wanted him to come clean and finally grow the balls to name who had scared him to the point that he ruined his life, but that didn’t happen.”
“How long ago was this?”
“About two years.”
I nodded. “I can finish the story. Collins, or Mills, not knowing what else to do, eventually contacted my security company with the directive to find you and bring you to justice, knowing you could claim you weren’t responsible all you wanted, but all the physical evidence still pointed to you.”
“If he even wanted to bring me to justice,” Galloway said. “A desperate man will do whatever he needs to save his neck, and saving his neck may just mean slitting mine. Not to mention, this case was deemed closed years ago. I have a feeling he used his position in the CIA to get you to do his dirty work, then silence me.”
“You really think he would have killed you over this?” Mackenzie asked.
“I don’t think, little bug. I’m fairly certain of it. And that’s where we still are today. Unless I find who’s really pulling the strings here, it’s my word against what everyone’s been led to believe.”
“And where is Mills now?” I asked.
“That’s the million dollar question, son. His ex-wife and her husband have been murdered, their deaths attributed to Charlie. His son took a leave of absence from his job back in March…around the same time you lost contact with the man you knew to be Benjamin Collins, I presume.”
“Sounds about right,” I muttered.
“I just think there’s something fishy going on here, and that Mills isn’t the one ultimately responsible for all of this. I could be wrong, but I’ve learned to always trust my gut. Whenever I haven’t, I’ve regretted it. So if my gut tells me to look for someone other than Mills, we look for someone other than Mills, someone with tremendous resources to pull something like this off.”
“Who do you think it is?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but it must have some sort of connection to my time in Bosnia. I plan on going through my notes of everyone I ever came into contact with over there, every asset we had, to get to the bottom of this.”
“So what do we do?” Mackenzie pushed.
“We don’t do anything. Tyler needs to focus on getting better after that nasty accident, and you need to focus on that baby.”
“I have a whole team of people who can help track this guy down,” I offered.
“And I appreciate that,” he replied calmly. “But I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“It isn’t? Why?” Mackenzie interjected.
“Because he’s looking for one person, and one person alone.”
“No,” she breathed, covering her mouth to hide her quivering chin.
“He wants me? Well, he can have me. I’m not going to remain hidden away and put anyone’s life at risk anymore.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it softly. “You know I love you very much, don’t you?”
“And I love you, too,” she choked out. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Dad.”
“And I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it doesn’t, but nothing’s a guarantee. Just do your old man one favor first.”
“Anything.”
“Let me walk you down the aisle and see you get married.”
She nodded, wiping at her tears. “Of course.”
Mackenzie
I STOOD JUST INSIDE the foyer of the ridiculously opulent house in Palm Beach that Tyler and I had been staying at for the past several weeks. After he was discharged from the hospital, Eli returned to Texas to try and make sense of the story my father had told us. We, on the other hand, stayed away from home, away from any reminder of the bigger problems that we would soon have to face head-on.
“Is it time?” Melanie asked, looking back at me, her green eyes wide and rounded. Her dark hair was curled and styled for the occasion. She had been so excited when we asked her to fill this role for us today and had spent most of the morning practicing.
“It is. Go ahead, sweetie.” I smiled at her in her frilly white sundress with pink and yellow flowers adorning it.
She flashed her adorable smile, showing where she was missing a tooth, and walked out the front door and onto the picture-perfect white sand beach. Despite the jitters in my stomach, a sense of serenity washed over me as I glanced out the large floor-to-ceiling windows and absorbed the scene in front of me. The sun was setting behind the extravagant house on