Cord had been in trouble with the law at eighteen, and Maggie had been his mainstay. At the age of ten, she was so mature with her advice and loyalty for him that Mrs. Barton had laughed even through her agony at his predicament. Maggie was fiercely protective of her older foster brother. He remembered her holding his hand so tightly when his case was called before the judge, her whispered assurances that everything would be all right. Maggie had always taken care of him. When his wife, Patricia, had killed herself, Maggie had stayed right with him through the inquest and the funeral. When Mrs. Barton had died, Maggie had given him loving comfort, and hed repaid her with pain...
He couldnt bear to think about that night. It was one of the worst memories of his life. He stared blankly out the window at the pasture where
his big bull Hijito roamed, and grimaced as he recalled Maggies face only minutes before. Her life had been no bed of roses, either. He knew nothing of her childhood, or why shed been taken away from her stepfather. Mrs. Barton had refused to discuss it, and Maggie had avoided the question ever since hed known her.
Maggie had inexplicably married, less than a month after Mrs. Bartons death, and to a man shed only known briefly. It hadnt been a happy relationship. The man she married, a wealthy banker, was twenty years older than she was and divorced. Cord recalled hearing that shed had some sort of accident at home, and that her husband had been killed in a car crash while she was still in the hospital.
Cord had come home from Africa when hed heard, just to see about her. Shed been at home when he came, too sick even to go to her husbands funeral for reasons nobody told him. She hadnt wanted Cord there. Shed refused to talk to him, even to look at him. It had hurt, because he knew why. The night Mrs. Barton had died, hed taken Maggie to bed. Hed been drinking, one of only two times in his life hed ever had too much to drink, and hed hurt her. Incredibly shed been a virgin. He didnt remember much of what had happened, only her tears and harsh sobs, and his shocked realization that she wasnt the experienced woman hed imagined her. His anger at himself had translated itself into harsh accusations at her for what had happened. Even through the haze of time, he could still see her anguished tears, her shivering body wrapped in a sheet, her eyes avoiding the sight of his powerful body without clothing as he stood over her and raged.
Theyd seen each other very few times since then, and Maggies discomfort in his presence had been obvious. After she was widowed, shed taken back her maiden name, thrown herself into her work as vice president of an investment firm and avoided Cord totally. It should have pleased him. Hed avoided her for years before Amy Bartons death. She didnt know that hed married Patricia in a vain effort to head off his inexplicable obsession with Maggie. Hed spent so many years trying not to let her get close to him. Hed loved his pretty little American mother, worshipped his Spanish father. Their tragic deaths, in a fire that had spared him, had warped his emotions at an early age. He knew the danger of loving that led to the agony of loss. Patricias suicide had compounded his misery. When Mrs. Barton died, it was the last straw. Everything he loved, everyone he loved, was taken from him. It was easier, much easier, to stop feeling deeply.
His stint in the Houston Police Department, interrupted by service with the army in Operation Desert Storm, had given him a taste for danger that had led him into the FBI. After Patricias suicide, for which he felt guilt because of reasons hed never shared with another living soul, hed gone into work as a professional mercenary. His specialty was demolition, and he was good at it. Or he had been, until hed let himself be lured into a trap by an old adversary in Miami. His instincts had saved him from certain death, only to learn that the whole thing had been a setup. Maggie didnt know that, and he had no reason to tell her. She was obviously unconcerned with his health, showing up so late after the fact. He knew that his adversary was going to come after him again. But he wasnt going to let himself be surprised a second time.
He turned away from the window with a sigh and regretted, deeply, his treatment of Maggie. He was responsible for her distaste for him, for the indifference that had brought her to his side four days after the accident instead of hours afterward. If shed still cared for him at all, she wouldnt have waited. Shed have been frantic to see him. He laughed at his own idiocy. Hed hurt her, been icy cold to her, pushed her out of his life at every turn for years, and now he was resentful because she didnt care very much that hed been injured. He was only reaping the harvest of his abuse. It wasnt Maggies fault.
For one vulnerable moment, hed called her name and tried to find the words for an apology. But his pride had stopped him from following her when she ignored him. Shed go away and probably never come back. And he deserved it.