The Reveal by Julie Leto Page B

was hoping you knew,” Jarek replied. “Sons of bitches just showed up this morning, took out our video feed and descended on us like locusts. I barely had time to get Macy and the baby out of here before they busted through the door.”
    “Where’s Macy now?”
    A horn blared from outside. Sean ordered Brynn to stay behind him, but Jarek tore out through the front entry and around the twin SUVs without raising his weapon. A sleek, navy Landrover screeched to a stop just short of the assailant’s cars, kicking up gravel and dust and obscuring the view of the driver.
    Jarek tore open the passenger side door, revealing a cool brunette with piercing blue eyes behind the wheel.
    “Get in,” she ordered.
    Brynn had to assume the woman was the indomitable Macy Burke—especially when Sean, instead of following her orders, grabbed the top of the door and leaned against it casually, exuding the full store of his roguish charm.
    “Hey, Mace,” he said. “Great morning for a gunfight, don’t you think?”
    Macy shook her head, immune. “As if my morning couldn’t get any worse. Sean Devlin, you are a pain in my—” She stopped herself then glanced into the backseat. Brynn caught the curve of what looked like a baby seat. “Assuming you aren’t enjoying the blood and guts, too,” Macy said, calling over Sean to Brynn, “I don’t suppose you’d like to get out of here before any more gunmen show up?”
    Brynn yanked Sean out of her way and took the shotgun seat beside Macy.
    She held out her hand. “Pleasure to finally meet you.”
    Macy returned her handshake and then nodded so that Jarek ran around to the back and folded himself into the hatch, an area that would fit a standard refrigerator but had trouble accommodating Macy’s bodyguard.
    Sean had no choice but take the seat on the other side of the sleeping child. He could face down his torturers with no compunction, but a baby sucking noisily on a pacifier? His face paled.
    Macy threw the car into gear. Brynn stretched to look at the baby in the rear-facing car seat and cooed at her sinfully long lashes and china-doll cheeks.
    “She’s beautiful,” she said.
    Despite the lines of fatigue that grew visible as the car drove through a swatch of sunlight, Macy’s smile was soft and proud. “I never thought I was cut out for breaking the maternal instinct code, but it ends up that the baby comes with a secret cipher to your heart. At least, this one did.”
    Brynn glanced back at Sean, who was turned halfway in his seat, as if he couldn’t put enough distance between him and the child. Outwardly, he seemed to be checking the landscape for any signs of danger. Inwardly, however, Brynn suspected Sean simply didn’t want to get caught making goo-goo eyes.
    Macy, on the other hand, adjusted the rearview mirror and snorted. “She won’t bite.”
    Sean’s expression was doubtful. “Only because she doesn’t have teeth.”
    “Who were those men who attacked you?” Brynn asked, changing the subject. Theoretically, she liked children. A good portion of Titan’s business revolved around retrieving kidnapping victims from non-custodial parents. But as she had very little contact with her youngest clients, she wasn’t sure if her feelings toward them were any less terrified than Sean’s.
    Macy drove straight for a thick bank of trees. From a distance, there appeared to be no break in the trunk line, but just before they crashed, Macy swung the steering wheel hard to the right, spinning the high-performance vehicle into a space that seemed designed precisely for the width of her vehicle. In an instant, they were doused in darkness. The headlights flared, but their dim beam barely extended ten feet.
    Macy seemed to drive from memory, skillfully swerving around a jutting rock as she turned to say to Sean, “Funny, but I was hoping you would tell me.”

Eleven
    The old wine cellar was built into the side of a mountain, just deep enough into the stone that even