Luke leaned on the kitchen counter and shook his head. “One of you is going to have to tell me something. How the hell did you get out of Florida and show up here almost before we did?”
Elaina looked up and shook her head. “Oh, honey, quit being so melodramatic.” She glanced over at Dani’s mother, with one of those looks that mothers the world over share when their offspring are acting particularly idiotic. “Your father got the daughter’s phone number, gave it to his people, who did a reverse look-up, discovered her name, found out her address, and relayed it back to his people who then gave it to him.”
“You were paying attention all those years!” William’s expression was joyous as he bounded into the room, energy seeming to be somewhat restored, even if he’d come back empty-handed. Edwin trailed along behind him, a morose shadow that looked uneasily from his ex-wife to his new... love interest? Luke felt bile rise into the back of his throat, and he had to look away before he said something that he knew he was going to regret.
Please tell me I’m imagining that look.
“Of course, dear,” Elaina said, waving him off with one hand as if inconsequential. “Now be quiet. I, on the other hand, did something much more effective and much quicker.” She paused for a moment. “I asked Mrs. Pinal for an address. And voilà! Here we are!”
“I think what has the boy confused,” William said, more than a little nonplussed at this point, “is how you arrived in Houston so quickly.”
“You remember the Marstons, don’t you, dear?” She looked at Luke, whose face betrayed a complete lack of recognition. Elaina sighed in frustration, “Well, no wonder it took you so long to find the right girl. I mean, it was worth the wait.” She smiled at Dani. “But it was enough to drive me to drink, trying to set you up with girls only to have you ruin every attempt, I mean...”
“We borrowed a plane,” Edwin cut in, throwing himself down in the only chair that wasn’t spitting stuffing all over the room. Why in the hell Dani’s mother had thought there might be a ceramic bird inside a wingback chair was anybody’s guess.
Elaina looked at him briefly and said quietly, “Yes. We borrowed a plane. From the Marstons.” She looked at Luke. “She was the black-haired girl with the thick glasses. ‘Course, that’s nothing she could help...” Elaina looked to Edwin, who had taken her hand, glancing down in surprise at it, but allowing it to stay. Luke shuddered. “We borrowed their plane.”
“And who flew the plane?” William asked, then stopped himself as every eye in the place went to Marcus, who had just come out of the kitchen with Dani, and looked somewhat put off by the sudden display of attention. “Of course, I should have known.” His expression turned sour as Marcus held up a hand.
“We were on a jet. HOW THE HELL DID YOU OUTRUN AIR FORCE ONE?” Luke asked, his voice rising in frustration, as it seemed that no one was going to give him a useful answer to the thing he was asking.
Much like in boot camp.
Luke’s expression darkened. The incident with the lieutenant had started somewhat like this.
“Air Force One?” Dani’s mother echoed, and looked at her child in horror. Dani’s mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything. She held up her hands and shrugged. Luke found himself counting bandages on fingers. By the time he got to three he was pretty pissed off.
“I’m sorry, we haven’t met.” William walked to her, his hand extended.
Luke threw up his hands in disgust and made a sound of frustration.
“I told you when we landed, boy. There is a municipal airport a couple of miles from here. We landed more than two hours before they did, but we had to wait in traffic. They had a clearer shot. Except someone apparently got word out to our mystery lady, here, and she beat us all.”
“Er... that was me,” Edwin said, looking much more satisfied now that he’d been holding Elaina’s hand for several minutes and she hadn’t taken it back yet. “I called her as soon as we got the address.” He turned to Dani. “In Atlanta, I said that I would take you to her. So, I have.”
Dani scowled. Luke could just see the argument brewing. This time it was his turn to give her a look, like the ones she’d been shooting him in the car the entire time he’d been having a... discussion... with his own father. She stuck her tongue out at him. He vowed to find another use for that tongue before the day was out.
“What I want to know is,” William said, taking back his hand when she didn’t take it. “how is it that you happened to be in Houston when the call came in?”
“I’m sorry.” Dani’s mother rose from the chair she’d moved to after her reunion with her daughter. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” She gave him a long look that took him in from head to toe, and made a face as if she’d found something disgusting on the bottom of her shoe. “Who the hell are you?”
“That’s the man I told you about. The Puppet Master.” Edwin had somehow ended up on the couch with Elaina. He had both her hands in his now, and looked for all the world like he was about to burst into song.
“Would you happen to be William McConnel, by any chance?” Dani’s mom smiled.
Luke froze just seeing the smile; how his father didn’t die of hypothermia on the spot was beyond him.
“I do carry the burden of that name,” William answered, ignoring the subtext with the air of a man who was well used to arctic conditions.
“Maria.” She declined to offer a last name. “And I don’t believe, sir, that you have an explanation due from me.”
“I could hold you...” William offered.
“It wouldn’t be the first time a man held me,” she said, shooting a glance at her former husband that proved she disliked every man in the room equally. “But that didn’t end up well either.” She turned to Edwin. “We talk because we share a daughter and a mission. We’ve invested our lives in gathering the information on that stick.” She turned to Luke. “I understand I have you to thank for its very existence, thank you.” Her glance was cool. Assessing. Though her tone was somewhat warmer. “I see what my daughter sees in you, though. He’s quite pretty,” she said as she turned back to Dani.
Dani smiled uncertainly. Luke wondered if she’d decided her mother was friend or foe yet. “Yes, he is.” Her eyes were wary. Hurt.
“Hey...” Luke couldn’t finish the thought, not with so many people in the room. But Dani met his eyes and words weren’t necessary.
“I’m afraid I must insist on some answers,” William said, interrupting the moment with a complete lack of awareness that there was a couple here trying to have a moment. “You seem to be ahead of us. How?” His jovial demeanor was gone as the silence in the room lengthened. “Now.”