Mackenzie's Pleasure

them, his eyes sharp and hard as he watched his former superior.

'She'll be fine,' Zane murmured, lifting his head. 'She shot Sandefer.'

The brothers' eyes met in a moment of understanding. The first one was tough. With luck and good care, Sandefer would survive, but Barrie would always be one of those who knew what it was like to pull that trigger.

'How did he know which room?' Zane asked, keeping his voice calm.

Chance sat down on the bed and leaned forward, his forearms braced on his knees. His expression was pleasant enough, his eyes cool and thoughtful. 'I must have a leak in my group,' he said matter-of-factly. 'And I know who it is, because only one person knew this room number. I'll take care of it.'

'You do that.'

Barrie stirred in Zane's grip, her arms lifting to twine around his neck. 'Zane,' she said, her voice faint and choked, shaking.

Because he'd felt the same way, he heard the panic in her voice, the despair. 'I'm okay,' he whispered, kissing her temple. 'I'm okay.'

A sob shook her, then was quickly controlled. She was soldiering on. Emotion swelled in his chest, a huge golden bubble of such force that it threatened to stop his breathing, his heartbeat. He closed his eyes to hold back the tears that burned his lids. 'Oh, God,' he said shakily. 'I thought I was too late. I saw Sandefer walk in before I could get off a round at him, and then I heard the shot.'

Her arms tightened convulsively around his neck, but she didn't say anything.

Zane put his hand on her belly, gulping in air as he fought for control. He was trembling, he noticed with distant surprise. Only Barrie could make mincemeat of his nerves. 'I want the baby,' he said, his voice still shaking. 'But I didn't even think about it then. All I could think was that if I lost you—' He broke off, unable to continue.

'Baby?' Chance asked, politely inquiring.

Barrie nodded, her head moving against Zane's chest. Her face was still buried against him, and she didn't look up.

'Barrie, this is my brother Chance,' Zane said. His tone was still rough, uneven.

Blindly Barrie held out her hand. Amused, Chance gently shook it, then returned it to Zane's neck. He had yet to see her face. 'Glad to meet you,' he said. 'I'm happy about the baby, too. That should deflect Mom's attention for a while.'

The room was filled to overflowing: hotel security, Las Vegas police, medics, not to mention Mack Prewett and the FBI, who were quietly controlling everything. Chance's people had pulled back, melting into the shadows where they belonged, where they operated best. Chance picked up the phone, made one brief call, then said to Zane, 'It's taken care of.'

Mack Prewett came over and sat down on the bed beside Chance. His face was troubled as he looked at Barrie, clutched so tightly in Zane's arms. 'Is she all right?'

'Yes,' she said, answering for herself.

'Art's critical, but he might make it. It would save us a lot of trouble if he didn't.' Mack's voice was flat, emotionless.

Barrie shuddered.

'You were never meant to be involved, Barrie,' Mack said. 'I began to think Art was playing both sides, so I asked your father to help me set him up. The information had to be legitimate, and the ambassador knows more people, has access to more inside information, than can be believed. Art went for the bait like a hungry carp. But then he asked for something really critical, the ambassador stalled, and the next thing we knew, you'd been snatched. Your dad nearly came unglued.'

'Then those bastards in Benghazi knew we were coming in,' Zane said, his eyes going cold.

'Yeah. I managed to shuffle the time frame a little when I gave the information to Art, but that was the most I could do to help. They weren't expecting you as early as you got there.'

'I couldn't believe it of him. Art Sandefer, of all people,' Barrie said, lifting her head to look at Mack. 'Until I saw his eyes. I thought you were the dirty one.'

Mack smiled crookedly. 'It rocked me that you figured out anything was going on at all.'

'Dad tipped me off. He acted so frightened every time I left the house.'

'Art wanted you,' Mack explained. 'He was playing it cool for a while, or we would have had this wrapped up weeks ago. But it wasn't just the information. Art wanted you.'

Barrie was stunned by what Mack was saying. She glanced at Zane and saw his jaw tighten. So that was why she hadn't been raped in Benghazi; Art had been saving her for himself. He could never have released her, of course, if she had seen his face. Perhaps he would have drugged her, but more likely he would simply have raped her, kept her for himself for a while, then killed her. She shuddered, turning her face once more against Zane's throat. She was still having trouble believing he was safe and unharmed; it was difficult to drag herself out of the black pit of despair, even though she knew the worst hadn't happened. She felt numb, sick.

But then a thought occurred to her, one she would have had sooner if concern for Zane hadn't wiped everything else from her mind. She looked at Mack again. 'Then my father's in the clear.'

'Absolutely. He was working with me from the get-go.' He met her gaze and shrugged. 'Your dad can be a pain in the rear, but his loyalty was never in question.'

'When I called him this morning—'

Mack grimaced. 'He was relieved to know you loved him enough to call, despite the evidence against him. Your leaving the hotel stirred up a hornet's nest, though. I thought we had everything under control.'

'How?'

'Me,' Chance interjected, and for the first time Barrie looked at her brother-in-law. She didn't drool, but she had to admit that his good looks were startling. Viewed objectively, he was the most handsome man she'd ever seen. However, she far preferred Zane's scarred, somber face, with its ancient eyes.

'I checked into another hotel under Zane's name,' Chance explained. 'You weren't listed at all, but Art knew you were with Zane, because he'd checked the license plate on that rental car and traced the rental to Zane's credit card. We didn't want to make it too obvious for him, we wanted him to have to work to find us, so he wouldn't be suspicious. When he found out you'd married Zane, though, he stopped being so cautious.' Chance grinned. 'Then you went for a walk this morning, and fubar happened. The pay phone you chose was right across the street from the hotel where I'd checked in, and Art's people spotted you immediately.'

Across the room, the medics finally had Art Sandefer ready for transport to a hospital. Zane watched the man being carried out, then cut his narrowed gaze to Mack. 'If I'd known about you a little sooner, most of this could have been avoided.'

Mack didn't back down from that glacial stare. 'As far as that goes, Commander, I didn't expect you to have the contacts you have—' he glanced at Chance '—or to move as fast as you did. I'd been working on Art for months. You made things happen in one day.'

Zane stood, effortlessly lifting Barrie in his arms as he did so. 'It's over now,' he said with finality. 'If you gentlemen will excuse me, I need to take care of my wife.'

Taking care of her involved getting a third room, because the suite was in bad shape and he didn't want her to see it. He placed her on the bed, locked the door, then stripped both her and himself and got into bed with her, holding their naked bodies as close together as possible. They both needed the reassurance of bare skin, no barriers between them. He got hard immediately, but now wasn't the time for lovemaking.

Barrie couldn't seem to stop trembling, and, to her astonishment, neither could Zane. They clung together, touching each other's faces, absorbing the smell and feel of each other in an effort to dispel the terror.

'I love you,' he whispered, holding her so close her ribs ached from the pressure. 'God, I was so scared! I can't keep it together where you're concerned, sweetheart. For the sake of my sanity, I hope the rest of our lives are as dull as dishwater.'

'They will be,' she promised, kissing his chest. 'We'll work on it.' And tears blurred her eyes, because she hadn't expected so much, so fast.

Then, finally, it was time for more. Gently he entered her, and they lay entwined, not moving, as if their nerves couldn't stand a sharp assault now, even one of pleasure. That, too, came in its own time... her pleasure, and his.

Epilogue

'Twins,' Barrie said, her voice still full of stunned bewilderment as she and Zane drove along the road that wound up the side of Mackenzie's Mountain. 'Boys.'

'I told you how it would be,' Zane said, glancing at the mound of her stomach, which was much too big for five months of pregnancy. 'Boys.'

She gave him a glassy stare of shock. 'You didn't,' she said carefully, 'say they would come in pairs.'

'There haven't been twins in our family before,' Zane said, just as carefully. In truth, he felt as shaky as Barrie did. 'This is a first.'

She stared out the window, her gaze passing blindly over the breathtaking vista of craggy blue mountains. They lived in Wyoming now; with Zane's two-year tenure as sheriff in Arizona over, he had declined to run for election, and they had moved closer to the rest of the family. Chance had been after him for those two years to join his organization—though Barrie still wasn't certain exactly what that organization was—and Zane had finally relented. He wouldn't be doing fieldwork, because he didn't want to risk the life he had with Barrie and Nick and now these two new babies who were growing inside her, but he had a rare knack for planning for the unexpected, and that was the talent he was