Page 59 of Off the Grid
“What’s up?” the younger man asked, then turned toward Leo and McKenzie. “I’m Drew, by the way, as you probably guessed.”
“Leo.”
“McKenzie.”
This is beginning to feel like the twilight zone, he thought, stifling a grin. McKenzie wasn’t so successful. They made eye contact briefly as a smile widened her lips.
Don’t you dare, he silently ordered.
The twinkle in her eye quietly responded,I wouldn’t dream.
For some reason, it made his chest tight.
“They need to borrow your phone,” John said. “They’re locked out of their rental house and need to call someone to help.”
“Sure thing.” Drew lurched into action, pulling his cell from his pocket and rapidly shifting his thumb across the screen. “Let me just… Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
Leo took the phone and dialed in Nate’s number. As the line rang, he couldn’t help but notice as McKenzie stepped over to Drew and leaned in close. He didn’t like the way his muscles writhed at the sight.
“Did you say the caterers were missing?” she asked softly.
“Yeah,” Drew told her in a low voice. A sigh slipped through his lips as he rubbed at the back of his neck with his palm. Then his eyes widened the briefest amount, but Leo knew exactly what it was—it was the look of a man who’d suddenly realized he was talking to a beautiful woman. Drew dropped his arm and straightened his spine. When he opened his mouth to speak, the tone was deeper, more friendly, more inviting. “Did I mention my brother is the groom? He’s got a lot on his plate, what with the roads being hell and his bride, Alice, having a meltdown. I’m here all by myself, no date or girlfriend or anything, so I volunteered to run point on fixing this quickly unfolding disaster. But it’s not looking good.”
“Would it help if I told you I’m a pastry chef?” McKenzie grinned, a wicked little thing that Leo understood immediately—she couldn’t wait to get her hands in a kitchen. Dammit if the sight of her so enthused didn’t make his pulse race a little faster. Annoyingly, Leo guessed it had the same effect on Drew, whose eyes widened with shocked delight. “And I have nothing better to do right now than come to your rescue?”
Leo fought the sudden urge to gag. Drew, in the meantime, smiled and put his hand on her lower back, guiding her toward the clubhouse. “You might just be the best surprise I’ve had all day.”
Don’t fall for that line.Leo snorted, rolling his eyes at the sound of McKenzie’s soft laughter.You’ve got to be kidding me.
“Hello?”
The firm sound of his partner’s voice pulled Leo back to the phone in his hand. He gripped it tighter and turned around, pushing McKenzie and the doting puppy at her heels from his mind as he let his gaze fall on the lake and focused on the job.
“It’s me.”
“Leo! Where the hell have you been?”
“It’s a long story, Parker.”
“Are you with McKenzie? Where are you? What happened?”
I saved her from the Russian mob, we had the most amazing night of my entire life, and then I let her walk away in the arms of another man. That’s what the hell happened!Leo wrinkled his nose and took a deep breath through clenched teeth.The job, the job. Focus on the job.“Our call dropped somewhere between the Upper West Side and the George Washington Bridge, but I maintained pursuit until the van pulled over into a warehouse somewhere in New Jersey. They switched vehicles, and I continued to tail them to a house somewhere in upstate New York. I’m guessing the Catskills maybe.”
“Upstate New York?” Nate broke in. “Why did they bring her there?”
“My question exactly.” Leo nodded as the image of the house filled his mind. The lake, the wedding, and the real world slipped away as he slid back into federal-agent mode. His training took over, forcing his thoughts to compartmentalize, and that pesky bundle of confused emotions was stuffed into a drawer to be opened another time. “The address on the mailbox was 11 Mountainside Drive. It was a big house with expensive cars. They kept McKenzie in what appeared to be an empty closet in the garage that had been cleaned and fitted out with a mattress. It was possibly designed to be used as a cell, possibly not. I couldn’t tell. She said she caught a glimpse of the owner—white hair, tan skin, dark brown eyes, glasses, mid-sixties I’m guessing, give or take a few years.”
“I’ll run the address through the system,” Nate commented, as though reading Leo’s mind. They had predicting each other’s needs down to a science, as the best partners did. “See if I find anyone who matches that description, though no one comes to mind.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t think of any leads either. The whole thing smells fishy, like there’s something we’re not seeing. It’s slippery. I can’t quite get a grasp.”
“What happened next?”
“Well, I broke in—”
“Without backup? Leo.”
