Mackie's Men Read online

  Once the men gathered in the small kitchen, they discussed the woman in the next room.

  “She has a small fortune in guns and at least one in every room.” The Smith and Wesson she loaned Eric was sitting on the kitchen counter, the 1911 Colt was sitting beside it and he had counted two loaded 12 gauge pump shotguns over the front and back doors. “There are more pistols under the bathroom sink, next to her bed, and one in the cupboard filled with glasses in the kitchen. She’s either paranoid or she has some pretty impressive enemies.” Liam decided to call his father back. If anyone could find out about anything or anyone, it was Drummond Klinger.

  Darryl listened to the two people in the world that meant the most to him, and added his opinion to the conversation. “I like her, Tyler was doing his job, but I wanted to drop the fucker where he stood when I saw her fall.” His hands rose and fell. “One minute she stood there with that gun in her hand and, yeah, all of that hair blowing around. I saw her and wanted to come back to talk, but she dropped and, let’s just say it was a good thing that driveway is a couple of hundred feet deep. I had time to cool off before I reached you.” He got up and walked into the bedroom to reassure himself that she was still breathing.

  Chapter Three

  Mackie was resting quietly, and the men were watching Monday Night football, when a distinctive click was heard throughout the house. They watched as the windows were covered with metal panels sliding from the side walls and they could hear the outer doors lock down. A small red light was blinking near the television until Darryl Reynolds who was closest to the television looked, and punched the button with his finger like it might bite him. The TV went blank for a moment and the screen displayed four different views of the perimeter of the house and yard. The infrared cameras had excellent contrast and the three men watched the screen to see what had triggered the house into button down mode.

  The bushes were moving, at least that is what it looked like, but every man in the room knew what those bushes were. More men stepped out of the trees and Liam counted five men and four Bushmen approaching the house. He noted that every man carried assault rifles and full combat belts.

  “Shit,” the three men looked toward Mackie standing in the doorway of her bedroom pulling on a sweater over her wounded arm and shoulder. Her eyes were on the screen but she spoke slowly and quietly to them. “I would appreciate it if you guys would gather the guns I am sure you have found by now, and bring them into my bedroom.” When no one moved, she looked toward them and said, “I’m not going to be able to protect you unless you do as I say.” Her body was swaying slightly and Liam stood, Mackie held up her good hand, “Look, I can get us to safety if you will co-operate and do as I ask you to do. Now grab my guns please and come into my bedroom.” She made a kissy noise and the grey cat ran to her as she turned back into her room.

  Reynolds and Fielding looked to Liam to set the plan. He nodded and went to the kitchen and grabbed the four pistols he knew were there, and the shotgun from over the door. Fielding had the pistol from the bathroom and the shotgun from the front door and Reynolds helped Liam carry his cache as they filed into her small bedroom. She pushed Reynolds and Liam into her closet with the cat and tried to smile. “There is a button when you get to the basement on the right side. The room directly on the right at the hall across from the elevator is where we’ll meet you. Please send the lift back up.” She slapped the wall next to the closet door and the floor moved downwards taking a pissed Liam and an amazed Reynolds with it.

  Mackie looked at Fielding and told him to stay put. But he followed her because she looked like she was going to collapse at any minute. She wobbled into the kitchen and opened the cupboard next to the back door, and she flipped a toggle switch and then made her way into the living room, and armed the explosives there too. Fielding watched the TV screen for a few seconds while she was stumbling over the furniture and he saw something to make his blood run cold. A long dark colored SUV was backed up about twenty yards from the house and the back doors were opened to reveal a 50 caliber machine gun mounted in the back. “Fuck, com’ on we need to get out of here.” And he tried to get a grip on her good arm, but Mackie was heading to the bedroom before he could grab her and he followed. The lift was back in place by the time they got back into the closet and she slapped the wall again to send them down to join the others.

  The ride down seemed to last forever and for a short while they could hear gunfire above their heads, but all was quiet now. When the lift finally stopped at the bottom, Mackie straightened up from her slouched lean on the wall and exited the box, and slowly made her way down the corridor with Fielding trailing behind her. She turned left then went twenty feet more and turned right. They walked to a door that was heavy, “Okay, He-Man, you want to open this heavy assed door for the damsel in distress please?” Fielding opened the door and they walked inside the cozy room.

  It looked like a rec room complete with a pool table and a bar in the corner. Mackie went right to the entertainment center and picked up the remote that Liam had just put down because he couldn’t get the damn thing to work. She twisted it, clicked the button, and the TV came on. Once again they watched as the small army shot at the doors and windows of the little house. When one genius tried to pry a window panel away from the opening after he broke out the glass the ground exploded under his feet. His body flew up in the air and landed in pieces almost out of camera range. The same thing happened in the front of the house to a brave soul. His body did fly out of camera range. “Okay, guys, here’s the deal, tell me how much damage happens when they hit my house with that 50 caliber if I pass out before it happens, stay in this room until I wake up again and I’ll see about getting you home safe.”

  Mackie was asleep when the big gun opened fire on her little house. Unfortunately for the attackers, the entire house and yard lit up like the fourth of July, complete with the rocket’s red glare. The three men stared at the screen long minutes after the last detonation had gone off. The SUV was toast and so were the occupants. The men standing farther back to let the 50 cal do its work had danced around jerking and twitching until they dropped to the ground. The cameras were still on and Liam tried to count the bodies of the fallen men. He came up with ten on the ground and felt damn glad he hadn’t been in the house when it blew apart. It appeared that no one had escaped the devastation within the scope of the camera lenses.

  Reynolds whistled as he watched the screen scanning for any signs of life. He looked at Mackie’s innocent sleeping face. “I don’t know about you guys, but I sure want to know who this little gal is. She’s done pissed off somebody who wants her ass dead. She knew and planned for every eventuality, I don’t know what happened to those guys there,” he said as he pointed to the bodies laying on the farthest perimeters on the screen. “It looks like they were dancing on electricity running into them from the ground, look at their boots.” Liam and Fielding looked at what Reynolds was talking about. It appeared the boots were melted on the men’s feet. Although the picture was clear for infrared you would still have a hard time making out details clearly.

  Liam sat back in the chair directly across from where Mackie lay sleeping. He knew the undeserved resentment for her taking charge while she was so injured was dumb, but his ego was taking a beating around this woman. She was obviously in the security business, whether she was still at it or retired from it, he had yet to learn. Her knowledge of weapons rivaled Reynolds and he was a twenty year Veteran with the Navy, fifteen of those years had been with the SEALs. She must be something if she impressed Darryl Reynolds. The man had damn near as many scars as she did. His came from almost being blown to hell by an IED in Iraq. Hers came from years of injuries. The whip marks on her back could have come from an overzealous sadistic lover but Liam doubted that. Even a sadist would hesitate to mark a lover that severely.

  If she was in security the gunshot wounds could be explained, but the knife wounds? The various other scars? No, there was a story here an
d he hoped to find out what it was sooner than later. Fielding told him that her previous injuries were mostly old ones. The whip marks on her back Fielding thought she must have gotten as a child for the scars to have healed and became so faded. The rest were more recent.

  Mackie knew she was being watched, she allowed her eyelids to rise only wide enough to see the man sitting opposite from where she was lying. Her mind identified his face as the man she planned to shoot if he hurt Eric, and she must have been shot because the rest was a bit fuzzy in her mind. She remembered men’s voices and pain in her shoulder and right wrist. Telling herself to get her lazy ass up was easy, actually moving was the hard part. I’m going to have to start exercising again, she promised her sore muscles.

  “I am assuming that you are either the one who shot me or the one responsible for getting me shot?” Mackie started talking before she moved. As she sat up, she said, “Let’s also assume that Eric and Jenny got away before the shit hit the fan around here.” She pushed the hair off her face and really looked at the man in front of her. Tall, maybe six four, two twenty, dark reddish brown hair, and dark blue eyes with wide shoulders and grim faced. “Sorry we haven’t been introduced, I am Maxine Vaught. I would shake your hand but as we can see I am kind of tied up here at the moment.” She was referring to the sling holding her arm up and secured in place with a thick strip of gauze wrapped around her ribs.

  Reynolds and Fielding stopped their game of pool when she started talking and came to sit with Liam and Mackie. “I am Liam Klinger, on my right is Doctor John Fielding, and to my left is Darryl Reynolds, head of security for Klinger International.” When she acknowledged the men with a nod to each, he continued, “Yes, my nephew and his family left this morning in the chopper with the other three men that came with me, including the man who shot you, I didn’t want you to possibly retaliate against him for doing his job, which is to protect me and my family.”

  He waited for her to speak, but his impatience got the better of him. “I believe that as guests of your house we are entitled to an explanation of last night’s impromptu deadly entertainment if you please.” His companions nodded their heads as he finished speaking. He waited in vain, her head was shaking slowly sideways. “Ms. Vaught, I assure you that we are not the helpless desk jockeys you believe us to be. In spite of our allowing you to take charge in the emergency situation, it’s not our way to hide behind an injured woman.” Her head straightened when he said the “allow her” statement. “I am not trying to insult you or your abilities, merely telling you that we are normally competent men in an emergency. This has been a complete clusterfuck from our point of view since my nephew had his unfortunate run-in with a jealous co-worker.”

  Mackie had to laugh a bit, and that arched his brow. Looks like I not only bruised his ego, I also insulted his speech. “I’m afraid that you are going to be disappointed, since I have no idea what you’re talking about. And after some starched up guy with pretty ribbons and shiny stars has a talk with you, I won’t be the only one who has no clue as to what might have or might not have happened here.” She had given them as much information as she dared, even if she did think they deserved some kind of explanation. It wasn’t her call. Smiling at the sexy trio of men, Mackie offered a bit of advice. “If it were me? I would try to think of last night as one of your nephew’s virtual video games and you pressed the right buttons to kick some bad guy’s ass.”

  Liam watched her disappear into the bathroom and wanted to demand that she tell him what kind of trouble they were facing last night. He was smart enough to pick up on the shiny stars comment, so at least she had given them that much. Still, watching her ass sway across ten feet of floor after seeing her completely nude just hours ago brought his brain back to his earlier carnal thoughts concerning just how good it would be to hold that ass in his hands while his cock was buried inside of her body. I must be out of my tiny mind.

  Mackie took one look at her image in the bathroom mirror and wanted to screech at the sight. Her long brown hair was a rat’s nest and when she tried to pull her fingers through it she dislodged a few pieces of dead grass and leaves. She had a new scrape on her cheek to go with her newest bullet wounds and until she did a complete assessment of damages, she wouldn’t know what other injuries she might have sustained in the past forty-eight hours. She stripped off her clothes and looked to the shoulder wound. Damn, that was going to leave a starfish scar. Four inches to the left and down two inches and she wouldn’t be bitching about another scar, she wouldn’t be bitching about anything ever again.

  She rummaged around in the cabinet and found the transparent adhesive tape that would keep the wounds from getting wet while she took a shower. She lathered her hair and while it took longer to rinse out with only one hand, the hot water helped sooth her sore muscles. Her thoughts turned to the attack last night. She was warned there was a leak somewhere pretty high up and now they had proof sitting right outside her door. It was a good thing she planned to rebuild her home at some future date or she would be really upset. One thing was certain, her insurance agent would have a fit if she tried to turn that claim in.

  Drying off was haphazard at best. Her hair was a problem because wrapping a towel around the long strands of wet hair kept escaping her efforts. Finally in frustration she just rubbed the messy wet mass as dry as she could and let it go. Mackie grabbed a set of sweats out of the cabinet and pulled them on. She wished she had a bra to wear but since none was with her other clothing she didn’t worry about it. With the wound being right where a bra strap would sit, a bra would be out of the question anyway. No panties were available either but that wasn’t a big deal. The knock on the bathroom door startled her.

  She heard Reynolds call out to her, “Ma’am, you might want to come out here and see this.” She didn’t hesitate to open the door and head to the adjoining room. Reynolds caught her before she collided with his hard body. “Calm down, sugar, there’s time, Liam noticed that someone was out there doing recon. We wondered if this is one of the good guys and thought you might know.”

  Mackie hurried over to the monitor and pulled out a keyboard from the wooden frame of the entertainment center. Fielding and Reynolds looked at each other with surprise. They had gone over every inch of the room and had overlooked that. Each man wondered what else he might have missed. The woman had more gadgets than most action movies and Reynolds found himself envious of the toys she was so comfortable commanding.

  Liam watched her fingers fly over the keyboard and wondered what she was doing this time. “Are you going to blow up another building?” She ignored his sarcastic question, and he was not a man who was used to being ignored. He kept goading her, trying to get her to talk to him, to let him in on what she was doing this time. “Ms. Vaught, I’m afraid I will have to demand answers, the company helicopter will be flying back sometime this morning to pick us up, and when they see what your house looks like now, they will certainly dispatch the authorities out here.” Maybe his veiled threat of sending outside influences in would rattle her, but all it did was earn him a quick side glance from her blue eyes.

  It didn’t help his mood when first Darryl gave him a hard glare, and then John told him to stop acting like a royal prick while they watched her in action. He’d come close and leaned over to whisper near Liam’s ear.

  “You can stop acting like Lord Klinger at anytime now. She’s doing her job and you know it, just because she hasn’t got a cock growing between her legs, doesn’t give you permission to act like a sonofabitch.” John had shaken his head and walked away from him with a disgusted look on his face.

  Mackie watched the two men filtering through the rubble of what was left of her home. She used a small toggle on the keyboard to maneuver the cameras to check the perimeter more closely. If there were more men out there she wanted to know about it. The picture zoomed in on one of the men’s faces and the men beside her heard her curse. “That miserable fucking bastard, I’ve got you now you sonofabitch.”
She kept the camera on her prey as her left hand continued to type into the keyboard. She started talking to her companions without pause in watching the screen or typing.

  “Gentlemen, you see the man on this screen? He is a man about to be charged with treason if the people coming to arrest him get to him before he steps on one of the undetonated explosive devices buried around the property.” She pointed to the second man who stood back from the wreckage watching for anything to move. His gun was drawn down in position to spray bullets into anything that might spook him or his partner. “That man better hope he stays right where he is because about two and a half feet to his right is something that will literally light up his life.” She looked away from the monitor to make eye contact with the men that were watching her rather than the screen. “If you are squeamish or are prone to get sick watching a man blow himself up, you might want to turn your head or find something else to do for a while. It will be another five minutes or so before help arrives and I refuse to disarm anything until they do get here.”

  Chapter Four

  Mackie watched as Reynolds rubbed his hands together and squatted down in front of the monitor watching the slow moving man picking his way through the rubble. She grinned and shook her head, obviously military and certainly Special Ops or one of the Black Ops boys, she thought. She watched as Fielding went to the fridge and grabbed a can of soda. Certainly a doctor wouldn’t want to watch needless death. It surprised her that Fielding came back and sat next to her to watch what might happen next. Liam sat quietly on her other side and Mackie was beginning to feel like the meat in a sandwich. Neither man touched her but she felt their warmth and it made her wish for things she couldn’t have. They would probably freak out if she suggested they all get naked and snuggle together.