Persuading Piper: Brotherhood Protectors World

by Susan Boles

  Mr. MacKenzie didn't respond.

  "Sir. We need to discuss the details of your situation so I can protect you. As we both discovered today, coming to your home isn't a good option."

  The man actually snorted.

  "And coming to your office isn't good because there are too many prying eyes in town." Ian went on, as he parked the car by the house and got out. "When I went there looking for you today, I noticed there're a lot of people coming and going around the building. Someone is bound to wonder why I'm visiting you."

  Pulling the set of keys his mama had given him from his pocket, he one-handed the correct one into the lock and swung the door open. A strong musty odor greeted him, making his nose itch.

  An old couch sat in lonely solitude in the living room. No TV. Moving into the kitchen he opened and closed cabinets, taking a visual inventory of cookware and dishes.

  "What's that racket? " asked the mayor.

  "I’m out at the home place looking around. If you're not busy right now why don't you grab a fishing pole and come on out here so we can discuss the situation?"

  "I'm hardly dressed for fishing at the moment and I haven't fished in years. I don't think we need an elaborate ruse for me to come out there and talk to you. There aren't any neighbors to see me. I'll be there in half an hour."

  The call disconnected and Ian sat on the couch, wondering what in the hell he'd gotten himself into. There might be too much personal history for him in this assignment.

  Standing from the couch, he forcibly pushed the negative thoughts aside. He was a professional and by gosh he was going to start acting like one instead of a love struck boy. After he'd taken care of the hit on Matt MacKenzie he could focus on the situation with Piper. He just wished he truly believed the could keep them separated.

  Chapter 9

  After her daddy's car disappeared down the street, Piper gathered up the fliers she'd intended to give to Missy Elliott earlier. That'd been her purpose in going to the Grits and Gravy Café this morning.

  As the chief fundraiser for Streetpups Rescue Group, Piper was in charge of putting together a big event to raise funds to help pay for medical care, supplies and boarding for the dogs rescued by the group. It was an important position to her and she damn well meant to continue to do an excellent job. Despite Ian Elliott being back in town and taking up entirely too much space in her brain. No way was she going to get involved with him again. Once burned, twice shy. Right?

  She paused on the front porch. Missy was probably gone from the café by now. Taking care if Ian, no doubt. She sat in the rocker closest to her, trying to figure out how to proceed. The meeting with Missy was a critical one a this point to determine who was donating items to the live and silent auction portion of the event. She had to have that list and check it over for accuracy and follow up with the donors. Ham nudged her fingers and she scratched his head absentmindedly.

  She'd just call Missy and figure out an alternate meeting. Putting action to her thoughts, she pulled up Missy's number in her contacts and listened as the phone rang on the other end. Just as she thought she'd be leaving a voicemail, Missy answered.

  "Good morning, Piper." She said in a breathless voice. "I clean forgot about us meeting this morning what with Ian showing up so unexpectedly."

  Piper gulped at the mention of Ian. She hoped the conversation wouldn't deteriorate into a mother's gushing about her son's homecoming. Missy had every right to be excited, but Piper didn't want to have to make falsely cheerful comments about it.

  As though sensing Piper's discomfort, Missy went on. "But that's neither here nor there right now. We need to get things organized for the fundraiser. I know how much it means to you."

  "Right." Piper said. "It's totally understandable that you're a bit distracted right now. But if we could meet for half an hour and get this list hammered out, then I can handle it from there."

  "Of course." Missy said. "How about the library?"

  "Perfect."

  "Good. I'll see you there." Missy said in a brisk, business-like voice.

  Piper disconnected the call and sat still. She hoped this meeting wouldn't bring up a bunch of old feelings. She'd worked so hard to get over Ian and makes a life for herself. And she'd succeeded! Ham nudged her fingers begging for attention. She glanced at him. His liquid brown eyes looked so sympathetic. As though he knew she had something on her mind. He was so smart that way.

  She scratched his favorite spot behind his left ear. "It's okay, boy. I’m not going to let that man bother me. You don't need to worry."

  Ham's tail thumped against the boards of the porch as he gave her a doggy grin of agreement.

  With a final scratch, she stood, picked up the fliers from the table next to her and said, "You be a good boy. I'll be back later."

  Pulling into a parking spot at the library, she flipped down the visor mirror to check her make-up. Did her eyes look tired and wary? She hoped it was only her imagination.

  Missy's car was two slots over, so she knew her friend was already here. It still amazed her that she and Missy had become friends over the years with out ever discussing Ian or the fiasco on graduation night. Or course, quite a few years had passed before she'd gotten involved with Streetpups and come in constant contact with the dog loving Missy Elliott.

  As she strolled through the library looking for Missy, she was aware that every person in the place was watching her. She held her head high, pretending nothing was different, nodding to everyone who's eyes met hers. She could see they were about to burst with curiosity, but no one actually had the nerve to come right out and ask the burning question hovering in the air.

  Missy sat at a table in the far corner of the library, flipping through a magazine. When she saw Piper coming, she smiled and set it aside. "Good morning!"

  Piper gave her a hug and sat down, pulling the flyers from her tote. "Here are the flyers I had printed up. I think they turned out real nice."

  Missy pick up the top copy and looked it over. "You did a great job with these. Very eye catching. We'll split them and post all over town." She pulled a list from her own purse and handed it to Piper. "Here's your copy of the list of current donors and what they've agreed to donate for the auctions."

  Piper scanned the list. Between the two of them they'd gotten some great items for the auction. Everything from diamond earring donated by a jeweler to season tickets to the Memphis Grizzlies games up in Memphis for the sports fans among them.

  "This is looking fantastic, Missy! Our best year yet."

  This was what she loved. Bringing together all of the elements of the community to help rescue dogs that would otherwise be out on the streets or euthanized at a shelter. Being in charge of bringing in the funds for it fulfilled her in so many way.

  She didn't have time for a love life. But, somehow, today, that thought didn't bring the usual comfort.

  Missy fiddled with the fliers, stacking and straightening them in a perfect rectangle.

  Uh. Oh. Something must be coming that Missy thought she wouldn't want to hear.

  "I'm sorry Ian popped into town with no warning." Missy said, laying her hand on Piper's. "Well. That's not exactly what I meant. I'm thrilled he's come home, but I wish it hadn’t been a surprise to you. I wish I could have given you a heads up that he was coming. I know there's all that history between the two of you."

  Piper tried to pull her hand away from Missy's grip.

  "Just hear me out. Please." Miss said, keeping a firm grip on Piper's hand. "I think you still love him. At least I hope, for selfish reasons, that you do. I've come to love you like my own since we’ve been working together. Your smart, funny and have a huge heart. It would be my great happiness if the two of you got together again." Missy let go of her hand. "And that's the last time I'll bring up the subject. So you don't have to worry that I'm going to ambush you about it every time we meet."

  Missy smiled, gathered up her stack of fliers and stood. "I'll get started on putting these
up in the businesses on my list. See you later."

  Piper fiddled with her stack of papers. Spreading them out in a fan, then stacking the back together. Tapping the edges on the table and getting annoyed looks from across the room about the noise. She sighed, put the stack down.

  Missy had a hell of a nerve with her comments about Ian and her. Piper didn't think she could get over Ian leaving Mercy all those years ago and never trying to get in touch afterward. A hurt like that just didn't go away. Oh, it had scabbed over. And she'd discovered the love of her working life with the rescue group.

  But she'd never felt toward another man the way she'd felt about Ian and that stuck in her craw. She'd been drawn to him the two times she'd seen him, but that was just sex. And Piper MacKenzie didn't do just sex. No. For her it was all or nothing.

  Chapter 10

  Ian hears the sound of gravel popping takes a quick look out the front window. The black Mercedes he's seen earlier this morning was parking in the driveway. As he watched, Matt MacKenzie got out. He looked out of place in his business suit in this setting. Ian was grateful for the lack of traffic on the dead-end road out here. Not only did the man look out of place; the shiny high end car did, too.

  He met the mayor at the door, motioning him inside. At that point he realized the seating situation was less than optimal. One couch. Two of them. Nothing he could do about it at this point though.

  "Mr. MacKenzie. Have a seat. Sorry about the arrangements."

  Matt MacKenzie didn't even hesitate to sit on the old couch. Ian had to give him credit for that.

  He seated himself and gave the other man a direct look.

  "I need to you to tell me exactly what's been going on here. How did you discover there's a hit on you? My boss, Hank Patterson, told me you've already had two attempts on your life. What were they and how did you avoid them?"

  Matt leaned back against the sofa as though he didn't have the strength to sit upright any more.

  "I'm glad you’re here." He said, surprising Ian.

  "I know I've been acting like a jackass to you," he laughed at Ian's astonished look. "But I have to act the way I would if you'd just shown up to visit like you're telling everyone. It won't do either one of us a lick of good if it gets out that you're here protecting me."

  Ian would never have given the older man the credit for thinking it out that way. But he was right.

  "Tell me how you know there's a hit on you." Ian asked again.

  Matt cleared his throat. "I guess your boss told you I've been passing along criminal information about my colleagues to the FBI?"

  Ian nodded, still amazed that Matt had been doing this for years without anyone being wise to it. At least until recently.

  "Jim Powers, the mayor in another town up the road that I won't name, has been a friend for a lot of years." Matt frowned. "As a matter of fact, he got into trouble with the state a long time ago. It was me that turned him in. Jim knows it was me, but him going to jail for a couple of years turned his life around and he got straight when he came out of jail. Saved his marriage and everything."

  Ian wondered about the truth of that. Some people simmered for years before they broke. Maybe Jim Powers had been waiting all this time to strike. Being Matt MacKenzie's friend in order to get his revenge without being under suspicion. Stranger things had been known to happen.

  "Jim came to see me about three months ago and told me he'd heard from one of the officials I turned in years that he was hiring a hit on me. Jim went along to get information, then came here to let me know what was going in."

  Matt picked some lint off his black slacks. "I didn't believe it at first. That kind of thing only happens in the movies. But my car was run off the road not two weeks later. I was out on Highway 59 near the old bridge." He looked at Ian. "You remember where I’m talking about."

  Ian did. It was the one place in the county where if you ran off the road right next to the bridge, your car would plummet sixty feet into a ravine. The odds of surviving the fall were small. As evidenced by several accidents just like that that had happened over the years. The hit man must have been trying to make it look like one of those accidents.

  "I managed to run into the trees before the ravine, so that's why I'm sitting here today. Banged me up some and totaled my car."

  "What was the second attack?" Ian asked.

  "It might not have been related to the hit." Matt said. "I was pretty spooked by getting run off the road. As you can imagine. So I was being extra alert after that. One night when I was coming back from a mayor's weekend in Jackson, I thought someone was following me. I got off the interstate onto some secondary roads and the car stayed behind me. Even when I got on some old roads that only someone familiar with this area would know." Matt shrugged. "Maybe it was someone local coming home from Jackson, too. Nothing happened other than the same car being behind me all that way and on all the same roads."

  Ian thought it was probably the hit man scaring Matt. Keeping him in a state of anxiety so that his thought process was not the best.

  Chapter 11

  "How did you come to be an FBI informant?" Ian questioned. "It seems out of character for you. At least from what I remember about you when I was growing up here."

  "I think you probably remember that I love the law more than anything beside my family." Matt said.

  Ian nodded. He did remember that.

  "It goes hand-in-hand with that." Matt went on. "I can't stand to know someone is on the take and do nothing. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. That's a quote from Edmund Burke that I've tried to live my life by.

  And Ian had no trouble believing that part. It was knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the mayor loved his family more that made it seem so out of character. Going after evil men generally put your family in danger. But done was done.

  "And…well…hm…when I was a younger man it seemed kind of James Bond cool." Matt laughed. "I'm sure that's hard for you to believe."

  "Not at all," Ian said. "I think we all want to be the cool guy at some point in our lives. It was part of the reason I was hell bent on becoming a Navy pilot. It had to be Navy because they take off and land on aircraft carriers. Guess I saw Top Gun too many times at a young age. And there was the fact that Daddy taught me to fly the crop duster. That was the most freedom I think I ever experienced in my life."

  "So, this guy who you believe put the hit out on you. Why haven't you called the police and had him taken in for questioning?" Ian asked.

  Matt laughed. "He already in prison. Serving a very long sentence for corruption. No need to find him."

  "Was he questioned about this?" Ian inquired.

  "Of course." Matt said. "And he denied any knowledge. No surprise there."

  Ian sighed. "Of course."

  "The only one I turned in that I regret is my brother." Matt said into the silence.

  "I didn't know you had a brother."

  "No. You wouldn't. He's been gone a long time." Matt shifted on the old couch. "He was gambling on the side. Setting up things like dog fights and taking bets on them. I tried to talk him out of it, but he laughed in my face. Called me a goody-two-shoes."

  "So you turned him in?" Asked Ian quietly.

  Matt nodded. "My own brother. Family. I thought he'd get a slap on the wrist. Back then it wasn't as big a deal as it is now and I thought he'd get some sense knocked into him and straighten up."

  "But that's not what happened."

  "No. The timing was bad. Right about then there was a push to clean up that kind of gambling and he got caught up as an example. He got ten years." Matt's hand shook and he put them on his knees. "I sent my brother to prison for ten years out of pride and arrogance. Thinking I knew best."

  "Where is he now?"

  "Dead." Matt stood up and paced the small room. "Dead and gone. He never came back here after prison. He went out west. Got married and had a son. I hope he was happy."

  "What ab
out the wife and son? Do you ever see them?"

  "His son moved here about a year ago. He lives up the road in Hernando, but drops in for dinner pretty regularly."

  "That must be nice." Ian observed.

  Matt shook his head. "You'd think so. But he's a bit different. I can't put my finger on it but he just makes everyone uncomfortable. Piper says he's a geek. She doesn't much like him either. But it's the least I can do for my brother's son. Give him supper sometimes. I tried to get him to move to Mercy, but he didn't want to."

  Ian steered them back onto topic before things got too maudlin.

  "Getting back to the hit on you. The best case scenario would be for me to be somewhere close to your house so that I can keep an eye on you easily. If you have to call me, it might be too late."

  The other man frowned. "I don't think that will work. I don't want Piper pulled into this."

  "There's no way you can avoid it." Ian stated. "And they may come after her to get to you." His blood ran cold at the thought and his determination to be on the scene hardened.

  Matt's face turned white. "No. They wouldn't do that."

  "This isn't a gentleman's game, Mr. MacKenzie. They will do whatever it takes to get you. I'm surprised it's gone on this long to tell you the truth." As he listened to his own words, Ian realized that whoever was trying to kill the mayor must be small potatoes.

  No high dollar hit man would have let it go on this long. The thought gave him a bit of relief. Relief he chose not to convey to Matt MacKenzie. He would get himself inside, or close to inside, the MacKenzie home in any way he could. Both to carry out his assignment and to be in a position to work on Piper's resistance to him.

  "I'll have to think it over. Come up with a plausible reason for you to be close by without revealing why. I don’t want Piper involved. Or worried about me." Matt moved toward the door. "I've made it a point to tell her to stay away from you."