, Mom.”
She pressed both buttons and said, “Now hear this. Now hear this.” The speaker was powerful. If anyone else had come into the parking lot, they’d have heard it. “This is Special Agent 409.”
; Mitch’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. 409 was a spray cleaner a lot of people used around the house. “An all-points bulletin has gone out for a six-year-old boy who should be home getting his bath. If you see this individual, report in. He has blond hair and blue eyes and answers to the name Zackatron.”
Peals of laughter broke from both males. Mitch pressed his own speaker button. “Roger and copy, 409. This is Field Marshal X12.” A popular bug spray. “I have Zackatron in my sights.”
“Excellent, Field Marshal X12.” Heidi wondered if he’d been assigned a real number as a marshal. “Please deliver him immediately. Over and out.” With a grin she couldn’t prevent, she handed her son the walkie-talkie.
“I don’t want to go home yet,” he wailed.
“I know you don’t. Sometimes I don’t like to do things, either, like scrub the bathroom, but certain tasks have to get done and you have to go to school. Can you thank Mitch for teaching you how to ride and feeding us pizza and giving you these walkie-talkies? You’re the luckiest boy I know.”
Zack nodded before looking up at Mitch with all the signs of hero worship. “Thanks for everything, Mitch.” In the next instant he did something unprecedented and hugged him.
Heidi’s heart melted as she watched Mitch pick up her son and give him a big hug back. “Good job,” he said before putting him down again. She knew Zack was hungry for a father’s love, but seeing him show it so openly really shook her. “I had more fun than you did.” Mitch handed him the other walkie-talkie.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did,” Mitch came back, sending her son into a giggle fit. “Go on and get in the car with your mom. I’ll follow you home with your bike.”
In a few minutes they were back at her house. She pressed the remote to let them in the garage. Mitch carried the bike inside and rested it against the wall next to her mountain bike. “Nice,” he said.
“Hurry and get your bath started, Zack. I’ll be right in.”
“Okay. See ya tomorrow, Mitch.”
“See you, sport.”
After Zack disappeared into the house, she turned to the incredible man who’d helped her son over a very rocky patch. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
He cocked his head. “Do you have any idea how much fun I’ve had all day?” She didn’t miss the emphasis. “If you want to know the truth, I felt just like Zack. When you said it was time to go home, I didn’t want it to end, either.”
Make that three people.
Mitch was getting to her in ways she was scared to examine. He was a P.I. whose firm had been hired by Bruno to find out what was going on at Bauer’s. But already he was coming to mean much more than that to Heidi. She needed to remember why he was in her life at all. “What can I do to help you tomorrow?”
“Anything you’d like. Just don’t go near your office or the plant. After I’ve entered the facility to install the devices over the lunch hour, I’ll phone you and we’ll go from there. Expect a call around two.”
He turned to leave, then looked back over his broad shoulder. His eyes appeared black in the fading light. “For what it’s worth, I think your ex-husband had to have been out of his mind to leave you and Zack.”
Mitch shouldn’t have told her that. Particularly since she knew he’d be leaving Salt Lake soon.
* * *
AT QUARTER TO TWELVE, Mitch put on a firefighter’s uniform and climbed onto a truck from the Davis County Fire Department. Roman had arranged for their cooperation. When the truck pulled into the parking area of the Bauer plant in Woods Cross, Mitch jumped down with the three firefighters assigned to this engine and they approached the main entrance.
Earlier that morning Mitch had been on the phone to Bruno, who’d said he would tell his secretary to open the front doors for them before she went to lunch. The minute the building was cleared, the three men got busy doing their official inspection while Mitch started installing cameras in each area.
It was a medium-size facility. Everything looked immaculate. When Mitch found Jonas Bauer’s office, he put in a camera, then looked around for a spot to place the listening device. There was a pot of fake flowers on an end table. Perfect!
Since there were no papers in the in-box, he opened the file cabinet with a device and went through the contents. He found some past email printouts of the shipments and studied the contents before heading for Lucas’s office two doors down the hall. Once there he installed a camera and put a listening device in another fake plant on top of the file cabinet. Mitch studied the contents of his file cabinet, too.
Within the hour, the fire department had accomplished their work. Mitch walked out to the fire truck with the guys and they drove back to the station. After removing the borrowed uniform, Mitch thanked them for their help and got in his own car.
Lyle and Adam, two of the crew he’d worked with many times before, were handling surveillance of the facility in one of the firm’s vans loaded with the latest state-of-the-art electronic equipment. After briefing them on the case, Mitch had asked them to park off the road behind a thick bank of trees on the east side of the plant. As he drew alongside them, he was pleased to see that the van was invisible from the road.
He climbed out of the Audi and into the van. “The deed is done, guys. It’s one-thirty. People should be filing back in.”
They watched the screens. One of them displayed the view of the parking lot. Like an army of worker bees, the employees converged on the scene and returned to their jobs. Within twenty minutes the place was a hive of activity. “No sign of the queen bee yet,” Lyle murmured.
“Jonas could be anywhere. For that matter, so could Lucas. It might be a while before anything of importance happens.” Mitch reached for the door handle. “I’m going out to take pictures of every license plate in the parking lot and get Tom to do the background checks. I’m anxious to nail the culprits.
“If anyone else drives in after I’ve gone, make a note of it. The camera will catch it and we’ll blow it up later to get the license plate number. Jeff and Phil will relieve you at midnight. Stay in contact with me.”
“Will do.”
After Mitch had driven around getting pictures, he sent them through his iPhone to Tom, then headed for Salt Lake and phoned Heidi. His pulse accelerated while he waited for her to answer.
“How did everything go?” she asked as soon as she picked up.
“Without a hitch. My spy gadgets are in place. Too bad Zack isn’t older. He could’ve helped me. What are you doing right now?”
“I’m on my way to pick him up from school. Before that I was pulling some weeds around the side of the house, but I’ll never do it again in this heat.”
“It’s a scorcher today.” He switched lanes. “Why don’t I drop by your house and I’ll put that walkie-talkie on his bike?”
“My son will be thrilled.”
And you? “Then I’ll see you in a half hour.”
Coming into Salt Lake, he took the Sixth South exit and headed home. On the way he stopped at Emigration Cyclery on Foothill Drive. They had an array of mountain bikes. Seeing Heidi’s bike in her garage last evening had given him an idea. He bought a bike and put it in the back of his Audi. Now that he had full use of his arm, he could resume activities he’d enjoyed before the shooting. His old bike was still in storage back in Florida.
One of the college girls from next door saw his new purchase when he pulled into the carport. She and her roommate cycled a lot and she wanted to ride with him, but Mitch had other plans. For one thing, both girls were too young. And even if they weren’t, his interest was engaged elsewhere.
As politely as he knew how, he told her he was running late and would have to talk to her another time. On that note he hurried through the apartment to change into shorts and a
T-shirt. He had plans to be with the two people who’d changed his world.
Chapter Five
“Mom!” Zack came running into the house. He was already wearing his helmet. “Mitch is here.” Heidi’s son had been watching for his hero. “He brought his bike!”
She realized Mitch was offering himself as a stand-in because Zack didn’t have a friend to ride with right now. Heidi was learning fast that he was a caring, sensitive man. She decided his being raised by a succession of foster and not his biological parents didn’t matter. Mitch had been born with qualities a lot of people lacked, including her ex-husband.
Without hesitation she hurried through the house to the front porch. What she saw was a modern-day version of a golden god helping Zack attach his walkie-talkie to his bike. Those were her own words this time, not ones her sister, Evy, might have said.
Mitch lifted his head. “Hi,” he said as his gaze swept over her. “Is it all right with you if we ride to the church from here and test out our walkie-talkies? Then we’ll come back.”
“Of course.”
With Mitch’s help getting started, Zack started down the street. “Bye, Mom,” he called over his shoulder. Mitch put on his own helmet before getting on his bike. He caught up to Zack with the agility of a man in amazing shape, considering he’d been recovering from a bullet wound all this time. She longed to go with them.
As soon as they disappeared around the corner, she dashed into the house and pulled on a pair of shorts and a knit top. Once her sneakers were tied, she locked the front door and hurried to the garage for her bike and helmet. In minutes she was flying down the driveway.
She felt like a little kid again, hurrying to meet up with friends. But she was a woman now and none of the boys on her old block had looked like the hard-muscled male racing around the church parking lot with her son. Heidi pedaled hard to catch up with them. When she did, she asked Zack, “Mind if I help hunt for bad guys, Zackatron?”
Her son pressed the speaker button on his device. “We’re looking for stolen cars, Agent 409.” Zack stepped right into the mood of the moment.
The Marshal's Prize (Harlequin American Romance) Page 7