Shadows and Silk (3 page)

MacKenzies
were nothing but trouble.

Brant had known that for
almost
fifteen
years—ever since Cade
MacKenzie
had dragged him to his home in Montana for Thanksgiving one year and shoved him into
the freezing cold pond behind their farmhouse.
They’d been as close as brothers ever since
,
and he considered the
MacKenzies
to be his second family, especially since his sister,
Bayleigh
, was now married to Cade.

But sometimes
families were a pain in the ass, and this was one of those times.

He
weaved in and out of the late
night Georgetown traffic—
the Harley
rumbling
beneath him
—
as a cool mist fell and collected in fine droplets on his riding leathers. Every instinct
he had was telling him to turn around
and go the opposite direction.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have much of a choice when it came to this latest summons.
The call from D
eclan
MacKenzie
had come early that morning—t
here was to be a meeting between all
agents
involved in the
investigation of the del Fuego drug
cartel
.
All agencies had been working together for the past four years to put an end to the
cartel’s reign of terror, a
nd since Brant was the
special agent in charge for
Homeland Security, he had
no choice but to be
at the meeting
.

He slowed and turned onto M St
reet, cursing
the ina
ccuracy of the weatherman as
a loud crack of thunder rent the air and the soft
mist turned into a downpour. Headlights glared off the wet streets
and impatient drivers blared their horns as this latest inconvenience kept them from
their social
obligations. H
e veered around a florist van to pull into the underground parking garage across the
street from O’Malley’s Pub.

With his helmet stuck under his arm, he sprinted across the street and into the warmth
and familiar
ity of the long time hangout
used by a
mixed bag of
federal agents
.
The smell of beer and the polish they used to wipe down the seats of the bar stools
and booths hung hea
vy in the air. The floors were scarred and the wood paneling
on the walls darkened with age. Music thumped steadily from the speakers, but not
so loud you couldn’t hear the person next to you.
O’Malley’s was a place to talk shop, let off steam, or sweet talk pretty waitresses—though
not necessarily in that order

Brant ran a hand through his hair, dripping water onto the mat on the floor, and wiped
his feet.

“Agent Scott,” Jimmy O’Malley said from behind the bar. “Haven’t seen you in here
in a while. What’ll it be?”

O’Malley was a former FBI agent and
had
opened the pub after a bullet shattered his knee and he’d been taken out of the field.
He always
said he’d rather serve whiskey than start drinking it because he was bored out of
his mind sitting behind a desk.
Brant couldn’t say he blamed him.

“
The usual
.
And put it on Declan’s tab,” Brant said, causing O’Malley to laugh.

“I’ll have Lily bring it to you. Your friends are upstairs.” O’Malley jerked his thumb
at the curved staircase that led up to the private room he sometimes
rented out for parties or wakes, and
Brant nodded his thanks an
d moved toward the back of the bar.
He
acknowledg
ed
a few of the familiar faces he passed on his way, and headed up the stairs.

“It’s about damned time
, Scott
,”
Shane
MacKenzie
said
,
his concentration
never
wavering from the game of darts he was playing. “Devlin here already owes me fifty
bucks. Can’t play darts for shit.”

Max Devlin was leading the
DEA
team assigned to the recent tourist murders that had been happening throughout Mexico
as the cartels
battled over their turf and
the Mexican government
’s crackdown on drug trafficking
.
He’d been Cade’s boss once upon a time, and since Devlin was
a
former
Marine sniper, Brant very seriously doubted it was him that couldn’t play darts for
shit. Devlin punched Shane in the arm and called him an inappropriate name and
then
quickly made a
bullseye
on his next turn.

Seeing Shane reminded him of his own brother, Brady.
Shane was Brady’
s
SEAL Team Commander, and i
t seemed
they’d
been out of the country more often than not in the past couple of years.
Considering some of the missions he suspected they’d taken part in, he was just thankful
his brother was still alive.
Shane’s team was the best there was, so they got the most dangerous missions.

Brant narrowed his eyes as he took a closer look at Shane. The youngest
MacKenzie
had a hardness about him that hadn’t been t
here the last time he’d seen him
.
He was a couple of years younger than Brant, and there
was
something
about him
that went beyond just being a SEAL.
Brant remembered all too well the things he’d seen during his SEAL days, not that
working for DHS was a walk in the park, but he no longer feared that any given hour
could be his last.

Shane’s
dark
blond hair was buzzed close to his scalp and there was a vicious looking scar at the
base of his
skull
that was still puckered
and red in its newness.

Brant
caught Max’s eye and raised his brow in question over the wound, but Max shook his
head, signifying he didn’t know and didn’t ask. Not that Shane would even tell them
how it had happened if they did ask.

Max looked like the odd man out in their group. Everyone was dressed down in jeans
and t-shirts, but Max had on a pair of grey dress slacks and a white dress sh
irt with the sleeves rolled up, which meant he’d probably been stuck in meetings with
his superiors all day.

Max was an anomaly
. He looked
like he belonged in the corporate world—like an
Ivy League boy next door with his
clean cut pale blond hair
, and his face freshly shaven. H
is quiet nature
and relaxed air
made it easy to forget that he was deadly.
Like
he was
the kind of man who got his muscles
playing tennis and swimming at a country club
instead of the
MMA training he did to stay in shape. No one could gutter fight better than Max Devlin.

Brant stripped off his leather jacket and tossed it across an empty chair, laying
his helmet in the seat. The noise from below was muted and the bass from the music
vibrated the floor, but the room was private for all intents and purposes.

Declan
MacKenzie
sat in one of the wooden whiskey barrel chairs, his posture relaxed and his eyes
hooded half
way
in sleep. Brant knew as well as any of the others in the room that Declan was never
fully relaxed, and
he
cou
ld be up with a weapon in his hand
before most people could blink.
He and Declan were the same age, t
hough it was Cade, the oldest
MacKenzie
,
who was his best friend.

He’d been crossing paths with Declan for years during different assignments, and he’d
sat across from him at the dinner table for
MacKenzie
family dinners more times than he could count, but he still didn’t know exactly what
branch of the government
Dec
worked for
.
By the way he seemed to know every damned thing almost as soon as it happened,
Brant
was guessing CIA. The one thing
he
did
know was that Declan was in charge of this op, whatever it was
, and he was calling the shots
.

Lily knocked on the door and came in with a tray filled with drinks.
Dark haired and dark eyed, she gave Shane a
smile that would have any red-blooded male’s blood boiling, and went about passing
out the drinks.
She was efficient as she set them around the table, and Brant raised a brow as h
e saw her place
a napkin and a beer in front of the fifth seat. As far as he knew,
only the
CIA,
DEA
, Homeland Security and the assigned Navy SEAL team
s
had
active
operatives
searching for the del Fuego labs. It had been an assignment met with little success
over the last
few
years.

“Ooh, baby,” Shane said, as Lily gave him one last smile and closed the door behind
her so they’d have privacy. “I think I’m in love.”

“That’s what you said last night, dickhead,” Devlin said.

“There’s love and then there’s
love
,” Shane said, waggling his eyebrows. “I think Lily could be the one. And she was
real delicate about the way she slipped her number in my pocket.” He held up the piece
of paper from his pocket for them to admire.

“Jesus, sometimes I can’t believe I’m related to you,” Declan said. “How old are you
again? Fifteen?”

“Jealousy doesn’t become you, brother. Just because you’ve got a sex life that rivals
great-aunt Matilda
doesn’t mean I’m ready to follow in your footsteps.”

“Am I wrong, or did I miss the part where this was a
MacKenzie
family brawl instead of a government op?” Brant asked.

“You’ve been in the middle of enough
MacKenzie
family brawls to recognize when it’s serious,” Declan said. “Or have you forgotten
the broken nose? Maybe I need to refresh your memory.”

Brant flipped him off and took the seat next to him. “
I knew you did that on purpose, asshole. A
slip
of the elbow my ass
.
”

“All’s fair in football. Suck it up, Nancy.”

“
Maybe i
f Cagney and Lacey are done playing darts, we can get this show on the road.
” Brant took a long sip of beer and felt some of the tension drain out of his s
houlders. It
had been too long since he’d just taken an evening to relax.
“
I’d like to have an entire weekend off at some point in my career.”

“I’ve never had one of those,” Declan said. “I don’t see why you should get one if
I can’t.”

“I appreciate that
, Dec
.
You
’re nothing but heart.”

“That’s not what the ladies tell him,” Shane broke in with a laugh. “They tell him
he’s nothing but—”

“Enough, Shane,” Declan growled. “Take a seat
, and lets get this done. Our guest will be here before I’m done with the briefing.”

An uneasy feeling slithered
up Brant’s spine
, but he pushed it away.
His intuition
had been infamous when he’d been a SEAL and that reputation had followed him to DHS.
And right now, his intuition
was screaming red alerts at him.
He trusted Declan. Hell, he trusted all the
MacKenzies
. But something was going on, and he was pretty sure he was going to hate whatever
it was.

Brant
was an expert at reading people—at body language and the
signs
a person gave when they were
in an uncomfortable situation. Declan wasn’t giving away anything as usual, but he’d
know
n
Shane long enough to
see the worry in his eyes and the tension in his shoulders
. He hadn’t stopped tapping his ring finger against his leg since Brant had walked
into the room.

Declan tossed out sealed manila envelopes to everyone at the table. At Declan’s nod,
they each broke the seal and
pulled out the papers
.