Possessing Morgan

by Bonnie Edwards

  Three steps to freedom. Or death. Was Lila simply waiting for her to clear the room then shoot? Would she kill Rory, too? Thoughts rolled one after the other, each more terrifying.

  One step.

  Morgan’s breath stopped, her ears roared, her blood rushed.

  From the corner of her eye she saw Rory reach into the cupboard while she stepped through the door onto the patio. Bracing for a bullet in the back, she shut her eyes and saw Mac’s face. If she had to die, she wanted his to be the last face she saw. She squeezed her eyes tight and waited in a deathly silence.

  “We’ll have tea.” Rory’s calm voice drifted to Morgan’s ears. “I’m parched,” he said. “Tell me what you think of the renovations, Lila. Are they what you imagined? I took your advice to have a sink installed in the island.”

  Morgan took three more careful steps, holding her breath, waiting for Lila’s response.

  “The last time I was here, the kitchen was still a mess.” Lila’s voice had lost its edginess. “The room’s lovely.”

  The incongruity of the small talk finally made Morgan understand she’d been dismissed. She dragged in a deep breath and bolted around the pool to hide behind the hot tub. From there she could watch the kitchen.

  Rory took down a box of tea and went to get the kettle, his movements slow and methodical.

  He looked fine, his hands steady, while Lila seemed animated and happy. She sat at the island, on the same stool where Morgan had watched Mac make the omelet. The tableau seemed surreal under the circumstances, but Morgan was sure Rory and Lila had played out the domestic scene many times before.

  The only difference was the deadly piece of weaponry that lay on the counter within Lila’s reach.

  Hundreds of yards separated Morgan from the garden shed. Except for the huge maple tree, the expansive lawn provided very little cover. If she was quick, and Rory kept Lila’s attention, she could make it to safety and find a phone.

  But she couldn’t leave Rory alone with a madwoman. One wrong word and he’d be killed.

  In the distance, she heard sirens. Mac must have called the police after she’d shut off her phone and Rory had ignored the call on the landline. With a wry grin she realized the police showed up on Mercer Island a hell of a lot faster than they did anywhere else. But the sirens could frighten Lila. A frightened Lila was a dangerous Lila.

  If the police screamed up that long driveway, the woman could slip over the edge into panic. Of course, Morgan hadn’t thought to close the slider behind her. Now it stood open to the outside breezes and the wailing squad cars.

  She might be less socially acceptable than Lila Markham, and had come from a less-than-perfect family. She would certainly be the next ex-bed partner of Kingston McRae, but Morgan Swann was no coward.

  She ran back around the pool, keeping low and half hidden by the patio table and chairs where she and Mac had had lunch that first day.

  By using the French door to the den, she could get inside without Lila seeing her from the kitchen.

  She made a low, crouching dash for the door and slipped inside the house, grateful Rory had left the screen open and unlocked.

  Brilliant. Now what? She was unarmed and Lila’s lethal weapon sat within inches of her hand.

  “What was that?” Lila said at the sound of the front door opening.

  “Morgan! Rory! Lila wasn’t at her hotel,” Mac called from the foyer, agitated.

  God! No! Not now. Mac would walk into a nightmare.

  Morgan moved silently through the den. If Mac saw her, she might stave off disaster.

  “Mac darling! We’re in the kitchen having tea. Please join us!” The edginess was back in Lila’s voice as she called out.

  Mac would walk into a death trap if Morgan didn’t do something. She eased along the wall to peek into the kitchen without exposing herself.

  The scene was exactly the way she’d pictured it. Lila held her gun, but it wasn’t aimed at Rory. It was aimed at the hall, just waiting for Mac to stride into range.

  A familiar rush of adrenaline drowned out her hearing, but she screamed, “Mac! Lila’s got a gun!”

  Lila spun to face the den. Her eyes were glassy as she tightened her finger on the trigger. Morgan leaped out from behind the den wall and straight at the frightened, wild woman.

  Rory moved faster and gave Lila’s outstretched hand a chop on the wrist that sent the gun skidding along the island and off the edge. It landed with a heavy thud on the floor while Lila yelled in outrage and hugged her arm close to her chest.

  Morgan heard nothing but the roar of her own pulse in her head. Her heart lurched in her chest as Mac barreled into the room.

  She felt him at her back, hot and hard as he lifted and swung her out of harm’s way. She gasped for breath as her lungs kicked in and Rory and Jack swarmed Lila to restrain her.

  Screams and threats filled the kitchen while Mac’s strong arms cradled Morgan to his side.

  “You scared the hell out of me!” His frustration couldn’t hide his relief.

  The thud of heavy feet sounded in the hall. The police.

  Morgan released her breath and sagged into Mac’s strength, letting him hold her as tightly as he wanted.

  “Morgan, you could have been shot.”

  She couldn’t tell which of them was shaking more. “I was afraid she’d shoot you. And I couldn’t leave Rory here alone.” She tore out of Mac’s arms and checked on Rory, now seated and pale on a stool.

  She patted his forearm and he clasped her hand, gave it a light squeeze. “Thank you, Morgan. You did a good job distracting her. When I heard Mac’s voice I was too far away to reach her. She had the gun up and ready to fire before I could react.”

  “Adrenaline,” she said. “Lila was jacked sky-high on it, ready to shoot anyone who stood in her way.”

  “Even Mac,” Rory said.

  “Even Mac.”

  “YOU NEED TO GIVE THE kid a break,” Morgan stated. They sat in the den, Morgan on the floor beside the big-screen television, facing the men. Jack glowered.

  “Why?” Mac watched her with avid interest from his customary position by the window. The look sent heated shivers down her spine. He wanted her.

  Alone.

  He needed to bury himself in her and know they were both alive and unharmed. She knew because she felt the same way. She wanted everyone to fade away so she could walk into Mac’s arms and feel the pull of life.

  But first, she had to plead her case for Jonathan Lake. “He’s much younger than Lila, barely an adult. And he’s spent his life a victim of his sister’s unpredictable rages. He did what he could to protect himself while exposing her.” She made sure to catch and hold each man’s gaze in turn. They had to understand. “He’s been bullied and emotionally scarred his whole life.”

  “You believe he left a cyber trail so we’d catch him?”

  She nodded. “You said yourself he was smart. He tried to stop her by leading you to himself. He was probably waiting for the campus police, praying they’d get there before she did something violent. Can’t you talk to the District Attorney? The police? Somebody?”

  Jack’s face turned grim. “You caught a break from a judge, so he deserves one?”

  She nodded and looked at Mac.

  “You wouldn’t be the woman you are without having had that time in the halfway house,” he said. “Your life might have gone differently if you’d been exposed to hard-core felons in jail.”

  “He’s no criminal, nor is he sick like Lila.” She could only imagine what it took for him to defy his sister.

  Mac shook his head, but his eyes blazed guilty pain. “Lila told me she wanted more. She was ready to settle down, to marry. She wanted someone who wasn’t involved in the movie business. I fit the bill, but there was no one I wanted less than Lila Markham. By the time she understood that, her career was disintegrating. I had no idea she’d been on medication for years. My rejecting her tipped her over the edge and she stopped taking th
e drugs she needs.”

  “Has she been violent in the past?” Jack asked.

  He nodded. “I’ve had a long talk with her father. He’s devastated by Jonathan’s involvement.” He crossed the den to sit in the lounger Rory had used earlier. “For years, before her family got help for her, she exploded into rages. Jonathan took the brunt. The parents couldn’t leave him alone with her.”

  “He must have been terrified.” Morgan’s heart throbbed for the boy.

  “That’s why he left the cyber trail that led my IT team to him,” Jack said with a nod. “If he hadn’t made it so complicated we’d have got there sooner.”

  Mac continued. “He wanted to turn her in before she did anyone harm, but he couldn’t be up-front about it. He’s still afraid of her and doesn’t want her to know he betrayed her. He hoped to trick her into thinking it was good detective work that stopped her, not that he’d let himself be found.”

  “Do you have to press charges?” Morgan asked.

  “The police will. I’ll see to it Lila gets the help she needs. The family’s already been to a lawyer. Seems the brother told his parents only last night that she was dangerous again. They’ll do everything they can for her.”

  “What about Jonathan?”

  Jack glanced at Mac. “I’ll explain it would have taken longer to find them if it weren’t for what he did.”

  “Be careful there, Jack. Someone might think you’re a nice guy under all that stern dedication to duty.” Morgan let a smile dance across her mouth for the first time today.

  “Excuse us, Jack, but that smile is the only thing I’ve wanted to see all day. So get out.”

  The minute the front door closed behind him, Morgan launched herself at Mac and let him sweep her into his arms. “I want to take you somewhere,” he said between hungry kisses.

  “This won’t involve a passport, will it?”

  He took her by the hand. “Run,” he said.

  He tugged and she followed, giddy to finally be alone.

  HELICOPTERS FLEW OVERHEAD and the gates swarmed with photographers. Mac didn’t care. No one would see them.

  He disabled the motion sensor lights in the garage as she waited breathlessly beside the Morgan.

  Mac wanted the dark so she couldn’t see the stark terror he still felt.

  Her courageous leap at Lila still burned his retinas. He opened the car’s back door.

  “Oh, Mr. McRae, you don’t mean to steam up the windows, do you?”

  “Every chance I get.”

  Morgan thrilled at the spicy invitation. “But this is Lindsay’s car. Are you sure you want to—”

  “I’ll buy her another one. Now get in.”

  She climbed into the backseat and scooted to the far side. “You’re a vision in this car, my Morgan.” He followed her inside.

  Her small hand cupped his cheek and drew his face close to hers. “Your Morgan? Do you mean the car?”

  “You know what I mean.” The flare in her eyes told him she did. He leaned into the promise she offered.

  “Kiss me, Mac, and get my heart back to beating. I think it stopped in the kitchen.”

  “Mine, too. Especially when I saw you leap out at Lila.” He blinked away the sudden vision and the fear that came with it.

  She clicked her tongue. “Adrenaline and fear. It’s a scary combination. Makes you do wild things.”

  “Don’t leave, Morgan. I don’t want you to go.”

  She patted his cheek. “I’ll like Miami. It’ll be a fresh start. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.” She blinked back a sheen in her eyes. “Don’t worry about me.”

  “Miami? You’re running off to Miami?”

  “My mom lives there with Ernie.”

  “Husband number?”

  “Seven, but this time it’s the real thing. Even Elizabeth Swann gets a happy ending.”

  “So do we.”

  Suspicion burrowed into the glow in her eyes. “Why?”

  “I’ve got a house near Miami. I’d like to take you there.”

  She looked doubtful. “Mac, do you think that’s wise?”

  “We need time to explore each other.” He was sure of his feelings, but she had him in knots about hers. “We can visit Elizabeth and Ernie, walk the beach, make love.” He tucked a wave of lustrous hair behind her ear. “Make more love.”

  “I don’t want my mother to get ideas about you and me. That’ll be a pressure neither of us wants. Now that it looks like her wedding days are behind her, she may get it into her head to plan one for me.”

  He bit back the first thing that popped into his head. “We’ll let her know we’re taking it slow.”

  She looked even more suspicious. “Slow? You think this week’s been slow?”

  “We’ve packed a lifetime into a few days.”

  “We have.” She gave him a solemn nod.

  “Give us a chance, Morgan.”

  “Oh, Mac, don’t ask me to stay unless you feel the way I do.”

  “How is that, Morgan? How do you feel?” His heart hammered and he felt a glimmer of hope.

  “I love the man you are, the way you think, the way you make me laugh. I love the way you take responsibility and don’t blame anyone else for your mistakes.” She opened her eyes, tears filling them. “But I can’t be with you if I’m just a public romance. Don’t ask me to do that.”

  “What I want with you, Morgan Swann, is very, very private.” He drew her onto his lap. “I love that you say what you think when you think it. I love that you’re so strong and brave. Rory told me what you said to Lila about me moving on and how you were leaving before I could.”

  “Self-preservation. I am my mother’s daughter, Mac. We don’t stick around waiting to be dumped.” She wriggled in his lap and made his blood rush south.

  “I’ve treated a lot of women shabbily, Morgan. All those women on my arm in front of the cameras—none of that was real.”

  “Being seen with you helped their careers, too.” She nibbled her lower lip.

  “What I mean to say is, my father wasn’t faithful, didn’t know the meaning of the word. I can see how you might think the same thing of me. But believe me, when I make promises, I keep them.”

  “The way you promised to help Lindsay, and now Jonathan, too, and even Lila.”

  “I will.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “You were so brave last night when that maniac shot at you and again today with Lila. Can you be brave enough to take a chance on me? On us. If you can handle what the tabloids dish out for the next few weeks, we can move on with our lives. Together.” He waited, watched while tough-as-nails, sweet-as-candy Morgan Swann weighed his words.

  How he loved her. Loved everything about her from her lustrous head of auburn waves to the tips of her sexy toes. Her pride impressed him. Her courage humbled him.

  Drove him nuts, of course, but humbled him. “I’ve lived through what happens when the tabloids shred your life. I don’t want to go through that again unless I have you waiting on the other side. We’ll have new lives together.”

  “Together.” She nodded. “I love you, Mac.”

  “I love you, Morgan.” He kissed her hard and deep, her breasts flattening against his chest while she settled her softness on his hard length.

  He slid his fingers up the back of her thighs and cradled her butt under her shorts. “You make me crazy.”

  “Good. Elizabeth says to keep ’em guessing.”

  “All that talk about what I love about you?”

  She cast him a wary glance. “What about it?”

  “You’ve got to know I hate your job. I won’t ask you to quit, but please, think hard about something safer.”

  “And give up all the excitement?”

  “We’ll make enough of our own to last a lifetime.”

  “A lifetime,” she echoed.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-4980-0

  POSSESSING MORGAN

  Copyright © 2010 by Bonnie Edwards.

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