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“I thought she had bought Beth . . . I mean, Angel . . . additional clothes and toys to make her feel less insecure. . . . You were scared. . . .”
Scared? It hadn’t been just fear that had her sobbing for her mother.
“I hated her,” Angel snapped in reply. “Until the moment I met Jenny, all I did was cry. And Aunt Jo hated me just as much.” She inhaled roughly, her hand clenching on the cooling cup of coffee in front of her. “I don’t want to discuss this. We can discuss here and now and Bliss’s protection, the weather, recipes or soap operas, or why you should never be allowed around a stove. I don’t give a damn. But the past is off limits.”
Chaya rolled her eyes as her lips compressed in anger at the reference to the stove.
“And if the past is the reason why Bliss is in danger?” Natches asked, his eyes burning a dark emerald green. “What then?”
“I’ll do whatever I have to,” she answered him coldly. “I’m proving that now, aren’t I? I’m here.”
What more did they want? She could be out in the field searching for the men intent on hurting her sister. Instead she was here,
“For Bliss.” Chaya stared back at her, anger swirling in her eyes as though Angel should feel something more at this late date when Chaya obviously hadn’t.
“Just for Bliss,” Angel lied. And she knew it was a lie. “Now are we going to discuss her protection? If not, you’ll have to excuse me, I have things to do.”
She glared back at Chaya, so torn, so angry and filled with resentment, she could barely hold it in. And at the same time, all she wanted to do was ask why.
Why didn’t her mother come get her and Jenny that day?
Why did she have to let her die?
• • •
There were no answers to her questions, but Natches did seem to have a plan of sorts when it came to protecting Bliss.
It was simple enough. They’d keep Bliss in the house, hidden as much as possible while the Mackays and the two SEALs, Seth and Saul August, protected the house and searched for the would-be abductors.
A search that had so far proved fruitless, she knew. Other than a picture of her with a red X across her face, they had nothing. The fact that the pack had been left behind was telling. Someone was trying to warn them of something, though she wasn’t certain what, or why.
Angel made no objections to the plan until they made their way to the safe room between the master bedroom and Bliss’s bedroom.
“The code in is simple enough,” Natches explained, showing her the four sequential numbers on the keypad. Pushing enter, the shelf and hidden steel door gave a sibilant little hiss. Natches pushed it open and stepped inside the room. Wide steel steps led to the sunken room. A landline, table, full bed, television, and easy chair were placed in the steel-lined room.
“There are several hidden caverns about half a mile from here,” Natches revealed. “Water and air can flow freely through the pipes I laid personally. Electric and cable come from underground lines I laid from the work shed outside, along with internet and landline. Once inside, Bliss knows the only way to secure the door from the inside is the pressure plate beside it.” He pointed out the metal plate. “The door closes on its own and secures. And God help the man that thinks he’ll squeeze through. The hydraulics on that door would cut a body in half. There will be no squeezing past. Once inside, Bliss can?
??t reopen the door herself. An alarm is sent to the police, fire department, DHS, and every family member in the county once the door locks. Dawg, Rowdy, Alex, and Doogan each have a code to unlock it. It takes two of those codes to release the door. One of Dawg’s and Rowdy’s, one of Alex’s and Doogan’s. And that’s something even Bliss doesn’t know.”
Still, it was risky to leave his daughter’s ability to get out of the room hinging on the lives of four men who could be killed before ever reaching her.
“Plan A through Z,” Duke murmured.
“Backup in every direction,” Natches agreed. “That way Bliss can’t open the door herself if she believes her parents are being threatened. And she knows our safety is dependent on her being here. There’s an entrance to the room from the hall, our room, and Bliss’s, and each door works the same.”
Clever, Angel thought, impressed. The safe room would have cost more than the house, pool, and lakeside property combined.
“Angel, you’ll join Bliss if there’s a problem,” Natches stated as though it were a foregone conclusion. “If they get as far as the house, then Chaya, Declan, and Harley can’t afford to be distracted by you. Duke will have the hall, the rest of us will spread out and begin hunting. Are we clear?”
Angel stepped from the safe room, her gaze meeting Duke’s perfectly bland expression. Of course he was smart enough to know that wasn’t going to happen. She’d promised to try to play nice, though.
“Do you keep Trudy in that room?” she asked with all apparent sincere innocence.
“Trudy? My rifle?” He gave a short laugh. “She’s my best weapon.”
“Shut up,” Chaya hissed, but Angel only smiled complacently as the warning came too late.
“I didn’t train you or train with you,” Natches informed her as his wife’s warning connected with his brain. His arms crossed over his chest in a classic Mackay-dominant pose as he looked down his nose at her. “You’ll be a distraction.”
