Mackie's Men Page 7

  Mackie was laughing out loud and the more he talked the harder and longer she laughed. Her eye make-up was probably leaving mascara trails down her cheeks but she couldn’t do anything about it. The old woman sounded like a hoot, and she would give a week’s paycheck to see the three men having to deal with a ninety-year-old wild child. She could only say “I, you, oh.” Not very coherent at all, but that was the extent of her attempt at conversation.

  The shushing sound from across the room just added fuel to the fire. She bent down to pick up her purse to find a tissue, and overbalanced in the five inch heels. Luckily Darryl caught her and held her in his arms for long moments. He pulled a clean handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped her cheeks, all the while telling her more about the little old woman with the libido of a teenager.

  “You think that’s funny, huh? Well you would have had the guys with the white jackets come and take you away when we had to dance with her at the Governor’s Annual Ball. She kept playing grab ass, and Liam had to socialize with the dignitaries while we babysat her. One old guy who had been courting the lovely Isabella for a while, challenged me to a fistfight over the honor of dancing with her. I gave in too easily and she didn’t forgive me for that. She sicc’d her dear companion the prissy Mz. Darling on me. Trust me, that woman was the bible thumper from hell. Sadly the delightful lady went to meet her maker last year.”

  He finished wiping her face and ran the corner of the material under her eyes one last time, and said, “There, good as new.” He leaned further down and kissed her lightly on the lips, then placed another whisper soft kiss on the end of her nose before assisting her back to her seat, and retrieving her purse from the floor.

  Surprise was the reason she didn’t deck him for taking advantage. At least that’s what she told herself. She hadn’t imagined the kiss, it was brief, but it happened. He had given her more human contact in the few minutes than she’d had in years and she didn’t know what to do or say about it. If she examined her feelings about it, she would be forced to admit that she liked feeling feminine. She refused to say or admit she felt almost safe in his arms as he wiped the tears of laughter from her cheeks. It was crazy. She needed to get a hold on herself and stop this shit before she turned into some apron wearing doormat. That wasn’t her style. Deciding to ignore what happened was her way of dealing for now and she nodded to herself in reassurance.

  She tried to formulate a sentence and decided to continue the topic of Liam’s grandmother. Before she opened her mouth, Liam said something that sounded like well spoken French to her untrained ears, “Grand-mère, s’il te plait, arrêtes d’appeler l’infirmière par des noms coquins, et tu ne devrais pas pincer les fesses de John le jardinier. Sois sage, et je viendrais te voir le mois prochain. Je t’aime,” and pushed the button to end the call. He tossed the phone on the table and she had to smile at the way his hands went to his hair and he pulled two fist fulls away from his head and groaned.

  His hair spiked upwards and Darryl laughed. She turned her head to hide a smile. This had to be one of the strangest evenings she’d participated in for as long as she could remember. Who knew that these men were such comedians? Darryl had purposefully made her laugh, but Liam was unaware of the picture he presented to his audience. The hair spikes resembled short red toned horns and his face was red from whatever his grandmother had said at the end of their conversation.

  Darryl spoke up and brought Liam’s attention back to the people in the room. “You’re horns are showing man, the sweet Isabella giving you advice again?”

  Liam flipped him the bird and Darryl laughed out loud for the first time, and Mackie had to smile at his enjoyment at Liam’s expense.

  Liam shook his head and gave her a long look, before holding out his hand expecting her to take it in hers. When she gave hers into his hand, he pulled her to her feet and stared at her for a heartbeat before pulling her closer and bending to kiss her lightly on the lips.

  What was it with these men that they thought it was all right to randomly kiss her any way? “Okay, was there a reason for that? Or are you planning to give me bad news and want to soften the effect?”

  The way he smiled with a short laugh gave her inappropriate thoughts, and she tamped down the attraction she was feeling. Obviously he had invited her here for something other than a dinner date, and she would be smart to pay attention instead of mooning over the two handsome men.

  Darryl cleared his throat and reached into the leather file case. He fingered through the files until he picked the one he was looking for and drew it out of the rest. He opened the chosen file and looked at Liam for confirmation. He got the nod and passed the file folder to Mackie.

  “Before we go any further here, we need you to read this and sign it if you feel agreeable to the terms. It’s a non-disclosure contract, and covers any and all information and includes both personal and business confidentiality clauses. If you have any questions, or wish to have your legal representative, then by all means we can reschedule tonight’s date.”

  Oh for Christ’s sake, all five pages of the verbiage did exactly that. She wasn’t to discuss Liam Klinger, his representatives, co-workers, friends of the family and especially family members. Good Lord, it was like the non-disclosures she had signed over and over during her years of security. Only this one extended to family and friends. Once she read it through, she wrote on the bottom of the contract the same sentence she’d written over and again over the years.

  “Agreed with the caveat: Illegal activities in any form will be exempt from contractual obligation.”

  She initialed the handwritten sentence, and signed on the designated line. “Here you go.” She pushed the file back to Darryl, who in turn slid it to Liam who looked at the last page at what she’d written into the contract and nodded his head with a small smile.

  She was ready to get this dog and pony show on the road, she was hungry, and even if curiosity was eating her alive from the inside out, if they didn’t get to the point of this “date” she would be forced to leave and find food.

  Liam answered one of her questions without her having to open her mouth. “We’re just waiting for John to get here, and then we can move this evening forward.” He picked up his cell phone and checked it for messages. “He knew what time to be here, for Christ’s sake, I know he’s been busy, but damn, he could make the effort.”

  The rapping on the door had Darryl moving toward it, with his hand reaching behind his back, and Mackie wondered how she’d missed seeing that he was carrying in the small of his back. She wondered what was going on, but decided to go ahead and play with the big boys for a few. It would take her mind off her stomach at least. She stood and unclipped the beautiful decorative buckle from her belt and calmly walked over to the opposite side of the door that Darryl had silently unlocked. He reached for the doorknob and she shook her head at his gesture.

  She laid the end of the small square on the metal handle, and Darryl pulled his hand back, grinned, and asked, “Who is it?” The answer was muffled and the visitor pounded on the door again. When the handle began to turn, Mackie raised her eyebrow at Darryl. His shrug and free hand gestured for her to go ahead, she pressed the button on the side of the box. An arc of electricity showed on the metal, but the cursing and thud on the other side of the door was what interested her.

  Liam’s phone vibrated on the table, and he picked it up to read the message. He frowned as he read the message. “Fuck, John says he has two flat tires and someone tried to hack his computer. He’s meeting us in ten.” He shoved the file into the case and placed the notebook inside, between the other folders, snapped the clasp, and told the two by the door, “Let’s go.”

  Darryl took her arm and guided her to Liam, while he went to the table and pushed in the chairs and looked at the room with a critical eye to make certain there was nothing to see if the person on the other side of the door was a legitimate lost patron and called for assistance.

  Liam pulled her beh
ind him as he pushed the wall near the corner of the room and it swung into a narrow hallway. He sent her inside first and he and Darryl followed quickly behind her and pushed the panel back in place. Liam flipped two dead bolt locks on the top and bottom of the door, and used a scissor lock to secure the middle of the door. Noises could almost immediately be heard from the other side of the wall and from the sounds coming from the room, someone was not at all happy to have missed his prey.

  Mackie was impressed, but it wasn’t the time to praise or question the two men. She followed Liam, while Darryl followed her down the passageway single file. The only light was the LED penlight Liam had produced from his pocket, but it showed enough light for them to navigate the small space.

  They came to another turn in the path, when Liam stopped and listened for a moment, before reaching up and turning what appeared to be a small faucet. The wall slid aside and he looked into the darkened room before stepping inside. He found a lamp and illuminated the room in a soft dim light, before his companions stepped through the doorway.

  Darryl shut the wall panel behind them and kicked the silver colored wall decoration nearby where the panel closed.

  They heard a toilet flush and water running, before the door opened to reveal John standing there. He nodded to the men, but he smiled toward Mackie. “Good evening, beautiful, nice to see you on your feet without worrying if you’re going to collapse at any minute.” He came close to her and leaned in to steal a quick kiss, before turning to the others and starting to talk about his delay.

  Chapter Eight

  Before he could get started on his no doubt in depth explanation, she had to say something. “All right, I get that you have a security breech or worse. The one problem I am having right this minute is that I need to eat something, this is not an option, and the first one of you that tells me to live off the land is going down the hard way so I will have something soft to land on. I get fed or I walk out of here on my own to find something to eat.”

  John looked at her and seemed to know that she meant business. “Didn’t you tell them that you have Hypoglycemia?”

  She shook her head. “You tell me, what business is it of theirs to begin with? I told them I was hungry and had skipped lunch thinking I was meeting Liam for dinner. It never occurred to me that I would be going through a rat maze and being forced to fight off the nausea while you all decide whether I need to eat or not.” John looked toward his friends with a scowl, but she had had enough.

  “You know what? Fuck this, I can find my own food.” She went to the door and opened it, stepped into a beautiful wooden paneled room, and saw the strangest little man pushing a cart of food into the room from the opposite doorway. She knew it was food from the smell alone, and wasted no time striding over to the cart, stopping his forward motion so she could lift the lid from one of the plates. The plate she’d chosen had a selection of appetizers on it and she felt her fingers singe as she picked up a crostini topped with cheese and some kind of spicy smelling sausage. She blew on the hot treat until she hoped it was cool enough to chew and took a small bite. Within seconds that had gone down and she made short work of the rest of the crunchy bred, before taking a small semi-circle Quesada and devouring that too. She next reached for another of the spicy circles and got her hand smacked for her efforts. The little man had smacked her with a spoon, and she was not in the mood to be fucked around with.

  “Do that again, and I will put your little ass through a wall. Now back off, before I get mean.” She reached for the snack again and he hit her again.

  “Lady, you can wait for the other’s to arrive, show some manners while you’re a guest in this house. Or better yet leave. I don’t know how you got in here, but the door is that way, I’ll be happy to escort you there.” He stood back and pulled the hem of his vest down as if he planned to show her who was the boss. And it damned sure wasn’t her.

  She put both hands on the edge of the cart and glared at him. “I will leave when the host asks me too, or I feel like leaving, so unless you own the place, I suggest you back off, I don’t care if you are the size of a ten-year-old or not. I need to eat, and you need to leave me the hell alone while I do it.”

  The little man glared right back at her, and any other time she would have admired his tough guy act, now was not a good time. She picked up the round bread again and he calmly walked over to her and kicked her in the knee from behind. She fell forward onto the cart and barely caught herself from falling onto the food and crashing the entire meal.

  “I might be the size of a ten-year-old, but my ass isn’t the first thing people see when they look my way you freeloader. Tell me, Amazon, has there ever been a man who looks into your eyes when he introduces himself? They probably stare at those gallon jugs you carry around on your chest. Maybe I should let you go ahead and fill your face until you have fattened up even more.”

  The evil little shit knew how to verbally bring a woman her size to her knees, that was for sure, and if she wasn’t about to pass out, she would trade verbal insults with him all night. She turned back to the cart and lifted another lid. Too late, he came at her and she turned too suddenly to stop herself from falling to her knees and slowly falling the rest of the way just as she’d feared. She heard men laughing as she went down and cursed the entire gender, “Fuckers.” Her head was spinning too badly for her to do anything to help herself. The shaking that she had been feeling internally now consumed her body and she felt strong arms picking her up from the hard wooden floor to place her on a lounger.

  “Dammit, what the hell is wrong with her?” Liam was yelling at John, as Darryl moved her from the floor to the settee.

  John was busy rummaging on the cart to see what could be used to bring her blood sugar back up to where she could cope until they got something healthy into her. “She told you that she needed to eat, she has what’s commonly referred to as low blood sugar, and it is rare for adults to have it. Some people metabolize sugars at a high rate of speed and without snacking between meals most of them will feel faint or nauseous. She should be carrying a high carb snack in case of emergencies, but most women in dressy clothes wouldn’t think to toss a snack in her handbag. Ha, here we go, sugar will do it. I don’t keep glucose tablets in my bag. Dorian, you evil little fucker, why were you trying to stop her from eating?”

  He mixed the sugar cubes with water forming a small amount of thick liquid sugar water then crossed the room to where Mackie was stretched out. He sat next to her and tried to spoon the concoction into her mouth without success. He ended up pulling her bottom lip out and dropping a small amount of the sugar into each side of her teeth. Her saliva and the heat from her mouth should help the energy travel to where it needed to be. The tremors stopped after a few minutes, but she remained out of it.

  Dorian, John’s houseman, was staring at the troublemaker. “How was I to know that the cow was allowed to graze through the dinner I was setting out for you and the guys? She fell on the food like it was the first meal she’d seen in weeks, and looking at her, that is plainly not the case.”

  Liam advanced on the man and Dorian watched him coming toward where he stood, and beat a hasty retreat into the direction of the kitchen. Liam had him by the shoulders before he made it four feet.

  Liam usually got a kick out of the smart mouthed little man. He admired him and his work ethic, but this behavior and attitude toward Mackie was going to be stopped before any more time passed. He crouched down to his knees to talk to him.

  “Dorian, the three of us need that woman, and we happen to have personal interests in her too. If you can’t be civil to her, then we will need to make other arrangements. Or we can retire you a few years earlier than planned. She’ll be around for a very long time if we have anything to say about it, and it could get awkward if I ever hear you call her names like that again. It pisses me off and from the look on Darryl’s face when you called her a cow, you should be happy it was me who grabbed you. She saved our lives a few months
back, and she risked her life to save Eric and his new family too.”

  Liam let go of the shorter man’s shoulders and stood to his full height. “You’ve been a loyal and good friend to have around for the past few years, but the attitude changes now, or pack your things and I’ll cut you a check.”

  Dorian was stunned, not only by the threat of forced retirement. This was the person who saved Eric? The other men were big boys and could take care of themselves, so he had no doubt Liam was exaggerating about her saving their lives. Eric had told him that someone named Mack had pulled his wife and that precious baby, EJ, from the wreckage and then came back for him. This is the Mack he spoke of, the one who had taken a shot trying to keep him safe?

  He had helped raise Eric, and the young man was as loved by him as any child he might have gotten from his own wife, had she been able to have children. Now he was going to help Eric and Jenny raise the little one, and planned to tell the doctor tonight that he was leaving his employ and why.

  He saw that the woman was sitting up and holding her head in her palms, and tried to formulate the words to thank her for saving his boy, but words meant very little compared to what he was feeling. Liam and Darryl were watching him, and he nodded toward the men before walking over to where John was keeping an eye on her.

  “The next time you’re in need of anything, just ask. I apologize for the name calling, but you are part of the blame for this too you know. Since these oversized bears forgot to tell me that you would be joining them for dinner, they can accept part of the blame too. I have things to do, so I will say goodnight.”