by Sandra Owens
A few minutes later, he came out and stopped in front of her. “I expect to be back in a few days. I’ll keep in touch and let you know when to expect me.” His gaze moved to the wall behind her shoulder for a few seconds, and by the haunted look in his eyes, she could swear that he was seeing a ghost from his past. Then his eyes focused back on her. “With what I do, there’s always the chance I won’t return. You don’t owe me anything, and you can say no, but I’m going to ask two things of you.”
“If it’s in my power.” She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to refuse him anything. The man was tortured by something, and her soft heart had already decided to hurt for him.
“The first thing, promise you’ll find good homes for them.”
She nodded. “I can do that. And the other?”
The way he hesitated told her that whatever he was about to say, he’d rather not. “There’s a dog, Layla, that got left behind in Afghanistan. If she can be found and I’m not able to, my teammates will get her here. I’d like you to reunite her with Pretty Girl and Sally. So should the unexpected happen, and you do have to find a home for these two, just make sure that whoever it is will take a third dog. Will you do that for me?”
Was it possible to fall for a man because of a few words he’d said? She wondered if he realized how much he had revealed about himself just then. Riley swallowed the lump in her throat, and not trusting her voice, she nodded. The bigger-than-life man standing in front of her with pain shining in those dark eyes had a bigger-than-life heart.
“Thank you.” He lifted his hand and trailed a finger down her cheek. “Another time, another place, Riley, you and I . . .” He trailed off, his gaze falling to her mouth.
Yes, kiss me. He didn’t, though. As he walked away, she said a prayer that he would stay safe, while wondering what was wrong with this time and this place.
CHAPTER FIVE
He’d come close to kissing her again. Almost wished he had. The vibes for this operation weren’t good. It was probably because of his state of mind and had nothing to do with any danger he would face tracking down two kids who thought they were in love. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that what seemed like a piece of cake was going to turn out to be far from it. He should have kissed her good-bye.
“You’ll be flying into Des Moines where I’ll have a car waiting for you. It’s about an hour and a half drive to Fort Dodge, the last place the couple was spotted,” Kincaid said, drawing Cody’s attention back to the briefing.
Cody eyed the digital map Kincaid had pulled up on the wall. “Who the hell runs away to Iowa?”
Ryan O’Connor, his teammate on this operation, smirked. “What, you don’t like potatoes and corn?”
“Corn and potatoes, I don’t have a problem with. It’s dumb kids I don’t like.” Cody sat back in his chair. “What’s the background on these two?”
Kincaid slid dossiers across the table, one to him and the other to Ryan. “Small problem. The boy’s father is an antique gun collector, and several of his pieces are missing.”
The bad vibes that had been doing a slow dance in his head decided it was time to do a jig. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never had misgivings before about walking into any situation. For a millisecond, he considered telling Kincaid that he wasn’t ready to return to action, but then he’d probably be ordered to see a head doc. Besides, the mission was just to retrieve two kids, nothing he couldn’t handle.
At the Pensacola airport, a Learjet was waiting to fly them to Des Moines, arranged so that they wouldn’t have to go through airport security to board a commercial flight. Considering both he and Doc were carrying, and each had knives secreted on their bodies, they would have set off all kinds of alarms.
“When am I gonna get to meet your woman?” he asked, once the Learjet’s wheels lifted.
Ryan laughed. “Don’t let Charlie hear you call her my woman. She’ll punch you in the nose.”
“I’ll make a note of that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all my mates getting hitched. No way I’m drinking the water at K2.”
“Your turn will come, and it’ll have nothing to do with the water. It just takes the right woman.”
His friend sounded happy, not like the man who a year ago had mourned the death of his first wife. Cody had sensed that there was more to the story than a simple robbery gone wrong, but if so, Ryan had never shared the details. All of his teammates were disgustingly in love, their eyes lighting up at the slightest mention of their wives or fiancées. It was one of the things that made Cody uneasy coming to K2, like an outsider peering into the windows of their happy homes.
Although his parents had been baffled by their son’s love of all things military since the day he’d found a G.I. Joe in the toy box at day school, he couldn’t remember the last time they’d hugged him. They’d made it quite clear they didn’t approve of his life choices, and displays of affection weren’t in their DNA. All the love business going on around him unwillingly fascinated him, but no way was that a poke of envy he felt.
He had met Kincaid’s family, and the man they’d called Iceman during their SEAL days, the man he’d once suspected might live out his days alone, had gone all touchy-feely, unable to keep his hands off his wife and children.
Then there was Jake and Maria. Someday he would get Jake drunk enough to learn how he’d gotten up the nerve to go after the boss’s sister, risking life and limb. That had to be love, right? Not long after that, Jamie Turner had fallen into the trap with a woman named Sugar. Cody was pretty sure Jamie could entertain him for hours with that story. And now Ryan was about to marry a stunt plane pilot who would punch Cody in the nose if he said the wrong thing to her. Already he liked the woman.
It boggled the mind how each of his teammates had somehow found a woman who perfectly suited him.
“You’ll meet Charlie as soon as we get back. Kincaid’s having an engagement party at his beach house.” Ryan glanced at him. “You’re welcome to bring a date.”
Hell. Cody Roberts didn’t date. Not anymore. Yet, the way Riley’s eyes had darkened with desire when he’d kissed her popped into his mind. Since she was the only woman he knew in Pensacola, maybe he’d ask her. It wouldn’t mean anything, wouldn’t be a real date, just neighbors going somewhere together.
Liar. Not liking that voice in his head, Cody lowered his seat back and closed his eyes, pretending to go to sleep. Problem—behind his closed eyelids, there was Riley’s sweet mouth, parting open when he’d almost kissed her. He willed away the image of her leaning against the wall and how he’d wanted to push his body hard against hers and take her right then and there in the hallway of her animal clinic.
A woman who cried at the loss of someone else’s pet deserved better than he could ever give her, though. After he got home and picked up his dogs, maybe he’d look for someplace else to live so he wouldn’t see her every day.
“We’re on the ground,” Ryan said, punching Cody’s arm.
Cody blinked open his eyes, surprised he’d fallen asleep. Too afraid the nightmares would come, he never slept on planes or wherever someone might hear him call out. Since his teammate wasn’t looking at him as if he’d just stepped off a spaceship from Mars, it seemed he hadn’t yelled anything.
He’d nodded off thinking of Riley. Maybe she was the answer to keeping his demons at bay. If he could fill his mind with her before going to sleep, there might not be any room for whatever ghosts were haunting him.
“Let’s roll,” Ryan said, grabbing his bag from under his seat when the plane came to a stop. “I want to get this kindergarten operation over with so I can get home. Charlie has an air show Sunday I don’t wanna miss.”
And Cody only had his dogs to go home to. But that was the way he wanted it, right? “Yeah, let’s get it done.”
The pilot opened the cabin door, and Cody followed Ryan out onto the tarmac, where a man wearing a rental car–logoed shirt handed him the keys to a black Range Rover.
> “Gimme.” Ryan made a grab for the keys.
Cody fisted them. “Nope.” He slid behind the wheel before his teammate took it in his head to wrestle for the keys. “Sweet,” he said, checking out the interior.
“I’m driving tomorrow.” Ryan tapped his phone to bring up the hotel coordinates for the place that Kincaid had booked for them for the first night. Before leaving the Des Moines area, they got a bag of burgers and two large coffees to go at a fast-food restaurant.
After turning onto the highway in the direction of Fort Dodge, Cody took a sip of his black coffee. One thing he liked about a mission was that he didn’t crave a drink. He supposed it was ingrained in his brain that alcohol and missions don’t mix, not that the one they were on now was risky. But boots on the ground was a whole different mindset, whether it involved dumb love-struck kids or bullets whizzing past his ears in the middle of some hellhole desert. Or maybe being on an operation meant he wasn’t sitting at home in the dark, afraid to go to sleep, needing the scotch to dull his mind.
“What’s the latest on Layla?” Ryan asked as he munched on a handful of fries.
At the mention of her, Cody swallowed the lump of hamburger that now felt like a jagged rock scraping its way down his throat. He drank some coffee to help it go down before answering. “The dog Wizard thought might be her wasn’t. He’s got everyone looking for her.”
“Wizard won’t quit until he finds her.”
“If . . . if she’s still alive.” He was losing hope, but Ryan was right. Cody had saved Wizard’s life, and the man believed he owed Cody, so he wouldn’t give up. Problem was, Wizard’s time in-country was about up. If Layla wasn’t found soon, then she wasn’t going to be.
Thinking of the dog he’d left behind always sent him to a dark place, and he didn’t need to go there in the middle of an operation. He passed a slow-moving car, a classic Mustang, a couple out for an afternoon ride, it appeared. The woman’s hair reminded him of Riley’s, and he filled his mind with her. As soon as he did, the churning in his gut eased.
“So there Jake and I were, about to get it on for the first time, and in walks Saint.”
“No kidding? What did you do?” Riley needed this lunch with Maria. She’d been laughing from almost the time they sat, and it felt good to get her mind off an animal serial killer for a while.
Maria grinned. “Gave my brother a piece of my mind for interfering in my love life. He’d sent Saint to replace Jake as my bodyguard ’cause he knew exactly what Jake and I were up to. Logan finally came around when he realized Jake and I loved each other, so we’re all good now.”
Riley pushed aside the last few bites of her chicken taco salad, while watching Maria devour a platter of cheese enchiladas. “How is it you don’t weigh a thousand pounds?”
“Jake makes sure I get a lot of exercise.” Maria winked, giving a lecherous grin.
“Lucky you.” She’d met Jake once when he came into the clinic with Maria to drop off their cat for boarding. The man was crazypants hot, but he’d only had eyes for Maria, which Riley thought was really cool. Not that she blamed him. Maria was strikingly beautiful with her olive skin, dark sloe-eyes, and wavy black hair.
“Still no love life for you?”
Her sexy neighbor with the cowboy name popped into her mind. Nah. He was heartache on a stick. Still . . . “There’s a guy I’m attracted to, but I think he’s got issues.”
“Those are the kind you want to avoid.” Maria signaled for the check. “Although I’m not one to talk. Jake’s middle name was issues for a while there.”
“You’re right, but he’s my new neighbor, so he’s going to be hard to avoid. Not to mention, his picture is in two places in the dictionary. Once under eye candy and then again under, oh my God, he’s got a hot bod.”
“Want me to check him out?”
“You mean like look at him?”
Their waitress set the check on the table, and Maria grabbed it before Riley could. “You paid last time. No, I’m talking about running his name, see if he’s got a record. At least you’d know if he’s trouble as far as the law is concerned.” She put a credit card on top of the bill and pushed it to the end of the table.
“Isn’t it illegal for you to nose into someone’s records?” Even though Riley was tempted, it didn’t feel right.
“No, records are public knowledge.” She shrugged. “Up to you.”
“I don’t know. I think Cody’s the kind of man who wouldn’t appreciate me checking on him like that.”
Maria’s eyes widened. “Cody? What’s his last name?”
“Roberts, but let me think about it before you do anything.”
A wide grin lit Maria’s face. “I don’t have to check into him. He works for us. Oh man, this is going to be fun.”
“That’s your company, K2? You never said exactly where you worked, come to think of it.” Wow, she could get the scoop on Cody, but she still felt uneasy about prying into his life. “Exactly what is K2?”
“K2 Special Services. We do a lot of things, some I can tell you about and some I can’t as they’re classified.”
Secret stuff? That made Riley all the more curious about her neighbor. She glanced at her watch. “I’d love to hear more, but time to get back to the clinic.”
After signing the credit card receipt, Maria slid out of the booth. “I’ll just say that Cody’s one of the good ones.” She chewed on her bottom lip, making Riley think she was considering her words. “I’ll tell you that he was on the SEAL team with my brother and Jake. He was their sniper. Anything else, you’ll have to learn from him.”
A SEAL? She didn’t know much about the military or their branches, but she’d read a few SEAL romances, and those guys were supposed to be the baddest of the bad. And he’d been their sniper, so was his sole job to kill people? She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Maria was watching her as if waiting for a reaction. Before Riley could think of a response, her cell played the oldies song “Doctor! Doctor!” It would be Brooke or Michelle on the clinic landline, and they would only interrupt her lunch with an emergency.
“Yeah?” she said, the phone to her ear as she walked out with Maria. She listened to Michelle for a moment. “I’ll be right there. Tell Brooke to start flushing out his stomach.” Dammit, not another one.
“I’ve got an emergency.” She increased her pace, striding ahead of Maria. About to break into a run, she thought of Maria’s adorable cat, Mouse. Maria and Jake lived in her part of town. Turning and walking backward, she said, “Don’t let your cat out for any reason.”
“What?” Maria walked faster, keeping up with her. “Is something wrong?”
“Someone’s poisoning animals. Just keep Mouse inside, okay? Gotta run.” With that, she turned and jogged to her car.
“Call me tonight,” Maria yelled after her. “I might be able to help.”
Riley doubted it, but she didn’t have time to ask why Maria thought she could be of help. “Sure, okay. Later.” She jumped into her car, and backed out of the parking space. Not caring if she was speeding, she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal. If a cop stopped her, she’d just flash her doctor’s credentials and deal with the fallout when she arrived at an animal hospital instead of a human one.
“Call Emerald Coast Animal Clinic,” she said to Bluetooth.
“Calling Emerald Coast Animal Clinic,” the robotic voice confirmed.
“Update,” she said when her receptionist answered.
“Brooke’s flushing out his stomach. Hold on a sec while I go to your office.”
Riley impatiently tapped her thumb on the steering wheel, waiting for Michelle to come back on the line. Who the hell got off on poisoning helpless animals?
Duncan, the male mixed breed having his stomach pumped, had been her patient since his elderly owners had adopted him from an animal shelter two days before he was due to be euthanatized. Some cold-hearted bastard who’d never been caught had shot Duncan in the lef
t eye when he was a stray. No one had wanted a one-eyed older pet until Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn had chosen him. They loved that dog.
“The Vaughns were standing in front of me when I was talking to you. They’re really upset,” Michelle said, coming back on the line. “I popped my head into the exam room on the way back here. Brooke thinks he’ll be okay.”
Thank God. “I’m five minutes away. Tell her . . . Never mind, she knows what to do. Find out from the Vaughns how long he’s been sick. Be there in a few.”
The Vaughns were such a nice couple, and it would break her heart to have to tell them they’d lost Duncan. Arriving at her clinic, Riley slammed the gearshift into Park, and ran straight to the exam room.
“How’s he doing?” She slipped on a lab coat.
Brooke finished washing her hands. “I think he’s going to make it.”
Michelle poked her head in. “The Vaughns said they took him to the dog park to let him run. They’d been there about ten minutes when they noticed him next to a bush, eating something. Mr. Vaughn brought what Duncan didn’t get a chance to finish. Looks like hamburger meat. He said he thought it was suspicious that someone would leave a chunk of raw meat at a dog park, so he used his poop bag to scoop it up. I put the bag into a sealed plastic one and stuck it in the fridge. Is that okay?”
The poisoned meat evidence combined with the number of affected pets gave Riley hope that the police would finally take her seriously.
“You did great, Michelle. Thanks. Tell the Vaughns I’ll come talk to them in a few.” Riley did an exam, checking Duncan’s vitals, relieved that all his signs were close to normal.
“You’re going to be okay, sweetie,” she said when Duncan licked her arm.
Brooke brought a wet cloth over to clean his face. “I’m so glad we can give the Vaughns good news.”
So was Riley. “I’ll go talk to them. Bring him out when you’ve got him all pretty again.”
