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He turned his head and watched Emerson disappear into the bathroom before turning back to the admiral.
“Respectfully, sir.” He clenched his teeth around the words. “Don’t try to take her away from me. I’ll fight it.”
Admiral Holloran’s eyes widened, his expression stern, though if he wasn’t mistaken, Macey detected a glimmer of humor in his blue eyes.
“I expect to see a ring on her finger soon,” he finally snapped. “Don’t disappoint me.”
Macey grunted at that and turned back to Reno. The ring would be there because that was where it belonged, not because the admiral ordered it.
“How did he get in?” he asked Reno. “He bypassed every safeguard I had.”
Reno glanced disapprovingly at the admiral, his expression quiet. Macey felt his stomach sink as he turned back to Holloran.
Holloran was one of the few people who knew about the cave. He and the Durango Team. It was a secret that shouldn’t have been uttered.
“I told Pierce about the cave.” The admiral sighed. “This one is on my shoulders, Lieutenant; I accept responsibility for it.”
He wasn’t going to say anything. He really wasn’t.
“Respectfully, sir,” he sneered. He guessed he was going to say something after all. “That’s hardly acceptable.”
Holloran’s lips pressed together in irritation. His arms crossed over his wide chest, his expression darkening.
“It worked out,” he snapped back. “I won’t be chastised by you, Lieutenant, remember that.”
“Like hell! With all due respect, Admiral, your decision sucked, endangered my woman, this team, and the operation you ordered. Chastising you is the last thing I want to do.”
He wanted to plant his fist in the other man’s jaw.
“I want to know how we managed to miss Landry when we took this terrorist cell’s leader down,” Reno said.
The question from his commander had Macey turning and drawing in a hard breath as he fought to push back his anger.
“Landry managed to stay under the radar.” The admiral sighed again. “He was a deep-cover mole. With the death of their leader, Sorrell, that particular cell lost its driving force. Landry wanted blood in retaliation. He messed up when he went after Emerson. It was only a matter of time before I figured out I had a spy in my own camp. Very few people were aware she was my goddaughter, rather than just a friend’s daughter. On my team, only Landry knew.”
And Landry would have known the admiral would figure it out after the terrorists had left the note in her apartment that they had taken his goddaughter and would kill her in retaliation for Sorrell’s death.
“Yeah. Might have all worked out great if Landry hadn’t known about my place,” Macey snapped, glaring back at the admiral as his fists clenched.
Unfortunately, the admiral’s lips twitched as that glimmer of humor returned. “Hit me and she’s going to be mad. You ever seen her mad, March? I have, son, it’s not comfortable.”
“And I nearly lost the chance to see it,” Macey fumed. “Next time you want to play patty-cake with my secrets, sir, remember this. The next time you endanger her life, you’ll deal with me. And doing mad isn’t my way. I do blood.”
“And I do a baseball bat on stubborn male skulls,” Emerson announced as she left the bathroom. “Now, can we wrap this up so I can get some real clothes on and finally get some sleep?”
She was swallowed by his T-shirt. Her legs covered in dark bronze leggings, her hair falling around her face like mussed silk, she looked like a queen to him.
She moved to Macey, gripped his arm, and pulled him back. He looked down at her, his heart softening, his soul—damn if he didn’t feel his soul turning to mush at the sight of her pale face and her tired smile.
“Just hold me,” she whispered as his arms surrounded her and the sound of police sirens filtered from the open entrance outside. “Just hold me, Macey.”
He held her, ignoring the amusement in his friends’ gazes and the admiral’s scowl. He held on tight to what was his and thanked God she was safe.
His Emerson was safe and right here, in his arms, where she belonged.
epilogue
there were over three hundred people at the family reunion. There were dozens of tents in every shape and size scattered around the large farmhouse. There were bunks in the upper level of the barn and every kind of barbecue grill in existence set up beneath a covered wing off the barn. The floor of the huge shelter had been set up with dozens of picnic tables of varying sizes, and huge serving tables lined the wall.
