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Lily was about to say the same thing.
“Then a miracle happened. A guy by the name of Grange Lee walked into my life and changed it forever. A tough ex-military general, he made me an offer that seemed too good to be true.”
“What kind of offer?” she asked.
“General Lee was putting together a crack team of specialists, sworn to secrecy and bound to work for the United States government, a department within the Department of Justice. In exchange for wiping out all the charges against me, I could work for him.”
“Doing what?”
“The United States government is stolen from all the time. Things that they can’t recover. Things that the government tries to retrieve by conventional means, but for some reason can’t get back because either the court system is flawed or the bad guys have really good lawyers. Some things they just can’t get confiscate the legal way.”
Lily snorted. “As both a cop and a PI, I’ve seen that happen all too often. And it’s frustrating as hell.”
He nodded. “Tell me about it. Anyway, Grange laid it all out for me. Told me what I’d be doing…what we’d all be doing. No one outside a single branch of the government even knows we exist. It was risky and it was dangerous and if we were caught at it, the government, and he, would deny our existence.”
“In other words, you had to be really good at what you did, because if you got caught in these thefts, you would go to jail and they wouldn’t be able to bail you out this time,” she said.
“Right. But hell, it was worth the risk. I wanted a chance to turn my life around, to do something right for a change instead of fucking up like I had been.”
“So you said yes.”
He smiled. “I said hell yes. Grange made the arrangements, the charges disappeared, and I left with him.”
“Sounds so simple.”
“It wasn’t. He worked me…all of us. He’s one tough son of a bitch. And he knew he had a half dozen lazy, young, good-for-nothing criminals on his hands. So he had to show us the way. It was like boot camp. We got up at dawn, did physical conditioning, had rules and regulations. There was no partying, no drinking, no smoking, no women—”
“Shocking. How did you survive?” she asked, tongue in cheek.
“Nearly died the first month,” he teased back. “It was awful. You never heard a bunch of grown men whine like babies more than we did. But little by little he turned us into the men we were supposed to be—the men he knew we could be. He broke us down, then he built us up again. He taught us that we weren’t worthless, that we did have something of value to offer. He made us stronger, mentally and physically. There wasn’t one among us who wasn’t whip smart to begin with, so he made us take classes. The ones who didn’t have their high school diplomas got them in a hurry or else. Some of these guys should have gone on to college.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I wish you could meet them, Lily. I’ve never had brothers, until I joined Wild Riders. I’ve never been closer to a group of guys before.”
“Wild Riders?”
He cocked his head to the side and cast her a half smile that she’d always found boyish and charming. It reminded her of the old Mac, the one who could make her toes curl. “That’s the name of the organization. We’re into cars and bikes. We all ride together.”
“So you’re all bikers?”
“Yeah. Grange made sure to choose guys who were familiar with bikes and cars and comfortable riding them.”
“And stealing them?”
Mac let out a laugh. “Yeah, you could say that we all had that kind of history in our backgrounds.”
“So do you all ride bikes? Certain kinds? Harleys, crotch rockets or what?”
“One bike is pretty much the same as another, Lily. We can ride anything. But mostly we’re all Harley riders. Each guy has his own preference as to the type of Harley he runs with.
And muscle cars, too, just like the ones I used to work on when we first met.”
“The other guys ride bikes and drive fast cars too?”
“Yeah. We’re all around the same age.”
“Are you all from Dallas?”
He shook his head. “No. Wild Riders headquarters is in Dallas. Convenient for me since that’s where I grew up, but the other guys are from all over.”
“So you live at this headquarters?”
“A few of the guys hang out there a lot because they don’t have a permanent place and travel a lot. Some have apartments in another city. Grange and I do live at Wild Riders headquarters, though. Easy for me to stay there instead of paying rent at another place. We all meet there when we have an assignment or when Grange wants to run through some kind of operation, like tech stuff or to work on the bikes or cars.”
“All the bikes and cars are stored there?”
“The ones we use for ops, yeah.”
“I see. I guess you have a lot to tell me, don’t you?”
“About Wild Riders?”
She shook her head. “No, about how you became one.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
Mac’s eyes lit up as he told the story of his transformation. She felt the pride emanating from him. “You’re an amazing man, Mac.”
He shook his head. “Nah. Grange is the one who did it all. I just went along for the ride. He took a bunch of worthless losers and made us into something.”
She reached for his hand. “You were never worthless or a loser. I never thought so anyway.”
He put his other hand over hers. “Then you’re about the only one who didn’t think it. Most everyone else did.”
“I always believed in you, Mac. I still do. That’s why I’m still here.”
“And waiting for answers on the virus.”
She nodded.
He dragged his hand through his hair. “We were hired to retrieve an artifact from a traveling exhibit, already knowing it contained the vial with the virus inside. The virus was stolen from a government lab—an inside job, it was assumed, though they don’t know who did it. A major fuck up and one that our government, obviously, didn’t want anyone to know about.
Their own operatives have been involved and searching worldwide for it. Word was that it could have been located in multiple places. We had a lead that it was sold to a private party and was making its way across the country. Since they couldn’t bring in the FBI or any government resources without calling attention to what was going on, our job was to search the museum artifact.”
“So you weren’t certain the virus was even inside the artifact?”
“No. It was just one of about a dozen leads. We got lucky.”
“Lucky, huh?”
“Yeah. Of course, getting shot at wasn’t in the plan. We didn’t count on anyone else being there to intercept, but there was always going to be the possibility that someone else would be after the virus, too.”
“Any idea who?”
“No clue. I was supposed to retrieve the artifact, and if the vial was there, run it down here to Tom’s, who would turn it over to his government contact. Which is still the plan.”
The plan she’d almost ruined by running off with the virus. No wonder Mac risked his life coming after her on the bike. “I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t. I should have been honest with you earlier. But we swear an oath, Lily, never to reveal information about the Wild Riders. Anyone who tells an outsider about it is out.”
In other words, Mac’s career was in serious danger because he’d told her. “I understand. And I won’t tell a soul, Mac. You can trust me.”
“I know that, too. And I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire and in all this. I didn’t intend for this to happen, but when the artifact broke and you saw the virus, I had to make a snap decision. I couldn’t let you go knowing what you did, and I couldn’t tell you the truth. Not then, anyway.”
She nodded. “I understand. So now what?”
“Now we—”
He started to say something, but his cell phone went off and he grabbed it out of his pocket. Lily knew something was wrong right away when Mac frowned.
“What happened?” he asked. “How bad is it?”
Lily froze, knowing whatever was going on wasn’t good.
“Get yourself to a safe place in a hurry. We’re out of here.” He closed the phone and looked at Lily.
“What?” she asked.
“Tom was ambushed on his way back here.”
“Is he all right?”
“He’s been shot.”
“Oh, God.”
“Our cover is blown. Tom’s certain whoever hit him is heading this way. We’ve got to take the virus and get the hell out, now.”
Lily was on her feet and upstairs in a hurry, jamming things in their bags. They were out the door and on the bike in five minutes, roaring through the gates and heading south.
She didn’t even know where they were going, but this time she trusted Mac completely. The important thing was to get the virus away from whoever had shot Tom, whoever was after it.
Mac would keep it, and them, safe.
Chapter Thirteen
They rode hard and for a great distance, zipping through towns so fast Lily’s head began to spin. Mac only stopped long enough for them to gas up the bike, use the bathroom and grab a bite to eat and a drink, then they climbed back on and rode again. He made a quick phone call right after they left Tom’s place when he’d stopped for gas, but other than that he didn’t volunteer where they were going, and she didn’t ask. She figured Mac knew what he was doing, and that was good enough. Besides, he seemed preoccupied—worried, even.
About Tom, no doubt, and she couldn’t blame him. Tom was a really nice guy. Lily was worried about him, too, wondering how badly he was hurt.
Adding to Mac’s burden with a bunch of questions wasn’t going to help, so she stayed silent. When he had something to tell her, he would, but she assumed that wouldn’t be until they made their final stop.
She knew he was taking them someplace he thought was safe. They rode straight through Oklahoma and crossed the state line into Texas. Mac stayed as much as possible on the less traveled roads, even though they’d been followed before.
He said he still didn’t want to take the interstates, that they’d be safer on the back roads.
By the time they hit Dallas, it was nightfall. Lily was sore and exhausted, and utterly shocked to find herself back in the city where she grew up. Would they stop here, or keep going?
She got her answer a short time later. Mac took them to a secluded area where the houses were more spread out. He pulled into a ranch with a wired fence and a gate much like what Tom had. The house was set way back from the property line, but it was well lit and even though it was dark it loomed before them like an imposing mansion.
Damn. Who lived here?
Mac pulled to the gate and waited while the security cameras scanned them. The gate opened slowly and he eased up the asphalt drive toward the house.
It was huge! Who did it belong to—another friend of Mac’s? Another contact, maybe?
Mac wound around behind the house, where there was a long row of garages. One was already open and he pulled the bike inside. Lily climbed off, stunned to find several Harleys parked there, along with quite an awesome display of muscle cars.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Wild Riders’ headquarters.”
“Oh.” Her stomach knotted up in an instant. “What’s your general going to think when he sees me?”
“No clue. We’ll find out in a minute. But don’t worry about it, I’ll explain everything to him.” He unpacked their things and slung the bag over his shoulder, then took her hand, which offered her a great deal of comfort. He led the way out of the garage and toward the back of the house.
