MacGyver picked one more, slid in a clip and flipped the safety on before he faced her. “Do you know how to use one of these?” She’d handled his weapon well enough last night to make a believer out of him, but he didn’t want to assume she had experience where only desperation existed.
Blake snickered. “I’ll just bet she does. She has the look of a real sharp-shooter. Right, Kellie?” He stepped toward MacGyver, swept the gun from his hand and checked the safety again, probably from force of habit. Then he held it out to her.
“Knock it off, Blake. She’s with me. She doesn’t have to carry if—”
“Yeah, I’m pretty damn good.” Kellie’s smile was off as she took the weapon and shoved it barrel first into the back waistband of her jeans.
What the hell?Their whole damn exchange was off. Blake kept pushing, obviously trying to provoke her. And Kellie just kept taking his shit. MacGyver couldn’t figure her out. She’d been willing to fight both him and Palazzi, drink with bad biker dudes and steal a car. That took guts. So why was she backing off of Blake instead of calling him on his trash talk? MacGyver pushed his ball cap back and stepped between them, anger and protectiveness in every tense muscle.
Kellie’s eyes were filled with worry as she turned toward him, and a miniscule shake of her head stopped the words on his tongue. Before he found them again, she strode away toward the lake, her message clear—it was none of MacGyver’s business. Travis gave him a what-the-fuck scowl before he followed her. Blake stared at MacGyver as though waiting for him to say something, defiance in his stance. A heartbeat later, he trailed after Travis, and MacGyver brought up the rear, with no clue what just happened.
Pushing through thick brush, Kellie led them to the foot-wide, well-worn deer trail she’d promised. “The cabin is on the ridge. You can just barely see the roof from here.” She pointed uphill, where the gables of a house peeked through the trees. “The vegetation has really grown since I was here. The trail splits a couple times, but if you stay right you’ll be okay. Ours used to be the first cabin you come to, but that may have changed in the past two years.” The touch of sadness in her voice again tightened MacGyver’s gut.
“I haven’t gotten lost in a week or two.” Travis grinned, apparently trying to work a smile from her and ease the strained expression she wore like a mask.
It almost worked, but then a frown undid the curve of her lips, and her voice turned hard. “You boys be careful. I don’t want anyone hurt on my account.”
Blake’s sarcastic snort echoed inside MacGyver’s head. That was it—that was all he could take. Anger boiled over, and he started toward Blake, who was already walking up the trail, his limp barely noticeable. MacGyver would learn the reason for the man’s surliness where Kellie was concerned or send him packing.
Travis blocked MacGyver’s path, stopping him with a hand on his chest. He bobbed his chin toward Kellie, who’d turned and disappeared to the other side of the brush.
MacGyver shrugged off Travis’s hand and took a couple steps back. “What the fuck’s eating him?”
“Well, he’s your friend, so you should definitely ask him, but now is not the time. We’ve got a job to do.”
Right…but MacGyver didn’t have to like it. He stared after Blake long enough to wrestle his temper down where it belonged, then nodded grudgingly.
“Give us a few minutes to get in position.” Travis’s large hand landed on MacGyver’s shoulder. “After we find Charlie, you can see if Sorenson wants to get anything off his chest.” He walked backward a few steps before turning and hustling after Blake.
Kellie was sitting in the driver’s seat when MacGyver reached the SUV. She started the engine as he climbed in. When she shifted out of park, he laid his hand over hers and gently pushed the lever back where it had been.
“Let’s give them five minutes or so.” He spread his long legs and slouched on the seat, grateful to have more room if only for a while. He wanted to ask her about Blake again, but there was no reason to think it would be any better received this time than when he’d asked her in the airport. “I was sorry to hear about your mother. What happened?”
Kellie’s shoulders slumped, and she stared straight ahead through the windshield, quiet for what seemed a long time before a sigh relaxed her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. “Pancreatic cancer. By the time it was diagnosed, it’d spread to her liver. Surgery wasn’t a possibility. She was dead in two months. I barely made it home in time to see her.” She choked on the final word.
MacGyver locked his hands together on his chest so he couldn’t reach for her, even though the need to somehow bear her pain had lodged in his throat and he fought to keep his voice even. “Where were you living?”
If asking her about her mother had made her uncomfortable, it was nothing compared to thebustedlook invading her eyes now. MacGyver studied the side of her face until she dropped her head and her features disappeared behind a veil of her hair. Equal parts curiosity and dread filled him. Where might she have been that could possibly explain the conflicting emotions that cascaded across her face? Prison? A monastery in Tibet? Not likely…with the way she’d responded to his ill-advised kiss.
The seconds ticked by in heavy silence. Maybe she wasn’t going to answer his simple question for whatever reason—and maybe he should give her a break. After all, her personal life was none of his business, as she’d readily pointed out earlier.
MacGyver sat up straight, one arm thrown across the back of the seat. “Travis will be in position any time now. Let’s head that way.”
Kellie didn’t move except to return her hand to the shift lever and change gears, then lifted her eyes to his. “Iraq. Okay? I was in Iraq.”
Anger shuttered her expression like a defensive shield, shutting him out and warning of land mines ahead should he dare to breach her walls. She gunned the engine and pulled away from the boat launch, turned right and started up the hill, leaving him in bewildered silence.
Iraq?
It was no stretch to make the connection between her whereabouts and her willingness to fight him after she’d left his bed yesterday morning. Or the way she’d held her own with Palazzi outside the hotel. Very few brave souls vacationed in Iraq these days, especially women. She was ex-military…just like him. What he didn’t get was…
“Why was telling me so hard?”
Kellie scoffed. “I’ll let Lieutenant Commander Sorenson fill in the details.”
Scorn oozed from her words, and the finality of her tone suggested they were finished here. Obviously, Kellie didn’t know how patient he could be.
“Like I said—I’d rather hear it from you. Were you lying when you told me you didn’t know Blake?”