Mackenzie's Magic Read online

  He didn’t argue, didn’t try to convince her. He just shook his head and said, "No."

  She gave his forehead an experimental rap with her knuckles, a puzzled look on her face.

  He drew back a little, blinking in surprise. "What are you doing?"

  "Seeing if your head’s made out of wood," she retorted, her exasperation showing through. "You’re letting your emotions interfere with your job. I’m your best bet—so use me!"

  Mac stood motionless. He couldn’t have been more stunned if this delicate fire-eater had suddenly lifted him over her head and tossed him through the window. He was letting his emotions interfere with the job? That was the last thing he’d ever imagined anyone would say to him. What made him so good at his job was his ability to divorce himself from the emotions that could hamper his actions. He’d always been the one who kept his head, who remained cool no matter how tense the situation. He might have some sleepless nights afterward, he might sweat bullets, but while the job was going down he was an iceman.

  He couldn’t be emotional about her; it wasn’t logical. Okay, so he’d had the hots for her since he’d first seen her. Chemistry happened. With her, it had happened in a big way. And he liked her; he’d learned a lot about her since she had practically commandeered him the night before. She was quick-thinking, had a sense of humor, and was too damned gutsy for his peace of mind. She also responded to his slightest touch, her soft body melting against him, with a sheer delight that went to his head faster than a hit of whiskey.

  He frowned. Only the fact that she was concussed had kept him from taking her, and even then, it had been a near thing. Never mind that they were waiting for a killer to come after them, that he had deliberately left a trail that was just difficult enough to keep from being obvious. He never should have undressed last night; he knew that. But the fact was, he had wanted to feel her against his skin, and so he’d taken off everything but his shorts and slipped into bed with her. Dean would beep him when anyone showed up; if Mac had timed it right, he figured it would take another hour at least before anything happened, but still he should have been dressed and ready in case something went wrong. Instead, he had been on top of her, between her legs, and thinking that only two thin layers of cotton were keeping him from her. It would have taken him maybe five seconds to get those two layers out of the way, and then he would have been inside her and to hell with anything else.

  But none of that was emotion. That was liking, and a powerful lust. So she had this crazy idea, after spending only a few hours with him—and being asleep most of that time—that they were going to get married. Just because she felt that way didn’t mean he did, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let himself be buffaloed into something like marriage, no matter how hard he got whenever she was anywhere around.

  The thought of using her as bait almost made the top of his head come off, but that wasn’t emotion, it was common sense.

  "You’re concussed," he finally said. "You’re moving like a snail, and you don’t need to be moving at all. You’d be more of a hindrance than a help, because I’d have to watch you, as well as myself."

  "Then give me a weapon," she replied, her tone so unruffled that he wasn’t sure he’d heard right.

  "A weapon?" he echoed incredulously. "Good God, you think I’m going to arm a civilian?"

  She straightened away from his grasp, and his palms ached from the loss of contact. All of a sudden her black eyes weren’t bottomless at all, they were cool and flat, and the recognition of what he was seeing jolted him.

  "I can handle a pistol as well as you, maybe better."

  She wasn’t exaggerating. He’d seen that look in the eyes of snipers, and in the eyes of some fellow agents who had been there, done that, and had the guts to do it again. He had seen it in his own eyes, and he’d understood when some women had shied away from him, frightened by the dangerous edge they sensed in him.

  Maris wouldn’t shy away. She looked delicate, but she was pure steel.

  He could use her. The thought flashed into his brain, and he couldn’t dismiss it. Policy said that no civilians should be involved if it could be avoided, but too many times it couldn’t be avoided. She was right; she was his best bet, and he would be a fool if he compromised the investigation by not using her. It wrenched every instinct he had to do it, but he had to put his feelings aside and concentrate on the job.

  Damn it, he thought in surprise, he had been letting his emotions cloud his thinking. That wasn’t a good sign, and he had to put a stop to that kind of idiocy right now.

  "All right," he said swiftly, wheeling around to get their jackets. He jerked his on and began stuffing Maris into hers. "Time’s short, so we have to move fast. First we need to get the stallion out of the trailer and hidden somewhere else, then position the trailer so that whoever comes can’t see that he isn’t in it. Then we come back here. You drive the truck, I’ll be hidden in the truck bed, under some blankets or something." He turned out the bathroom light and began ushering her toward the door. "We’ll post Dean down the road, where he can see them arrive. He’ll leave then and get into position at the trailer. He’ll give us warning. You leave by the back way just as they arrive, let them get a glimpse of the truck. They follow."

  They reached the door. MacNeil turned out the lights and took a small radio out of his pocket, keying it. "Is everything clear?" he asked. "We’re coming out."

  "What?" His partner’s voice was startled. "Yeah, everything’s clear. What’s up?"

  "Tell you in a minute."

  He slipped the radio back into his pocket and unchained the door. He paused then, looking down at her. "Are you sure you can do this? If your head is hurting too much, let me know now, before it goes any further."

  "I can do it." Her voice was calm, matter-of-fact, and he gave a short nod.

  "Okay, then." He opened the door, and cold air slapped her in the face. She shivered, even though she was wearing her thick down jacket. The weather bureau had been predicting the arrival of a cold front, she remembered. She had watched the noon news and weather yesterday; perhaps that was why she now had this thick jacket instead of the flannel-lined denim jacket she had been wearing yesterday morning. She was glad she had changed coats, because the temperature now had to be in the twenties.

  She looked around as she left the cozy warmth of the motel room. The motel office and the highway were on her right. MacNeil took her arm and steered her to the left, circling her behind a late-model pickup truck that was covered over with frost. "Hold it a minute," he said, and left her hidden by the truck’s bulk while he went around to the driver’s side. He opened the door and leaned in. She caught the faint metallic jingle of keys; then the motor started and settled into a quiet idle. She noticed with approval that the interior light hadn’t come on, which meant he had taken care of that little detail earlier.

  Interior lights. As he closed the truck door with a barely audible click, the neon light from the motel sign slanted across his high cheekbones, and a door opened in her mind.

  She remembered the way his face had looked last night as he drove, the grimness of his expression highlighted by the faint green glow from the dash.

  She remembered the desperation with which she had hidden her condition from him. She had been afraid to let him know how weak she was, how terribly her head hurt, that she was vulnerable in any way. He hadn’t said much, just driven in dark silence, but even through her pain she had felt the physical awareness running between them like a live electrical wire. If she showed any vulnerability, she’d thought, he would be on her. That was why he’d come with her, not because he was concerned about Sole Pleasure.

  Her thinking had been muddled by the knock she’d taken on the head. She had been terrified for Pleasure’s safety, trying to think of the best way to protect him, and she hadn’t been certain she could trust MacNeil. She had taken a big chance in asking for his help; he had given it without question, but afterward she’d been too unbalanced by the