by Gemma Bruce
Andy nodded. She wondered if Mac would feel as bereft as she did, when it was time for them to head back to L.A. She, too, knew better than to ask. It occurred to her that she wasn’t the only one in her family with a bumpy road to romance. Galena had never remarried. Hardly ever dated. Lucian was one of those men your mother warned you about. And Liz just worked. Just like Andy. Just like Mac. God, they really did need to get lives.
After the food was put away in a built-in, sub-zero refrigerator, Andy and Mac went out to join Hank and Dillon.
The fire was roaring. There was no sign of the two men.
“Out on the porch. Hank’s one bad habit. A pipe. Part of the mountain man image.”
Andy sat down on the couch and Mac pulled out a decanter of brandy. Hank came in a few minutes later. “Heard a loon,” he said as he passed by and lumbered down the hall.
“Night shoot,” said Mac. “Can’t get away from them.”
Hank came back loaded down with equipment.
Mac stood up. “I’m the bag girl.”
Hank handed her one of the camera bags; then he nodded in the direction of the porch. “I think our young agent out there could use some TLC about now. From the look of those scars on his leg, he’s been through the wars, and is probably feeling pretty piss-poor ineffectual right about now.”
“That’s your department, Andy,” said Mac, hoisting the camera bag to her shoulder.
“I . . . What should I say? I haven’t seen him like this before. And he’s not ineffectual. He saved my butt, more than once.”
“So go for it.”
“But I don’t know how to, you know . . .”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Andy. It doesn’t take a four-thousand-dollar goddess camp to know how to treat a man. Make him feel needed.” Mac shoved her toward the back door. “We’ll be gone for hours maybe. The spare room is yours and Dillon’s. I assume you’re sleeping together. Just don’t hurt his knee.”
“Come on, woman,” said Hank and hustled Mac toward the door, shaking his head as he followed her out.
Andy waited until she was sure they were gone, then went to the door. She could see Dillon sitting on the porch rail, looking out at the night. She opened the screen and stepped outside.
The woods rose around them in soaring shadows. Above the trees, stars sprinkled the vast sky, but Dillon just kept looking out into the dark.
Andy shivered. “There’s a big, warm fire inside.”
“Hmm.”
She moved toward him, stopped when she was close enough that the side of her arm touched his. She could feel him shivering.
“You’re cold.”
“I’m fine.”
“Thanks for coming to my rescue today.”
“For all the good it did.”
“It did. I mean, you had no way of knowing I didn’t smash down into the rocks when I fell. I wasn’t sure of it, either. I would have been toast if you hadn’t called out to me.”
“I broke your concentration. And gave him his chance to push you over.”
Andy hoisted one hip to the rail and pulled herself up to sit beside him. “Bullshit. He didn’t push me. I slipped. How’s that for a trained stuntwoman?”
“You slipped?”
Andy laughed ruefully. “Yep. It was a miracle that I didn’t land headfirst on the boulders below.”
Dillon shuddered. “Let’s not think about the might-have-beens. It doesn’t do any good, one way or the other.” There was bitterness in his voice.
Andy felt out of her element. Her asset was action, not talking. “I couldn’t have handled those guys without you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Of course I know that. I’m a stuntwoman. Stunt,” she repeated, suddenly exasperated. “It’s all tricks and smoke and harnesses.”
Dillon finally turned to face her. “Now who’s talking bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit. I mean, I’m trained in martial arts, and weaponry. I can even ride bulls and jump from flaming build-ings—as long as I’m harnessed and wearing asbestos. But I’ve never had to use any of those skills in reality.”
He gave her a half smile. Then flicked her chin. “Well, they worked pretty well today.”
“So did you, in spite of what that asshole did to your knee.”
“Yeah. My Achilles’ heel. I envy you your skills. I used to have them—some of them. Now I can’t even go through airport security without setting off the metal detectors.”
Andy tightened her lips. It was awful, but the idea of bells going off as Dillon walked down the concourse dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts popped into her mind, and she couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out. “I’m sorry. That was cruel, but you have to admit, it’s pretty bizarre.”
He chuckled, not quite a laugh. “Yeah, I guess it is. But it sure puts a limit on the kinds of assignments I can take.”
“That’s why you were here?” Sort of like being relegated to car chases, thought Andy.
He nodded.
“And that makes you angry?”
He shrugged and she moved closer. “I was at first. But it’s a risk you take. I’m disappointed, but I’m alive.”
“For which I’m very grateful.”
He smiled at her then and shifted to put his arm around her. “I grew up on superhero movies. I didn’t know about stunt people when I was younger. I just watched the actors become real heroes, and I wanted to be like them. To save the world.”
“And do your own tricks.”
“And do my own tricks.”
“So now what?”
“More rounds of physical therapy, try to get back into shape, see if I can still be of use in some way.”
“I like the shape you’re in. And I’m sure you can get back up to speed.” She paused. “But I can see how the metal detector thing could be a problem.”
“Damn it, it isn’t funny.”
“I know,” she said and buried her head in his shoulder. “Okay, so maybe it’s a little funny.”
“No.” She looked up, suddenly serious. Took his face in her hands. “It isn’t funny. It’s your career. Which is your whole life, I bet. And I know how it would feel to be cut off from that. But you’ll find a way through it. I know you will.” She leaned toward him and kissed him. “I know you will.”
Chapter 28
Another anti-inflammatory and pain pill put Dillon out. Andy crawled into bed beside him and pulled the covers over them. She was soon fast asleep and didn’t awake until the sun coming through the window woke her the next morning.
Dillon was gone. Of course. But at least she knew he had to be close by. She eased out of bed, feeling stiff and sore in a hundred places. She dressed in her borrowed clothes and shoes and padded down the hall to the kitchen.
Mac, Dillon, and Hank were sitting at the table over coffee and pancakes. Andy sat down and Mac poured her a cup of coffee.
“We’re having a council of war. Drink up so we can bring you up to speed.”
Andy drank her coffee and immediately felt better. Dillon must be feeling better, too. The color was back in his face and the intensity back in his eyes.
“Okay,” she said. “Shoot. Have you heard from Talbot?”
“No,” said Hank in a low rumble. “And Dillon’s insisting on going back into Terra Bliss.”
“No way,” said Andy. “We barely got out with our lives.”
“I have to,” said Dillon. “It’s my assignment. You stay here.”
“The hell I will. If you go, I go.” Dillon scowled at her. Mac grinned. Hank just shook his head.
“We’ll all go,” Mac said and won scowls from everybody. “Oh, come on. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“This isn’t the movies,” said Dillon. “It’s my job. Not yours.”
“It is, too,” said Mac. “Some asshole just tried to murder my favorite niece. And I’m not going to let them get away with it.”
“Yeah,” added Andy.
&n
bsp; Dillon turned to Hank, ignoring the two women. “Can you give me a ride back to the retreat?”
“Sure,” said Hank.
Dillon stood up, put his plate and cup in the sink, and started toward the door. His limp was less pronounced this morning, but he still wasn’t in prime shape. He needed her, thought Andy. And he was going to get her. And Mac, too, if she knew her aunt.
“We’ll be ready in five minutes.” Mac pushed back her chair.
Dillon turned around, blocking the doorway. “No.”
“If I can just fit in one little question?” said Hank.
The three of them turned on him.
“Just how do you plan to get back inside?”
“The way I came out,” said Dillon. “No one else is going.”
Andy, Mac, and Hank simultaneously looked down at his knee.
“I can make it. And the element of surprise might tip their hands.”
“You don’t even know how many are involved, and they might be watching the wall,” said Andy, desperate to keep him from going in alone. Which was exactly what she shouldn’t be feeling. This was something he had to prove for himself—or die trying. Talbot and the police were on the inside—if he made it that far. Why didn’t they come out?
As if in answer to her unspoken plea, a car rumbled up the dirt road and came to a stop in front of the house. Hank went to open the back door, and Andy caught a glimpse of a black sedan. Seconds later, Grayson Talbot stepped out.
There was a brief round of introductions. Talbot’s eyes widened a fraction when he met Mac. Then before Andy knew what was happening, Talbot and Dillon were sitting in the sedan. She glared at the tinted windows; she had no doubt the doors were locked.
She and Mac exchanged looks. Mac was humming the tune to “Secret Agent Man” under her breath. They watched from the window while twenty minutes went by and nothing happened. Then both car doors opened and the two men stepped out. They walked around the car and out of sight.
Andy and Mac moved to another window and saw Talbot and Dillon conferring with Hank, who was stacking wood under a corrugated roofed shed. This meeting lasted only a couple of minutes; then all three men got into the sedan and drove away.
“Well, of all the . . . ,” said Mac.
“They’re going without us,” said Andy. “And they’ve taken Hank.”
“Yeah, but I’ve got the keys to the SUV.”
In no time they were following the sedan down the mountain.
“Not too close,” warned Andy. “They’re trained to spot tails.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Mac. “I was doing those movies before you were born.”
The sedan drove down into a small town at the base of the mountain. It passed through without stopping, but turned into a graveled drive where a green sign advertised the TAHOE LANDSCAPING COMPANY.
“That’s the lawn service the retreat uses,” said Andy.
“Hmm,” said Mac and pulled the SUV into a clump of roadside bushes.
Ten minutes later, a Tahoe Landscaping truck pulled out of the parking lot and passed them going in the direction of Terra Bliss.
“Well, damn,” said Mac. “It looks like our men in black have just turned into our men in green.” She revved up the SUV and followed. But at the fork of the road that led to Terra Bliss, she turned right, in the direction of Hank’s cabin.
“Where are you going?” asked Andy. Mac gave her a look. Andy grinned. Ten minutes later, Mac stopped the SUV on the dirt road where it had been parked the day before. “Let’s get hopping, then.” She ran around to the back of the truck and came back with a rope and grappling hooks. “You never know,” said Mac.
“I have one in my cabin.”
“That’s my girl.” Keeping eyes and ears on the alert, they cut diagonally through the woods and found a secluded spot were they could climb over the wall without being spotted. Mac swung the grappling hook up to the top. It snagged on the brick and the rope went taut.
Andy went first, hand over hand, keeping the rope steady while her feet climbed the surface of the wall. A quick look-see for the guards and she motioned Mac to join her. As soon as she was squatting next to Andy, they repositioned the hook and rappelled down the opposite side.
Andy quickly coiled the rope and hid it under a pile of leaves. “What do we do now?” whispered Mac. Andy hadn’t thought about that. She’d been so anxious to be a part of the operation that she hadn’t really made a plan. One look at Mac told her that they had both gone off a bit—if not a lot—half-cocked.
“Let’s try to get over to the cabins. I’d really like to get a pair of my own shoes. Yours are giving me blisters.” Mac nodded, and they skulked single file toward the cabins. They were nearly there when Andy threw her arm out, stopping Mac while two patrol guards passed by within feet of them. Andy couldn’t tell if they were the same ones that had accompanied Bernard Bliss, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
Andy’s cabin appeared to be unguarded, so after a quick look around, they crossed the clearing and slipped inside. It looked just like she left it, until she pulled her suitcase out from under the bed and opened it. Everything was wadded up and thrown carelessly back inside. The backpack was on the floor, its contents dumped beside it.
“I wonder what they were looking for?” she whispered.
“Possibly evidence that you were some kind of investigator.”
Andy’s lips tightened. “My whole masquerade would point to that, wouldn’t it? How dumb was that?”
“Pretty dumb, but imaginative.”
“I hope I didn’t mess up the real investigation.”
She turned to go back to the living room and gasped. A face was looking in at the window. Andy’s heart jumped to her throat until she registered the big red hair. “Oh, God, it’s Jeannie. We’ve got to stop her from saying anything.”
But Jeannie was no longer there. They heard the screen door open and slam shut.
“Ariadne. Where the hell have you been, hon?” Jeannie rushed into the bedroom, hands gesticulating wildly. “Every-body’s worried as all get-out. Katherine said you’d left on a family emergency, but hell, that’s what they said about Miranda.” Her head swiveled toward Mac. “Ohmigod, it’s you. Where have you been? What’s goin’ on?” Her head swiveled back to Andy. “How’d you find her? We’ve all been worried sick.
“Come on down to my cabin. I’ll get the girls and we’ll celebrate. First, maybe we should tell Dr. Bliss that you’re back.”
“No,” said Andy and Mac simultaneously. They pulled Jeannie away from the door. “You can’t tell anyone, okay?”
Jeannie looked hurt. “But—”
“Promise. There’s about to be an arrest.”
“An arrest? Did they find out who killed my Demetri?” Her eyes filled with tears. “Well, they’ll have to let me at him first. I’ll tear the so and so limb from limb.”
“Go back to your cabin and stay there,” said Andy. “Let the authorities take care of this.” She saw the belligerent set to Jeannie’s jaw and touched her arm. “Jeannie, I know how you feel. But this is the right way.” Andy saw Mac roll her eyes behind Jeannie.
She was right. They had no business interfering, either. But that was different. Dillon was involved.
“Go on,” said Mac. “You want him arrested, don’t you?”
Jeannie nodded. “So it’s a he? Which one? Just tell me.” She turned from Mac to Andy. “Not Dillon? Not that sweet piece of sugar?”
“No,” said Andy. “Not Dillon.”
“Then tell me who.” She crossed her arms. “I’m not leaving until you tell me.”
Andy sighed. “Okay, but promise you’ll go to your cabin and stay there.”
“Promise,” said Jeannie, hugging herself more tightly.
“Bernard Bliss.”
Jeannie’s mouth dropped open. “No.”
“Yes. Now go.” Andy nudged her toward the door.
“But how do you know?” asked Jeannie as they propelle
d her through the living room. “Are you a detective? I didn’t think you could be as plain as all that, and now I see it all. This is so exciting.”
“Jeannie, we’ll tell you everything as soon as it’s over. Now go to your cabin and don’t say a thing to anybody.” They pushed her out the door.
“Think she’ll stay quiet?” asked Mac.
“I hope so. But I couldn’t think of any other way to get rid of her. Let’s get down to the main lawn and see what’s happening.”
They stayed within the trees and peered out across the expanse of perfectly manicured grass. A large landscaping truck was pulled up alongside the pool, and they could hear the distant hum of the ride-on mower. There was no sign of the smaller truck that Hank, Dillon, and Grayson Talbot had commandeered.
“Where are they?” asked Andy. “They should already be here. What if they weren’t let inside?”
“Shit,” said Mac.
“What?” And then she saw Jeannie hurrying across the lawn toward the main building.
“Shit,” said Andy. She automatically stepped forward to go after her, but Mac pulled her back.
“You’ll never make it without being seen. We’ll have to wait for the guys.”
“Well, they better hurry.”
They waited, Andy biting her nails, Mac sighing at regular intervals. They both jumped when the front entrance of the Pantheon opened and Bernard Bliss and Katherine Dane walked down the front steps with Jeannie between them.
“Oh, no,” said Andy.
“Shit,” said Mac.
In silent agreement, they moved through the trees parallel to the three people who strode rapidly across the lawn toward the pool.
“Why doesn’t she run?” asked Andy. “No. Don’t tell me. They’ve got weapons. This is much easier in the movies. Real danger sucks. What are we going to do?”
Mac shrugged and kept moving.
They watched them skirt the pool. Then they were lost from view.
“Where are they—Oh, damn. The helicopter pad. They’re going to use her as a hostage.”
Mac was standing on tiptoe to get a better view of the lawn. “Where’s that damn truck?”
“Can’t wait,” said Andy and broke into a run. She could feel Mac running behind her. She was dimly aware of passing people as they made their mad dash toward the far hill where the emergency helicopters were held in readiness.