Mackie's Men (16 page)

They held each other for a few minutes, Mackie wanted to ease his pain filled memories, but she had no experience in helping anyone with grief. She had never allowed anyone to get close enough for her to care about that much to feel pain when they died. Laura and Thom were the exception, but that connection took place over years, and now, what was she getting herself into? The urge to track down DE Fielding and hurt him was strong, but it was the only thing she could think of that might ease Darryl’s pain. She knew nothing would restore his mother to life, but to know that your own father was such an evil fucker had to hurt. She made the offer just to cheer him up, but if he said “Sure, go ahead and do it,” she knew she would.

“Would you like me to track him down and castrate him? I could break both of his legs and maybe break his back and put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. We could lock him in an efficiency apartment with his favorite nurse and see if they enjoy getting to know one another again.” She pulled her head back from his shoulder to see his face while she tried to get him to smile.
Or, I have an even better idea
.

“I have a few inventions of my own, why don’t we open a new company and run him out of business? I have financing, and you know what you are doing businesswise, or get Liam to help you.”

She grinned, her head filling with the idea, and thinking which of her inventions would be useful to sell to security companies.

Darryl laughed out loud then he pulled her into his arms for a deep kiss, and his hands wandered during the moments that his mouth was locked onto hers. When they came up for air, he pushed the hair back from her temple. “Thanks, sugar, but you don’t need to do any of that. Although I do want to hear about these inventions of yours. The morning that we met and through the evening, I was green with jealousy over some of your toys. That electric gridding was impressive. Not to mention the bunker, that place is great. Someday you need to tell me about the rest too. My guess is you had some high profile people down there and you acted as a decoy for the bad guys.”

She shook her head, “You know I can’t talk about my work, all I will say is that you are very observant, and we can leave it at that.”

He nodded and took her hand again. “Fair enough, so how about we have some real fun now?”

They left the gun room and went outside to the garage. There were five quad runners that obviously were frequently put into service. Scratches and dents riddled the plastic and metal bodies of the small vehicles. “Here we go, grab a helmet from the wall and pick a weapon, the paintballs are loaded and ready to use, so if you’re not familiar with them be careful.”

They played in the muddy fields for a couple of hours shooting at targets and running the little quads up and down manmade hills and muddy tracks. She laughed more during their playtime than she could ever remember doing in her life. When Darryl told her that it was time to head back, she was disappointed.

It didn’t occur to her that she was pouting, her bottom lip was sticking out, and Darryl drove his quad closer. “Hey we can come back another day you know, we come out here at least twice a month to blow off stress and just cut loose. I promise, you’ll have more days like this one. Now, the last one back to the garage has to buy dinner tonight.”

The race back distracted her, and she was laughing as they pulled the quads into their spot. They had to hurry to get dressed in clean clothing to drive back to the city to collect the other two men, and met downstairs when they were ready.

Darryl thanked her for keeping him company for the day and she smiled.

“I should be the one thanking you. I swear I haven’t had so much fun in I don’t know how long. I really enjoyed goofing off with you today.” He reached over the console and took her hand in his for the duration of the drive to pick up John.

John came out of the building with two people hard on his heels and once he entered the SUV, the other people melted into the crowd of people that were beginning to leave the building for the day.

Mackie turned to greet him, and almost bumped noses with him as he leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, then on her lips. He drew back too soon for her taste, but his words warmed her.

“Hey, beautiful, and you too, buddy. I needed that kiss. All I’ve been doing all day is daydreaming and mooning around the lab. If I’d had my car, I would have left hours ago. This restriction on my movement is getting old. You need to catch this piece of shit soon, because I’m going to break the chain one of these days. Especially now that we have a woman for me to impress and spend time with.”

Darryl grinned and came back with, “Yeah, and let’s not forget her cat. He’s at the house too you know.”

Mackie grinned and raised her eyebrow, “I’ll have you know that GreyC is a lady, and she wouldn’t appreciate the two of you not recognizing her importance. She is a premier mouser, and she keeps my shoulders warm when it’s cold outside. She also likes the last bite of meat on my plate, and does as she damn well pleases the rest of the time.”

The discussion on cats versus dogs carried them until they reached Klinger International. Darryl texted Liam, and they waited for him to reply. After five minutes, Darryl texted him again, and the phone vibrated almost immediately.

“Son of a raggedy assed bitch, Liam says he’s hitching a ride with Mason home tonight, something came up, and he can’t talk right now.” Darryl looked at John, and they both looked at Mackie.

Whatever they were thinking she wanted to know about it. “Okay, so what’s with the looks? Do we go in and bring him out the hard way?” She pretended to rub her hands together in excitement, and her clowning did gain her two small smiles, but Darryl and John also shook their heads. “Might as well tell me, or we can sit here all evening. Making GreyC stay in her carrier won’t get you points from her, but then you all won’t care if she puts a dead mouse or bat on the pillow next to your head in the middle of the night either, will you?”

John spoke, “Mackie, Mason, Liam’s grandfather, left for France early this morning. The text was a way to let us know something is wrong.”

Darryl nodded his head, and added, “Hitchcock must be the leak. Liam capitalized the word Hitching.” He looked at John and shook his head.

“That guy has to be nuts to try his shit here in the building.” He looked at Mackie and grinned. “I’ve got a plan.”

Mackie rode the elevator to the top floor and took the first turn on the left. She entered the door with Liam’s name stenciled on it. Her hair was now loose around her shoulders and arms, and she had she her suit jacket in the SUV. Her blouse was unbuttoned to show a nice view of the ample cleavage between her breasts. She used the keycard to open the door that Darryl had given her, and barged into the room without knocking or announcing her presence. She immediately began talking as she entered the room.

“Liam, we have a date, and I don’t like to be kept waiting, I’m not one of your bimbos and I, oh, you have company.” She stopped talking for a second and continued forward toward the desk where Liam sat, and his father, Drummond, sat in one of the chairs facing the desk while a large man stood off to the side and another stood over Drummond with a pistol pointed at his neck.

She held out her hand to the man without the gun as she moved toward him. “How do you do, I am Maxine, and I’m pleased to meet you, but I need to have Liam come with me because we have dinner reservations and he is meeting with my parents. I’m sure you understand.” She cut her eyes to Liam who was looking like he would have a heart attack. “Daddy is not going to be pleased if you are late again, and you know how he acts when someone upsets his schedule.” She cut her gaze back to the big man who had automatically taken her hand and was shaking it.

She smiled and gripped his hand tighter before leaning into his personal space and kneeing him in the crotch. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it while he was off balance, and brought her knee up hard while he was bent over and connected with the man’s nose. His scream was nice to hear over the sounds of flesh connecting behind her, but the man she was abusing was tougher than he looked, and he came up swinging. She leaned back out of the way of the fist, and was ready to put her fist into his bloody nose when a large hand on her shoulder pulled her back from the fight, and she heard Drummond tell her to have a seat.

She looked at the elder Klinger, and nodded. She picked up the .22 semi-auto from the floor where she assumed either Drummond or Liam had knocked it from the assailant’s hand, and went to the corner nearest the door to stay out of the way of the fighting. Darryl and John came rushing in the door, and stopped as they saw what was happening. Mackie smiled and waved them over to where she stood.

Liam had the gunman on the floor, putting some serious punches to the guy’s face and chest. They rolled around on the floor, with each man getting a punch in here and there, but Liam had strength on his side, and it was obvious to the onlookers that he was winning the fight.

Drummond was showing off in Mackie’s opinion. She said to her companions, “Ol’ boy knows how to fight, he’s good with his fists, and moves fast. Look at that, he just broke the guy’s rib, did you hear it break?” The pounding he was giving the man was continuing, and she grinned, “Now he’s just showing off, that guy won’t be moving once he falls down.”

John grinned back at her as Darryl went to the door to talk to the three uniformed cops that walked in.

“Dru was always good with his fists, he was a boxer in college, and in the ring, he never lost a fight. He’s enjoying himself, look at that smile.” John left her side and walked toward where Drummond had his victim against the wall as he continued to pummel his body.

Mackie shook her head and leaned against the wall as the police finally pulled Liam off his opponent, and John talked Drummond into letting his fall where he stood. She didn’t hear what he said, but Drummond shook his head and she saw he shook his shoulders and his arms trying to loosen them up. She called it shaking off the adrenalin when it happened to her in the past.

She handed the gun to the officer that came to get her information, and he raised his brow, but left her after his questions had been answered. John came over to her and took her hand.

“Let’s go, Darryl and Liam will be taking Dru home, and now that I’m off the leash, Darryl gave me the keys to the SUV. We can stop and grab take-out on the way to the house.”

John was in a good mood and when he got into the driver’s seat, he pretended to kiss the steering wheel, telling it how he’d missed his baby. “I haven’t been allowed to drive on my own for almost a month now, and believe me, I’ve missed it.”

Mackie let him talk, he had a sexy voice, not too low, and not too high, she smiled to herself, his voice was just right. He might be the most compassionate of the three men, but his streak of male ego was as strong. His was just subtler. There was no doubt that he would be as good with his fists as Liam appeared to be, but John was more of the diplomat, at least from what she’d seen of his character so far.

She had to ask him to stop at the closest grocery store, “I need to get a litter pan for GreyC or she’ll find a corner. She hates it when she can’t dig a hole.”

They stopped at a large store and had to park several yards from the front doors of the place because the parking lot was almost filled with vehicles.

John insisted on pushing the cart, and from the way he wanted to go up and down almost every isle in the place, she knew that this was some new adventure for him. “Who normally does your grocery shopping? I get the impression this isn’t exactly something you’re used to doing.”

It took him a little while to answer her and when he did, she grinned.

His, “I am calculating the number of products per aisle and shelf. For instance, the cereal aisle contains eighty-two varieties of product, not including the bins with bags of the same cereal, yet is made cheaper due to the advertising and name branding. The product designated as hot cereal is diverse, yet not as large of a market, or there would be more than ten offerings.” He shook his head at the numbers and shrugged his shoulder when he saw her grin. “I find it entertaining, but I don’t expect anyone else to understand.”

As they made their way down the next aisle, she pointed out the large array of toilet paper and other paper products. “Can you tell how many trees were killed to wipe our butts for the next month or so?” The look she got from him made her laugh out loud and promised retaliation.