Hunter's Pride
Page 21
“Morgan told me you were undercover. So what brings you here? Just catching up?” Dev knew differently. He could see the edgy look in Shep’s eyes. His brother was hard to read by anyone’s standards. He was closed up tighter than the hard granite that made up the Rocky Mountains where they’d been born. Ty and Reid were easy to read, like open books, in comparison to his oldest brother. He watched as Shep leaned forward, his thighs open, his hands clasped tightly between them.
“I’m here on business,” he growled. “And I won’t be able to attend your wedding because of it. Sorry.”
Kulani came back carrying a tray with coffee in mugs, and cream and sugar. She placed the tray on the bamboo coffee table and invited them to help themselves. She’d also brought a plate of macadamia-and-white-chocolate cookies. She sat down on the other end of the couch and curled her legs beneath her, coffee cup in hand.
“You look pretty tense, Shep,” she murmured between sips of the fragrant liquid. “Is that why you’re here?”
Shep gave her a sideways look as he took his cup of coffee and several cookies from the plate. “You don’t miss much, do you?”
Kulani grinned a little. “Call it women’s intuition, Shep.”
Snorting, he dipped a cookie into his black, steaming coffee and then popped it into his mouth.
Dev chuckled indulgently. “She’s not going to let me get away with a thing with that all-terrain radar of hers.”
Kulani laughed. “When are you men going to realize we women can read you like open books? You can’t hide a thing from us.”
Shep finished off his cookies and then got serious. He looked at them and said, “Morgan’s sending me on an assignment back in Georgia. I know it’s a top event, and I think it involves Black Dawn.”
“Oh, no,” Kulani whispered. “But…you captured the professor two days after he escaped us, Shep. I thought—well, that this bioterrorism stuff would stop with him being caught.”
Shaking his head, Shep muttered, “Black Dawn is like the multiheaded Hydra, Kulani. Getting Valdemar was like cutting off one head. There’re plenty of other heads on this bioterrorist group’s body.”
“So,” Dev speculated, “Morgan’s calling you in because he probably suspects Black Dawn is going to attack an East Coast target?”
Shrugging his big shoulders, Shep sipped his coffee and reached for more of the freshly baked cookies. Spreading them out across his thigh, he took one at a time, dipped it and ate it with obvious relish. “More than likely.” His thick, black brows knitted. “I happened to be flying back from Singapore and I thought I’d lay over here a couple of hours before I catch the red-eye back to the mainland. Morgan’s going to meet me in San Francisco to brief me. I guess this came up suddenly and I was the only merc around available for this assignment. That’s all I know.”
“You don’t have a haz-mat—hazardous materials—background, do you?” Kulani asked worriedly.
“Nada.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Kulani said to them. “Morgan wouldn’t assign someone to a top event like this without the proper background. Are you sure it’s Black Dawn?”
Shrugging, Shep popped the last cookie into his mouth and followed it with a swig of coffee. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he offered, “Morgan was evasive when we spoke on the satcom link. But I heard the tension in his voice. He doesn’t get uptight like that too often, and I’ve been around him enough to know that when he does, it’s serious business.”
Rubbing her arm absently, Kulani gave Dev a worried look. “This makes me glad you can’t work as a merc anymore.”
Dev understood. He had promised her he wouldn’t become a merc and he had yet to finish telling her his plans. Weeks ago Morgan had offered him a managerial position in Perseus, to help coordinate the missions around the world. He was going to set up a satellite office on Kauai. The plans for the building were already with a local architect. Dev would be the manager. It seemed like the perfect nine-to-five job, so he could be home every night to share his life with Kulani.
Shep growled, “Well, from the sounds of it, this top event is gonna be a corker.”
“Is it just you on this assignment?” Dev demanded, knowing his brother’s penchant to always work alone.
“I have no doubt,” Shep muttered, finishing off his coffee. Rising to his full height, he set the cup down on the coffee table. “I’ve got an hour to get back to the airport. I’ll take my leave of you two. I’m sorry I can’t be here for your wedding. I really am.”
Kulani rose. Outside, the twilight was turning the sky to crimson and a ripe peach color. “We understand. Please be careful, Shep,” she said as she went over to him. He wasn’t the kind of man who invited familiarity or closeness, but Kulani disregarded the huge, icy wall that surrounded Shep. She walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his torso and gave him a warm hug. He seemed surprised, hesitated, and then awkwardly hugged her back. When Shep quickly broke contact with her, Kulani smiled to herself. Shep was like a grizzled old mustang stallion—too long out in the wilds without a band of mares to care for. Without anyone. Dev had said that an incident in Shep’s past had changed the way he lived his life. He’d once been a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, but something had happened to close him up and shut him down. Kulani knew he was a loner and sensed the vulnerable human being behind that icy cold gaze of his. At thirty-eight years of age, Shep appeared, at least outwardly, to be unreachable, shunning the more mundane, emotional aspects of being a human being. Still, he’d shown up here to see them, and when he’d congratulated them on their coming marriage she could see that he was truly happy for Dev and for her. Shep was salvageable—but only by the right woman, Kulani sensed. She hoped he would someday know the kind of happiness she and Dev shared.
Dev reached out and shook his brother’s proffered hand. “Let me accompany you to the airport? I’ll grab a taxi home.”
“Sure.” Shep smiled a little at Kulani. “Thanks for all you’ve done for him. I’m glad you’re going to become a part of our family. The cookies were great. Thanks.”
She nodded and walked them to the door. For a moment, Kulani saw a glimmer of the little boy trapped deep inside him. There was a human weakness in him, after all. She smiled knowingly to herself. Now, if he could just find a woman who baked homemade cookies, that would be the combination to the safe known as Shep—a way of opening him up. “Just be careful, Shep. Will you call us when you’ve completed the mission? We’ll both worry about you until we hear from you.”
Shep opened the door and scowled heavily. “That’s the problem, you know?”
“What’s a problem?” Kulani asked as she followed Dev out to the porch. Around them, the sky was a palette of rose and peach hues now.
“Relationships.” He gave Dev a wry look. “It’s hell having the responsibility of a relationship. Our parents worry about the four of us all the time. That’s why I never keep a woman around for long. I don’t want those kinds of suffocating ties. I don’t want her worrying her head off about me. Family’s bad enough,” he growled. “It’s like a slave collar around my neck.”
Dev gave Kulani a significant look that said he’d see her shortly. Kulani wisely said nothing. She lifted her hand in goodbye and watched the two brothers walk to Shep’s rental car, a dark blue Mercedes Benz. Turning, she went back inside. Worry for Shep was already eating at her. She was relieved that Dev would never again have to place himself in danger and jeopardy. As she went to pick up the tray from the coffee table, Kulani fully admitted that she was glad that Dev would soon have a desk job. Setting the tray on the counter, she pressed her hand gently against her abdomen. She knew instinctively that she was now carrying Dev’s baby. She felt relief that the baby would have a father who would always be there. A mercenary’s life wasn’t a long one, with dying at the top of the list of things to do. Sighing, she turned, rinsed the dishes and placed them in the dishwasher. Already, she missed Dev’s presence.
“I’m home!” Dev called as he entered the bungalow later. He saw that Kulani had changed into a pair of cream-colored slacks and a rainbow-colored blouse for the evening. She was lounging on the couch with a bowl of popcorn in her hands, watching television.
“Hi!” Kulani held out her hand in his direction. “Is Shep off?”
“Yeah,” Dev said. He took her hand and squeezed it gently. Limping around the couch with the aid of his cane, he sat down, placed the bowl of popcorn on the lamp table, put the cane aside and took Kulani into his arms. She came willingly. Sliding his hand along the slope of her cheek, he looked deeply into her soft, welcoming eyes.
“And you know what? I’m glad as hell I’m marrying you. I don’t want to be like Shep—always alone. He never married. He’s rarely in a relationship. And when he does have one, he breaks it off before it can get serious.”
Kulani kissed Dev’s hand and leaned her brow against his jaw. “He’s a real loner,” she agreed softly. “And I’m very glad you’re not like him in that way. I’m glad you need me, and I need you.”
Kissing her hair, her ear and then her warm cheek, he whispered roughly, “All I’ll ever need is in my arms right now.”
The words fell hotly across her. Kulani sighed and smiled gently as Dev held her tightly in his arms. “Well, if nature has anything to do with it, you’re liable to be taking care of two of us real soon.”
Chortling, Dev eased Kulani away from him and met and held her starry gaze. “I don’t know how much more happy I can feel than right now.”
“Oh,” Kulani whispered impishly, “when I find out for sure, you’ll be higher than a kite, Dev Hunter.”
Regarding her tenderly, Dev slid his hand against her cheek. She pressed her face against his palm. “Even if you aren’t, you will be someday soon. I’m not marrying you to have children. I married you because I love you and I want to grow old as hell with you. The children will come with time, if it’s meant to be.”
Agreeing, Kulani closed her eyes and was rocked gently back and forth within Dev’s arms. “Our kids will be love children. An extension of what we have with one another.”
“Want to call Morgan and Laura and give them the details on their trip here? The hotel where we’ll have them stay with their kids?” he suggested.
Kulani nodded. “Yes, I want to touch base with Laura. She’s a stickler for details, and it will be fun to talk to her about the flowers for our wedding.”
As Dev rose off the couch to make the call, his mind warred between worry for Shep and the coming mission and his joy over his coming marriage to Kulani. The only solace Dev had in this situation with Shep was knowing that his brother was so good at what he did. He was the consummate mercenary—hard, icy and well trained. Nothing would get in Shep’s way of completing a mission—or he’d die trying.
Tucking his worry away, Dev took the phone and brought it back to the couch where Kulani was sitting. “Here, give Morgan and Laura a call.”
Smiling, Kulani took the phone. In this moment, she knew that the dark years of her life, like chapters in a book, were over now. Never had she dreamed of someone like Dev walking into her life. Kulani needed him. And he needed her just as much. As she dialed the phone, euphoria moved like a quiet stream through her heart. Dev was her solace, her sunshine. Her joy. Forever.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4396-9
HUNTER’S PRIDE
Copyright © 1999 by Lindsay McKenna
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
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.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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†Love and Glory
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**Women of Glory
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††Moments of Glory Trilogy
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