One Night In Texas

Derek glanced over to see a few of the groomsmen staring at them. He lowered his voice. “Look, I know it’s a hell of a lot to ask. But there’s a guy I have to get to D.C. for interrogation, and I have to do it right now. I took this job, and it’s my responsibility to see it through.”

“Right. Your responsibility. Not mine.”

“Gus—”

“No! There’s a reason I’m out of the business. So I can have a life that doesn’t involve having to do this short-fuse crap anymore.”

“Fly to D.C., hit the tarmac, unload the cargo, do a one-eighty and head back. That’s all I need.” Derek could see his friend starting to waver. “Come on, Gus. Haven’t we always watched each other’s backs? Always?”

Gus blew out a breath. “Playing the loyalty card is really low.”

“Hey, I’m stuffing myself into a tuxedo for you tomorrow. The least you can do is fly to Washington for me today.”

Gus closed his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s really no big deal,” Derek went on. “You’ll be back in time for the rehearsal dinner tonight. Hell, all we were going to do this afternoon is play golf anyway.”

“I like golf.”

“You also like to fly. Get in the van, and I’ll fill you in on the way to Love Field.”

“I need to talk to Sally first.”

“No. If you talk to her now, you’ll never get out of here. Phone her from the airfield. Tell her something came up, but you’ll be at the rehearsal dinner tonight.”

Derek opened up the passenger door. Gus stared at the van, then back at Derek. “You owe me for this.”

“You bet. Just name your price. After you get the guy to Washington.”

Gus hauled himself into the van. Derek stepped into the driver’s seat, started the engine and hit the gas. He wanted to get out of there before Gus saw his bride and changed his mind.

“Unbelievable,” Kevin said from the back of the van. “He talked you into it.”

Gus gave Kevin a deadpan look. “I’m a sucker for a sob story.” He turned back to Derek. “So, fill me in. Who’s my cargo?”

Derek gave him the short version of the predicament they were in, judiciously leaving out the part about Alyssa. No need to go there, particularly when it was a loose end he planned to tie up on his own later.

“So we’ve got to get this guy to Washington for interrogation,” he told Gus, “or come Monday morning, either the president’s trade bill is going down because a few congressmen don’t want to see themselves in compromising positions all over cable news, or cable news is going to have a field day when they get hold of—” He stopped short, looking in the rearview mirror. “Damn it.”

“What?”

“Somebody’s following us.”

Gus glanced in the side mirror. “That blue Mustang?”

“Yeah. He’s been hugging my bumper for the past few miles. This makes the fourth time I’ve changed lanes and he has, too.”

“It’s Barry Sutton,” Gus said. “Hard to miss that car. I saw him getting into it as we were leaving.”

Derek came to a red light and braked to a halt. “Any idea why he’s after us?”

“He’s a reporter who used to cover big stories but got busted to the society section. Maybe he’s looking for news from my wedding that’s a little more interesting than what color the mother of the bride is wearing.”

“Then we’d better lose him.” Derek put two hands on the wheel. “Hang on.”

Derek hit the gas and wheeled hard to the left, hopped the curb to the median and made a U-turn against the red light. He gunned it for fifty yards, then turned into a strip-center parking lot and headed down the service alley. Checking his rearview mirror, he saw Sutton’s Mustang still sitting at the red light.

“He’s not following,” Derek said.

“Hell, no, he’s not,” Gus muttered, rubbing his neck. “Did you have to jump the damned curb?”

Derek grinned. “You’ve gotten soft, Gus. That’s tragic.”

“No. Tragic is having to miss my golf game this afternoon.”

“Golf. Now, there’s some excitement.”

“It’s all the excitement I’m looking for these days.”

“Come on. Think about all the fun we used to have. You loved every minute of it.”

“Yeah. I did. But I love Sally more.”

He spoke with such conviction that Derek knew there was more to his relationship with his fiancée than some hot sex with a pretty lady. Gus had quit the team and started his own business for one reason only: so he could have that one special woman to come home to for the rest of his life.

When Derek thought about that, for some reason Alyssa’s face flashed through his mind.

No. Stop thinking about her like that.

He told himself, as he had for the past six months, that thoughts like those would eventually get him into trouble. Soon he’d be roped and tied like Gus, playing house with his wife and golfing with his buddies. But he just wasn’t cut out for that kind of life, and he had yet to meet a woman who could convince him that he was.

FORTUNATELY THE REST of the job went off like clockwork, which was a big relief for Derek after everything that had gone wrong. Wilson and McManus had Owens waiting at Love Field when they arrived. In fewer than three hours, the blackmailer would be in Washington. With any luck, Owens would crack and give the interrogators the name of his client and the location of the blackmail material. Then they’d call Derek in one more time to retrieve it, and this problem would be put to bed once and for all.

But right now he had to deal with Alyssa.

Kevin stayed in the van across the street from the Waterford, punching his computer to let Derek back into the building. As Derek ascended the elevator to the penthouse, his heart was pounding a little harder than usual. He’d rather take a beating than face Alyssa after what had happened in there.

As the elevator doors opened, he spoke into the microphone, telling Kevin he’d be out of touch for a short time and to stay put until he contacted him again. Then he flipped the microphone off and made his way to the master bedroom.

Alyssa sat on the bed exactly where he’d left her, but the anger she’d displayed earlier seemed to have disappeared. Instead, when she looked up at him, her green eyes were full of the pain of betrayal. And he was the reason why.

Stop beating yourself up. You had no choice.

When he settled beside her on the bed, she shrank away from him. He sighed heavily.

“I’m going to untie you,” he told her, “but I can’t let you leave yet. We need to talk. Agreed?”

She nodded.

He removed the gag first, easing it away carefully, wincing when he saw the red, irritated skin at the corners of her mouth. She stretched her jaw stiffly, refusing to look at him. When he untied her ankles, then her hands, he was dismayed to see the ties had left their mark there, too.

“I can’t believe you did this,” she said, rubbing her wrists. “I can’t believe—”

He touched his hand to her arm. When she jerked it away from him and stood, he wondered if she intended to bolt from the room. Instead she merely walked several paces away and stopped, her back to him, rubbing her upper arms with her palms.

“You left me in Seattle,” she said, her voice quivering as if she were on the verge of tears. “After a whole week together, suddenly you were gone. And now…and now this.”

“Alyssa—”

“How could you do this to me?”

With that, she dropped her head to her hands and began to cry.

Derek felt a shot of apprehension. He’d sailed through military combat with flying colors. He ran a team of stealth operatives, keeping his cool in situations unimaginable to the average man. His pain tolerance was legendary. He had very few weaknesses.

But watching a woman cry was one of them.

He’d expected her to be fighting mad. That he could have dealt with just fine. But now that she was falling apart, he had no clue what to do.

“Alyssa…”

He rose from the bed and went to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. To his surprise, she turned quickly, ducked her head and fell against him. He automatically wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head against his chest, her body shaking with sobs.

“You’re a liar,” she said, crying so hard she could barely speak.

“I know, but—”

“And a thief.”

“Well, technically I am, but—”

“And a bully.”

A bully? Now, wait a minute. He’d been called a lot of things in his life, but never that. He liked to think he wasn’t one of those guys who acted tough just for the sake of intimidating people, but clearly she thought he was.

But even as she berated him with one accusation after another, she clutched her arms more tightly around him, as if she was begging him to tell her that none of her words were true.

Unfortunately most of them were.

“Alyssa, sweetheart, listen to me. I had no choice. I had to—”

All at once she slid out of his arms and pushed him away, so hard that he stumbled backward. It startled him so much that a second passed before he realized what else she’d done.

She’d grabbed the gun from the small of his back.

He started toward her, but she’d already raised the weapon. Stopping short, he held his palms in the air, unable to believe that the woman he’d thought was crying had a face as dry as dust.

“You’re right, Derek,” Alyssa said. “We have some talking to do.”

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