Mackie's Men Read online

  “Well I’m afraid it’s time for us to scoot, darling, we’re already late for our next stop and if we arrive much later, they might not allow us in the door.” He hustled her from the room as quickly as possible, and Mackie watched them drive away before she went back inside the building.

  Her number one priority was safe, now she needed to find a dark corner and wait for an opportunity to speak with the influential hosts. The party was being thrown by one of the manufacturers of Drone technology. The stock of the company was rising rapidly with the uses for drones increasing into the private sector, and she cursed herself for not remembering the rest of the details concerning the company. Her only excuse was lack of time to completely study the dossier that she’d been given last night. Her initial perusal of the file had been routine, but Laura had several appointments to be at today, and time management wasn’t exactly the Senator’s top priority.

  She watched the stairs to see if the figure of the man could still be seen lurking, but there was no one there. If there was one time in her life she hoped that her intuition was wrong, she hoped it would be now, but the hairs on her neck and arms were standing at attention, and she needed to move. She asked a passing waiter where the host was tonight. “It’s such a crush, and if I don’t find him before the party’s over, I’ll be in big trouble.” The older man smiled at the woman towering over him and directed her to a spot twenty feet over to her right. She thanked him and began making her way through the people, listening for anything that might clue her into trouble.

  There were two men standing side by side in the center of the small crowd of people. Both men were tall, over six feet, but the older man was at least two inches shorter than the younger man. It was obvious they were father and son. They reminded her of someone, but she didn’t have time to search her brain for the recognition that it would require to figure out. The oldest gentleman spied her and assumed she was Senator Downs. She could tell he was happy Laura Downs had made an appearance and was even approaching him to speak. It would have been true enough had Laura stayed at the party. She always made it a point to be gracious and thank her hosts everywhere they went.

  “Ah, the lovely Senator Downs has decided to grace our little get together. Allow me to introduce my son, Drummond Klinger.” As she shook the hand offered, the name registered and she smiled in a more friendly way. Her fingers were given a harder squeeze and she realized the old boy thought she was flirting with him. Well, she would use that as an excuse to speak with them privately.

  “Gentlemen, you have a lovely party, with so many people wishing you well in your endeavors, I haven’t had a moment to speak with you in private on a subject the General has told me you have made inquires about. If I could have just a minute?” She smiled and widened her eyes, as they excused themselves from the four men staring at them in speculation. They walked to a semi private corner, and she leaned toward them.

  “I am sorry, but I am not the Senator, she and her husband, the General, just left. I wanted to alert you to a possible intruder I saw earlier, just in case he isn’t one of your security team. There was a man wearing black clothing crouched on the highest landing of the stairs a few minutes ago, and since he is no longer there, I would urge you to get your security people looking for him. I have counted at least eighteen high profile people here tonight, and most are still in this room.”

  Mason Klinger narrowed his eyes at her, she was certain his minions in the boardroom shook in fear at the look, but she was not his minion. “Who are you, young lady, and how did you get past our security?”

  She grinned at the tone of his voice, but answered his question, “I am Senator Downs’ personal security guard, I assess any and all possible threats to her well being.” She looked directly at Drummond Klinger, “My name is Maxine Vaught, I think you might have heard the name before.”

  She bowed her head acknowledging the men and stepped back, before walking toward the front doors. Her self-appointed task was done. If she was mistaken, they might be a bit pissy, but if she was right, and there was a threat, they would know it was there.

  The puzzle of why Eric had been a target made perfect sense now. Drones were just interactive videogames, controlled by remote flight simulators, and the younger man developed those games. Ha, and she didn’t even need to research that out. Score one for her. She needed to speak with the General about something else too.

  Liam was trying to make his way through the crowd of people to see who it was they were having such a cozy chat with. When she walked away from the elders, he would’ve sworn it was the woman who mocked him in his dreams. By the time he made it to the men, she was gone. They were scowling and leaning close to each other. “What happened?”

  His father looked almost relieved to see him. “We might have an issue, it seems Senator Downs’ bodyguard saw someone creeping around on the second floor, the Senator left immediately and the guard stayed to warn us. She just left. We are trying to decide what the best course of action we should take without causing a riot.”

  “Well first, I know Darryl Reynolds is upstairs, I just saw him heading that way a few minutes ago, so I think we need to sit tight until he reports in. If he tells us to get people moving out, we’ll worry about it then.” Thoughts of Maxine Vaught left as he considered the best way to move three hundred people out of the building without causing a panic.

  His cell vibrated and he checked to see who the message was from. “Situation neutralized, party on!” Darryl was being witty.

  “It looks like there was an intruder, Darryl says party on, so he has the intruder in custody.” His father was looking at him strangely, and he asked, “What?”

  Now that Drummond had met the woman who had saved his nephew and his family, and had also saved Liam, he could see the attraction she inspired in his son. She was a beautiful woman. Statuesque, curved, and self-assured. The woman was capable with weapons and after tonight, he had to add that she was a very observant trained security guard.

  “Oh nothing, son, we briefly met your mystery GI Jane.” Mason Klinger was eighty-two years old, but he acted like a man half his age most of the time, especially around beautiful women. “You should grab ahold of that one, sonny, she has, well, let me just say I wouldn’t kick her out of my bed if I could talk her into it.”

  He knew it, the woman he’d spied earlier was Mackie. At least he now knew she was in the area. If she were a member of Senator Downs’ security team, it would explain a few things. It also gave him a way to contact her. His grandfather was right, if he got her into his bed, he planned to make it a memorable experience for both of them.

  The woman was a mystery and he had been trying to find her for too damn long. She had been impossible to forget, and after a few nights of drinking and talking, his friends told him the same woman was haunting their dreams. As Darryl put it.

  “She was like what I always imagined an Amazon or Valkyrie would have been back in the day. I tried to make it to her before Tyler shot her, but I was on the other side of Eric’s SUV when I heard the shot. I looked up and started running, but it was too late.” He’d shaken his head, as baffled as Liam had been at the time. “I keep dreaming about that face of hers, the scars, the whole thing, and let me tell you, if I ever get her near a bed and she’d healthy, I’m not surfacing for a week. I can’t dig up much on the woman, but I’d bet she has one hell of a story, if she were to share it.”

  Liam agreed, right down to the week long bed stint. John had been researching scars and had identified most of Mackie’s injuries to his own satisfaction, and had shared his findings with both of them. The three of them had then made a timeline and cross-referenced the information in the reports like any good stalkers would do. Officially she was considered a semi-retired security consultant, yet they could find no contact information, and her trail went cold when she left the hospital.

  They’d met her, now that they knew where to find her, they would need to find out more about her, and from the one
meeting they’d had, getting ideas on how to integrate her into their sphere wasn’t going to be easy. Then again, they didn’t want easy, they wanted a permanent partner.

  Chapter Seven

  It hadn’t taken him long to call, was her first thought. Mackie had been waiting to see if he would take advantage of knowing where she could be contacted. Now she knew that Liam was as interested in her as she was with him. When he’d called this morning, she was still surprised he asked her to meet with him at Drysdale’s Pub & Brew House. He must want this meeting to be a personal one, and she was nervous for the first time in a very long time. It had been so long since she’d been on a real date with a man that she couldn’t remember it. The man was as forgettable as the events on that date.

  This date was different, she was already attracted to Liam Klinger. The only fly in the ointment so to speak was that she had also been thinking about Darryl Reynolds and of course the gorgeous Dr. John Fielding, almost as much as she’d thought about Liam Klinger.

  She had the advantage of knowing who they were to begin with, and had done background checks on all three men. Darryl Reynolds was forty-one years old, and six foot three inches tall. From the pictures she’d seen, she knew he had several intricate tattoos decorating his thickly muscled shoulders, arms, and back. He probably outweighed the other two in just muscle alone. He had blue eyes and close-cropped brown hair and a set of lips that gave her thoughts that were X-rated. He was also a former Navy SEAL. He was divorced and had two half-siblings that still contacted him when they wanted something. His reputation in the industry was impeccable in the security community.

  Dr. John Fielding was thirty-eight years old, six foot four, and by her estimation two hundred thirty pounds. Blue eyes and his hair was a light brown, almost blond in color. He was considered a bit of a genius. He had served in a field hospital during the invasion of Iraq, and added a second tour in Afghanistan. He was graceful, and watching him workout on the horse and rings in the video she’d seen had been a pleasure. He had two groupings of tattoos, but the only one she could make out from the video had puzzled her. His forte as she’d read was in researching antidotes and developing vaccines against chemical weapons.

  Liam Kennedy Klinger was the second son born to Drummond and Teresa Klinger. His older brother was Thornton Kennedy Klinger. From all accounts even the sister, Carla, was saddled with their mother’s maiden name of Kennedy for a middle name.

  He was six feet four inches tall, thirty-six years old, and had reddish brown hair and blue eyes. He was also built almost as big as Darryl was. He had a few tats on his chest and shoulders, but he didn’t have nearly the intricate artwork that Darryl sported. He too had been in the Middle East fighting. Only he hadn’t been on the ground, he flew a bomber jet, and had a string of ribbons and medals to match his exploits. When he’d told her the three of them weren’t helpless, he hadn’t been lying.

  The pictures in the dossier on her desk showed the three men at the gym, in a dojo, and in a wrestling ring. She knew that every man owned several guns, and those were just the ones that were registered to them. They were individuals that carried similar traits and each man wore the same tat on their upper chest. A three flamed fire was an unusual tattoo with vivid coloring, and she wondered at the meaning.

  No matter how deep she dug, there was no mention of how they met, or any permanent female companions. Rumors and speculations ran from gay to kinky and straight when she spoke to a few people about any of the men. Maybe she would eek out some information on her date, but she wouldn’t hold her breath. The best she could hope for would be a pleasant dinner and conversation. At least for tonight.

  She walked into the pub and wasn’t surprised to see the place was almost filled to capacity. She stood by the door to try to find Liam, but there were too many people blocking her line of sight, and it creeped her out a little. She hated crowds of people. In her profession, a crowd of people could contain who knew how many potential assassins. Deciding to walk further into the room, she began dodging waitresses and people balancing drinks in an effort to get to their tables without spilling the contents of the glasses. She glanced toward the bar and saw a tall man with a moustache and bald head waving his fingers at her to keep going to the back of the room. She pointed at herself and he nodded his head and smiled. She smiled back and kept walking.

  Liam must have asked the man to watch out for her and direct her to his table. It was a nice thing for him to do, and for some reason, the knowledge made her feel warm inside. She still hadn’t seen Liam in any of the booths or at the scattered tables as she was almost to the back wall when her arm was grasped just above the elbow of her right side. She stopped in her tracks and slowly looked to see if she should have cause for concern.

  “Liam asked me to bring you to the room, this place is always a crush on Friday nights. I told the dumbass that he should have picked a less popular place to have this meeting, but he figured that you would want to be in a public place the first time. And by the way, you look beautiful tonight.” Darryl Reynolds was talking and almost mowing people down as he pulled her along through the short hallway and she was surprised she hadn’t questioned his presence.

  He didn’t even stop when they reached one of the small meeting rooms, he just opened the door and almost shoved her inside the room before he came in behind her and shut and locked the door. “Now she’s wondering if I’m going to try to kill her or fuck her. I told you that you should have picked a place that would be quieter,” Darryl said to Liam, even as he took her arm again and escorted her to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit in, before scooting her forward and sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the table.

  The only thing on the table was a leather soft-side file case, and an electronic notebook. There were no drinks, not even a bowl of popcorn in the room, and she was getting the impression that she had been lured here for something other than for Liam to whisper sweet words into her shell like ears. Fuck, just her luck to be attracted to someone who wanted to use her for reasons other than a bed partner. Men like these didn’t go for scarred oversized women with brains, and she should have known better than to allow vanity to override reality.

  So much for Laura’s giddy excitement that the handsome Mr. Klinger was romantically interested in Mackie. She’s chatted along as they finally picked out the pretty royal blue dress that was short enough to be fashionable, yet long enough not to show her ass when she sat down. The five inch heels did awesome things for her legs and the way she walked too.

  Liam was still on the phone talking in French, if she wasn’t mistaken, and she was about done with this charade. It had been a good ten minutes since she’d walked into the room and sat down. She turned her inquiring eyes toward Darryl. “Is this a business meeting? I must have gotten the wrong impression when Mr. Klinger called earlier. I haven’t eaten dinner, being under the assumption that food would be on the schedule. So if you don’t mind, we can reschedule this meeting for another time. My stomach thinks my throat’s been slit, and it is making me aware that I haven’t eaten since early this morning. Call me tomorrow and I will try to fit you in my schedule for a meeting.” She stood and walked toward the door. So much for a romantic evening, this was a big waste of time.

  The old saying “for a big man, he sure moves fast” filtered through her mind, as Darryl Reynolds hand hit the doorknob before she had it in her outstretched hand. She turned her head and waited for his explanation before she did something physical to him that she might regret later.

  “Settle down there, Liam is talking to his grandmother. Isabella Kennedy never stops talking until she is ready, and Liam loves the old girl so he let’s her compromise his time. You can understand that, can’t you?”

  She turned around and folded her arms over her chest and stared at Darryl for a moment, then turned her gaze toward Liam. His face was almost comical as he rolled his eyes and listened to the person on the other end of the airwaves. He was nodding his hea
d and she almost burst into laughter as he made a rolling gesture with his empty hand, another eye roll and she had to put her hand over her mouth as she choked on her laughter.

  Darryl met her eyes and nodded his head. “She speaks English as well as one born to it, but insists on speaking in French because she has decided it is the only civilized language left in the modern world.” He nodded his head toward Liam who was pacing back and forth, now holding the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. “The interesting part is that Liam doesn’t speak French other than a few phrases that he learned in high school, and few of those phrases are something you would want to say to a ninety-four-year-old grandmother. Even if she was a former burlesque showgirl back in the late nineteen thirties and early forties.”

  Mackie couldn’t stop the giggles, her eyes were tearing up from the pressure being held back from shouting in laughter. She had to look away from the pacing man, and she held her hand up to stop Darryl from continuing his explanation. He was still watching Liam and grinning.

  She couldn’t speak, if she did open her mouth words would have to wait until she was finished laughing. His next comments finished her off, there was no stopping her from laughing out loud.

  “Every time she’s around, John and I have to keep our backs to the wall. She has a habit of pinching our asses. One time she asked me if I was attracted to older women, and I made the mistake of saying I had met some very attractive ladies of a certain age.” He turned his head to watch her laugh and continued, “You can laugh, the old gal scares me. Don’t even get me started about her ninetieth birthday celebration. All I will say is that I don’t care how rude it might be, I won’t sit next to her again. You will have to ask John how it felt to have her lay her hand on his thigh during dinner and squeezing it. He dropped his glass of wine, and she insisted on helping him by dabbing at his crotch with her napkin. I had to get up and leave the room when she invited him to her room at the hotel to change out of his wet pants.”