Operation Swift Mercy (25 page)

Tate opened his mouth to protest, but Summer held her hand up and glared at him, making him quickly close his mouth and sit back in his chair. Clearly whatever Summer had organised had come as a surprise to Tate as well.

“You’re all going to go out on the boat today and go fishing. While you’re out there you’re going to get to the bottom of all this crap and sort it out once and for all and you’re not coming back until you do,” she snapped, lifting a picnic basket from the floor to place on the table. “I’ve packed you some food, all you have to do is get your arses on that boat and go fishing.”

“Baby,”
Tate tried to protest.

“Don’t baby me, Tate Maddox. What you guy
s need is a day to go and
do some male bonding.”

“Not that I don’t think this is a great idea and all
—
”
Chase drawled from beside her, “
—b
ut we can’t just go out and spend the day fishing. Someone needs to stay behind and keep an eye on…things,” he said, sending a pointed look at Mercy.

“Mercy is safe here—there’s been no trouble and no indication that anyone knows she’s here, so there’s no need for you to be hovering twenty
-
four hours a day over the poor girl. She’ll be perfectly safe here with Willow and I,” Summer said smiling at Mercy.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Chase murmured.

“It’s
just
a few hours. If you haven’t worked this thing out by then—there’s no hope for you and I’ll have to initiate the next phase of my plan,”
he told them flatly.

“Which is?” Del asked.

“Compulsory counselling sessions for
everyone
,” she said with malicious delight.

General uproar followed this announcement and
M
ercy bit back a smile as she took in Summer’s self-
satisfied
expression.
Oh, s
he was good
,
Mercy thought with a touch of admiration. S
he obviously knew exactly what buttons to push on these
big,
tough men.

“I kinda
’
feel bad about this,” Chase said down at the jetty a little while later.

“Don’t be silly, I’ll be fine. I think Summer’s right—you guys need to go sort some stuff out… and nothing says man-love more than a bunch of guys out  killing something for food, right?”

He shook his head at her and moaned, pulling her against his chest. “Why do I get the feeling you’ve already been corrupted by Summer and Willow?”

“Must be an Aussie thing,” she shrugged.

“How did I think I stood a chance against that?”
H
e said softly.

Mercy held his gaze and caught her breath at the depth of emotion she read in his beautiful, ghost-grey eyes. “W
hen I get back, there’s something I need
to talk
to you about.”

Mercy managed a nod, but inside she was protesting
nooooo, don’t say something like that and leave me hanging!

Oh great, now she had to wait all day wondering what he was thinking about! She wouldn’t forgive him for this …unless he caught some really big fish…then she might consider forgiving him…maybe.

****

“Sir, we have something.”

Nikkos looked up from his newspaper, instantly alert. “
What
have you found?”

“A contact has overheard
that
there’s talk of a reporter
, Josh Maknee,
having a big scoop involving immigrat
ion and other political figures under way. I think if we get hold of this reporter we can get some information from him. Sounds like this could be linked to the woman you’re looking for.”

“Find that reporter.
Make
him talk. Do whatever it takes, do you understand?
Whatever
it takes. I want that information…today!”

Nikkos watched the man walk from his office and followed his progress
with narrowed
eyes.
Finally! It was about time one of these idiots did their job and found him some kind of lead.
The news that reporters were involved was not comforting. He needed to jump on this now—before it became a problem.
I
f he went down, he was
n’t going alone—he’d take some
very big
,
very powerful
people down with him, and it was time he put a little pressure on them. He was not going to risk all he’d worked so hard for
,
being taken from him now. He picked up his phone. It was time to make some people squirm
.

****

She spent part of the morning down on the beach with Summer and the kids, swimming and playing in the sand, but begged off joining them for lunch, opting instead for a quiet aftern
oon
with a good book in the hammock back home.
Home
, she thought wistfully
. H
ow quickly it had become that. Of course, it wasn’t
her
home, but enclosed in this
fantasy
-
world
bubble for the last week or so, it was all too easy to fall into the trap of believing it could be possible.

The
first few bars of Copperhead Road wo
ke her.
Chase had left his phone with
her since she still hadn’t replaced hers. It was strange, at one time she would never have left the house without her phone, and since waking up in hospital without it, she hadn’t even missed it. Life was so much freer without the constant accessibility to everyone and everything a phone brought to the table now days.

“Hey baby, how’s everything there going?”

“Everything’s fine,” she said smothering a yawn.

“Were you asleep?”

“I must have dozed off for a while.” When was the last time she could sleep through the day—guilt free like this? She wondered. “How’s things with you guys?”

“Hate to admit it and I swear I’ll deny it if you tell anyone, but Summer was right. It’s exactly what we needed. I think we’re going to be fine.”

“That’s great news. Yeah—she’s pretty smart, that Summer. Between her and Willow I feel a little intimidated. They’re both so…together,” Mercy said.

“There’s nothing to feel intimidated about—look how much you’ve gone through recently. I know grown men who would have fallen apart over a lot less. You’re pretty damn impressive
, yourself
.”

A warm glow spread through her at his words and Mercy felt her heart melt just that little bit more.

“I gotta
’
go, I just wanted to call and see how you were doing and tell you I missed you.”

In the back ground she heard the other guys calling out raunchy and somewhat unsavoury comments, teasing him, and smiled—it sounded like they really had worked out all their problems. She hung up and gave a contented little sigh as she stared out over the tranquil blue water before her. She was the happiest she’d ever been…so why was it that she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to take that all away from her?

****

Summer had called her to come up for afternoon tea and they had been surprised when it got late and there had been no word from the boys.

“Do you think something could be wrong?” Mercy asked eventually when she couldn’t help but send yet another glance out to sea, searching for a sign the big fishing boat was on its way back in.

“Did you know a marlin can take hours to reel in
?
” Willow
announced
,
filing her nails calmly
. “
T
here’s not a man on earth who will give up
a fight like that
.
And we all know our men are more stubborn than the average man out there…so I wouldn’t worry too much.
”

Summer’s phone bleeped and she made a grab for it and Mercy could see that she hadn’t been the only one beginning to wonder where they were.

“It’s from Tate. They had some engine trouble—they’re waiting for someone to bring across a part and then they’ll be home but it’s going to be late.”

“They’re stranded out there?”

“They mustn’t be too far from one of the islands, if they’ve managed to radio
for help
. It’s okay, you guys can stay here tonight,” Summer said, turning to Mercy and Willow
.
“It’ll be fun—just like a sleepover,” she said.

“
It’ll be
my first,” Mercy smiled.

“Your first sleep over? You didn’t have sleep overs when you were a kid?”

“No
pe
.
”

“How come?” Willow asked, her interest piking at Mercy
’
s reluctant tone.

“Let
’
s just say it would have been too hard trying to explain my mother
,
to my friends.”

“Didn’t your friends ever wonder why you never had them over?”

“
N
ot really, I didn’t have that many friends.” Mercy looked up when she noticed the sudden silence in the room. “Oh, no, look, I’m fine with it all—and honestly, I never knew what I was missing out on anyway, so it’s really not a huge drama.”

“
W
ell, we’re going to change all that, starting right now.” Summer said, pushing away from the
table
.

“O
h no, here we go,”
W
illow moaned.

“You, just be quiet. Every girl needs a sleepover experience at least once in their life,” Summer said turning on her sister with a frown.

“Fine,’
W
illow said
as she reached for her phone that had started beeping to
scroll
through the message
. “I
t’s just
D
el
sexting me again,” she murmured.

“Summer, really,
it’s no big deal,
”
Mercy said when Willow moved away to reply to her sex
,
texting husband.

“
Yes. It is.
But we’ll fix that. Ok
ay
,
”
she said clapping her hands together
.
“We
need popcorn, nail polish, scary movies and hairbands.”

Mercy glanced nervously across at Willow
as she put down the phone
and got a
,
don’t look at me—you’re on your own
kinda
’
shrug of her shoulders. “
O
nce she gets an idea in her head—there’s no talking her out of it. Just go with it,” Willow
advised
wearily.

When
Chase’s
mobile beeped a message
shortly afterward
, Summer put her hands
on her hips and frowned
.
“Right! That does it. We sent the boys out to have a man only day. I say we need one too. This is a slumber party and it’s girls only—no boys and
no texting.
Phones off.
”

Mercy felt like naughty teenager as she switched off the phone and placed it on the coffee table alongside Willow’s, but Summer quickly dished out orders and soon they were too busy to worry about sulking over the no phone rule.

As Summer went off to
put the children to bed
,
Willow and Mercy
finished
making dinner and by the time
she
came out, the table was set, wine poured and dinner was served.

It was taking some getting used to—this eating dinner before it was even dark, but she had to admit it was nice to enjoy daylight saving, being still able to walk along the beach at eight at night before it actually began to get dark. A pang of loneliness hit her as she thought of Chase and their walk only last night. This was truly sad—he was gone less than
eight
hours and she was fretting…how on earth was she going to be able to cope when he left for good?

“Okay, so spill Mercy,”
W
illow said
cutting into Mercy’s dismal thoughts.

“Spill?”

“Maloney. We want to know,” Willow said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Know what?” Mercy chuckled.

“What’s he like...as a lerrrrrver,” Willow drawled teasingly.

“Willow! For goodness sake! Leave the poor girl alone,” Summer finally managed after choking on her wine at her older sisters
outrageous
question.