The Complete Mackenzie Collection Read online

  It might have worked if she hadn’t grown up watching her petite mother rule over a household populated by brawny males. She was very much her mother’s daughter; it never occurred to her to be intimidated. Instead she poked him harder.

  “You said a tip led you to Solomon Green. Obviously the FBI has been working on this for a while, so just as obviously you have to have a list of suspects you’re watching. One of those suspects is now working at Solomon Green, isn’t he? That’s what tipped you off.” She scowled up at him. “Why did you say I was a suspect, when you know darn good and well—”

  “Hold it.” He held up a staying hand, interrupting her. “You were a suspect. Everyone was. I know who my main suspect is, but he isn’t working alone. This ring has to have the collusion of a lot of people. The owners are the main ones to profit, but any of the employees could also be in on it.”

  She didn’t like to think any of her people would be involved in murdering a horse for profit, but she had to admit it was possible. “So you followed him there and you’ve been watching him, trying to catch him in the act so you’ll have proof against him.” Her dark eyes caught fire. “Were you going to let him actually kill a horse, so there would be no doubt?”

  “That isn’t the outcome we’d like,” he said carefully, watching her. “But we’re aware that could be the scenario.”

  Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t fooled by his formal “official speak,” used by both the military and law-enforcement organizations. Reading between the lines, she knew that while he might not like letting a horse be harmed, he’d been willing to let it happen if that was what it took.

  She wasn’t thinking of slugging him; she was angry, but not foolish. He’s already proven he was more than a match for her. Still, the expression on her face must have made him think she was about to try again to take him down, because his hand came up in one of those lightning-fast movements and caught her wrist, holding it against his chest.

  She drew herself up to her full five feet almost three inches and lifted her chin. “I refuse to sacrifice a horse. Any horse.”

  “That isn’t what I want, either.” He gently cupped her stubborn chin, his fingertips tracing over the satiny skin of her jaw. “But we can’t make our move until they do something conclusive, something we can make stick in the courts. We have to tie everything together in a knot some slick lawyer can’t undo, or a murderer is going to walk. This isn’t just about horses and insurance fraud. A stable hand was killed, a kid just sixteen years old. He must have stumbled across something the way you did, but he wasn’t as lucky. The next morning there was a dead horse in the stall and the kid was missing. That was in Connecticut. A week later his body was found in Pennsylvania.”

  She stared at him, her dark eyes stark. The Stonichers might just be after the money, but they had aligned themselves with people who were truly evil. Any regret she might have felt for them vanished.

  MacNeil’s face was like stone. “I won’t move too soon and blow the investigation. No matter what, I’m going to nail these bastards. Do you understand?”

  She did. Completely. That left only one thing to do. “You refuse to compromise the case, and I won’t let Pleasure be hurt. That means you’ll have to use me as the bait.”

  Chapter 6

  “Absolutely not.” The words were flat and implacable. “No way in hell.”

  “You have to.”

  He looked down at her with mingled exasperation and amusement. “Sweetheart, you’ve been the boss for so long that you’ve forgotten how to take orders. I’m running this show, not you, and you’ll damn well do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it, or you’re going to find yourself handcuffed and gagged and your sweet little ass stuffed in a closet until this is over.”

  Maris batted her long eyelashes at him. “So you think my ass is sweet, huh?”

  “So sweet I’ll probably be biting it before too much longer.” The concept appealed to him; she could tell by the way his eyes darkened. She was rather taken by it, herself. Then he shrugged the moment away and grinned. “But no matter how good you taste or how fast you flutter those eyelashes, you aren’t going to change my mind about this.”

  She crossed her arms and offered him an irrefutable fact. “You need me. I don’t know what I saw or who hit me. It could have been one of the Stonichers, or it could have been whoever they hired. But they don’t know that I can’t remember, and they don’t know about you, so they think I’m the biggest threat to them.”

  “That’s exactly why you’re staying out of sight. If it’s one of the Stonichers holding the gun, I can’t predict how he or she will act. Give me a professional killer any day, rather than an amateur, who’s likely to panic and do something really stupid, like shooting you in front of a bunch of witnesses.”

  “God forbid you should have to deal with anyone who would get rattled by committing murder,” she said, sweetly sarcastic, and he gave her another of those patented narrow looks of his. She continued with her argument. “They’re probably surprised that I haven’t already called the cops on them. By now they’re figuring I was either hurt more than they’d thought at first and I’m lying unconscious somewhere, or that I’ve realized I have no proof to take to the cops, so I have no excuse for stealing a priceless horse. Either way, they want me. I’m the perfect patsy. They can kill Pleasure, make it look like I did it, and then kill me. Everything’s tied up nice and clean, and who knows, the insurance policy may even pay double indemnity, which is more money in everyone’s pocket. Nothing will make them commit faster than seeing me.”

  “Damn it, no.” He shook his head in exasperation. “I can’t believe the way your mind works. You must read a lot of thrillers.”

  She glared at him, affronted. Her argument was perfectly logical, and he knew it. That didn’t mean he liked it. It didn’t even mean he would agree with it; she was fast learning that she could add protective to the list of his characteristics. And stubborn. God forbid she should forget stubborn.

  “Sweetheart…” He smoothed his hands over her shoulders, an unfamiliar, tender ache in his chest as he felt the delicacy of her bones. He tried to think of the words that would convince her to leave this business to him and Dean. It was their job; they were trained for it. She would be in the way, and worrying about her would drive him crazy. God, she evidently thought she was seven feet tall and made of pig iron, but he could see how pale she was, how carefully she moved. She wasn’t normally fragile, despite the slightness of her build; he’d seen her ride, effortlessly controlling stallions that most men would have trouble handling, so he knew she was strong. She was also alarmingly valiant, and he didn’t know if his nerves could stand the stress.

  “Look at it this way,” she said. “As long as they don’t know where Pleasure is, I’m safe. They need me to get to him.”

  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. Ch