by Diana Palmer
“I can make them anytime you like,” she said, pleased by the praise. “I love making bread.”
“I like turkey,” Shane said, grinning.
“Me, too!” Julie said.
Minette smiled. She wasn’t big on turkey except in sandwiches. She had a very small piece on her plate. She liked vegetables much better than meats.
“You aren’t eating much,” Hayes commented quietly.
She sighed. “After you spend so much time cooking it, you just don’t really have a lot of enthusiasm for eating it,” she chuckled.
“I see.”
She exchanged a long look with him that set her whole body tingling.
Aunt Sarah chuckled.
They averted their eyes and pretended a great interest in the food.
Minette finished a bite of sweet potato casserole. “Hayes, you really need to tell somebody about that bug you found,” she said unexpectedly.
“You found a bug? Can I see it?” Shane asked. He was fascinated with insects. Minette had purchased several picture books of them for him.
“Sweetheart, it’s not that sort of bug,” Minette said softly.
“It’s an electronic bug,” Hayes explained. “I’ll tell you all about them one day, okay?”
“Okay.”
Sarah grimaced. “They put a bug in your house?” she asked Hayes worriedly.
“Apparently,” he said heavily. “I’ll call Zack after we eat.”
“We should have invited Zack over for dinner,” Minette said sadly. “He’s all alone.”
“Barbara made a plate for Zack and took it over to him,” Hayes told her. “She thinks he needs pampering.”
“Good for her! Barbara’s such a good cook.” She frowned. “Is she going to marry her daughter-in-law’s father, you think?” she added.
He shook his head. “She likes General Cassaway very much, and he is head of the CIA, but she said no man could ever compare with the husband she lost.” He laughed. “And you’re not the only person who ended up with a notorious father—remember that Barbara’s adopted son, Rick, turned out to be the son of Emilio Machado, now president of the South American nation of Barrera, but formerly involved in kidnapping across the border.”
“I had forgotten that,” she said. “We never really know a lot about our parents.”
“True.”
Hayes finished his pumpkin pie and sighed. “Oh, that was delicious, honey!” he said.
Minette beamed and flushed. He didn’t seem to even notice the endearment, which was interesting because Hayes never, ever used them.
“Thanks,” she replied.
He glanced at her. “If I stayed here long, I’d be on a diet. I swear, this is the most wonderful meal I ever had. Even my mother couldn’t cook this well.”
“I’m flattered.”
He shook his head. “I don’t flatter people,” he said honestly. “I say what I think. It’s not a good thing, from time to time,” he added with a chuckle.
“Oh, I like honesty,” Minette replied. “The truth is always best, in the long run.”
“I totally agree.”
“It was lovely, dear,” Sarah told Minette.
“You helped,” she replied. “Pat yourself on the back, too. I couldn’t do anything around here if I didn’t have you to help me.”
Sarah, flattered, had a nice color on her high cheekbones. “You’re just saying that.”
“I’m not.” Minette smiled.
Sarah got up, went around the table and hugged her great-niece. “Well, I couldn’t do much without you,” she said, and cleared her throat. “Now before we start crying and embarrass Hayes, I’ll get the dishes in the dishwasher.”
“I’m very hard to embarrass,” Hayes assured her with a grin.
She laughed, started picking up plates and headed for the kitchen.
“Can we watch a movie, you think?” Shane asked, and he was looking at Hayes.
“Not the dragon movie again,” Minette groaned.
Hayes glowered at her. “What’s wrong with the dragon movie? I love the dragon movie.”
“Me, too!” Shane exclaimed. “Please? Please?”
“Yes, please?” Julie asked, looking up at Hayes with big, soft blue eyes.
Hayes looked at Minette. “Tell me you could say no to them?” he dared.
She waved a hand. “Go!”
“I’ll go get the movie, Hayes!” Shane exclaimed, and ran for the staircase.
“Before you watch a movie, please call Zack,” Minette said quietly.
He stared into her worried eyes and nodded. “I suppose I better.”
He went into the living room, dropped into the easy chair he’d claimed for his own and got out his cell phone.
“Zack. Is this a bad time?” Hayes asked.
Zack made a harrumphing sound. “I’m all by myself eating cold turkey. There is no bad time.”
“Cold turkey? Why?” Hayes asked.
“Because my damned microwave gave up the ghost just as I was putting the plate in to heat it up,” he muttered.
“You’ve got a stove, haven’t you?”
“The stove came with the rental house,” Zack said. “But just because I have a stove doesn’t give me the instructions I need to actually use it!”
“Oh, gosh.”
Minette stuck her head in the door. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“Zack’s microwave died. He’s eating cold turkey.”
She went to Hayes and held out her hand for the phone. “Zack? Minette. Come on over here. Hayes needs to talk to you and we’ve got a kitchen full of hot food and no way to save it all.”
“You mean it?” Zack asked, aghast.
“Of course I mean it. Come on.”
“You sweetheart,” Zack said. “Thanks a million. I’ll just put the plate Barbara brought me in the fridge and get a new microwave tomorrow. Not much hope of an open appliance store on Thanksgiving Day.”
“See you in a bit then,” she said. She handed Hayes back the phone.
“I’ll save what I was going to say until you get here,” Hayes chuckled. “This is wonderful food. You’re in for a real treat.”
“I know that. She’s a doll, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is, and she’s spoken for, so don’t get your hopes up,” Hayes said at once, and with a nip in his tone.
Minette stared at him, wide-eyed. He looked back at her with warm, evident affection and something else—something like possession.
“What was that? Yes.” Hayes chuckled again. “Okay, woman-hater, come on over. We’ll see you then.”
“What did he say?” Minette asked.
Hayes grinned. “He hates women.”
She did a double-take. “He doesn’t seem to hate me.”
“No, he doesn’t hate women in general,” he emphasized. He shook his head. “He just said that he’s got some scars from a relationship he had years ago.”
“Poor guy. He’s so nice, too.”
“I did wonder why he didn’t date, but you don’t press issues like that these days.” He leaned forward. “It’s very politically incorrect.”
She glared. “You have no idea how sick I am of those words.”
“Yes, but it’s the times we live in,” he sighed.
She made a face. “I spend my life trying not to offend anyone in print.” She narrowed her eyes. “We have too many people living too close together, sticking their noses into everybody’s business.”
“Well, the only remedy for that problem would be catastrophic and politically incorrect,” he said, tongue-in-cheek.
She glared at him.
He chuckled. “Sorry.”
She wrinkled her nose and smiled. “You’re a nice sheriff. I can’t imagine you being politically incorrect with anybody. You don’t even cuss. Well, mostly.”
“I do my best.”
She sighed. She loved looking at him. He looked back, his eyes soft and quiet and hungry. While they were stari
ng at each other, Shane came flying into the room with a DVD in its jacket.
“Hayes?” Shane tugged at his pants leg. “The dragon movie!”
He snapped out of it, blinked his eyes and smiled sheepishly. “Okay. The dragon movie. I’ll put it in the player.”
“You will not.” Minette pushed him gently back into the chair. “You’re recuperating. I’m not.”
She fed the movie into the Blu-ray player and smiled. “Have fun. I’ll go get the plate ready for Zack. But,” she added to Hayes, “I want to know what he says about that bug.”
“Would I have secrets from you, even if you are a nosy, spying little newspaper reporter?” He said it as if it were the greatest compliment, and with affection in his eyes.
She flushed. “You’d better not.”
“Never again. I promise.” He crossed his heart. Twice.
She sighed and went back to the kitchen.
* * *
Zack was still irritated when he arrived. He really was good-looking, with thick black hair and deep-set dark eyes and a silky smooth light olive complexion. He was built very much like Hayes, with a lithe but muscular rodeo rider’s physique. He had big hands and big feet and a big nose. But they just made him even more attractive.
“Here, Zack,” Minette called from the kitchen doorway. She handed him a full plate, with a fork on top, and a hot mug of black coffee. “No sugar or cream, right?”
He laughed, shocked out of his bad mood. “No sugar or cream,” he agreed. “Thanks, Minette.”
“There’s a price for that,” she said sadly. “You have to sit through the dragon movie while you eat it.”
His eyes opened wide. “Excuse me?”
She led him into the living room and offered him a seat on the sofa where he could put his mug and plate on the wide wooden coffee table. The movie was blaring away. The kids, lying on their bellies on the carpeted floor, were spellbound. Hayes, drinking his second cup of coffee, grinned at Zack.
“Sorry,” he said quietly. “It’s their favorite movie.”
Zack chuckled. “No problem. I survived Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. I guess I can get through this one.”
Hayes pursed his lips, glanced at Minette and winked. She flushed, laughed and went back into the kitchen.
* * *
Far from being bored, Zack sat through the movie with the greatest apparent interest, and was actually laughing when it came to an end.
“Hey, that wasn’t bad at all,” Zack said enthusiastically.
“I told you animated films weren’t just for kids,” Hayes reminded him.
Minette stuck her head in the door, noted Zack’s empty plate and picked it up. “Seconds?” she asked.
“Just coffee, thanks, but I’ll come get it. Hayes, another cup?”
Hayes held out his empty cup. “Thanks.”
Zack went back toward the kitchen. Minette, on her way to the living room, watched him walk with open curiosity.
“Something wrong?” Zack asked, pausing. He towered over her.
She shook her head and smiled sheepishly. “It’s just that you remind me of someone when you walk.”
His eyebrows arched, asking a silent question.
“Cash Grier,” she replied. “I don’t know him well, I’ve only spoken to him a few times, but I’ve seen him walking down the sidewalks in town. He moves in a very strange way. I can’t really explain it.”
“You want to know what it is?” Zack replied.
She nodded.
“It’s the way a hunter walks in the woods,” he replied. “A soft, gliding, irregular motion. You see, animals are alert for rhythmic patterns, because only humans walk like that. A hunter learns to adapt his gait so that he doesn’t frighten his prey.” He grinned, showing perfect white teeth.
She was studying him. “A hunter? Deer hunter?”
He pursed his lips. “I have hunted deer once or twice.”
He wasn’t saying it, but she knew what he meant. Cash Grier had been a sniper in his mysterious past. Zack had been in the military, too. She looked up at him for a long time and her eyes narrowed.
“Ah, yes,” she said softly. “I know that look.”
“What look?”
“Don’t they call it the ‘hundred-yard stare’?” she asked.
His face closed up, even though he still had a faint smile on his lips. “Men who know combat share it.”
“Yes.”
“Side effects of the skill,” he replied.
“Sad ones.”
He hesitated. He nodded. Then he closed up like a flower. “Coffeepot?”
She laughed. “In the kitchen, on the counter. I just made a new batch.”
“It’s good coffee.”
“I would have made you some latté, but I’m out of the pods,” she said apologetically.
“I’m not much on fancy coffee, remember. I like any sort, as long as it’s strong enough to keep me awake.”
She stared. “Late night?”
He grimaced. “Ya. They just released the new ‘Halo’ game for Xbox 360,” he sighed. “I’m worn out and I haven’t gotten to the end yet!”
She burst out laughing. “You gamers,” she chuckled, shaking her head.
“I don’t drink, smoke or gamble,” he pointed out. “Gaming is a permissible vice, and it isn’t illegal.”
“I guess so.”
He laughed.
* * *
But he wasn’t laughing when he and Hayes sat in Minette’s office discussing the bug Hayes had found in his telephone.
“Sophisticated,” Zack pronounced when Hayes described it to him. “Pity you didn’t bring it here with you.”
“Sorry. There wasn’t much left. Made me mad, so I stomped it.”
“There are probably more,” Zack replied. “I should go over there and do a complete sweep.” He looked around. “It wouldn’t hurt to check around here, either.”
Hayes groaned. “Is there no privacy left in the world?”
“No,” Zack said shortly. “We’ve traded privacy for pseudosecurity. There’s a neat saying, that if we protect everything we protect nothing.”
“Who said that?” Hayes asked curiously.
Zack laughed. “Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., in a Wall Street Journal editorial following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. He said, and I quote, ‘to protect everything is to protect nothing.’ Wise man.”
“I guess we don’t have the resources to protect everything, even if we want to.”
“But we can still afford security cameras everywhere to spy on everybody, laws to regulate who has access to information and government rights to stick their noses into people’s private bank accounts...!” Zack was on a roll.
Hayes held up a hand. “We’re officers of the law.”
“Sure we are. But we’re turning into a nation of paranoids, spying on each other to make sure nobody’s infringing on our rights. Meanwhile, we’re losing privacy and independence by the hour!”
“I can’t argue that,” Hayes said. “However, in my county, we’re not approving spy tactics. So let’s find out who thinks they have the right to spy on us!”
“Got my vote. I’ll get my equipment and bring it over this afternoon. After I’ve swept your house from top to bottom.”
Hayes sighed. “Better sweep the outbuildings as well, I’m afraid.”
“I had that in mind.”
Hayes drew in a deep breath. “I hope to be back at work within the next two years.”
Zack laughed. “Copper will let you go soon.”
“I hope so. I feel better. I just can’t lift anything.”
“Including a riot shotgun,” Zack reminded him. “So wait it out until you’re a hundred percent before you go back to work in the field. And even then,” he added curtly, “stop rushing into things without backup!”
Hayes grimaced. “Crackers and milk!”
“Cussing doesn’t change facts.”
“It helps.”
Zac
k laughed. “If you say so. I’ll get my gear and start working.”
He waved a hand and went back down the hall. “Thanks for the great meal, Minette,” he said. “And the coffee.”
“But I’ve got pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream,” she groaned. “I was just about to bring it out!”
“I’ll be back. I’m going to sweep your house.”
Minette blinked. “I have a vacuum cleaner....”
“For bugs,” he muttered.
“Oh. Bugs. Bugs?” She looked around, aghast. “Surely not here...!”
“Hayes is here, and they’re after Hayes,” he reminded her. He moved in and lowered his voice. “They’re after you, too, sweet woman,” he added quietly. “We have to make sure they don’t get access to any information that would help them nab you or Hayes.”
She put down the knife she was using to cut the pie. “My life used to be so calm and quiet.”
“It never was,” he replied. “You work for a newspaper.”
“It used to be a little calmer,” she said doggedly.
He laughed. “You have friends,” he pointed out. “And you’re being watched even when you don’t know it. But bugs are not allowed. So we’re getting rid of them.”
Minette looked around. “Well, if they’re listening, you’ve just given them advance notice.”
“I doubt very seriously that they’ve bugged your kitchen,” he said, and his dark eyes smiled. “Or the bathroom. The rest of the house, however, would be fair game. Which brings to mind a question. Have you had any utility people inside the house lately?”
She thought. “Not really. Oh. Wait. The phone company said there was a problem on the line and they checked the phone in the office and my bedroom.” She went pale. “Darn!”
“I’ll go over the phones when I get back. Meanwhile, don’t call anybody unless you use your cell phone. They didn’t touch that...?”
“No. I have my wireless contract with a different provider,” she said.
“Good thing. You can make calls that aren’t monitored. I won’t be long.”
He left. Minette made a face. This was getting tedious. She hated the idea that someone was spying on her, especially people who might want to kill Hayes. She tried not to think that her own life was in jeopardy. Her father’s worst enemy would love to have her in his power, to hurt her father.