Family Secrets: Books 5-8

by Virginia Kantra

  Not as long as Kansas has barbed wire.

  Her heart lurched.

  Max took a mouthful of wine and put his glass down. It was time to confess. The moment felt right. She was mellow in a way she rarely was. He might be walking back to the city to find a hotel room if she blew a cork over the way hed lied to her, but then, she apparently wasnt going to let him sleep with her tonight anyway.

  And then she shattered his thoughts. She leaned close to him over the breakfast bar, stepping on one of the rungs of the stool behind her to match his height. And she touched her mouth to his. A butterfly kiss, he thought, things clenching then unclenching inside him.

  Max, she whispered, will you still run away with me?

  Lead the way. Did you just forgive me?

  Im working on it.

  Can I help things along?

  No.

  He could have sworn he saw panic cross her face. He reached for her and she backed up fast, dropping off the stool again. This time he didnt try to figure her out. His hand caught in her hair and he pulled her back toward him. Gently at first, then with more intent. Her eyes stayed on his and widened as her face came closer to his. Then she closed them and sighed.

  He kissed her again, falling into her, remembering all the reasons he hadnt stopped when hed realized she was a virgin. It was as if life vibrated through her, bubbling, waiting for something. Then she caught his wrists to stop him.

  Max, I cant do this.

  I want you.

  You dont understand. This is Georgetown.

  He let her go reluctantly. To the best of my knowledge, yes.

  Honeys heart was hammering. Which was worse? she thought frantically. Which was more mortifying? To simply tell him, or to swoon at his feet if she put it to the test? She gulped wine. I dont know anything about you.

  That didnt stop us six nights ago.

  That was Brunhia.

  Im missing the connection.

  And then, although there wasnt a drop of Brunhia water anywhere to be found, the words came tumbling out of her. I cant have sex here because I bam-bam-bam-rat-tat-tat and go down like an overripe tomato dropping off the vine! He stared at her. Yes, Honey thought, she was mortified. I faint.

  Sex makes you faint?

  In rose gardens.

  Were not in a rose garden.

  I cant be anywhere near a rose garden! And then Marcus was getting married so I went far away, and you were there, and I was there, and wham!

  Wham, he repeated.

  Wowza.

  It was that, too.

  Youre not getting this, are you?

  Not a bit.

  Honey set her jaw. All right, damn it. Ill show you.

  She stepped around the bar and fisted his hair in her hands. Then she drew his mouth back to hers. He was everything she remembered once she stopped being panicked. He still tasted like sea and freedom. His tongue swept by hers and she let her fingers unclench. She slid her hands down until she gripped his biceps.

  Come on, she whispered. Come with me.

  He thought she was taking him upstairs to a bedroom. She tugged him toward the back door instead. She did have that exhibitionist streak, he thought.

  There was a rose garden six strides out the back door bordered by a sundial on one side and a quaint little potting shed on the other. She led him to it then she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. Ill show you, she said again, then her lips came back to his.

  And everything he thought he knew about himself started to die inside him. If Camille had kissed him like this, would he have let her roam the globe without him? If she had kissed him like this, would he ever have been able to let her go? He met Honeys tongue and she swallowed everything he used to be and wanted to forget. She took all the fear and the weariness and the pain.

  She pressed her breasts to his chest and heard his breathing change. It went ragged and something inside her leaped. It made her feel light-headedalmost. She listened to the beating of her heart. It was hitting a crescendo now, but it didnt hurt.

  He tugged her top from the waistband of her skirt and everything tightened inside her again. His hands slid up over her ribs and her mind shattered and she forgot to worry, forgot to think. Then he had her top over her head and his mouth fell to the swell of her breasts. Her knees wanted to give out.

  Max felt her going weak in his arms. His mouth never lost touch with hers as he lowered her to the soft, mulchy ground, unzipping her skirt as they went. He flowed with her and she rolled on top of him.

  They had been apart for days, she thought, and it felt like years. She needed to be with him again, skin to skin, connected. She tugged at his T-shirt, suddenly frantic. She found the fly on his jeans and tugged it down.

  This is what happens to you in rose gardens? he asked against her mouth.

  Uh, not quite.

  He caught the front of her bra in his hand until her breasts spilled from it. He unhooked it, then looped his thumb at the corner of her panties and pulled them away too. Then he left herand everything inside her howled. No rat-tat-tat and no bam-bam-bam. Just greed and desperation, howling through her, demanding that he come back to her now. Right now.

  He stripped out of the last of his clothes and settled his weight on top of her. Just when Honey thought the pain of wanting would kill her, he found his way inside her again, deep and strong. She wrapped herself around him and held on and rode the crest with him until things came apart inside her.

  Her last thought as she went over the edge was that hed beaten Georgetown and the de Hooch artwork. That meant Georgetown and the de Hooches had never really been the problem at all.

  A strand of her hair had curled around his little finger as though to hold him. Max played with it, flat on his back in the rose garden, her warmth pressed against his side. She did have a thing for the outdoors.

  His brain was still ringing. His body felt drained. And still, even still, something nagged him.

  He wanted to believe that she was just what she seemed to bequixotic and real, vibrant with touching little shadows. She was forthcoming if he pushed the right buttons. But there was still a gun in her purse and he didnt understand why.

  Why dont you want to go to the police about what happened this afternoon? he asked again.

  Honey stirred against him. Not now, her mind cried. Please dont make me go there now. For the second time in her life, she just feltsatisfied. There was nothing else she wanted to reach for beyond this garden. But he was right. There was the matter of the gun.

  She sat up reluctantly and knotted her hair at her nape. Im not sure if I can trust the police.

  You know who that guy was?

  She shook her head fretfully. No, I really dont.

  But you have an idea.

  I have an educated guess. Theres a difference.

  And youre not going to sh
are it with me. It hurt. That was crazy. They hadnt been together long enough for him to feel a twinge because she shut him out. Whatever it was, why she hadnt been surprised by that gun, it had all probably been going on long before hed met her. But he lay there watching the new light of the moon spill over her skin, and he felt lost and helpless and yeah, a little bit angry. Youre in danger.

  Well, yeah. Thats obvious. For the first time she considered, really considered, what condition she might be in right now if Max hadnt materialized out of thin air at that precise moment in time. Would that guy have killed her? Would she have died without ever knowing that she really had nothing against rose gardens at all, that she had only needed to escape her own chains, that she had just needed one particular man?

  Honey hugged herself. It doesnt involve me, not directly. Im sort of attached at the fringes.

  What the hell did you get yourself tangled up with?

  I didnt. But someone I love did. His eyes flared at that. Oh, for Gods sake. Not love that way. Love likea brother.

  Why would anyone go after you?

  Because maybe Samuel Hatch really wasnt on the up-and-up, she thought again. Maybe he had figured out her mission. And maybe he had decided to derail her before they met. She scrubbed her hands over her cheeks. Im not sure.

  Can you tell this brotherly-love person what happened today?

  No. Ive decided not to. If I do, Ill lose my chance to find out what Im really made of. She leaned forward suddenly so she was looming over him again. Max, trust me on this. Please. Ive spent my whole life denying what everyone expected from me and I was so busy doing that, I never got around to meeting myself. Now I want to see what Im made of.

  He must be as crazy as she was, Max thought, because she was making absolute sense. What can I do?

  Her mouth trembled. You just did it. You respected me enough to let me take care of this.

  Respect had never, ever been an issue, he thought. Lie down here with me again. Its getting cold without you.

  She stood instead. I have a better idea. Lets go to bed.

  Max sat up. Do I get to share a room with you after all or are you going to stick me in that potting shed?

  We can share now. She finally grinned. Georgetown is iced.

  She still felt replete and content when she woke in the morning. Then nerves crept in. She started rattling inside at the thought of meeting Hatch and getting a needle stuck in her that might wipe out her mindalthough some would say there was very little there to wipeand at the thought of letting Carey down. She was frightened by the possibility that maybe she wasnt made of much substance after all. She was scared because she also knew she was going to go to that meeting alone. She couldnt call Matt to arrange for the bodyguards or whatever he wanted to have in place at the bar. She was afraid that if she talked to him, shed blurt out the whole business about the stranger in the park and the gun. And then hed pull the plug on her whole mission.

  Max rolled over to pull her close. Come here.

  Something delicious rolled through her. I cant.

  We have to go back outside again?

  She laughed. I need to take a shower and go to work.

  You quit.

  I gave notice. Theres a difference. Im still expected to chirp into phones today.

  He groaned. Just my luck. Shes got an honorable streak, too.

  Honey leaned up to look over his shoulder at the bedside clock. Then again, Ive got maybe twenty minutes to spare. Can you work fast?

  When I have to.

  As though to prove it, he rolled on top of her. He was already hard. A shiver of expectation and joy tickled through her. She wanted this. She needed this. Especially if she was going to die tonight or have her mind erased of his name.

  Honey decided to go home and change after work. She hadnt wanted to wear the red dress to the White House. That was a little over-the-top, even for her.

  Lines from an old Rod Stewart song rolled through her head; she loved old music the way she loved old movies, though it was a dear-kept secret from those who had orbited in her old Honey-world. Tonights the night. Shed meet with Hatch and prove herself. Shed turn over whatever she learned to Marcus and Matt and the others. Then shed hit the road in her nifty new Jeep with Max by her side.

  She rolled into the townhouse driveway and jogged to the door. Max! She skidded to a stop in the hallway, listening for a return shout.

  It came from the kitchen. Honey went that way and dumped her purse on the breakfast bar. He was sitting on one of the stools with a cell phone in front of him.

  I need a favor, she said.

  Ask. Its yours.

  I need you to come to the Marriott Wardman Park with me, she said. Shed been thinking about this all day. She didnt need Matts protective goons if she had Max. I have to meet someone about the gun.

  He came instantly alert. Okay.

  She held up a hand. I cant tell you. I cant. Not yet.

  When?

  She didnt know. Once they were on the road and out of reach? Soon. I need to change. She turned away, then she paused and looked over her shoulder at him. Oh, and Max. Bring the gun. Just in case.

  She left him. Max watched her go, panic twitching in his gut. She thought she needed protection? He was, however, very glad that she had asked him to come along. Because if she hadnt, he probably would have followed her anyway. And yes, he would have taken the gun.

  He thought back to what he had seen from the cab yesterday, that guy watching her from between two dogwood trees, watching hard enough that hed drawn Maxs own attention. The man had switched position to a bench, drawing ten feet closer to her, then moving to a patch of flowers, closer still. He had looked around for observers and had begun moving straight toward her with his hand in his pocket and his gaze unwavering on the back of her head. Max had seen the rest of it play out in his mind. Hed reach her and one arm would go around her neck. Whatever was in that pocketat the time hed had a certainty that it was a knifewould go to her throat. Max had figured him for taking her purse, the new Jeep keys, maybe hurting her first so she couldnt holler or raise an alarm.

  He had never anticipated this. Whatever this was.

  What are you thinking about?

  Max jolted. Shed returned. And she was wearinga flame. The dress was somewhere between orange and red, but it was less jarring than provocative, hinting of heat and something wild. It wasnt exactly short but there was a slit up one side nearly to her hip. The sleeves were long, belled. It fit like a second skin as far as her hips, then it loosened and shimmied.

  Wow, he said.

  The better to slay dragons with. Honey forced a grin to show that she wasnt nervous at all and did a little twirl to show the dress off.

  Just out of curiosity, how old is this guy youre going to meet?

  My best guess would put him somewhere between sixty and sixty-five. Why?

  Just wondering if hes going to have a heart attack when you walk in, or if hes going to tackle you.

  She smiled, her heart feeling steadier. Lets hope for neither.


  Okay, lets do this. Wheres the gun?

  In response, she headed for the stove. I put it somewhere no one would ever think to look. She tugged all four heating elements from the range top, then she lifted it. The gun was snugged between burners, still wrapped in her blazer.

  Good thing you canceled the maid today, Max said. That would have been a hell of a fire show if she had tried to cook something.

  Yes, but I thought to cancel her, didnt I? She partially unwrapped it and turned back to him to study him critically. Where should you carry this?

  How about the waistband of my jeans?

  Oh, like no one would notice that at Wardman Park. Then she paused. Wait, Ive got an idea.

  As he watched her go again, he thought how close he had come to firing up the stove today for the makings of a grilled cheese sandwich. He wasnt willing to call her a danger to all mankind, but she did bear watching.

  She came back carrying a sports jacket and shoved it at him. This might fit.

  Max took it. Well, since I know it doesnt belong to an ex-loverup until Brunhia you were a little short on thoseit begs asking whom this belongs to.

  One of the roommates. Try it on.

  He did. It fit after a fashion, Honey thought. Not perfectly, but then the man had probably never encountered a custom-made jacket in his life so he wouldnt know the difference. It fit as well as anything could be expected to off the rack. Good enough, she decided, then she turned for the hall. I dont think we should arrive together.

  So youve got some preposterous alternate plan for getting me there?

  I do, but its not preposterous. Im going to drop you three blocks away and youre going to walk. She glanced at him as she reset the alarm and they stepped through the front door. I got that from a movie. Same one I got the hide-a-gun-in-the-range-top idea from. I dont remember which exactly, but Im thinking Peter Fonda.