Lora Leigh - Guilty Pleasure

At that, Mac shook his head. “Or former members. I was truly meeting friends for drinks, Agent Mathews, nothing more. And ended up playing white knight.” He flashed her what she was certain he thought was a charming grin.

Marty clenched her teeth at the humor. Amusement wasn’t high on her list of priorities tonight.

“Let it go, Mac,” she warned him. “I’m not in the mood.”

“A white knight’s job is never done.” He clucked his tongue as he shook his head and glanced back over at her. “Strange, I didn’t imagine Khalid could get himself in so much trouble with you. I think he’s been claiming you for so long that he’s forgotten what it’s like to realize that perhaps you don’t really belong to him.”

Marty turned and stared back at him in surprise and anger.

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

For a moment, silence filled the car. Mac took the turn that led to her parents’ home and pulled slowly into the drive. Putting the Lexus in park, he turned to stare at her thoughtfully for long moments.

“You were eighteen,” he finally said. “Khalid let everyone who could possibly be a threat to his future relationship with you know that he considered your heart his own. He was a much darker person then, Marty. A man with a lot of demons. A man who even your fathers were wary of at that time.”

Marty shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Believe what you like. But this one you can take to the bank. Khalid will catch up with you. When he does, he’ll show you exactly why he waited until he couldn’t wait any longer to take you. He’ll show you the demons that fill him. I just hope you’re woman enough to accept them.”

“Woman enough to accept the third he wants in that relationship? How about woman enough to figure out when he’s fucking lying to me?” She sneered. “Do you have any idea just how pompous you sound right now?”

“Woman enough to see beneath the actions, and to accept the truth of the man who just might not realize that he’s given you his heart,” he said softly. “And that, Marty, takes a woman who’s not just strong but also understanding. I wonder if you can be both.”

She couldn’t be both, she thought, as she prepared to get out of the car.

Turning from him, she threw the door open and stalked to the house as the front door opened and her mother stood framed in the doorway.

Her mother was home. Her father must have called her, must have told her what was going on. Virginia looked well rested, but concerned and angry. Her gray eyes locked on Marty as a frown marred her still smooth brow.

Marty wouldn’t discuss this with her. Not yet. But she could hide here until her fathers arrived and she found out exactly what they were up to with Khalid and Shayne.

Khalid remained calm, though doing so wasn’t as easy as he had wished it was, while riding in the back of Joe Mathews’s limo long minutes after Mac had taken Marty from the club. Joe, Zach, and Shayne were all silent. The silence wore on his nerves, nerves that were never tested this way until this night, until tangling with Marty.

The only man who appeared unaffected by any of this was Joe. He sat back in the leather seat and simply watched Khalid.

“This is a fucking mess,” Zach muttered to Joe from where he sat at his side.

“Of course it is,” Joe agreed. “We let our emotions get involved. It’s always a mess when we allow that.”

Amusement touched Joe’s voice as Khalid watched him coldly. Beside him, he could feel the tension radiating from Shayne. Tempers were simmering, and Khalid had a feeling that holding his own in check wouldn’t last much longer.

“Damn it, Joe,” Zach cursed, his voice low. “She thinks we’re all conspiring against her.”

“You are,” Joe pointed out. “All of you have been, by not giving her the answers she’s all but demanded of you. I didn’t make that mistake.”

“You trained her too well, Zach, if you didn’t want her poking her nose in places you didn’t want her.” Shayne sat watching them, his arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face. “And Khalid could have saved us all the trouble if he’d simply given her details rather than an insignificant portion of the events.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion, you damned spook,” Zach bit out angrily. “You only came back to the States to tell Khalid about his brothers, hoping that he would choose you as his third. And don’t think we’re not all aware of it.”

“Enough.” Khalid watched as Joe’s gaze glittered with interest as he stared back at him. “It ends now. Once we reach the house I’ll tell her what we must.” Not that he wanted to. Hell, one question was going to lead to another, and before he knew it, the truth of his own past would come out.

Joe’s brow arched. “I’d say it’s a little late for that. I’d suggest Kevlar, if I were you. She’s ready to shoot us all.”

“If she doesn’t, then I just might.” Khalid forced himself to keep his hands in place at his side, rather than around Zach’s neck for demanding that meeting, even though he knew Marty was with Khalid and Shayne.

“I feel like I’m throwing my daughter to the fucking wolves.” Zach glowered at Khalid and Shayne.

That was exactly what he had done; it was what he had done years before, when he had allowed Marty the opportunity to join the FBI.

He had allowed his lover, Joe’s wife, to convince him otherwise. He had given in to the woman and the child he had loved, and Khalid suspected he had regretted it every day since.

“She’s your woman now,” Shayne reminded him quietly. “Would you do anything differently? And while you’re contemplating your answer, Khalid, tell me, did you ever get around to telling her about Abram and Lessa?”

“It’s too late to consider what I would have done or what I have yet to do.” What he should have done. He never should have stayed away from her. He should have taken her when she was eighteen, when she was young enough to be convinced to be a lover rather than a warrior.

And Marty was exactly that. She was a warrior, and she had years of training in facing the war she had chosen. Pulling her out of the fire wasn’t going to happen now.

“I wouldn’t blame her if she shot all of us.” Joe wiped his hand tiredly over his face as the limo pulled into the driveway of his home. “God help us all. We’re going to wish we were all dead now. Virginia’s home.”

“Then get ready to start praying,” Zach warned him.

“I started doing that weeks ago.” Joe stared back at his friend in irritation. “She’ll kill you first, though. Think about that. She knows I would have never helped conspire in keeping anything from her. I’ve just never had the details.”

“Because you refused to read the files,” Zach said angrily.

“For whatever reason.” Joe shrugged calmly. “Still, I covered my back. Let’s hope you have as well. God help you if she asked you and you lied to her.”

“I’ve never lied to her,” Zach snarled.

The limo rolled to a stop as Khalid leaned forward slowly, catching the attention of both men.

“Her protection is no longer your concern,” he stated, his tone icy, filled with purpose.

“Khalid…” A frown line snapped between Zach’s brows. He was a father first, Khalid had always known that, but in his efforts to protect his daughter he had done nothing but harm her.

“She is mine now,” he stated, his voice harsh. “You will not interfere in that, nor will you interfere in her life any longer. And the next meeting you arrange, you will do so in a venue that she can attend. No more secrets, period.”