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“Come on,” Mike said, frustrated as hell. He knew that there was no such clause in her employment contract, but enough was enough. Not even an unusual woman like Charlie Norris would go to such weird lengths as to own a pet like a kangaroo. “You really don’t expect me to believe a cockamamy story like that one, do you?”
She shrugged. “I’m beyond the point of trying to defend myself or my choice of pets to you or anyone else. Believe it or not, Boomer is a baby kangaroo and he needs five feedings a day. I bottle-fed him this morning before I came to work. Right now he thinks he’s in his mother’s pouch waiting for the next feeding.”
At her explanation, Mike looked more incredulous than ever. “Why is he shaking like that?”
“He’s just reacting to a friendly voice. Mine,” she added pointedly.
Mike eyed the swaying tote bag. “Not that I believe you, but where did you manage to find a kangaroo around here? And why did you have to bring it to the office?”
“I found Boomer through the Internet. As for why he’s here, Freddie, my zoo helper, has the flu. I didn’t have anyone else to leave the little guy with.”
“On the Internet. A zoo,” Mike echoed slowly. “I’ve heard of Web sites where people sell or exchange all kinds of weird things, but baby kangaroos? And a personal zoo? You can’t possibly be serious.”
“He’s here, isn’t he? And, for your information, I own two other marsupials. They’re my friends.” She stopped and frowned. “Actually, I don’t actually know who owns who, but collecting exotic animals is a hobby of mine.”
Charlie wasn’t sure she liked the rainbow of expressions that ran across Mike’s face as he eyed the tote bag. If he’d thought she was odd before, what did he think of her now?
And why, she wondered as she eyed Mike’s chiseled features and the aura of mystery that his profession surrounded him with, did she care what he thought of her?
“A zoo for exotic animals,” he echoed softly as he eyed her. “Now, why don’t I believe that either?”
It was Charlie’s turn to shrug. “It’s a small zoo where I keep Boomer and his…” She paused for breath. What more could he think about her if she told him she had an eclectic collection of creatures, furry and otherwise? She settled for “…and a few other animals.”
“And this so-called zoo of yours?” he said dryly. “Next thing you’re going to tell me it’s in your backyard.”
“Exactly,” she agreed, relieved that the cards were on the table. She could be herself again. “I have three acres of land in back of the house.”
Mike was almost speechless. As far as he knew, kangaroos were regarded as pests by Australians, but evidently not by Charlie. But to carry around a baby kangaroo in a tote bag?
For Pete’s sakes! Mike wanted to shout at her. This is Blair House, the official residence of the State Department! Numerous notables have stayed here through the years, including a president of the United States while the White House was being renovated. How could you bring a live kangaroo in here?
He glanced at the tote bag. On second thought, he didn’t dare raise his voice. There was no telling how the baby kangaroo in there might react. What if it got out and he had to chase it around the premises? He and Charlie would be dismissed so fast it would make their heads swim. And what that would do to his spotless reputation wasn’t even worth thinking about.
The terrifying thought changed the picture. He could look the other way, but he was the Special-Agent-in-Charge at Blair House, and had a duty to perform. If anything went wrong, it was his head.
Before she could stop him, Mike reached for the tote bag, pulled the strings open and looked inside.
Two big brown eyes looked trustfully back at him. A damp nose twitched, two little brownish-red elongated ears waved a welcome.
To add to Mike’s dismay, a slender tongue licked its lips, a sure sign it was ready for its next bottle. To really blow his mind, he caught a glimpse of small hips encased in a diaper and a foot that was tapping to some unheard melody.
The little creature inside the tote bag was a baby kangaroo!
Mike could have sworn, if anyone had asked him later, that the animal had actually smiled at him.
What he did sense, was that he’d been foiled one more time by Charlie’s unorthodox behavior and her mesmerizing eyes. Thank God, it was only a helpless baby kangaroo she had with her this time instead of something that could have caused a major incident.
He let the tote bag’s drawstring close, muttered under his breath and swung around to stare at the baby kangaroo’s owner. When she smiled hopefully, words almost failed him.
“I can’t deal with this right now,” he muttered and dropped the sheaf of papers he was carrying on Charlie’s desk.
The tote bag stopped shaking.
Charlie sighed in relief, put a warning finger over her lips and pointed to the door. “We can talk outside,” she whispered.
“I can’t believe you want to talk out in the hall because of your pet,” Mike protested. “Why not here in your office? He can’t possibly understand what we’re talking about.”
“I don’t want to disturb Boomer,” she whispered. “He needs his rest.”
“You’ve got it wrong. He’s not a baby. He’s only a kangaroo!”
“Same thing.” She grabbed him by the arm and urged him toward the door.
“No way! I’m not putting up with this,” Mike said. He shook off her arm. “We’ll talk another time when your pet isn’t around.”
Charlie unhappily watched Mike glare at the tote bag and head for the door. After this latest incident, there was no way she was ever going to be able to restore her credibility with him—if she had had any in the first place—or be able to change his opinion of her. At least, not until she had a chance to show him how nearly human some of her pets actually were. And had a chance to show him humans had a lot to learn about relationships from the loving and caring animals.
She turned back into her office and glanced through the sheaf of papers Mike had dropped on her desk. After a moment, she realized they were copies of handwritten notes he’d taken about the incident yesterday. Several had question marks on the side. Questions he’d obviously intended to ask her.
“Still don’t trust me, do you?” she muttered as she debated throwing the papers in the wastepaper basket.
Mike unexpectedly appeared in the doorway. “Maybe I was a little hasty back there,” he said. “I forgot to take my notes with me. Unless…” he went on with a glance at the coatrack, “you’ve changed your mind and want to go over them with me now.”
Charlie glanced up at Mike. She could have sworn her hormones snapped to attention and her body start to tingle at his unexpected appearance. After startling her out of a year’s growth, he had a lot of nerve trying to be friendly. Now, more than ever, she was determined to show him how human he could be if he tried. But with Boomer waiting for his next feeding, she didn’t dare take the time. At full strength, Boomer sounded like a foghorn. The last thing she needed was to attract any more attention.
“No, thanks,” she said with a smile. “As I said, I have a full schedule this morning. But leave the papers with me and I’ll give them back to you later.”
Mike started to turn away. “By the way,” she called after him, “are you going to be at the employee picnic Sunday?”
“Picnic?”
Charlie fished in her desk drawer and handed him a handful of picnic flyers. “Try to make it. I think you’re in for a pleasant surprise. And while you’re at it, please leave a few copies in the butler’s pantry on your way out.”
Mike looked doubtful, but after another glance at the coatrack, folded the flyers and put them into his pocket. “As usual, you’re not making much sense,” he muttered. “But if you want to play games, I’m willing to give it a try.” He glanced at Charlie as if he wanted to say something more before he shook his head and left.
With a rueful glance at the quiet tote bag, Charlie dropped into the chair behind her desk. Boomer could wait for his next feeding until she had a chance to come up with the answers to the question marks on Mike’s list. When she returned the papers, Mike would have to admit that the only thing she’d been guilty of yesterday was trying to do her job. And of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As for Boomer and the rest of the zoo population she planned on introducing Mike to, she was positive that once he met them in a more natural setting their personalities were bound to hook him for sure. Just as Boomer had captured her heart the first time she’d seen his picture on the Internet and found out that he was for sale.
If Boomer and the rest of his animal friends didn’t manage to humanize Mike, nothing could.
FRIDAYS HAD NEVER been a particularly good day, Mike mused as he strode along the corridor away from Charlie’s office. The only good thing about this one was that it brought the end of the week. After midnight tonight he had two peaceful days off to look forward to, thank God.
Two days without Charlie Norris and her cute but bizarre pet. He muttered his displeasure under his breath as he strode across the marble floor to his office and, at the same time, tried to rub the kink out of the back of his neck. As far back as he could recall, the only time that damn kink showed up was when he was under stress. No big surprise it showed up this time. He could lay the credit for this episode on Charlie Norris and that baby kangaroo of hers. Bottle-feeding! Diapers! Hell, you’d think that Blair House was an animal nursery instead of a prestigious home away from home for VIPs.
“Wheeler! Wait up!”
Mike stopped in midstride and turned around. His superior, Bradley Simons, beckoned him into his office and closed the door behind them.
“Have a seat.” Simons walked around his desk and dropped into his chair. “Got a job for you.”
“I’ve already got a job,” Mike answered.
“Well, now you’ve got another one.” Simons reached into his desk drawer for a bottle of pills. “Hand me that pitcher over there, please.” He shook out two large pills, put them in his mouth and washed them down with water. “Sorry, with all the crap going on, that ulcer of mine is acting up again. Guess it comes with the territory.”
Mike rubbed the back of his head when the thought of Charlie and her pet began to show all the signs of turning into a headache and a half. “Tell me about it.”
Simons eyed him sympathetically. “You, too?”
Mike shrugged. “Like you said, it comes with the territory.”
“Glad you feel that way.” Simons rummaged in his center desk drawer, took out two letters and handed them across the desk. “Take a look at those.”
Mike read the first letter. His lips set in a grim line as he read the second. Both letters threatened the Blair House personnel for their interference in the attempted assassination yesterday. “Kind of soon for these to show up.”
Simons leaned back in his chair. “Make a guy angry enough…” His voice trailed off. “You notice that the author keeps referring to our Charlie Norris?”
Mike had noticed, all right, but he hadn’t thought of the lady as being “our” Charlie. Maybe she was Simons’s Charlie, but not his. Not after the way the pain was growing at the back of his neck and threatening to take his head off. She may have pleaded her innocence when he’d confronted her after the shooting, but it looked as if she had managed to annoy the hell out of someone out there. “What was she supposed to do, let the two jackasses kill each other?”
Simons shrugged. “Right or wrong, she’s a target. I want you to keep an eye on her.”
Mike blinked. Of all the assignments he could have drawn, guarding Charlie wasn’t at the top of his list. “Don’t tell me that that’s the new job!”
“Yep.” Simons stood. “Get used to it.” He gestured to a picnic flyer Mike had sticking out of his breast pocket. “You can start with the picnic.”
Mike got to his feet and bit back a protest. “I hadn’t made up my mind to go to the picnic, sir.”
“Sure you have,” Simons said amiably as he opened the office door. “Enjoy the day.”
Chapter Three
At midmorning Sunday, Mike checked the address on the picnic flyer against the address on the little red barn mailbox. They were one and the same. The empty field across the road was filled with automobiles, SUVs and motorcycles.
It looked as if Charlie had offered her property for the annual Blair House picnic. That seemed normal enough, but what really got to him was the lack of security personnel at the gate.
He bit his lower lip. With Charlie Norris in charge, he was almost afraid to think of the surprise she said she had in store for him.
What bothered him even more than the lack of security was the conventional, rambling yellow-and-white Cape Cod-style farmhouse. Surrounded by trees and flowering azalea bushes, and with beds of peonies and day lilies randomly placed to make them look as if they grew there naturally, it wasn’t the type of setting he’d expected the unconventional Charlie to own.
On second thought, he wasn’t sure what type of house he’d expected Charlie to live in, but this traditional cottage sure wasn’t it. After she’d told him she had a zoo in her backyard, he’d almost expected her to live in a wooden cabin set in a stand of trees surrounded by animal cages.
“Daddy, hurry.” A small hand tugged at Mike’s knee and pointed to the balloon-decorated side gate. “Hurry up before all the balloons are gone!”
Mike tore his gaze away from the house and moved on.
Mob scenes weren’t his idea of entertainment, he mused as he followed the red arrows that pointed to the side gate. It was the idea of any open gathering in unguarded settings that made him uneasy.
He’d been trained to be wary of open spaces where he couldn’t control the setting or protect his charges.
This one really disturbed him. Bringing his son Jake along didn’t sit well with him, but he’d tentatively promised him they would come to the picnic before Simons had given him his new assignment. He’d had no choice.
With Jake’s little hand in his, Mike made his way around to the back of the property. Accustomed to checking every detail of his surroundings, he mentally counted twenty-eight women in shorts and T-shirts decorated with a Blair House logo. True to form, thirty-two men in jogging shorts or jeans and the same Blair House T-shirts were gathered in small groups and drinking beer.
The children were more difficult to account for. They never seemed to stand in one place long enough to count heads, anyway.
The casual T-shirts had to be a management giveaway because everyone wore them, even the kids. From a security viewpoint, in his opinion, they were the last item of clothing they should all have been wearing. If a problem arose, with every kid wearing the same T-shirt it would be difficult to tell one from another. As for putting a T-shirt on Jake or himself, no way. It wasn’t only foolhardy, the word casual wasn’t in his vocabulary.
Picnics weren’t exactly his style, Mike mused as he continued to check out the surroundings while deciding whether to remain or leave. But, he reminded himself, he was not only here on orders, there was Jake, a thirty-seven-inch-tall, three-and-a-half-year-old bundle of energy to consider.
Then, too, he’d been promising himself he’d take up a normal life again, and, after a year of promises, he reluctantly figured it was about time to begin. Not for his sake—with a leg still aching from a bullet he’d taken during an attempted assassination, he could have done without picnics—but because of Jake.
As a single parent, he owed the kid big.
He smiled fondly at his son. “What color?”
“Green,” Jake said firmly. A frown crossed his little forehead. “No, red. I want a red one.”
“Cool, sport,” Mike agreed with a covert glance around the territory. So far, so good. “Let’s go and see if we can get you one of each.”
This shouldn’t be a problem, Mike told himself as they made their way across the wide expanse of grass to where a clown was blowing up balloons. The bigger problem facing him was how to make up to Jake for the loss of his mother in a boating accident a year ago.
As for seeing many familiar faces at the picnic, he hadn’t been assigned to Blair House on a regular basis long enough to have cultivated any real friendships. Except perhaps Charlie Norris. Now that he thought about their recent exchange over her odd choice of pets, he wasn’t sure Charlie fitted into the friendship category. Or, better yet, he thought as his imagination suddenly took flight, into his arms.
He’d never known anyone like Charlie Norris, he thought as they strolled around the grounds checking out the activity. The bigger surprise was that his attraction to her had turned into something beyond fascination before he’d realized what had hit him. Considering that business and pleasure didn’t mix, any ideas along that line had to stop. Especially since she had become his official charge.
He simply couldn’t afford to let his interest in her go any further.
He gazed casually around the picnic grounds as they made their way to the clown. On the surface, everything looked harmless, but he wasn’t prepared to relax his vigilance. On one hand, there had been Charlie’s involvement in the love affair between Wade Stevens and the Baronovian duchess. Then there was the recent shooting in Blair House. There were too many unusual happenings that Charlie had managed to become involved with. He needed to stay on his toes if he was going to keep her alive.
Granted, Charlie had always claimed good intentions, but as far as he was concerned it had only been by the grace of God that neither she nor anyone else had gotten killed by now. Between his reaction to those unhappy incidents and the incongruous encounter with her pet kangaroo, he didn’t expect many friendly words from her today. How to stay on a friendly footing and keep from blowing their tenuous relationship was priority number one.
“Daddy,” Jake said. “I’m hungry.”
“Me too, sport. Let’s go see what we can find.” Mike took a fresh look around him for any food vendors. With one balloon tied to Jake’s wrist and the other carefully tied to the shoulder strap of his little denim overalls, they set off to explore the picnic area. It was soon clear that it was a case of finding something for Jake to eat or having to leave, which he couldn’t possibly do and still keep an eye on Charlie.
Picnics were usually catered, but not this one. Too late, he remembered that the flyer had said this was a do-it-yourself picnic. Damn! True to form, Charlie’s picnic had to be different. He sighed as he gazed over at a group of women laying out homemade fried chicken and potato salad on picnic tables, and at the men busy at portable barbecues.
He sobered as the setting began to remind him of a long-ago picnic he’d attended with his new bride before Jake had been born. Ellie had been annoyed by the rustic surroundings and lack of what she thought of as comfort. He hadn’t dwelt on the possibilities of picnics since.
One thought led to another, and he was reminded of something he hadn’t wanted to think of.
It had been a year since he’d forced himself to put the past and his late wife’s accidental drowning behind him. Longer, if he counted the months from the time Ellie had decided to relive her carefree youth, free from husband and child, a decision that had left him without a wife and Jake without a mother.
What had made him think now of Ellie and the role she could have played in his and Jake’s life beat the hell out of him. Maybe he hadn’t done as good a job of putting the past behind him as he thought he had.
It certainly couldn’t have been the sight of Charlie Norris staking out a position under an apple tree. Or could it?
For a moment, he hadn’t recognized her without the tailored suit she usually wore on duty. In her brief cream-colored shorts and that damn T-shirt that seemed to be today’s dress code she made his testosterone jump to attention.
