He tapped Jessie on the shoulder and leaned over so he could talk in her ear over the band. “I’m going to grab the tent and set it up. Watch Lily.”
Jessie nodded and resumed jamming to the music. Mac tracked toward where the bikes were parked, using the opportunity away from Lily and the noise of the music to call Grange and give him a report.
“We’ve been doing a little recon of our own here at headquarters,” Grange said. “We have video surveillance tapes of the cities the artifact had been to before it hit Chicago.”
“And?”
“Someone’s been in every city since the artifact was first put into play in New York.”
That was interesting. “Who?”
“No clue, but we figure it’s the same guy based on height, build and type of walk. All we’ve picked up is a dark image stalking the grounds outside, and we’ve confirmed it’s not security in any of the locations. Wears a long coat, a hat and dark pants, stays in the shadows. Smokes.”
“How Humphrey Bogart of him.”
Grange snorted. “We’re studying video of everyone who’s passed by the exhibit in each location, trying to see if anyone similar pops up from city to city, but that’ll take some time.”
“Any thoughts?”
“Someone who knew the virus was in the artifact.”
“Do you think he was casing each location looking for an opening to do a heist?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not really sure yet, but we’re looking at all the angles.”
Why else would someone be monitoring each museum?
Mac shook his head, deciding to leave the big picture stuff to Grange. “What’s the word on Chicago? Anything on Lily?”
“Big news on the theft of the artifact, of course. The heat went down on the night security team. Media’s focused more on that than anything and the museum is taking shit in a big way. Nothing about Lily West or her involvement.”
“Good.” Mac didn’t want any press on Lily or her absence, and he was glad her agency hadn’t implicated her. Her boss was probably covering his own ass, but Mac would bet the agency Lily worked for wanted her back and probably suspected Lily in the theft. Maybe they were even working with the local police to finger Lily for the theft.
“Grange, we need to make sure Lily isn’t targeted for the theft at the museum.”
“It’s already taken care of. According to what we’ve found out from intelligence we’ve gathered at her agency, they’re concerned since her gun was found at the scene that she was kidnapped by whoever did the job. She’s not a suspect.”
Mac smiled. Grange had contacts everywhere. “Great news. Thanks.”
“She still in the dark?”
“Pitch black.” And hating every minute of it. In her shoes, he’d feel the same way.
“Keep it that way. And watch your back. Since they know you have the virus, they’re hunting you.”
“I’m on alert.” Mac pocketed his phone and grabbed the tent from his bike, then circumvented the crowd to find a spot to erect it. He set it up in the middle of a grouping of trees, still within the area of the other tents, but a bit separate from everyone else. He moved his bike, just like everyone else did, making sure to park his alongside Jessie’s and all the others he knew, so they’d all be parked near the tents. After he had the tent in place, he went back to find Lily and Jessie. They weren’t in the band area any longer, so he hunted them down and found them in the food tent.
Jessie passed him a burger, fries and a drink. “I figured you hadn’t eaten either, and Lily looked like she was about to drop.”
“Thanks.” He realized after he downed the burger in three bites that he was hungry. Eating made him feel better. He looked at Lily. Her skin was pale and she had dark smudges under her eyes.
“Tired?”
She shrugged and took a sip of her soda.
“Are you tented here somewhere?” he asked Jessie.
“Yeah. A group of my riding buddies and I are over by the river. You?”
“Near the RVs.”
“You can tent up with us if you’d like.”
“Thanks, but we’re fine.”
Jessie glanced at Lily, then back at him. Her lips quirked. “Yeah, I’ll bet you are. Your girl is about to fall asleep in her pop, so why don’t you take her to bed?” She threw an arm around Lily for a quick hug. “Night honey.”
Lily hugged her back, managing a faint smile.
“Goodnight, Jess. Thank you.”
Mac stood and pulled some money out of his pocket, holding it out to Jessie. She looked at it, then back at him and shook her head. “You’re such a dick sometimes. I’ve got it covered.”
He laughed and leaned across the table to kiss her cheek. She winked and strolled away.
The table went silent. Mac blew out a breath, wondering if he should ask her if she wanted to talk, then changed his mind, figuring Lily was exhausted. And he didn’t want to fight with her. She really did look wiped. “You ready to get some sleep?”
She shrugged. “I guess so.”
He led her to the tent. She climbed in without a word and lay on her side. Turned away from him, of course. He pulled the blanket over her, then lay on his back, staring up at the dark canvas of the tent ceiling.
The noise of the band played on, the sounds of the crowd still going strong. They’d go all night, some of them anyway.
“You can go out there with them, you know.”
Mac turned his head toward Lily. “Huh?”
“You can go out there and party with your friends. I’m fine here.”
He shifted to his side. “I don’t want to be out there.”
“Trust me. You don’t want to be in here, either.”
“Lily, you’ve known me a long time. You know I do exactly what I want, when I want.” He touched a curling end of hair from her ponytail. Like silk. “If I wanted to be out there, I would be.”
She went quiet then. But he knew she wasn’t sleeping.
“Just let me go, Mac. I can’t stay here with you. And I won’t give you up to the police. You have to know that.”
He did know it. “I can’t.”
She turned around to face him. “Why?”
He started to reply, but hell, what could he say that hadn’t already been said? Or not said. It was the same conversation over and over again. The conversation they couldn’t have. He really hated this. But no one could know about the Wild Riders.
“There are things I can’t tell you.”
“Will you ever be able to talk to me?”
He hoped she could read his face in the semi-darkness.
“Honestly? I really hope I can. Someday.”
But even as he said the words, he knew he was lying to her. And it actually hurt him, like a physical pain to know he couldn’t. This was bullshit. Something was going to have to change.
Lily sat up, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Moonlight lit up the tent enough that she could see what she didn’t want to see.
Frustration ate at her, the sensation of feeling closed in and unable to breathe.
She knew Mac so well she could read the lie on his lips.
He’d never tell her the truth. How could she care about him, make love to him, when she had no idea what he was going to do with a deadly virus?
How could she reconcile her feelings, this draw she felt toward him, with the possibility that he could be unleashing a disaster of epic proportions on the world?
She tossed him a glance over her shoulder. “That virus could potentially kill millions of people.”
“I know.”
“Children, too.”
“Yes.”
She blinked back tears again and looked away from him. How had she gotten involved in this? Wrong place, wrong time.
Wrong man. But what if she had called the police and they had recovered the artifact? What then? Whose hands would it have fallen into? There was no doubt a plot was in place to move the artifact from city to city. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that part out. But who was moving it and why? For what purpose?
And why couldn’t Mac see they could do so much better at working on this together than apart?
Men were so stupid sometimes. Fine. If he wouldn’t let her in, if he wouldn’t divulge information, she’d just figure it out on her own.
“Lily.”
He had moved behind her, drawing her hair to the side so his breath washed across her neck. She shivered, tried to brush him off, but he held firm to her shoulders. She hated that she could be so pissed off at him and yet he could still affect her physically. He made her feel weak, and no one had ever made her weak.
“Lily, I might be a lot of things, I might have made a lot of mistakes in my past, but I could never hurt millions of innocent people, least of all children. You gotta know that about me.”
She did know that about him. She’d seen him angry when he was younger. Violently angry and frustrated, so hot with fury that she felt the tension in him without even touching him. But he’d never lashed out, had never deliberately hurt anyone. He’d always held his anger in check.
“I know you couldn’t.” She had to tell him that, had to let him know she didn’t believe he could deliver that virus to anyone who would hurt children, destroy families. This was just so damn frustrating. She wanted to know, had to know what he was going to do with it.
But she couldn’t force him to tell her.
He kissed the back of her neck, his murmurs against her skin sending shivers of wicked delight down her spine.
“I know trusting me is a huge issue for you. I know there are things you want me to reveal. Believe me when I tell you there are so many things I want you to know about me.
About where I’ve been the past ten years and what I’ve done with my life.” He turned her so she half faced him, desire and serious intent mixing across his moonlit face. “If and when the time comes that I can reveal it all, I promise to tell you everything. I want you to know.”
There were things she wanted him to know about her, too. At least about how she stood on things. “I won’t stop trying to figure it out.”
His lips curved. “I know.”
“And I’ll continue to try and take the virus away from you.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less than your absolute best attempt.”
Her lips quirked. He leaned in and kissed her neck again, dissolving the last shred of her anger and frustration. She needed to relax. Nothing was going to be solved tonight. She was still with him and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get rid of her, which meant that he still held the virus. Because she knew damn well that as soon as he’d delivered the vial, he would let her go. He was only holding onto her so she wouldn’t give him up. She was no fool.
But for now, that was good enough. In the meantime, she’d work on her own theories. By herself.
Later, she’d work on the mystery of Mac Canfield.
Right now, there were other, more physical mysteries to uncover. Ties to bind him closer to her, because keeping him close was the objective, wasn’t it? Pushing him away was fruitless. Not when she had to get to the virus. She had to keep her emotional confusion at bay, had to remember what she was ultimately here to do.
When Mac moved around and kissed her jaw, then her lips, she didn’t object, just opened her lips under his and let him explore.
She sighed into his mouth and joined with him, grateful to let the tension melt away under his expert lips. A soft nibble at the corner of her mouth, the slide of his tongue along her bottom lip, then his probing tongue delved deep into her mouth to sweep along hers, igniting a fire inside her belly that made her whimper.
“Oh I like when you make that sound,” he said. “It makes me a little crazy.”
“It does, huh?”
“Yeah. Like you’re begging for it.”
She laughed and crawled onto his lap, facing him. She wrapped her legs around him, drawing closer to the heat of his body.
“You cold?” he asked.
“Yes. Warm me.”
“I’ll have to get you na**d to do that.”
She leaned back on her hands, thrusting her br**sts out.
“Go for it.”
“Not easy given your position. I’ll have to throw you off me and toss you around a bit.”
“Good. Wrestling will heat me up.”
“Not if you cooperate.”
“Who says I’m going to cooperate?”
Even in the darkness she caught the dark gleam in his eyes. Her pu**y quivered at the thought of wrestling with him, fighting him for dominance, for control. In this tiny tent it would be difficult, which made it all the more enticing.
Physically, of course, he was stronger, but she had a few moves of her own.
They stayed like that as quiet seconds ticked by, neither of them budging an inch. When Mac pounced, she was ready for him, using her legs to brace herself and push him off. He grabbed for her hands but she kept them out of his reach and tried her best to stay behind him, knowing if he pinned her wrists she was a goner. She tightened her thighs, knowing they were her strongest feature, and wrapped them around his torso, whipping him to the floor as if it were a true wrestling match.
He went down with a loud oof of surprise.
Lily laughed and jumped on his back, but she knew her attack would only last seconds. Mac bucked her off and immediately jumped on top of her. She rolled away and brought her knees to her chest, then pushed at him with her feet, keeping him away from her arms. He strained and she enjoyed the play of his muscles as he pushed forward to reach her.
Jessie nodded and resumed jamming to the music. Mac tracked toward where the bikes were parked, using the opportunity away from Lily and the noise of the music to call Grange and give him a report.
“We’ve been doing a little recon of our own here at headquarters,” Grange said. “We have video surveillance tapes of the cities the artifact had been to before it hit Chicago.”
“And?”
“Someone’s been in every city since the artifact was first put into play in New York.”
That was interesting. “Who?”
“No clue, but we figure it’s the same guy based on height, build and type of walk. All we’ve picked up is a dark image stalking the grounds outside, and we’ve confirmed it’s not security in any of the locations. Wears a long coat, a hat and dark pants, stays in the shadows. Smokes.”
“How Humphrey Bogart of him.”
Grange snorted. “We’re studying video of everyone who’s passed by the exhibit in each location, trying to see if anyone similar pops up from city to city, but that’ll take some time.”
“Any thoughts?”
“Someone who knew the virus was in the artifact.”
“Do you think he was casing each location looking for an opening to do a heist?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not really sure yet, but we’re looking at all the angles.”
Why else would someone be monitoring each museum?
Mac shook his head, deciding to leave the big picture stuff to Grange. “What’s the word on Chicago? Anything on Lily?”
“Big news on the theft of the artifact, of course. The heat went down on the night security team. Media’s focused more on that than anything and the museum is taking shit in a big way. Nothing about Lily West or her involvement.”
“Good.” Mac didn’t want any press on Lily or her absence, and he was glad her agency hadn’t implicated her. Her boss was probably covering his own ass, but Mac would bet the agency Lily worked for wanted her back and probably suspected Lily in the theft. Maybe they were even working with the local police to finger Lily for the theft.
“Grange, we need to make sure Lily isn’t targeted for the theft at the museum.”
“It’s already taken care of. According to what we’ve found out from intelligence we’ve gathered at her agency, they’re concerned since her gun was found at the scene that she was kidnapped by whoever did the job. She’s not a suspect.”
Mac smiled. Grange had contacts everywhere. “Great news. Thanks.”
“She still in the dark?”
“Pitch black.” And hating every minute of it. In her shoes, he’d feel the same way.
“Keep it that way. And watch your back. Since they know you have the virus, they’re hunting you.”
“I’m on alert.” Mac pocketed his phone and grabbed the tent from his bike, then circumvented the crowd to find a spot to erect it. He set it up in the middle of a grouping of trees, still within the area of the other tents, but a bit separate from everyone else. He moved his bike, just like everyone else did, making sure to park his alongside Jessie’s and all the others he knew, so they’d all be parked near the tents. After he had the tent in place, he went back to find Lily and Jessie. They weren’t in the band area any longer, so he hunted them down and found them in the food tent.
Jessie passed him a burger, fries and a drink. “I figured you hadn’t eaten either, and Lily looked like she was about to drop.”
“Thanks.” He realized after he downed the burger in three bites that he was hungry. Eating made him feel better. He looked at Lily. Her skin was pale and she had dark smudges under her eyes.
“Tired?”
She shrugged and took a sip of her soda.
“Are you tented here somewhere?” he asked Jessie.
“Yeah. A group of my riding buddies and I are over by the river. You?”
“Near the RVs.”
“You can tent up with us if you’d like.”
“Thanks, but we’re fine.”
Jessie glanced at Lily, then back at him. Her lips quirked. “Yeah, I’ll bet you are. Your girl is about to fall asleep in her pop, so why don’t you take her to bed?” She threw an arm around Lily for a quick hug. “Night honey.”
Lily hugged her back, managing a faint smile.
“Goodnight, Jess. Thank you.”
Mac stood and pulled some money out of his pocket, holding it out to Jessie. She looked at it, then back at him and shook her head. “You’re such a dick sometimes. I’ve got it covered.”
He laughed and leaned across the table to kiss her cheek. She winked and strolled away.
The table went silent. Mac blew out a breath, wondering if he should ask her if she wanted to talk, then changed his mind, figuring Lily was exhausted. And he didn’t want to fight with her. She really did look wiped. “You ready to get some sleep?”
She shrugged. “I guess so.”
He led her to the tent. She climbed in without a word and lay on her side. Turned away from him, of course. He pulled the blanket over her, then lay on his back, staring up at the dark canvas of the tent ceiling.
The noise of the band played on, the sounds of the crowd still going strong. They’d go all night, some of them anyway.
“You can go out there with them, you know.”
Mac turned his head toward Lily. “Huh?”
“You can go out there and party with your friends. I’m fine here.”
He shifted to his side. “I don’t want to be out there.”
“Trust me. You don’t want to be in here, either.”
“Lily, you’ve known me a long time. You know I do exactly what I want, when I want.” He touched a curling end of hair from her ponytail. Like silk. “If I wanted to be out there, I would be.”
She went quiet then. But he knew she wasn’t sleeping.
“Just let me go, Mac. I can’t stay here with you. And I won’t give you up to the police. You have to know that.”
He did know it. “I can’t.”
She turned around to face him. “Why?”
He started to reply, but hell, what could he say that hadn’t already been said? Or not said. It was the same conversation over and over again. The conversation they couldn’t have. He really hated this. But no one could know about the Wild Riders.
“There are things I can’t tell you.”
“Will you ever be able to talk to me?”
He hoped she could read his face in the semi-darkness.
“Honestly? I really hope I can. Someday.”
But even as he said the words, he knew he was lying to her. And it actually hurt him, like a physical pain to know he couldn’t. This was bullshit. Something was going to have to change.
Lily sat up, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Moonlight lit up the tent enough that she could see what she didn’t want to see.
Frustration ate at her, the sensation of feeling closed in and unable to breathe.
She knew Mac so well she could read the lie on his lips.
He’d never tell her the truth. How could she care about him, make love to him, when she had no idea what he was going to do with a deadly virus?
How could she reconcile her feelings, this draw she felt toward him, with the possibility that he could be unleashing a disaster of epic proportions on the world?
She tossed him a glance over her shoulder. “That virus could potentially kill millions of people.”
“I know.”
“Children, too.”
“Yes.”
She blinked back tears again and looked away from him. How had she gotten involved in this? Wrong place, wrong time.
Wrong man. But what if she had called the police and they had recovered the artifact? What then? Whose hands would it have fallen into? There was no doubt a plot was in place to move the artifact from city to city. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that part out. But who was moving it and why? For what purpose?
And why couldn’t Mac see they could do so much better at working on this together than apart?
Men were so stupid sometimes. Fine. If he wouldn’t let her in, if he wouldn’t divulge information, she’d just figure it out on her own.
“Lily.”
He had moved behind her, drawing her hair to the side so his breath washed across her neck. She shivered, tried to brush him off, but he held firm to her shoulders. She hated that she could be so pissed off at him and yet he could still affect her physically. He made her feel weak, and no one had ever made her weak.
“Lily, I might be a lot of things, I might have made a lot of mistakes in my past, but I could never hurt millions of innocent people, least of all children. You gotta know that about me.”
She did know that about him. She’d seen him angry when he was younger. Violently angry and frustrated, so hot with fury that she felt the tension in him without even touching him. But he’d never lashed out, had never deliberately hurt anyone. He’d always held his anger in check.
“I know you couldn’t.” She had to tell him that, had to let him know she didn’t believe he could deliver that virus to anyone who would hurt children, destroy families. This was just so damn frustrating. She wanted to know, had to know what he was going to do with it.
But she couldn’t force him to tell her.
He kissed the back of her neck, his murmurs against her skin sending shivers of wicked delight down her spine.
“I know trusting me is a huge issue for you. I know there are things you want me to reveal. Believe me when I tell you there are so many things I want you to know about me.
About where I’ve been the past ten years and what I’ve done with my life.” He turned her so she half faced him, desire and serious intent mixing across his moonlit face. “If and when the time comes that I can reveal it all, I promise to tell you everything. I want you to know.”
There were things she wanted him to know about her, too. At least about how she stood on things. “I won’t stop trying to figure it out.”
His lips curved. “I know.”
“And I’ll continue to try and take the virus away from you.”
“I wouldn’t expect any less than your absolute best attempt.”
Her lips quirked. He leaned in and kissed her neck again, dissolving the last shred of her anger and frustration. She needed to relax. Nothing was going to be solved tonight. She was still with him and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get rid of her, which meant that he still held the virus. Because she knew damn well that as soon as he’d delivered the vial, he would let her go. He was only holding onto her so she wouldn’t give him up. She was no fool.
But for now, that was good enough. In the meantime, she’d work on her own theories. By herself.
Later, she’d work on the mystery of Mac Canfield.
Right now, there were other, more physical mysteries to uncover. Ties to bind him closer to her, because keeping him close was the objective, wasn’t it? Pushing him away was fruitless. Not when she had to get to the virus. She had to keep her emotional confusion at bay, had to remember what she was ultimately here to do.
When Mac moved around and kissed her jaw, then her lips, she didn’t object, just opened her lips under his and let him explore.
She sighed into his mouth and joined with him, grateful to let the tension melt away under his expert lips. A soft nibble at the corner of her mouth, the slide of his tongue along her bottom lip, then his probing tongue delved deep into her mouth to sweep along hers, igniting a fire inside her belly that made her whimper.
“Oh I like when you make that sound,” he said. “It makes me a little crazy.”
“It does, huh?”
“Yeah. Like you’re begging for it.”
She laughed and crawled onto his lap, facing him. She wrapped her legs around him, drawing closer to the heat of his body.
“You cold?” he asked.
“Yes. Warm me.”
“I’ll have to get you na**d to do that.”
She leaned back on her hands, thrusting her br**sts out.
“Go for it.”
“Not easy given your position. I’ll have to throw you off me and toss you around a bit.”
“Good. Wrestling will heat me up.”
“Not if you cooperate.”
“Who says I’m going to cooperate?”
Even in the darkness she caught the dark gleam in his eyes. Her pu**y quivered at the thought of wrestling with him, fighting him for dominance, for control. In this tiny tent it would be difficult, which made it all the more enticing.
Physically, of course, he was stronger, but she had a few moves of her own.
They stayed like that as quiet seconds ticked by, neither of them budging an inch. When Mac pounced, she was ready for him, using her legs to brace herself and push him off. He grabbed for her hands but she kept them out of his reach and tried her best to stay behind him, knowing if he pinned her wrists she was a goner. She tightened her thighs, knowing they were her strongest feature, and wrapped them around his torso, whipping him to the floor as if it were a true wrestling match.
He went down with a loud oof of surprise.
Lily laughed and jumped on his back, but she knew her attack would only last seconds. Mac bucked her off and immediately jumped on top of her. She rolled away and brought her knees to her chest, then pushed at him with her feet, keeping him away from her arms. He strained and she enjoyed the play of his muscles as he pushed forward to reach her.
