Guarding Raine (Security Ops) (7 page)

Even as those questions echoed in her head, she began to breathe freely again. Because she recognized who was down there, knew the identity of the person even though she could make out little more than movement and shadows.

It was Macauley, and he was pacing the small patio at the back of her house. She could tell by the impatient stride, the set of the shoulders. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew she was right. He was also awake tonight, and the knowledge gave her an odd sense of kinship. She watched as he strode across the patio and back, over and over. He moved as a man tormented, as if he, too, had nightmares that kept him from sleep, kept him from peace.

She backed away from the window, feeling as though she was guilty of spying. Raine had no way of knowing what sent him outside at this time of night. He could have been working off some restless energy built up from the day. For all she knew, this was his way of dealing with a particularly pesky problem, striding back and forth in the moonlight until a solution appeared.

But somehow she felt it went deeper than that. Maybe her own experience had her assigning like motivations to the man, but she thought he moved as a man driven into the night to exorcise demons that preyed on the unconscious mind. She was familiar with those demons, and felt an immediate empathy for him.

She didn’t know what kind of ghosts were haunting Macauley O’Neill. She didn’t know what past experience had molded them. But she knew without a doubt that they existed.

Chapter 4

The hammering of the workers reverberated through the house for the next few days. And despite her promise to remain understanding about the noise, Raine frequently felt on the verge of screaming. On the day the work had begun she’d been surprised to see Macauley come into the kitchen at breakfast. When he’d handed her a package of earplugs she’d laughed and thanked him. But after three days she was no longer laughing. For the fourth time that morning men had tromped across her studio and were currently working at removing the glass from her windows.

She finally admitted defeat. The earplugs had helped mask the noise coming from the rest of the house, but they couldn’t cover up the sounds in this room. Nor could she work with the constant visual distraction. She’d be getting no work done that day, so she cleaned her brushes and left. Wandering through the house, she noted similar noises coming from all directions.

The job was actually going much more quickly than she’d imagined. Already half the house sported the new glass Macauley had spoken of. The tiny wires running through it were scarcely noticeable. The front door had been replaced and adorned with a shiny new deadbolt. Men were at work in the kitchen taking that door down, also. Raine sighed silently. She couldn’t deny that the precautions made her feel more secure. Yet they were also a blatant reminder of why she’d felt unsafe to begin with.

Wandering outside, she noted a car coming up the drive. She shaded her eyes against the bright morning sunlight, trying to detect the identity of the driver. A quick grin crossed her lips when she recognized Sarah’s bright red sports model. Eagerly, Raine started down the steps to greet her friend. If she couldn’t work, the next best thing would be to spend some time talking to Sarah. Her quirky sense of humor was just what Raine needed today.

“Hi,” Sarah called as she climbed out of the car. She paused after slamming the door and looked toward the house. “I just knew that a trip out here was in order this morning. And look at the sight of all those half-naked men.” Several of the workers had shed their shirts in the warm sun. She sighed appreciatively. “I must have a sixth sense about these things.”

Raine laughed and came around the car to give her friend a quick hug. “I arranged it just for your benefit, too. That’s the nicest thing about you—it takes so little to make you happy.”

Sarah’s return smile was forced. “I wish that trait ran in our family.”

Immediately, Raine sensed her friend’s mood. “What’s the matter? Is Joe in trouble again?” Joe was Sarah’s brother, younger by six years. Their parents had died when Sarah was nineteen, and she’d raised Joe herself. He’d been in and out of scrapes for the past few years, and Sarah was constantly worried that someday he was going to land himself in something she couldn’t get him out of.

Lifting a shoulder in response, Sarah simply said, “Joe is Joe.” She smiled slightly. “Someday he’ll grow up and become a responsible citizen, right?”

Raine wasn’t so sure about that. She’d had occasion to observe Joe quite a bit over the years, and she thought he’d been spoiled beyond belief, first by his parents and then by his sister. Several times she’d suspected Joe was to blame for some odd bruises on Sarah’s face. But when she’d mentioned her suspicion once, her friend had become angrier than she’d ever seen her. It was the only time they had quarreled, and Raine had learned to leave the subject alone. Although she wanted desperately to help her friend, she respected the boundaries she’d set.

She said only, “How can he miss with a sister like you to look up to?”

Sarah agreed with mock solemnity. “That’s exactly what I keep telling myself.” She nodded toward the house. “It really looks like things are starting to happen here. Mac doesn’t mess around does he?”

Turning to face the house, Raine agreed dryly, “He makes things happen, all right, although I’m sure under different circumstances he does more than his share of messing around.” Her tone gave the words an unmistakable connotation, and Sarah widened her eyes in mock disbelief.

“Raine, I’m shocked! You’re starting to sound as bad as me!” She laughed. “I’ve finally corrupted you. I’m so proud.”

Quick color flared to Raine’s cheeks at her friend’s teasing. The words, as well as the thought itself, had been totally unlike her, and she wondered uncomfortably where they’d come from. It wasn’t like her to idly speculate about a person’s sexual habits, and she certainly hadn’t given any conscious thought to Macauley’s. At least she hadn’t believed so until she heard her own words a moment ago. She curled her fingers into her palms in sudden tension. Stress was definitely taking its toll on her.

“I don’t see Mac with the others.” Sarah was looking at the men. “I don’t suppose you arranged to have him appear half-nude for me, too?”

“Sorry.”

“Shucks. Something tells me that would definitely be a sight worth seeing.” She turned to Raine. “What are you doing out here, anyway? I expected to find you holed up in your studio all day.”

“I would have been. But there have been men traipsing through it all morning, so I finally gave up.”

“No wonder you’re so glad to see me,” Sarah remarked idly. “Since Mac spread the word that your place was off-limits to the students, it must seem deserted in there, even with the crew you have working.”

But Raine didn’t hear the last part of the sentence. “Mac told the students what?”

Sarah shot her a look. “Didn’t you know? I ran into Cindy Zeller on campus, and she told me. Apparently Mac called the professors of all the art classes you help with occasionally and told them to spread the word to their students. Everyone was real bummed out, and of course they didn’t understand, since Mac gave the teachers no details. I assumed it was because he didn’t want to have to deal with a bunch of people traipsing in and out of here while so much work was going on. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t all that certain what kind of reception I’d get here myself.”

For the first time in her life, Raine could physically feel her blood pressure rising. The sensation was quite incredible. She, who had spent most of her childhood doing as she was told, rarely lost her temper. She hadn’t needed to. And later, when she’d started asserting some independence from her family, she’d known intuitively that a show of anger wasn’t going to accomplish anything. But if she wasn’t mistaken, it was anger she was feeling now. More than that, really. What she felt was closer to white-hot, boiling rage.

How dare he!
Even after she’d told him repeatedly that he was to consult with her about any decisions he made, he did this! Upon the heels of that thought came the memory of the conversation they’d had about just this thing. He hadn’t given her any promises about doing as she had requested. As a matter of fact, he’d been quite rude about it. But this settled it. She and Macauley O’Neill were going to come to terms. Right now.

“Will you excuse me?” she said distractedly to Sarah, already striding away. “I’ve got to talk to Mac about something.”

“Sure.” Sarah waved her away and began to wander in the direction of a shirtless workman. “I can amuse myself.”

Raine ran up the steps and into the house. She found the man she sought at the desk he’d had delivered, sitting in front of his laptop computer, speaking on his cell phone. She stalked across the room and slammed her hands on the desktop, leaning toward him. “You and I need to talk,” she said through gritted teeth. “Hang up—now.”

He hadn’t turned at her entrance, and he spared her only a glance before continuing his conversation.

Raines jaw clenched at his nonchalance. Here he was rearranging her whole life, and he acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He was probably busily making some other arrangements to make her life even more unbearable. “Now, Macauley,” she repeated firmly.

He glanced at her again, and his mouth flattened in annoyance. “I’ll call you back, Trey. I have to attend to something.” He listened for a moment and then said, “Well, then you call me when you can. That’d be easier, anyway. I’m not going anywhere.”

Those words fueled Raine’s anger. No, he wasn’t going anywhere, was he? He was staying right here, running her life and being obnoxious about the way he did it. He took his time disconnecting the call and slipping his cell back in his pocket. “What’s your problem?”

“My problem?” she exclaimed incredulously. “The question is, what’s
your
problem? Do you have a control fetish, is that it? Are you utterly incapable of following directions? Or don’t you understand English?”

He didn’t respond, just leaned back in his chair and studied her from beneath hooded lids. His composure shredded her own even further.

“I specifically said that you were to discuss your plans with me before you did anything,” she said, seething. “And I told you that I wanted to be the one to contact the students about staying away for a while. So will you please tell me why you felt it necessary to do it yourself?” She smacked both hands against the desktop and turned away to pace a few steps. Then she whirled back. “What is it with you, anyway?”

Mac lazily watched her work herself into a full-blown lather. She’d had a pretty good start on it when she came storming in here. He’d expected this confrontation, though he hadn’t especially looked forward to it. But he did find it interesting watching her. Her eyes were glittering with fury and shooting gold-edged daggers at him.

He swallowed a sigh. God save him from natural disasters and temperamental women. There wasn’t a lot a person could do about the first, but he did his best to avoid the second. That’s why, in his leisure time, he always sought out simple, uncomplicated females. They might get upset over a broken nail, but they were damn easy to distract from their disappointment. Raine Michaels was as far removed from those women as it was possible to be. Not only did she lack the voluptuous curves he looked for in a companion, she was not, by any stretch of the imagination, uncomplicated.

“Is that what has you all hot and bothered?”

She took a deep breath. Screaming at him was not the answer, and it wouldn’t satisfy her, anyway. She’d like to take a swing at that hard jaw. She had a feeling she was far from the first person who’d had the urge. “Why did you leave the message at the college for the students to stay away from here? I ordered you not to.”

His eyes narrowed at her choice of words. “I don’t take
orders
very well,” he said in a deadly tone.

She didn’t flinch before the threat in his voice. Nor did she retreat. “Apparently not,” she ground out. They glared into each other’s eyes for several long moments. Neither blinked until her cell rang. He retrieved it with movements made jerky with irritation. “O’Neill,” he snapped into the receiver. After a moment he said, “You’ll have to call back.” He ended the call and slipped it back into his shirt pocket.

Her mouth firmed at the autocratic way he’d answered her phone. He hadn’t identified himself, hadn’t explained why he had her phone. “Who was that?” she demanded.

“Klassen.”

“Did you plan to restrict my calls, too?”

“Until we get this ironed out, yeah,” he answered, his jaw clenching.

“The only thing we have to iron out, is your attitude. You deliberately went against my wishes. And it better never happen again.”

“You said you’d contact the students, but you haven’t, have you?”

Her silence was all the answer he needed. “I wanted to talk to the professors you mentioned, so it was easy enough for me to pass the message on at the same time. Apparently you didn’t take me seriously when I told you why we needed to restrict your visitors. If you can’t see how stupid it is to allow any bozo on the street easy access to you while you’re being threatened, you need your head examined.”

“I’m not stupid!” She hissed the words at him. “I just think you’re overreacting! I would have told the art students the next time they came out here, although it does seem pointless—I know I’m not being threatened by one of them! For heaven’s sake, what possible motive would they have?”

“Take your pick,” he replied tersely. “Anger, envy or just plain craziness. Or it could be good, old-fashioned lust.” At her incredulous expression, he cocked an eyebrow sardonically. “Spurn any suitors lately, Raine?” He watched her sputter in response to his words.

“I haven’t— I don’t— There aren’t— You’re nuts!” she finally finished in frustration. “You are so far off base, Macauley!”

“Mac.” He bit out the word. “Call me Mac.”

She ignored him and went on. “Someone saw an exhibit, saw my name on the news or picked me at random for this sick little game, but it isn’t someone I know! And it definitely isn’t one of those poor students, who probably think I’m angry at them for some unknown reason, because I doubt you bothered supplying them with a reasonable explanation!”

“It’s done,” he said dismissively. “And it won’t be undone. I was hired to protect you the best way I can, and I don’t answer to you, Raine, I answer to your father. You’re welcome to call and complain about me, but something tells me my actions would have his wholehearted approval.”

“If you think that commends them,” she said scathingly, “think again.”

“It doesn’t matter. While I’m in charge here, I’ll do things my way, and if you don’t like the way I protect your dainty little ass, that’s too damn bad. Maybe when this whole thing has been solved you’ll be able to see the bigger picture.”