Clark and Hugh eyed each other like cops, sizing each other up as I made the introductions.
“Sheriff Clark Weller of Colorado, this is Hugh…” I glanced at him, unsure of his last name.
Hugh held out his hand. “Special Agent Hugh MacCabe.”
Mercy rested her hand on her hip. “MacCabe? As in Senator MacCabe?”
Hugh’s jaw clenched. “Yeah, that was my dad.”
“You got ID or a badge?” Clark asked.
“I was undercover. I don’t have anything on me.”
Mercy’s hands rested on her hips as if she was fighting the urge to reach out and touch him to find out how he was going to die.
I rested my palm on her arm. “It’s okay. I believe him.”
“You must be Mercy,” Hugh said, holding out his hand.
Mercy smiled and reached for it, but I knocked Hugh’s hand down before she could touch it. Not even I wanted to know how I was going to die. Hugh probably wouldn’t either. “Not everyone wants to know.”
Hugh’s brows dipped, but he didn’t question it.
“Fine. Let’s get you both dried off and cleaned up so you can tell us what’s going on.”
Mercy led me down the hall to her room after grabbing a flashlight. She took some towels out of the closet and tossed me one before disappearing down the hallway.
Mercy’s voice carried down the hall as she spoke with Clark and Hugh. “You got some spare clothes he can borrow?”
“Sure,” I heard Clark answer.
“You boys play nice,” Mercy said before reappearing in the room. She rummaged through her closet and drawers and tossed a few items onto the bed. “Those will have to do. I’ve already got a lot of my stuff packed.”
I slipped out of my clothes and changed into something dry. My fingers had started to prune, and an unforgiving chill had been lingering throughout my body ever since I ran from my house.
“So, spill it,” she said.
“Mercy, I love you, but I think we need everyone here. This is bigger than I can handle.”
Mercy paused at her dresser and turned to look at me, her gaze assessing. “You need our help?”
“Yeah, didn’t you just hear me?” I asked.
Her mouth snapped closed. “In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never once asked for our help.”
“Really?” I wrinkled my nose, trying to think back as to whether she was right.
“Really,” she answered. “Okay, no need to worry…” She turned in place as if she were on the verge of worrying and wasn’t sure where to start.
“It has to do with Teddy,” I said.
My words had the impact of hitting the stop button on a merry-go-round. She stopped panicking on the spot. “I haven’t heard you say that name in a while.”
“He had a ledger and stole money from a really bad guy. It’s a long story, but now the crime boss guy is after me. They’ve already shot Hugh, and I don’t know what to do. You recognize Hugh, don’t you? My Mr. Right?”
My heart clenched tight. I prided myself on being in control, on being grounded and able to handle things on my own. I was independent. I was smart. I was that girl.
Until now.
“I recognized the face. So, don’t worry. We aren’t going to let anything happen to either of you,” she said, touching my arm. Within seconds of using her ability to see how I was going to die, she patted my arm and smiled. “You aren’t dying anytime soon. I’ll take care of everything.”
“How?” I asked, turning my gaze to the window. “We can’t even call the others.”
“Leave that to me,” she said. “Now let’s go take a look at Mr. Right’s shoulder and see if I packed up my pain meds. I’m sure he could use them about now to help him relax.”
“I’m not sure Hugh knows how to relax.”
Her lips twisted into a smile. “Alcohol will help with both of his issues. Just leave it to me.”
The rest of the night was a blur between the bottles of wine and beer. Clark had cooked dinner on the grill. I’d turned several times to find Hugh watching me from across the room. His eyes glittered with soft unspoken emotion. When Mercy showed us to the guest bedroom, it had few furnishings beyond a bed and dresser. Everything else had been packed up.
Hugh stared down at me. I could read the hesitation in his eyes, the fact he had something to say even though he never opened his mouth.
His gaze dropped to my necklace, and he grinned. “A lighthouse.”
“It was a gift from Teddy.”
Chapter Seventeen
Warmth caressed my face as I snuggled into the body next to me.
The rise and fall of the chest beneath my hand was steady and sure. I slowly opened my eyes, trying to pierce through the veil of pain assaulting my head.
“Take it slow,” Hugh whispered from next to me. “Your sister got us drunk.”
That explained the head-pounding throbs and my need to turn away from the light.
“What time is it?” I swallowed hard, fighting the cotton in my mouth.
“I’m not sure. There isn’t a clock in this room,” he said, stroking my hair as if it were a habit he couldn’t turn off. “Good news is that the rain has stopped and the sun is out.”
I tried to turn toward the window and hissed, snugging back into the warmth of his body.
“We should get moving,” I said as if it would motivate me to actually pull away from him.
“Actually, I think this is your last stop. It’s time you got off the crazy train. I can handle it from here.”
I forced my eyes open, ignoring the bite in my head. I blinked my lazy lids open, adjusting to the light. “You don’t even have the ledger.”
“I found it last night,” he said as his gaze softened.
“How? Where? More importantly, why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, leaning upon my arm to stare down at him.
He picked up the lighthouse locket resting against my shirt and ran his finger over the design. “Teddy gave this to you.”
“Well, yeah,” I said, holding it out so I could stare down at it. “He said I was the light in the darkness.”
“You most definitely are,” Hugh said, resting his palm on my cheek. He rolled me to my back, then pressed his lips to mine in a slow and tender kiss. Pulling back, he touched the locket, and within seconds, a secret compartment I never even knew was there opened.
“What the…” I said, sitting up and taking the necklace off to get a better look. Removing the back had uncovered a rectangular USB port connection.
“My mother had one. She was a computer nerd,” Hugh said, rubbing his hand up and down my back in an intimate caress. “I didn’t realize you had one until I saw it last night.”
“The light in the darkness,” I whispered again, the words giving new meaning to what I’d thought was intimacy between Teddy and me.
I should have known that wasn’t the case.
“Victor and his guys are probably still looking for you,” I said as Hugh sat up next to me.
He continued the caress on my back. “I’m counting on it.”