The Perfect Lie

by Dinah McCall

  “How did you know?” Ruger asked.

  Jonah needed to throw up, but he wouldn’t let himself feel the pain.

  “Evan recognized his voice. When I confronted Carl, he admitted it.”

  “But why?” Ruger asked.

  Jonah turned around then, searching the horizon and seeing only a spiral of steam coming up out of the water. He stared, remembering the life and the laughter he’d shared with a man he’d never really known. Then he looked away, meeting Ruger’s gaze without blinking.

  “Money.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ruger said. “That’s got to be tough, losing a friend like that.”

  “He was no friend of mine,” Jonah said, then turned his back and walked away.

  They’d flown to Cedars-Sinai with Evan. As soon as they reached the emergency area, they rolled him away, leaving Macie alone in the waiting area. Police were everywhere, keeping the media out and making sure that no one from Calderone’s organization took the opportunity to finish what their padrone had started.

  She knew it would be a while before she could see him again, but that was okay. He was alive. He was safe. But there was something else she had to attend to before the circle of her life was complete.

  She asked the nurse at the desk if they’d moved Declyn Blaine to a different room after he’d had his stroke.

  The nurse checked the computer. “No, Miss Blaine, he’s still in 407.”

  “Thank you,” Macie said, and headed for an elevator.

  The guard was still on the door. He recognized Macie on sight.

  “Miss Blaine! Are you here alone?”

  Macie nodded. “It’s all right,” she said. “I think the worst is over.”

  “Really? I hadn’t heard.”

  She smiled, but it felt as if her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces.

  “You will. There’s enough press outside the emergency room door that soon everyone will know.” Then she pointed to the door. “I’m going to see my father.”

  He nodded. “I’m real sorry about his condition.”

  Macie sighed. “Yes, so am I.”

  The room was quiet as she walked inside. The shades had been drawn against the bright light of day, but the smell of dying was in the room. She looked at the ceiling, then the walls, and even the curtains over the windows, before she could bring herself to look at the man on the bed.

  When she finally turned her gaze to Declyn’s face, her heart came up in her throat. His features were contorted on one side of his face and completely slack on the other. His eyes, normally dark and fierce, were staring fixedly at a point somewhere over the television set mounted on the wall. It was all she could do to move closer, but it had to be done.

  “Dad?” She touched his arm. He didn’t move. He didn’t blink. “Dad, it’s me, Macie.” The monitor continued to register a monotonous beep without recognition.

  Macie’s eyes filled with tears. She slid to the side of the bed, then leaned over.

  “I thought you’d like to know that Jonah found Evan. He’s alive, and he’s safe. We just brought him to this very hospital. He was injured some, but not severely. When he feels better, he’ll come and see you, okay?”

  There was no acknowledgment of the information in any way.

  “Oh, Daddy,” Macie said. Then ever so gently, she laid her head against his chest and pretended that in a moment she would feel his arms enfolding her into one of the infrequent hugs she’d known as a child.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said softly. “But it didn’t have to be like this.”

  Macie was in Evan’s room when Jonah arrived. As soon as she saw his face, she knew something had happened. She put a finger to her lips to indicate Evan was sleeping, then walked with him out into the hall.

  “Tell me,” she said.

  “Tell you what?”

  “Jonah, a woman knows when something is wrong with those she loves.” Then she touched the side of his face. “And I love you so very much…so talk.”

  It hurt to say the words, but they had to be said.

  “Carl is dead.”

  Macie gasped. “What? Oh my God…sweetheart, I am so sorry. What happened?”

  “Evan didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?” Macie asked.

  Jonah took her by the hand, then led her toward the empty waiting room at the end of the hall. Once inside, he sat down, then pulled her close.

  “Jonah, you’re scaring me,” Macie said. “Please talk to me.”

  “Carl was the traitor. He’s been on the take for years, hiring himself out as a hit man between assignments. He’d been tight with Calderone and then got into trouble with him when the raid went down. He gave me up to save his own hide. Told Calderone about Evan to get Calderone off his back. He knew where Evan was all along.”

  Macie gasped. “No. Oh, no. I can’t believe it! He seemed so sincere…even going all the way to CIA headquarters to get that second computer. We were in the air for hours searching for you.”

  “He knew where I was. I’d lay odds he didn’t even have the tracking software on. If you had flown anywhere along the coast after you passed La Jolla, it would have picked me up.”

  “This is so awful.” Then it dawned on her that he’d said Carl was dead. “You said Carl was dead? How did it happen?”

  “I shot him,” Jonah said, then got up. “I want to see Evan. What did the doctor say about his hands?”

  Macie stood up with him, but she wouldn’t let him leave. Not yet. “Jonah?”

  He was moving toward the door.

  “Jonah…look at me.”

  He stopped, but he wouldn’t turn around. Right now, it was hard to face himself. Looking at Macie would be next to impossible. What would she think about someone who could do what he’d done?

  “I’m waiting,” she said.

  He sighed, then turned around. “What?”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that, but right now I’m so proud of you, I don’t know what to say.”

  He couldn’t hide his shock. “Proud? I killed four people today.”

  “From where I’m standing, you rescued your son, saved your own life and brought a traitor to justice.”

  “You aren’t disgusted by what I did?”

  Macie shook her head. “I think they should give you a medal,” she said, and then opened her arms.

  He walked into her embrace, and when her arms closed around him, he knew he’d come home.

  “I don’t want a medal. I’d rather have you and Evan.”

  She smiled. “Well, then, that’s easy, because we’re already yours, heart and soul.” She kissed him quickly, but leaving him with no misunderstandings as to how she would have liked to continue. “Now, let’s go say hello to your son. He’s been waiting anxiously for you. At least now I know why.”

  Hand in hand, they retraced their steps to Evan’s room. They were almost there when Jonah remembered Declyn.

  “How’s your father?” he asked. “Have you seen him?”

  “I saw him,” she said, shaking her head.

  Jonah didn’t ask anything more. When she was ready, she would talk. For now, Evan was uppermost in their minds.

  They entered quietly, thinking Evan would still be asleep. Instead, they found him wide-eyed and watching the door. When he saw Jonah’s face, his expression shifted from fear to relief.

  “Dad?”

  “It’s all right,” Jonah said. “Everything’s been taken care of.”

  “What about—”

  “It’s over. All of it,” Jonah said. “Just close your eyes and rest, and know that I’m here for you always.”

  Evan sighed and closed his eyes; then, despite his heavily bandaged hands, he reached for Jonah.

  Jonah laid his hand on Evan’s forehead, then pulled up a chair beside his son’s bed.

  “I’m here, Evan, and when I leave, you’re coming with me.”

  Evan’s eyelids fluttered. “And Aunt Macie?”


  “You two aren’t getting away without me,” Macie said.

  This time Evan managed a smile before the drugs pulled him under.

  “What will he think about us…together, I mean?” Jonah asked.

  “That I have good taste and that he’s a very lucky young man?”

  Jonah sighed, then leaned back in the chair.

  “God…I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

  Just in case Evan wasn’t really asleep, Macie leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Not without me, you don’t.”

  Jonah grinned. “Honey, if I’m in bed with you, rest is the last thing I’ll be getting.”

  Macie blushed and glanced nervously at Evan.

  “Sssh. What if he’s still awake?” she hissed.

  “Then he’ll learn what good taste his father has.”

  Epilogue

  Key Largo, Florida

  “Dad! Look at this!” Evan yelled.

  Jonah turned to look at his son, who was standing at the end of the boat dock, holding a fish in one hand, and a rod and reel in the other. Jonah gave him a big thumbs-up, then watched as Evan dropped the fish back into the bay. Even though it had been ten months since the kidnapping had come to an end, he still woke up each morning thanking God they’d all survived.

  He tossed the last coil of rope onto his boat, then jumped out onto the dock. The Second Time Around was his first charter boat, but plans to expand were already in his head. He knew just how he was going to swing it. Today was a slow day, though, and he was glad. It was giving him time to spend at home, which was his favorite place to be. He had started toward the end of the dock, where Evan was still fishing, when he heard Macie calling.

  “Jonah! Telephone!”

  He turned around, saw her waving at him from the patio of their beachfront house and started toward her at a jog. She was seven months pregnant and blooming. It was the only way he could describe how she looked to him. They were all counting the days until the baby’s arrival, especially Evan. The name was already picked out and the nursery was almost finished. When Carrie Blaine Slade made her arrival, she would be welcomed into a very happy family and sleep in a haven of pink fluff.

  “Who is it?” Jonah mouthed as he reached the back door.

  Macie shrugged and handed him the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Slade, is that you?”

  Jonah frowned, trying to remember where he’d heard that voice.

  “Yes. Who’s speaking?”

  “Darryl Ruger. I’ve got some vacation coming, and I’m anxious to try some deep sea fishing. Someone told me you run a pretty good charter service. Think you can hook me up?”

  Jonah grinned. “If this is the same Ruger who all but told my wife to kiss his ass, then I expect I can.”

  Ruger snorted rudely into the mouthpiece. “I never said an off-color word to your wife and we both know it.”

  “That doesn’t mean you didn’t want to, though, does it?”

  Ruger chuckled. “She’s pretty tough when she has to be.”

  Macie was standing nearby when she heard what Jonah said. She turned around, a look of surprise on her face. Jonah blew her a kiss.

  “Who are you talking to?” she asked.

  “My wife wants to know who I’m talking to,” Jonah said.

  Ruger sighed. “Are you going to refuse me the charter if she nixes the deal?”

  Jonah grinned at Macie and then winked. “Hell no. Business is business. You just say the word, and I’m yours for as long as you want.”

  Macie frowned. This didn’t sound good. She hadn’t asked him to quit the Company, but she’d been heartily glad when he had. Now, with the baby coming and Declyn in a nursing home nearby, it was all she could do to get through a day. And only recently she’d given her assistant at Blaine Import-Export a raise and a promotion. Now she stayed connected to them by Internet and phone. If Jonah went back on active duty, life wasn’t going to be hard, it was going to be impossible.

  “How about the first five days of next week?” Ruger asked.

  “Let me check the book, but I think that’s okay,” Jonah said.

  He hurried inside to the desk, opened the booking log, then checked through the dates.

  “Yes, that will work out just fine,” he said. “My next charter isn’t until the week after.”

  “Great. See you then,” Ruger said.

  “Hey, wait,” Jonah said. “Don’t you want to know how to get here?”

  Ruger laughed. “I’m a fed, remember? I can find you, no matter where you are.”

  “Yeah, right,” Jonah said, and hung up the phone.

  “Jonah?”

  “Yes?”

  “Who was that?”

  “Ruger. He booked a charter for next week.” Then he ran a hand through his hair in pretend frustration. “God. Five days with that man just might put me in the nuthouse.”

  “Thank goodness,” she said. “For a minute I thought it might be someone from the Company.”

  The smile slid off Jonah’s face. “Oh, baby…come here.”

  Macie walked into his arms, never tiring of the feel of his embrace.

  “I’m through with that,” Jonah said. “The day I got Evan back alive was the end of my old life and the beginning of a new one. A better one, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “So don’t ever think—not even for a moment—that I miss that life or that I might ever go back. Even before I knew about Evan…even before I found you again…”

  “I found you, remember?” Macie said.

  He laughed. “Yeah, right. Even before you found me again, I had already made up my mind that it was time to pack it in.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “So this is a good thing we’re doing, right?”

  Jonah knew what she meant. They’d turned their backs on all the Blaine money while making sure that it was put in trust for Evan. Declyn Blaine had paid dearly for the lie he’d perpetrated. He’d lost his children; then he’d lost his mind. The fact that his heart was still beating was almost ironic. He was alive, but unable to live beyond his room at the nursing home. His food was poured through a tube in his belly. When he drooled, it hung on the edge of his chin until someone came along and wiped it off. There wasn’t an indignity that he had not already suffered. The only blessing was that they were pretty sure he didn’t know it.

  Jonah smiled, touching her hair, then her cheek, with the back of his hand.

  “Yes. As long as you’re happy, it’s a good thing.”

  “I want you to be happy, too,” Macie said.

  Jonah closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was looking at her through a blur.

  “God, woman, if I got any happier, I’d be a blubbering fool. I go to bed at night knowing I’m blessed and wake up the same way every morning. I have you and Evan and our baby on the way. What more could a sane man want?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I just worry,” Macie said.

  “Then don’t. As far as I’m concerned, I’m living heaven on earth.”

  “Hey, Dad!”

  Jonah kissed Macie’s nose, then turned toward the doorway as Evan came running into the house. When he saw his father’s face, he rolled his eyes and groaned.

  “Are you guys kissing again?”

  Jonah grinned. “How do you think your little sister got started?”

  Macie gasped and then hit Jonah on the arm. “Really,” she muttered, then glared at both men and walked out of the room.

  “She’s ticked off at you,” Evan said.

  “Nah, she loves me…and you, too,” Jonah said, then grabbed Evan by the neck as they wrestled themselves onto the floor.

  Macie heard the thump and then the bumps as they both hit. She rubbed her belly and smiled.

  “Hang in there with me, baby girl. I hope you can handle the men in your life.”

  About that time, the baby kicked. Macie winced.

  “Oh, well, e
xcuse me,” she said. “Of course you’ll be able to handle them. All you’ll have to do is smile.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-6209-9

  THE PERFECT LIE

  Copyright © 2003 by Sharon Sala.

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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