Author: Jaci Burton

Lily’s throat had gone dry, but her palms were wet. She had no idea what to expect, but she figured General Grange Lee was not going to be happy to see her, considering the Wild Riders was supposed to be a secret organization. And just how much of a secret did the government intend to keep this? How much of a liability was she? Was Mac’s job in jeopardy? She hoped not.

The back door was an elevator, actually. Mac pushed a series of buttons on the keypad, and the doors opened. They stepped inside, and Mac entered more codes. The door closed and he pushed a button. Finally, the elevator started moving up.

“Damn. That’s some security.”

“We can’t let just anyone in here.”

“They saw you at the gate. They know you’re coming.”

“Never hurts to take extra precautions.”

Okay, then. Now she was really confused about what she’d find when the doors opened. Some high tech military operation? Guns drawn and pointed at her? She licked her desert-dry lips and prepared for the worst.

The elevator lurched to a stop and the doors drew open.

Hard rock music filled the room. Loud music, blasting throughout the house. And leaning against the wall was a muscle-bound warrior.

Oh, my. Beefcake didn’t even begin to describe him.

Six foot four at least, with sandy brown hair, a T-shirt stretched tight over an impossibly muscled chest that led down to a lean waist, trim hips and steely legs encased in camos. He was tan, with surfer boy blue eyes and a full, sensual mouth that seemed incongruous with the rest of his physique.

Lily was mad for Mac, but Jesus, this guy was gorgeous.

“You’re in deep shit, Mac,” the guy said with a smirk, in a voice that melted her panties on the spot. Deep and oh so dark.

“Suck my dick, Spencer.”

Lily’s gaze shot to Mac’s, but he was grinning. When she looked back at Spencer, he was, too. Okay, so that must be hello in guyspeak. Mac stepped off the elevator, still holding onto Lily’s hand.

“This is Lily.”

Spencer raised a brow as he looked her over from head to toe. “Grange know about her?”

Nice to meet you too, Spencer.

“No.”

Spencer let out a hard laugh. “Oh, man, you are in deep shit.”

She felt invisible. And irritated. “I am present, you know.” She stuck out her hand. “Shall we try this again? Hi, Spencer, I’m Lily. Nice to meet you.”

Spencer nodded as he looked from Mac back to Lily, then shook her hand. “Your lady has some balls. I like that.

Nice to meet you too, Lily.”

“Spence is rude, crude and completely without manners. We’ve tried our best to work with him, but he’s hopeless.”

Lily turned at the deep voice beside her. An older man in military uniform held out his hand. “I’m Grange Lee, Lily.

Welcome to Wild Riders.”

She shook his hand, feeling a lot less intimated by General Lee than she had been by Spencer. “Thank you.”

“Spencer, go do something that doesn’t require your presence in this immediate vicinity,” Grange said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Spencer turned and walked away, giving Lily a glimpse of one fine, tight ass. She blinked and turned back to Mac.

“Don’t worry. He’s the worst of the bunch,” Mac said.

“There’s more of them?”

He grinned. “A few.”

“Any word on Tom?” Mac asked.

Grange looked at Lily.

“I already told her everything and she was there when the call came in. You can talk in front of her.”

“That’s not the deal here and you know it.”

Mac shrugged. “It couldn’t be helped.”

“It was my fault, I’m afraid,” Lily said, feeling like she needed to intercede on Mac’s behalf. “I did something really stupid and ran off with the virus. The only way Mac could stop me was to tell me everything. God knows he’d done everything he could to keep it from me, but I’m pushy as hell and refused to give up until I knew the truth.”

“It didn’t go down like that at all,” Mac said.

“It most certainly did.” Lily couldn’t believe Mac was going to lie to Grange in order to protect her.

Grange frowned and crossed his arms. “Guess we’ll sort this all out later.”

“About Tom?” Mac asked.

“Nothing yet. Could be he’s lying low and staying out of cell contact because he’s been compromised.”

“Let’s hope that’s all it is.”

They started walking, and Lily followed them. The floor they were on was laid out like a normal house. Kitchen, living room, though every room was enormous in size. How many people lived in this place? Modern conveniences, big screen television and state of the art stereo system—every gadget known to man in the space age kitchen, too. Lily was in awe. The floors were wood throughout the house. Everything was open and expansive, with a loft and railings overhead leading to a second floor. There was also a second elevator that led upstairs She heard noise and voices up there—and music, but so far she’d only met Spencer.

“Let’s talk in my office where it’s a little more quiet,”

Grange said, leading them down the hall and into another room.

This wasn’t an office. It was a situation room, filled with maps and charts. Multiple televisions and computers lined the walls on either side of a desk, with long rows of chairs set up classroom style. Mac slid into a chair at the front of the room. Grange turned a chair around to face him and Lily sat in one next to Mac.

“Okay, now tell me what really happened,” Grange said.

Mac filled Grange in on everything he knew so far, from how they met at the museum to all that had happened on their journey, up to and including Lily drugging him and Mac chasing after her last night. Damn, talk about coming clean.

Lily blushed hot as she felt Grange’s gaze on her while Mac recounted that part of the story. But she supposed it was vital that Grange know their entire history. At least Mac left the intimate details of their relationship out.

Mac pulled the vial out of his bag, handing it over to Grange. He took it out of the room and returned a few minutes later, then paused again when a call came in, indicating it was about Tom. Lily grasped Mac’s hand while Grange chatted on the phone. Grange cast his gaze at their hands and shot a sideways look at Mac. Lily felt self conscious about the intimacy of their hand holding, but Mac didn’t seem inclined to let go of her.

She liked that.

“Okay,” Grange said when he hung up the phone.

“Tom’s fine.”

Lily exhaled. “That’s great. What about the gunshot?”

“Superficial wound to his hand. He hightailed it to a safe zone where we have people who patched him right up.”

“So he’s secure,” Mac said.

Grange nodded.

“What’s a safe zone?” she asked.

“We have spots set up around the country. Places our contacts can go where they’re secure, where they can get help if necessary. It’s secure and he’s safe there.”

“Okay. That’s good.”

“Any idea who hit him?” Mac asked.

Grange shook his head. “No. He was on the way back from a meeting when a black SUV pulled up beside his car and started firing at him. Tried to run his car off the road.”

“I thought he took his boat?” Lily asked.

“He took the boat into town,” Mac said. “A rental was waiting for him there. He had government meetings.”

“Oh.” So much she didn’t know about this government stuff.

“They probably thought he had the virus,” Mac continued “Which means they fingered us at Tom’s location and figured him for a contact point.”

“Maybe,” Grange said, then looked at Lily. “Or they were contacted by someone who alerted them.”

“No, man, you’ve got it wrong,” Mac said.

Lily shook her head. “I didn’t contact anyone. I’ve been with Mac since the museum.”

Grange didn’t look convinced. “She drugged you, took the virus and she had access to your cell phone while you were out cold.”

“I also came back with him.” Irritation pricked her nerve endings. She didn’t like being accused. She was here, wasn’t she? “I was with him last night and this morning.”

“You could be gathering information about the Wild Riders.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh for the love of God. Check Mac’s cell phone. The only calls in or out are his calls. Easy enough to verify.”

Mac tossed his phone at Grange.

“Did you check it?” Grange asked.

Mac shook his head. “I didn’t need to. I trust Lily.”

Warmth spread through her. He hadn’t even checked.

God, she loved his trust in her.

“Sorry, but I don’t,” Grange said. He stood and left the room with Mac’s phone in hand.

“Don’t take it personally,” Mac said. “He doesn’t know you and has to be certain you can be trusted.”

“I understand.” She looked down at her hands.

Mac reached for one, swirling his thumb over the center of her palm. The sensation shot between her legs. Even with the tension, their lack of privacy, he could still turn her on. She was amazed by her connection to him. “Thank you for believing in me. And I didn’t use your phone.”

His lips quirked. “I know you didn’t.”

His firm belief in her made her feel guilty that she hadn’t trusted in him all this time. She was almost ashamed for not believing in him when he’d asked her to at the beginning of all this. Then again, there had been mistrust on both sides, hadn’t there? Ten years had separated them, had changed them both in so many ways. She still couldn’t reconcile the Mac she’d known all those years ago with the man who sat next to her now. A government agent. She’d never have thought it.

“Phone’s clean,” Grange said as he came back in. “All the calls in and out were verified.” He handed the phone back to Mac.

“I told you they would be,” Mac said.

“I had to be sure,” Grange said to Lily.

She nodded, not certain what she should say in reply.

He didn’t know her at all, so of course he didn’t trust her. And Mac had violated his oath of secrecy about the Wild Riders and had told Lily all about them. Well, mostly all about them. She really didn’t know everything.

“Take her around. Introduce her to the guys. Then rest up,” Grange said. “I need a few hours to get some information.

We’ll reconvene tonight and hopefully have something more to go on after I’ve had a chance to make some calls.”

Mac arched a brow, then nodded. He stood. “Let’s go,”

he said to Lily.

“Down this way are more offices,” he said as they exited Grange’s office. Mac pointed to the right where there were two closed doors. “Mainly tech stuff and storage.”

She felt eyes on her—lots of eyes. When she looked above, she realized why. Several amazing looking men were peering down over the railing at her.

“Dayum,” she heard one of them say.

“Ignore them. You’ll meet the other guys in a minute,”

Mac said, leading her toward the kitchen. “How about something to drink?”

Was he avoiding taking her upstairs to meet the others?

That was…interesting. “I’m not thirsty.”

“Well, I am.”

He went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, grabbed a soda and popped it open, offering it to her first. She shrugged and took a drink, then handed it back to him. He leaned against the counter and took a long swallow.