"It certainly is," Sunny agreed. She swallowed audibly. Chance looked down to see the paper shaking in her hand.
The letters were misshapen and wobbly and all different sizes. The little girl must have labored over them for a long time, with Mary"s expert and patient aid, because the words were legible. ""Welcome home Sunny,"" Sunny read aloud. Her face began to crumple. "That"s the most beautiful sign I"ve ever seen," she said, then buried her face against Chance"s neck and burst into tears.
"Yep," Michael said. "She"s pregnant, all right."
IT WAS DIFFICULT to say who fell more in love with whom, Sunny with the Mackenzies, or the Mackenzies with her. Once Chance placed her in the middle of the king-sized bed Mary had made up for her-he didn"t tell her it was his old bedroom-Sunny settled in like a queen holding court. Instead of lying down to sleep, she propped herself up on pillows, and soon all of the women and most of the younger kids were in there, sitting on the bed and on the floor, some even in chairs. The twins were working their way from one side of the bed to the other and back again, clutching the covers for support and babbling away to each other in what Barrie called their "twin talk." Shea had Benjy down on the floor, tickling him, and every time she stopped he would shriek, "More! More!" Nick sat cross-legged on the bed, her "wed cwayon" in hand as she studiously worked on another sign. Since the first one had been such a resounding success, this one was for Barrie, and she was embellishing it with lopsided stars. Loren, being a doctor, wanted the details of Sunny"s wound and present condition. Caroline was doing an impromptu fashion consultation, brushing Sunny"s hair and swirling it on top of her head, with some very s.e.xy tendrils curling loose on her slender neck. Maris, her dark eyes glowing, was telling Sunny all about her own pregnancy, and Mary was overseeing it all.
Leaving his family to do what they did best, weave a magic spell of warmth and belonging, Chance walked down to the barn. He felt edgy and worried and a little panicked, and he needed some peace and quiet. When everything quieted down tonight, he had to talk to Sunny. He couldn"t put it off any longer. He prayed desperately that she could forgive him, that what he had to tell her didn"t completely turn her against him, because he loved her so much he wasn"t certain he could live without her. When she had buried her face against him and cried, his heart had almost stopped because she had turned to him instead of away from him.
She had laughed again. That sound was the sweetest sound he"d ever heard, and it had almost unmanned him. He couldn"t imagine living without being able to hear her laugh.
He folded his arms across the top of a stall door and rested his head on them. She had to forgive him. She had to.
"It"s tough, isn"t it?" Wolf said in his deep voice, coming up to stand beside Chance and rest his arms on top of the stall door, too. "Loving a woman. And it"s the best thing in the world."
"I never thought it would happen," Chance said, the words strained. "I was so careful. No marriage, no kids. It was going to end with me. But she blindsided me. I fell for her so fast I didn"t have time to run."
Wolf straightened, his black eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, "end with you"? Why don"t you want kids? You love them."
"Yeah," Chance said softly. "But they"re Mackenzies."
"You"re a Mackenzie." There was steel in the deep voice.
Tiredly, Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "That"s the problem. I"m not a real Mackenzie."
"Do you want to walk in the house and tell that little woman in there that you"re not her son?" Wolf demanded sharply.
"h.e.l.l, no!" No way would he hurt her like that.
"You"re my son. In all the ways that matter, you"re mine."
The truth of that humbled Chance. He rested his head on his arms again. "I never could understand how you could take me in as easily as you did. You know what kind of life I led. You may not know the details, but you have a good general idea. I wasn"t much more than a wild animal. Mom had no idea, but you did. And you still brought me into your home, trusted me to be around both Mom and Maris-"
"And that trust was justified, wasn"t it?" Wolf asked.
"But it might not have been. You had no way of knowing." Chance paused, looking inward at the darkness inside him. "I killed a man when I was about ten, maybe eleven," he said flatly. "That"s the wild kid you brought home with you. I stole, I lied, I attacked other kids and beat them up, then took whatever it was they had that I wanted. That"s the kind of person I am. That kid will always live inside me."
Wolf gave him a sharp look. "If you had to kill a man when you were ten, I suspect the b.a.s.t.a.r.d deserved killing."
"Yeah, he deserved it. Kids who live in the street are fair game to perverts like that." He clenched his hands. "I have to tell Sunny. I can"t ask her to marry me without her knowing what she"ll be getting, what kind of genes I"ll be pa.s.sing on to her children." He gave a harsh laugh. "Except I don"t know what kind of genes they are. I don"t know what"s in my background. For all I know my mother was a drugged-out wh.o.r.e and-"
"Stop right there," Wolf said, steel in his voice.
Chance looked up at him, the only father he had ever known, and the man he respected most in the world.
"I don"t know who gave birth to you," Wolf said. "But I do know bloodlines, son, and you"re a thoroughbred. Do you know what I regret most in my life? Not finding you until you were fourteen. Not feeling your hand holding my finger when you took your first step. Not getting up with you in the night when you were teething, or when you were sick. Not being able to hold you the way you needed holding, the way all kids need holding. By the time we got you I couldn"t do any of that, because you were as skittish as a wild colt. You didn"t like for us to touch you, and I tried to respect that.
"But one thing you need to know. I"m more proud of you than I"ve ever been of anything in my life, because you"re one of the finest men I"ve ever known, and you had to work a lot harder than most to get to where you are. If I could have had my pick of all the kids in the world to adopt, I still would have chosen you."
Chance stared at his father, his eyes wet. Wolf Mackenzie put his arms around his grown son and hugged him close, the way he had wanted to do all these years. "I would have chosen you," he said again.
CHANCE ENTERED THE bedroom and quietly closed the door behind him. The crowd had long since dispersed, most to their respective homes, some spending the night here or at Zane"s or Michael"s. Sunny looked tired, but there was a little color in her cheeks.
"How do you feel?" he asked softly.
"Exhausted," she said. She looked away from him. "Better."
He sat down beside her on the bed, taking care not to jostle her. "I have some things I need to tell you," he said.
"If it"s an explanation, don"t bother," she shot back. "You used me. Fine. But d.a.m.n you, you didn"t have to take it as far as you did! Do you know how it makes me feel that I was such a fool to fall in love with you, when all you were doing was playing a game? Did it stroke your ego-"
He put his hand across her mouth. Above his tanned fingers, her gray eyes sparked pure rage at him. He took a deep breath. "First and most important thing is: I love you. That wasn"t a game. I started falling the minute I saw you. I tried to stop it but-" He shrugged that away and got back to the important part. "I love you so much I ache inside. I"m not good enough for you, and I know it-"
She swatted his hand aside, scowling at him. "What? I mean, I agree, after what you did, but-what do you mean?"
He took her hand and was relieved when she didn"t pull away from him. "I"m adopted," he said. "That part"s fine. It"s the best. But I don"t know who my biological parents are or anything about them. They-she-tossed me into the street and forgot about me. I grew up wild in the streets, and I mean literally in the streets. I don"t remember ever having a home until I was about fourteen, when I was adopted. I could come from the trashiest people on the planet, and probably do, otherwise they wouldn"t have left me to starve to death in the gutter. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but if you marry me, you have to know what you"ll be getting."
"What?" she said again, as if she couldn"t understand what he was telling her.
"I should have asked you to marry me before," he said, getting it all out. "But-h.e.l.l, how could I ask anyone to marry me? I"m a wild card. You don"t know what you"re getting with me. I was going to let you go, but then I found out about the baby and I couldn"t do it. I"m selfish, Sunny. I want it all, you and our baby. If you think you can take the risk-"
She drew back, such an incredulous, outraged look on her face that he almost couldn"t bear it. "I don"t believe this," she sputtered, and slapped him across the face.
She wasn"t back to full strength, but she still packed a wallop. Chance sat there, not even rubbing his stinging jaw. His heart was shriveling inside him. If she wanted to hit him again, he figured he deserved it.
"You fool!" she shouted. "For G.o.d"s sake, my father was a terrorist! That"s the heritage I"m carrying around, and you"re worried because you don"t know who your parents were? I wish to h.e.l.l I didn"t know who my father was! I don"t believe this! I thought you didn"t love me! Everything would have been all right if I"d known you love me!"
Chance uttered a startled, profound curse, one of Nick"s really, really bad words. Put in those terms, it did sound incredibly trivial. He stared at her lovely, outraged face, and the weight lifted off his chest as if it had never been. Suddenly he wanted to laugh. "I love you so much I"m half crazy with it. So, will you marry me?"
"I have to," she said grumpily. "You need a keeper. And let me tell you one thing, Chance Mackenzie, if you think you"re still going to be jetting all over the world getting stabbed and shot at while you get your adrenaline high, then you"d better think again. You"re going to stay home with me and this baby. Is that understood?"
"Understood," he said. After all, the Mackenzie men always did whatever it took to keep their women happy.
Epilogue.
SUNNY WAS ASLEEP, exhausted from her long labor and then the fright and stress of having surgery when the baby wouldn"t come. Her eyes were circled with fatigue, but Chance thought she had never been more beautiful. Her face, when he laid the baby in her arms, had been exalted. Until he died, he would never forget that moment. The medical personnel in the room had faded away to nothing, and it had been just him and his wife and their child.
He looked down at the wrinkled, equally exhausted little face of his son. The baby slept as if he had run a marathon, his plump hands squeezed into fierce little fists. He had downy black hair, and though it was difficult to judge a newborn"s eye color, he thought they might turn the same brilliant gray as Sunny"s.
Zane poked his head in the door. "Hi," he said softly. "I"ve been sent to reconnoiter. She"s still asleep, huh?"
Chance looked at his wife, as sound asleep as the baby. "She had a rough time."
"Well, h.e.l.l, he weighs ten pounds and change. No wonder she needed help." Zane came completely into the room, smiling as he examined the unconscious little face. "Here, let me hold him. He needs to start meeting the family." He took the baby from Chance, expertly cradling him to his chest. "I"m your uncle Zane. You"ll see me around a lot. I have two little boys who are just itching to play with you, and your aunt Maris-you"ll meet her in a minute-has one who"s just a little older than you are. You"ll have plenty of playmates, if you ever open your eyes and look around."
The baby"s eyelids didn"t flicker open, even when Zane rocked him. His pink lips moved in an unconscious sucking motion.
"You forget fast how little they are," Zane said softly as he smoothed his big hand over the baby"s small round skull. He glanced up at Chance and grinned. "Looks like I"m still the only one who knows how to make a little girl."
"Yeah, well, this is just my first try."
"It"ll be your last one, too, if they"re all going to weigh ten pounds," came a voice from the bed. Sunny sighed and pushed her hair out of her eyes, and a smile spread across her face as she spied her son. "Let me have him," she said, holding out her arms.
There was a protocol to this sort of thing. Zane pa.s.sed the baby to Chance, and Chance carried him to Sunny, settling him in her arms. No matter how often he saw it, he was always touched by the communion between mother and new baby, that absorbed look they both got as if they recognized each other on some basic, primal level.
"Are you feeling well enough for company?" Zane asked. "Mom"s champing at the bit, wanting to get her hands on this little guy."
"I feel fine," Sunny said, though Chance knew she didn"t. He had to kiss her, and even now there was that flash of heat between them, even though their son was only a few hours old. She pulled back, laughing a little and blushing. "Get away from me, you lech," she said, teasing him, and he laughed.
"What are you going to name him?" Zane demanded. "We"ve been asking for months, but you never would say. It can"t stay a secret much longer."
Chance trailed his finger down the baby"s downy cheek, then he put his arms around both Sunny and the baby and held them close. Life couldn"t get much better than this.
"Wolf," he said. "He"s little Wolf."
Loving Evangeline.
Chapter One.
DAVIS PRIESEN DIDN"T think of himself as a coward, but he would rather have had surgery without anesthesia than face Robert Cannon and tell him what he had to tell him. It wasn"t that the majority stockholder, CEO and president of Cannon Group would hold him responsible for the bad news; Cannon had never been known to shoot the messenger. But those icy green eyes would become even colder, even more remote, and Davis knew from experience that he would feel the frigid touch of fear along his spine. Cannon had a reputation for scrupulous fairness, but also for unmatched ruthlessness when someone tried to screw him. Davis couldn"t think of anyone he respected more than Robert Cannon, but that didn"t relieve his dread.
Other men in Cannon"s position, with his power, insulated themselves behind layers of a.s.sistants. It was a measure of his own control and personal remoteness that only Cannon"s personal a.s.sistant guarded the gates to his inner sanctum. Felice Koury had been Cannon"s PA for eight years and ran his office with the precision of a Swiss watch. She was a tall, lean, ageless woman with iron-gray hair and the smooth complexion of a twenty-year-old. Davis knew that her youngest child was in his mid-twenties, putting Felice at least in her mid-forties, but it was impossible to guess her age from her appearance. She was cool under fire, frighteningly efficient and had never shown a hint of nervousness around her boss. Davis wished he had a little of that last ability.
He had called beforehand to make certain Cannon could see him, so Felice wasn"t surprised when he entered her office. "Good morning, Mr. Priesen." She reached immediately for the phone and punched a b.u.t.ton. "Mr. Priesen is here, sir." She replaced the receiver and stood. "He"ll see you now." With the smooth efficiency that always intimidated him, she was at the door of the inner office before he could reach it, opening it for him, then firmly closing it when he was inside. There was nothing subservient in Felice"s attention; rather, he felt as if she controlled even his entrance into Cannon"s office. Which, of course, she did.
Cannon"s office was huge, luxurious and exquisitely decorated. It was a tribute to his taste that the effect was relaxing, rather than overwhelming, even though original oil paintings hung on the walls and a two-hundred-year-old Persian rug was underfoot. To the right was a large sitting area, complete with entertainment center, though Davis doubted that Cannon ever used the large-screen television or VCR for anything other than business. Six Palladian windows marched along the wall, framing the matchless views of New York City as if they were six paintings. The windows were works of art in themselves, beautifully fashioned panes of cut gla.s.s that took the light streaming through them and splintered it into diamonds.
Cannon"s ma.s.sive desk was another antique, a masterpiece of carved black wood that supposedly had belonged to the eighteenth-century Romanovs. He looked very at home behind it.
He was a tall, lean man, with the elegant grace and power of a panther. There was something pantherish about his coloring, too, with his sleek black hair and pale green eyes. One might even think of Robert Cannon as indolent. One would be dangerously mistaken.
He rose to his feet to shake hands, his long, well-shaped fingers gripping Davis"s with surprising strength. Davis was always taken aback by the steeliness of that grip.
On some occasions Cannon had invited him to the sitting area and asked if he would like coffee. This was not one of those occasions. Cannon hadn"t reached his position by misreading people, and his eyes narrowed as he examined the tension in Davis"s face. "I would say it"s good to see you, Davis," he remarked, "but I don"t think you"re here to tell me something I"m going to like."
His voice had been easy, almost casual, but Davis felt his tension go up another ten notches. "No, sir."
"Is it your fault?"
"No, sir." Then, scrupulously honest, he admitted, "Though I probably should have caught it sooner."
"Then relax and sit down," Robert said gently as he reseated himself. "If it isn"t your fault, you"re safe. Now, tell me what the problem is."
Davis nervously took a seat, but relaxing was out of the question. He perched on the edge of a soft leather chair. "Someone in Huntsville is selling our software for the s.p.a.ce station," he blurted.
Cannon was never a restless man, but now he became even more still, and those green eyes took on the glacial look that Davis dreaded. "Do you have proof?" he asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Do you know who?"
"I think so, sir."
"Fill me in." With those abrupt words, Cannon leaned back, his gaze focused on Davis like a pale green laser.
Davis did, stumbling several times as he tried to explain how he had become suspicious and done a bit of investigating on his own to verify his suspicions before he accused anyone. Cannon listened in silence, and Davis wiped the sweat from his brow as he described the results of his sleuthing. The Cannon Group company, PowerNet, located in Huntsville, Alabama, was currently working on highly cla.s.sified software developed for NASA. That software was definitely showing up in the hands of a company affiliated with another country. This wasn"t just industrial espionage, which would have been enough; this was treason.
His suspicions had centered on Landon Mercer, the company manager. Mercer had divorced the year before, and his style of living had gone noticeably upward. His salary was very good, but not good enough to support a family and live the way he had been living. Davis had discreetly hired an investigation service that had discovered large deposits into Mercer"s bank account. After following him for several weeks, they had reported that he regularly visited a marina in Guntersville, a small town nearby, situated on Guntersville Lake, an impoundment of the Tennessee river.
The owner/operator of the marina was a woman named Evie Shaw; the investigators hadn"t yet been able to find out anything substantive from her bank accounts or spending habits, which could mean only that she was smarter than Mercer. On at least two occasions, however, Mercer had rented a motorboat at the marina, and shortly after he had left in the boat, Evie Shaw had closed the marina, gotten into her own boat and followed him. They had returned separately, some fifteen minutes apart. It looked as if they were meeting somewhere on the big lake, where they would find it very easy both to conceal their actions, and to see and hear anyone approaching them. It was much safer than trying to conduct clandestine business in the busy marina; in fact, the popularity of the marina made it all the odder that she would close it down in the middle of the day.
When Davis had finished and sat nervously cracking his knuckles, Cannon"s face was hard and expressionless. "Thank you, Davis," he said calmly. "I"ll notify the FBI and take it from here. Good work."
Davis flushed as he got to his feet. "I"m sorry I didn"t catch it sooner."
"Security isn"t your area. Someone was falling down on the job. I"ll take care of that, too. We"re lucky that you"re as sharp as you are." Robert made a mental note to both increase Davis"s salary, which was already healthy, and begin grooming him for more responsibility and power. He had shown a sharpness and initiative that shouldn"t go unrewarded. "I"m sure the FBI will want to speak with you, so stay available for the rest of the day."
"Yes, sir."
As soon as Davis had left, Robert used his private line to call the FBI. The bureau maintained a huge force in the city, and he had had occasion to work with them before. He was put through immediately to the supervisory agent. His control was such that none of his rage was revealed in his voice as he requested that the two best agents come to his office as soon as possible. His influence was such that no questions were asked; he was simply given the quiet a.s.surance that two agents would be there within the half hour.
That done, he sat back and considered all the options open to him. He didn"t allow his cold fury to cloud his thinking. Uncontrolled emotion was not only useless, it was stupid, and Robert never allowed himself to do anything stupid. He took it personally that someone at one of his companies was selling cla.s.sified computer programs; it was a blemish on his own reputation. He had nothing but contempt for someone who would sell out his own country merely for the money involved, and he would stop at nothing to halt the theft and put the perpetrator behind bars. Within fifteen minutes, he had formulated his plan of action.
The two agents arrived in twenty minutes. When Felice buzzed him, he told her to send them in, and that he wanted no interruptions of any kind until the gentlemen had left. A perfect secretary to the bone, she asked no questions.
She ushered the two conservatively dressed men into his office and firmly closed the door behind them. Robert stood to welcome them, but all the while he was a.s.sessing them with his cool, unreadable gaze. The younger man, about thirty, was immediately recognizable as a midlevel civil servant, but there was also a certain self-a.s.surance in the man"s eyes that Robert approved of. The older man, perhaps in his early fifties, had light brown hair that had gone mostly gray. He was not quite of average height, and was stocky of build. The blue eyes, behind metal-framed gla.s.ses, were tired, but nevertheless sparkled with intelligence and authority. No junior agent, this.
The older man held out his hand to Robert. "Mr. Cannon?" At Robert"s nod, he said, "I"m William Brent, senior agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is Lee Murray, special agent a.s.signed to counterespionage."