Dakota Homecoming (7 page)

“Jeez, I haven’t been home in nine months. I can’t help you?”

His mother sighed. “You may be the youngest, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know you like the others just because you’ve been on this earth less time. You’re not fooling me, Julian McKinnon.”

“What did Georgie tell you?”

She shook her head. “Nothing with words. It’s just a feeling.”

“You’re tired,” Julian said, hoping the old standby worked.

“Exhausted is more like it. There’s been a lot this family has had to go through these last few years. A lot of things have changed. For all of us. Including you.”

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“You say that. But a mother’s knows. You look at each other, you and Georgie. There’s obviously an attraction. I can see that. But—”

“You’re reading too much into this, Mom. Georgie is just tired. We had a long drive up from Texas. She got up early and then had to deal with the energy of our entire family. I’m surprised she didn’t collapse hours ago.”

His mother nodded. “You’re right. Maybe I am reading too much into this. I’m sorry.” She looked at the dishes in the sink. “Are you sure I’m not dying?”

He laughed. “You know, I have managed to clean a few dishes on my own.”

She chuckled. “Good. I didn’t just raise a boy. I raised a future husband.”

“Sounds like something Grace would say.”

Her eyebrows stretched on her forehead. “Where do you think she gets it from?”

* * *

The plan was for everyone to go down to the Wounded Veterans Center to get the hall ready for the wedding that was to take place in a few days. Ian and Julian’s cousin Ethan had built the center after both had served in the military and Ian had returned home.

Julian had made an excuse for Georgie to stay behind, which filled her with relief. She liked the family, but being around them left her unsettled. And she still had several days to get through, and then a wedding, before they’d be able to leave South Dakota.

Staying in her room and leafing through an old magazine she’d found on the nightstand until the family piled into cars and left was being a coward. But it was easier than looking at Joan’s questioning eyes and lying to her. There’d been enough lies during this trip. At one point during breakfast, Georgie had the strong urge to stand up from the breakfast table and tell everyone the truth. That by being with them she might be putting them all in mortal danger. That Eduardo Sanchez, a notorious drug trafficker was determined to find her to use for his own purposes.

But Joan and John McKinnon assumed that Georgie and Julian were a couple and that was the reason she’d come home with him to South Dakota and been welcomed in their home. And they had welcomed her. So much so that the guilt she felt over lying to them was beginning to eat at her.

The image of Julian’s deep blue eyes and strong handsome features flashed in her mind. On the drive from Galveston to Rudolph, she had a lot of time to look at his profile as he drove. He didn’t know she was looking at him. Of course, she turned away or pretended to be looking at something in the scenery every time he’d caught her. And he’d bought it. At least, she hoped he had.

But her interest in Julian McKinnon started long before their journey to his hometown. From that first moment she’d met him, a meeting she’d initially thought was random until she’d learned that he was part of the FBI, she’d been struck by his commanding presence. He was a man who was hard for any woman to ignore. She’d been drawn to him. And then she’d feared him and what being with him could mean. Now she feared him for a different reason. She was having a hard time just thinking of Julian as a partner in her escape. She saw the man and she was fiercely drawn to him.

For a brief moment before breakfast yesterday, she’d wanted him to kiss her. She’d wanted him as much as she’d wanted her next breath. Who knows what would have happened if Joan hadn’t interrupted them out there in the snow. When he looked into her eyes, she trembled and it made it hard to separate the man from the protector.

The knock on the door pulled her out of her musing. She dropped the magazine back on the nightstand and sat up on the bed. “Come in.”

The door opened slowly and Julian appeared in the doorway. “The coast is clear.”

She put a hand to her cheek and sighed. “Did it really look that bad?”

“What?”

“My hiding in the room.”

“My family can be overwhelming. I just told my parents you were resting.”

“I feel guilty.”

“Why? I roped you into coming here. You didn’t want to.”

“True. But you didn’t have to twist my arm that hard.”

He came into the room and sat on the bed. “That’s true. And I’ve been wondering why that is?”

“What do you mean?”

He sighed. “I get the feeling that you’re holding back on me, Georgie. You came to the FBI for help. I want to give it to you. But I have a feeling you know more than you’re telling me.”

“You want me to sell out my cousin.”

He shook his head. “There’s no other way to get information about Cash Montgomery’s whereabouts. From what you told us, Eduardo is keeping him in a secret prison. We don’t know where that is. Working as a maid in Eduardo’s house gives Angela access to information, meetings, conversations that we wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.”

“You’re using me, too,” she said softly.

“Yes,” he said quietly. “That can’t be helped. But I promise you that you will not be in danger. And when this is all over, we’ll make sure that you and your cousin will be safe here in America. Eduardo won’t be able to touch either of you here.”

“Only if I cut off ties with everyone I know in Colombia.”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean Angela, too? Even if she’s here in America?”

“I don’t know.”

She liked that Julian didn’t sugarcoat anything. She’d heard lie after lie in her life. It was refreshing to know where she stood even if she didn’t like what Julian said.

“Can I ask you a direct question?”

“Sure.”

“In the brief time you were at the compound, did you hear anyone mention a man named Manuel Turgis?”

She thought back to that day she’d walked in on Eduardo Sanchez.

“No.”

“What about the man in the military uniform? Would you recognize him if you saw him?”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“What about the Aztec Corporation.”

“The Aztec Corporation is a company in Colombia. I don’t know anything about it though.”

“It’s tied to Eduardo Sanchez.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know anything more.”

He nodded. “Get some warm clothes on,” Julian said as he lifted from the bed.

His abrupt request caught her off guard. “What?”

“Make sure you wear a hat, too. It’s cold outside.”

“But I don’t want to be outside in the cold.”

He cocked his head to one side and said, “Live a little.”

He headed to the door and she called out. “People die in the cold, you know!”

His chuckle got softer as he made his way down the hallway.

Getting up from the bed, Georgie headed to the window, pushed the curtain aside and then blinked as the bright light hitting the white snow blinded her momentarily. She heard the slap of the wooden screen door downstairs and then saw Julian walking toward the detached garage, pulling his gloves on his hands as he walked.

“What on earth does he have in mind?” she whispered.

Ten minutes later Georgie walked along the freshly shoveled path to the garage. She peeked around the corner to look inside, but Julian wasn’t there. Confused, she made her way around the garage to the back yard until she found him. He held a toboggan upright. It was taller than he was and she could tell by the color and faded paint that it was old.

“What do you have there?”

Julian lifted his head to look at her for a second and flashed her a wide smile revealing straight white teeth and a dimple on both cheeks. She hadn’t noticed that before, and now that she had, she wondered how she could have possibly missed it. He’d been serious for most of their time together. That had to be it.

They talked about the case he was working on. Finding information about Cash. Sidestepping questions from Eduardo whose attention has increased over the last few weeks. Waiting for a phone call from Angela was the worst. And every time Julian asked her if she’d heard anything, she hated disappointing him. Fielding questions from his family about her reason for being here couldn’t be easy. He probably wanted to get this over with as much as she did.

But right now, Julian’s expression told her he didn’t have a care in the world.

“We’ve clocked a lot of hours on this toboggan,” he said. “Me and my siblings and cousins. Everyone used to come over to our house on snow days when we were kids because we have a great hill in the back” He pointed to the forest line. “Just beyond those trees.”

“Really?”

“I’m guessing that since you never really experienced a good snowfall before this trip that you’ve never gone sledding.”

She shook her head. “The closest I got to sledding was sliding down a muddy slope on the top of a plastic garbage lid after a heavy rain.”

“Not the same thing. You can’t get enough speed.”

“I don’t know about that. Angela and I used to have a good time.”

He pulled a spray can out of his jacket pocket and said, “Hold the toboggan for me. I need to spray this on.”

“What is that stuff?”

“Cooking spray.”

She glanced around the side of the toboggan and laughed. “Cooking spray?”

“Yeah. It’s the best thing to coat the bottom of the toboggan to give it speed.”

“If you say so.”

“Trust me, I’ve done this many times before. Works like a charm.”

“I’m sure it does. What does this have to do with me?”

His mouth dropped open. “Oh, where is your sense of adventure?”

“You mean more than the one I’m living?”

His expression changed. “Right now we’re not in Colombia. We’re in snowy and cold South Dakota. The sun is shining and I have a toboggan that is almost ready to hit the fresh snow out back. Are you game?”

Georgie gave Julian an idle shrug as if she didn’t care. But in truth, she really wanted to try it if only to be in Julian’s company. She really liked being with him. She almost wished she didn’t. It would make things easier to keep the situation she’d put herself in into perspective.

And she enjoyed being with his family. She hadn’t expected that at all. Georgie wasn’t sure what she’d expected when she’d agreed to come to South Dakota with him. She hadn’t expected his parents to be so welcoming and his brothers to be as easy going as Julian. Even Grace, who Julian had warned Georgie would be a tough sell, had managed to be warm and welcoming. Of course, seeing the way she looked at Jace Strickland and the way he looked at her might have something to do with it.

Julian tucked the toboggan under his arm and walked toward the back of the yard to the tree line. Georgie followed on his heels, dragging her boots in the snow as she walked.

“The path is a little overgrown now. It used to be cleared from all the traffic back and forth from the yard to the hill. But now that we’re all grown up, I think only Liam has come back here to sled. And he doesn’t do it that much.”

“Your mom doesn’t work.”

He laughed. “Don’t tell her that.”

“No, I mean…it’s just…”

“It’s okay. Many a men in this family have tripped over their tongues over the same thing. Dad and Uncle Don run the family’s oil company. Aunt Kate has run the diner in town my whole life. My mom stayed home with us, and many times with my cousins when we were growing up. She liked it that way. She gets Liam on snow days and the days he has off from school and now Ian and Abby’s three kids. She’s in her glory.”

“My mom had to work my whole life. I don’t think I ever remember a time when she wasn’t working. She used to take me with her sometimes when I wasn’t in school.”

“I’m sure that was hard for both of you.”

The sympathetic tone of his voice hit her like a knife to her chest. He’d had a perfect childhood, so unlike her life. And she didn’t want the sad memories of her life to interfere with the sun shining and the excitement of playing in the snow with a handsome man. Even if she were here for all the wrong reasons.

“So how is this done?” she asked.

He smiled again. “Now you’re talking.”

Julian dropped the toboggan on the fresh snow and bent down and grabbed the rope in the front to drag the toboggan behind him as he walked down the narrow path. They walked a few yards until the wooded area opened up at the top of an open field with gentle slope that lead down to a flat area.

“Do you want to watch me go down first or do you want to try it yourself first?” he asked.