Page 16 of Reclaiming his Honor
“He’s the reason we went here.” She frowned almost imperceptibly, a look he knew well. “There was some speculation the killer was trying to take me, not Ursula.”
Mac kept quiet and waited for her to continue.
She lifted eyes glassy with unshed tears to the sky. “We changed shifts that night. Lewis had a fever and I didn’t want to leave him. Ursula agreed to cover for me. Turner said Godak stalked his victims for weeks before he made his move. He would have known my whole schedule, exactly where to find me alone. Ursula and I looked a lot alike.”
A tear ran down her face and she swiped at it. “After she was abducted, I didn’t feel safe in Mobile anymore. Turner helped us set up new identities. Start fresh.”
That explained why Ellie had been so hard to find. It was Ursula’s husband Roger who knew the aliases the family was living under. But before that, every road Mac tried had been a dead end. He’d been looking for Ellie O’Brady, but she’d been living as Ellie Hearst. “And Turner decided to come with you.”
The shitty little opportunist.
“Not at first,” she said. She had the decency to look offended, and he wondered if she’d been sleeping with him at that point. “It was almost a year later. We’d kept in touch, just so he could fill me in on the investigation, you know, that sort of thing. But he called me up and said he was struggling in Mobile after a messy divorce, and he wanted a new beginning. He said he’d heard this was a good place for new beginnings. Not too far from home, but just far enough. So, I helped him get settled, and we became friends.”
“Friends.” The way he said it was full of sexual connotation, and Ellie jerked her head back.
“That’s right, friends. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Sorry. I’m just playing catch up.”And I’m a jealous son of a bitch.“I want to know what these years have been like for you.”
She shrugged. “I finished my nursing degree. I work in the pediatric emergency room, and I love it.” Her face lit up when she talked about it.
Ellie was one of the most caring people he’d ever known, and smart as a whip. “I’ll bet you’re really good at that.”
“I am.” She grinned proudly. “What about you? Are you still living in France?”
He shook his head. “Nah. Been working up in New York City for a few years now.”
“New York City? You?” She laughed, and he completely understood why.
“Hard to picture, isn’t it? Me and all them yuppies up there, runnin’ in their rat races and shit.” He laughed too. “A friend of mine from the teams looked me up in France.”
He considered how truthful he wanted to be, and decided she deserved every bit of honesty he could muster. “I was in pretty bad shape, drinking, just like when you left. Worse, even. After you were gone, I didn’t have any reason left not to.”
Just thinking back on it was emotional for him. He owed Hawk one hell of a debt for not giving up on him, for holding out an opportunity that could give Mac a new life. Make him useful again.
He continued past the knot in his throat, thinking he’d cried—or damn near cried—too many times in the past two days. Perhaps more than in the last ten years combined. “He offered me a job running a new office of HERO Force. That’s the Hands-on Engagement and Reconnaissance Operations team. Like SEALs for hire.”
“Let me get this straight. You were drunk, worse than when I left you, and he offered you a job?”
He nodded. “Said I had to get sober, of course. So I said no. Then he pointed out I’d have access to a ton of information I could use to find you.”
She looked mildly uncomfortable, but he went on. “Computers, databases, and agencies willing to talk… if I sobered up and came out of hiding. And if I did, I might be able to get back the woman I loved. So I said, fine.”
He took a sip of his coffee, smiling at her over the cup. “Would have been good to know you’d changed your name all those years I was looking for you.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide.”
“Didn’t say you were. You just didn’t expect me to come looking.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to show up at Shonda’s wedding, either.”
“I hope I didn’t ruin anything for you, or for her.”
Ellie shook her head. “You saved the day. Shonda wouldn’t have even been there if it weren’t for you talking her off the ledge she was on.”
“I was also the reason she ran away from the altar.”
