Marshmallow S'More Murder (Merry Wrath Mysteries Book 3) (16 page)

The cell in my back pocket immediately buzzed, and I answered it.

"Maria just told me you're alright." Dad sounded exasperated, and I felt bad for having Rex call him. Since I couldn't squirm into my swimsuit while holding a cell phone, I threw one of the complimentary robes on. It was blue, with the triangular Starfleet insignia on the left breast pocket. Nice.

"I'm fine. And I found Riley. And I kind of caused some trouble inside the Japanese Embassy," I said.

There was silence on the other end.

"Remember when you joined the Agency," Dad said, "and I asked you not to tell me about all the times you'd been in danger?"

"Yes." It had been the only condition my parents had. They didn't want to worry obsessively about me, so they came up with their own fantasy where I had a nice, safe job. A few years ago, I overheard Mom tell a neighbor that I was a math teacher. A month later, Dad told Aunt Clara that I was a process engineer for a farm equipment manufacturer. Parents.

"Well, that goes for fighting other people too. Especially when it's political. There really is such a thing as plausible deniability."

"Right. Let me start over. I'm fine, and Riley's safe. We just got back from a stroll through the Japanese Embassy," I said.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said. "But I do have to warn you about something…"

Dad was interrupted by a knock on the door. I started toward it.

"No problem, Dad. Really. Everything's okay," I said as the knocking continued.

"Well, I think you might be a little angry with me," he said.

I came up to the door and looked through the peephole.

"I kind of flew Rex out here," Dad said.

I already knew that because standing out in the hallway, angrily pounding on the door, was my boyfriend, Rex.

What was a woman to do in a situation like this? Well, obviously, answer the door, but I was kind of hoping for a typhoon to suddenly hit, my troop to show up, or maybe Bigfoot to wander through the room arm in arm with Mr. Spock.

No such luck. I did hang up on Dad…that felt a little bit better.

"Rex!" I said as I opened the door. "What are you doing here?" So I knew Dad just flew him out, but he didn't know that I knew.

The gorgeous Iowa detective stormed into the room and threw his arms around me. His lips met mine, and all the pain in my body turned into something wonderful.

Rex pulled away, "You're alright! Good! Because now I can be mad at you!" He was frowning. I didn't like it when he frowned.

"I'm fine. Dad shouldn't have brought you out here," I insisted. "It's all under control."

He put his hands on his hips. "Your dad told me everything. At least, I think he told me everything. But you'd better start at the beginning."

I nodded. "Okay. I owe you that much."

I filled him in on everything, leaving nothing out, because I was an awesome girlfriend. To hide something now would have been stupid. I was busted. Time to confess. So I told him everything. Starting with Midori's murder. He didn't seem to like that part. I mean, what police officer would? I'd basically covered up a crime right across the street from where he lived.

Rex's body tensed, but he said nothing. Once the adrenaline wore off and he was over me being in danger, I had no doubt I'd get a lecture. To be fair, I didn't know him then. He had just been a local cop. I'd have to remember to tell him that. He listened quietly to my entire story, looking angry each time I mentioned the girls or danger. But he listened. He got props for that.

By the time we finished, we were sitting on a couch that looked like it was made of tribbles. It was a very uncomfortable sofa. Who made a couch out of a hundred stuffed, furry balls?

"Why didn't you tell me the minute it started?" Rex finally said. He didn't sound so angry anymore, which was good. "I know your background requires classified information, but I could've helped."

He was right. I had nothing. So I shrugged.

"Hey…" Rex started looking around. "What's the deal with this place? Looks like the deck of the Starship Enterprise." He pointed to the bubbling hot tub. "You were about to get in?"

I nodded. "I kind of had a rough day." I made my fingers into a gun and fired.

Rex relaxed. He was probably still mad at me, but at least he was getting over my treachery. He got to his feet and started walking around the room, checking out the weird décor.

"I'm a bit of a Trekkie," he said.

I faked shock. "That may be worse than what I've done." He didn't need to know I was one too. It was too early in the relationship for that.

"Oh, I doubt it…" Rex frowned again. "Seriously, Merry, you have to keep me informed on this kind of thing. And we are going to talk about it more in depth later. You're not off the hook yet." He closed the gap between us and pulled me into his arms. "I was very worried. And you just, out of the blue, say you're in trouble, and I need to call someone." He looked into my eyes, and I was lost. "I should be that someone. I should come to your rescue."

And then he kissed me again. I leaned into it, giving in completely. My beyond-gorgeous boyfriend wanted to be my knight in shining armor. Granted, I didn't really need one, but here he was anyway. It was a romantic, mind-numbing gesture.

Rex had dropped everything and flown halfway across the country just to make sure I was safe. I'd have to get used to that, but it was awesome to have someone feel that way about me.

I pulled back to get some air and smiled at him, like a goofy, lovestruck puppy. This was definitely
the
guy. How did I get so lucky? When I was forced into early retirement from a job I loved, I thought nothing good would ever happen to me again. I was wrong. And for once I didn't mind being wrong.

"Are the girls sharing this room with us?" he said softly. "Or can we use that hot tub right now? I'm pretty sure I can ease those aches and pains."

Wow. My body temp went from cold and bruised to hot and bothered in seconds.

"I didn't ask," I said, kicking myself for not asking Maria what the arrangements were. "They could walk in any second. But maybe we could go on a little trip of our own after we get home."

Rex pulled me tight against him, and I melted. "I'm going to hold you to that." He looked at the door. "I forgot my bag. It's in the hall. I'll just grab it."

I reluctantly let him go and watched as he turned the door lock inside out to prop the door open. Wow. I'd really dodged a bullet there. Rex had every right to be furious with me. At least he was less so now. And with a few more kisses, I was pretty sure I could melt that fury away.

Rex walked back in, pulling a small rolling suitcase behind him. He was wearing a formfitting black T-shirt and jeans. I couldn't help sighing. Rex was athletic but lean like a cowboy, and it was totally hot. Riley was more muscular…

Oh damn. I knew I'd forgotten something.

"Hey, Wrath." Riley stepped out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. Water beaded on his muscular chest and shoulders.

"You should see the shower. It looks like that teleporting thing they had on
Star Trek
!"

Rex froze, his face hardening into a mask. Riley spotted him and actually had the nerve to blush. Huh. I'd never known him to do that before.

I was in trouble. Big trouble.

"Rex." Riley reached out to shake his hand. "How're you doing, man?"

Rex took the hand and shook it out of politeness.

"I know how this looks," I stammered. "But it's not what you think. I was going to get into my swimsuit before getting into the hot tub. But then Dad called, and you knocked, and I didn't have a chance."

Riley nodded. "Nothing happened." But did I detect a little hint of regret? Had Riley wanted something to happen?

Rex took in the bruises, gashes, and swelling on his rival and relaxed a little. I'd told him earlier about rescuing Riley. He was putting it all together. That made him a good detective. They didn't jump to conclusions but let the facts speak for themselves. And it saved my butt this time.

"Okay, Evelyn is helping the girls settle in next door." Maria burst into the room. She took one look at me in the robe, Riley in the towel, and Rex glaring at both of us, and she started laughing.

"Oh, my God!" Her body shook from exertion. "This is so classic! How did I miss this? I should've been here!" Maria doubled over with hysterical giggles.

"You must be Rex!" She laughed even harder. "This is good. Too good!"

The three of us relaxed as we watched her collapse under the hilarity of the moment. I guessed it was kind of humorous. Like the kind you'd see in a movie. Only it was happening here. To me. That made it a little less funny.

"I'm just going to…" Riley pointed at the bathroom behind him and started backing up. "I'm going to put some clothes on."

Maria tossed him a tote bag, and without asking what was in it, he disappeared into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. I left Maria and Rex to get acquainted and ran into the bedroom to throw on some clothes. When I emerged, Riley, Maria, and Rex were sitting in the living room. They were smiling.

Maria tossed her curls a little before dazzling Rex with a smile. Hey! Was she flirting with him?

"So," I announced myself. "What have you been talking about?" I shot Maria a look, and she laughed.

"Rex said you brought him up to speed, and Riley told me what happened at the embassy," Maria said. "Did you really shoot those guys? I mean, I'm glad you got out okay, but that's pretty international-incident level stuff."

I sat down in the Captain Kirk chair. "What happened after Ito took me?"

Maria told me I was gone by the time they hit the gift shop. She bought each girl a little something in the shop to distract them while she called her supervisor at Langley. Riley seemed to flinch at that. Fortunately, Maria's boss was golfing at St. Andrews and didn't believe a word of what she said. I knew the guy. He was a total kiss-ass who wouldn't dream of ending his vacation for a mission. Maybe that was a good thing.

So Maria had herded the girls into the van and driven them to the hotel to pack, deciding that they needed her protection more than I needed her help. After leaving Evelyn with strict instructions on locking the door, she drove to the embassy, and we ran outside and into the van.

"No one did anything?" I asked in shock. It wasn't unheard of. The CIA sometimes chose not to act—especially on domestic soil.

"He said either I was pranking him, in which case he'd look bad." Maria scowled. "Or Riley had gone rogue, which wasn't the Agency's problem."

Riley said nothing. He was wearing a white, button-down shirt and khakis.

"Maybe it was a good thing." I sighed. "But your boss is an asshat."

"Agreed." Maria nodded.

"So Maria and I are the cavalry?" Rex asked. I felt a pang of jealousy as he said Maria's name. I really needed to get over that.

"I guess so." I shrugged. "Maybe we should ship the girls home first thing in the morning."

Rex agreed. "You're right. If Ito retaliates…
"

I interrupted him. "You mean
when
Ito retaliates. She doesn't lose. And she thinks Riley and I killed her mother. She'll keep coming after us with everything she's got until we're dead or she is."

Riley finally spoke up. "We need to go after her first. She might decide to fly in some more backup."

I'd forgotten about the third man. I ran to get the photo and showed it to the men.

"The girls should be safe here," Maria said. "No one knows they're here, and I think it's safe to say that no one will expect them to be staying at a place like this."

"Hold on." Rex held his hands up. "This is all over her mother's murder?" He shot me a look that said
we are soooo not done talking about this.
"If you didn't kill her, who did?"

I stared at him. "If? If I didn't kill her? Rex, I told you—I didn't kill her!"

"Bad choice of words," Rex apologized. "What I'm trying to say is, who did kill her?"

"No one knows," Riley said. "And we destroyed the crime scene and removed the body, so it's impossible to find out."

I remembered the autopsy. "That's not totally true. The autopsy they did in Japan stated she was murdered before she was bludgeoned."

Riley's mouth dropped open, and I realized we hadn't had a chance to bring him up to speed.

"How," I asked him, "did Ito Jr. know you were involved?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. She never said. And unless you or Kelly told her, which I don't think you did, by the way…" Riley had the good graces to hold his hands up defensively.

"Kelly!" I shot to my feet. "She was in labor! That means she had the baby!"

I ran out of the room and grabbed my cell phone. There were no messages or missed calls, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I dialed Robert, who answered on the first ring.

"Merry! I was just going to call you!" My best friend's husband sounded like he'd just won the lottery—if they gave babies away as lottery prizes.

"Well?" I asked, not intending to waste time talking.

"It's a girl!" I could feel him smiling through the phone. "Seven pounds, nine ounces, and twenty inches long!"

"You act like I know what that means," I said. "How is Kelly? Did everything go okay?"

I'd only witnessed one live birth in my life, and that was in the mountains of Ecuador. The baby was breech—at least that's what they said—and I was told that was bad. I watched as the midwife rotated the baby inside the mother, and then I fainted dead away. When I awoke, there was this screaming infant named Pilar.

"She had a little trouble but nothing big. Kelly and the baby are fine." If he could've reached through the phone line, I believe he would've handed me a cigar.

I felt the tension slipping away. Everything was fine. "What did you name her?"

"We haven't decided yet. But we should have a name picked out by the time you get back." I heard someone talking to him in the background. "Gotta go, Merry! See you when you get home!" He hung up.

"Kelly had a little girl!" I said as I joined the others.

Apparently, the whole troop had joined us while I was in the other room, and the place exploded with squeals of delight.

"What's her name?" One of the Kaitlins asked.

"Why is Rex here?" Inez asked.

"Did he bring the kittens?" Lauren started searching under the furniture.

Evelyn was openly staring at Riley, who, in spite of his injuries, still looked like a Greek god.

I held up my hand, making the quiet sign, and the room went silent.

"Wish I could use that with reporters," I heard Rex say to Maria.