Lindsay McKenna - The Untamed Hunter

Reaching across the desk, Maggie shook her finger at Casey, “Listen, big mama hen in the sky, I’ll be fine! I’m an OID sharpshooter, remember? Our team is number three in the U.S. We’ve got a shot—pardon the pun—at the next Olympics. I intend to keep leading the team. I’d love to try for gold.”

Grudgingly, Casey nodded, “I think you’re a twenty-year-old inside that thirty-six-year-old body.”

Laughing heartily, Maggie got up. She was never one to stay still for long. Circling the office, hands stuffed into the pockets of her lab coat, she chuckled. “I’m a big kid at heart. And okay, so I take a lot of chances riding my horse in those events. I know what I’m doing, Casey. I’m good at what I do.” She turned and looked at her supervisor, who was more like a big sister to her. “I’m right for this mission and you know it or you wouldn’t have asked me to volunteer for it.” With a shrug, she said, “Besides, I don’t have a family. I’m single. No kids. I’m the perfect person for it.”

Turning another page in the file, Casey nodded. “You’re right,” she conceded. “Morgan was hoping you’d take it. Black Dawn knows who our best virologists are. You’re listed as number three here at OID. That’s as good as it gets. If Black Dawn knows you’re the courier, Morgan is sure they’ll make a play to capture you and the anthrax vial. There’s no question in his mind.”

“For once,” Maggie said, “my list of credentials will really impress someone.”

With a sour grin, Casey joined in with her laughter. Maggie had graduated from Harvard University at the head of her class. She’d brought millions of dollars in grant money with her when she decided to make the OID her home. In the world of virology, Maggie had more than made her mark. She was known around the world for her abilities and for her pioneering work in the field.

“Well, now that you’ve decided to take the mission, this is your escort.” Casey handed over an eight-by-ten color photo of a man. “He’s one of the top mercs at Perseus. A specialist in undercover work.”

Still smiling, Maggie reached out and took the photo. When she turned it around, she gasped. The photo tumbled out of her hand.

Casey saw Maggie blanch. “What is it?” She watched as the photo fluttered from Maggie’s frozen fingers to the carpeted floor, saw Maggie’s eyes widen with shock and then pain. Automatically, Casey got up and moved around the desk. She picked up the photo. As she stood to her full height and her gaze locked on Maggie’s, she saw tears in her friend’s eyes. But just for a moment. The tears quickly disappeared and Casey saw anger in those hazel eyes, instead.

“What’s going on, Maggie?” She held the photo out to her.

“Oh, Lord,” Maggie croaked. She took a step away from Casey and the proffered photo. “You aren’t serious, are you?” She jabbed a finger at the photo. “Do you know who that is? Do you have any idea?”

Nonplussed, Casey looked helplessly at the photo. “Well, yes…Shep Hunter. He’s Reid’s older brother.”

A strangled sound issued from Maggie’s throat. She wheeled away and moved over to the windows. Jamming her hands into her pockets once more, she muttered defiantly, “Get that bastard’s photo out of here, Casey. I want nothing to do with him! Not a damned thing!”

The obvious hurt, the trembling in her voice, shook Casey. She took a look at the photo once more and then studied Maggie’s drawn profile. Maggie had compressed her full lips into a hard, thin line and suffering was written on every square inch of her features. “Maggie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shock you. I know you told me that you’d known Shep a long time ago…” Casey grimaced. “I guess there’s a lot more to this than you’d told me before?”

Turning coldly, Maggie stared at her across the office, the tension thick. “You could say that.” She saw the shock and concern on Casey’s face. It was obvious she didn’t realize what was going on. “I knew Shep a long time ago,” she said in a whisper. “At Harvard. He was going for a degree in engineering. He was a member of ROTC, which led him eventually into the Air Force, to become a pilot.” She waved her hand in irritation. “But that was after us. After a relationship that lasted my entire freshman year there at the university.”

“Oww,” Casey murmured, beginning to understand. “So, you two had an affair?”

Her shoulders had drawn up in sizzling tension, and Maggie forced herself to try and relax. Her heart was pounding wildly in her breast. She couldn’t control her breathing yet. It hurt to think of Shep. It hurt to remember. Their relationship had ended so many years ago. How was it he could still affect her like this now? With a groan, Maggie turned to Casey. She deserved the full story.

“It was more than that. We fought like cats and dogs, Casey. He wanted to control me. I fought him every inch of the way. We were both independent types. Both bullheaded as hell. He always thought his way was best and my ideas were second best to his. We fought…brother, did we fight. Of course, making up was a lot of fun, too….” She sighed, some of the anger in her voice dissolving. “I’ve never been in such a wildly passionate relationship before or since. He was everything I’d ever dreamed of in a man, but he treated me like an idiot with no brains. He never thought I had an equal idea to his, much less a better one. Of course,” she fumed, “more times than not, my ideas were better than his. But he had so much damned pride he’d never admit it. And on top of that, he was the strong, silent type.”

Casey groaned. “Oh, one of those Neanderthal throwbacks, eh? Pride is a problem with the Hunter men, from where I stand.”

“He was so arrogant,” Maggie said, a hard-edged rasp in her voice. “So full of himself. He always thought he was smarter than everyone else. Maybe he was, over in the engineering department, where he pulled straight A’s and was on the dean’s list. But in my world, he couldn’t shed that egotism and arrogance, Casey. He could never relax with me, let go and just be an ordinary human being who had good days and bad days, who needed someone else. He was such an iconoclast! He reminded me of Mount Everest—always proud, unapproachable, needing no one and nothing.”

Casey moved over to her side after placing the photo back into the file. “So you broke up because he couldn’t really be intimate with you? Is that the bottom line?”

Miserably, Maggie nodded. “Yeah, Case, it was.” She wiped her eyes. “Damn him. After all these years, I still feel so much for him! My heart is stupid. My head knows better now.” She pursed her lips and glared out the venetian blinds. “If he could have said ‘I need you’ just once, Case, I’d have jumped up and down for joy. But he never did.”

“Did you need him?”

“Sure I did,” she said bitterly. “Oh, he liked that. He wanted to feel needed by the weaker sex. Well, weak nothing! I was his equal. And he knew it. And he would never acknowledge that. He treated me like a twit.”

“Ouch,” Casey murmured. “Neanderthals have that proclivity, don’t they?”

Maggie raised an eyebrow. “You ought to know. You married one of them. But I can’t really believe Reid is like Shep. You wouldn’t have married him if he was.”

Casey chuckled. “You’re right. I’d have told him to get lost.”

“Maybe Reid’s different because he’s the youngest of the four,” Maggie said in a hurt voice. “He must be. I mean, I’ve met a lot of men in my life, and Shep Hunter takes the cake for the glacial Neanderthal type, believe me.”

“I met him,” Casey said slowly, “about six months ago. He was coming off a mission for Perseus, and he dropped by to see us here in Atlanta.”