Hidden Impact (8 page)

“Let’s say a higher priority question would be what are we doing next to find my sister?” Because she was here for a reason.

He nodded. “And the best people are on it right now.” He tapped his chest. “I will be joining them as soon as I see you safely back to the guest cabin and make sure you’re comfortable.”

She opened her mouth to protest but he touched her lips with his finger. She resisted the urge to bite it.

Humor sparkled in his eyes, giving his normally grim face a lot more charm than she’d thought possible. “There’s a lot of research in the beginning. It’s damned boring to watch. It also sucks to be the researcher with someone breathing over your shoulder. You wanted us to do this. We will. Right now the best thing you can do is stay out of our way.”

She blew out a breath in frustration. Temper tantrums wouldn’t do any good here. “Is there anything constructive I can do?”

He nodded. “Get out a piece of paper and a pen, or sit at a computer if that’ll work better for you. Blank your mind. Then start recording every single thing you know about your sister’s disappearance. List it all out. If there are relations, draw them. Any odd detail, no matter how insignificant, could be a thing. You gave us a good start, but random things pop into people’s heads later on, when they aren’t under pressure to talk.”

Okay. She settled back on her heels. Those were things she could do. And she did see the sense in what he had to say. “How often do you do this for your team?”

“What?”

“Take the client aside and set them to some constructive, or even not so helpful, task to get them out of the way?” She looked at her feet. If he hadn’t given her something to do, she really would’ve been hanging over their shoulders. “I’m betting some people get pretty irate.”

Everything had been a series of doors shut in her face so far. To finally have help gave her new energy and she wanted to drive them forward, make things happen. It was frustrating to have to wait again.

Gabe’s hand came into her field of view, taking her chin and gently coaxing her to lift her head. When he spoke, his voice was kind. “You’re not irate though. And you’re a big help so far. I’ve had clients screaming and spitting with no useful information whatsoever, expecting us to work internet magic to solve their problem. They’ve gotten violent, hysterical, any range of emotion you can think of. You, so far, just seem to think a lot—which I personally like.”

She risked meeting his gaze and her cheeks heated again.
Like
. “Is that why you kissed me?”

Oh good, she’d gotten her question out without stuttering. Points for her, because she was all sorts of flipped out internally.

One corner of his mouth lifted in a lopsided grin. “Yeah.”

Not a lot of explanation there. She bit her lip in frustration. “Care to add some detail?”

He ran his thumb across the line of her jaw, sending heat and electric sparks along her skin before he released her. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. I do things in the moment and I don’t always have a lot of thought behind why. Too much thinking makes you miss opportunities.”

He paused, watching her watch him, and she almost looked away, but didn’t. He was too fascinating, too magnetic.

After a minute, he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, then gently turned her in the direction of the trail. “Let’s get you back to the cabin. You can think all you want there. Maybe I’ll bring you some honey.”

She huffed but couldn’t come up with a good response. Overthinking was her issue and he knew it about her already.

Chapter Seven

“Seriously? You’re going to be gone two weeks?” A man’s voice cracked over the smartphone’s speaker as Gabe returned to the guest cabin. Did she have her call on speakerphone?

It’d been an hour and Gabe wanted to give her an update on their progress. Standing on the porch with her back to him, Maylin sighed without bothering to hold her phone away from her face. It wasn’t on speaker. No wonder she hadn’t heard him coming. “At minimum.”

Didn’t she take vacations from work once in a while? Granted, two weeks was a solid chunk, but maybe mainstream did things differently from what he’d thought. Gabe hadn’t ever been a civilian, seemed like.

“What are you going to do with yourself? I mean, of course you’re not going to be doing anything with yourself, but...”

Must be one of the employees from her catering company, probably the kid who’d helped her with cleanup. Gabe snickered in silence. Where did the kid think he was going with that? And why was Gabe so happy Maylin didn’t seem to get where the boy’s thoughts were coming from? Pfft.

“Look, Charlie, I’m going to find An-mei.” And there was the steel in her voice. Dauntless and determined. All that resolution contained in a tight, tempting figure. Gabe’s admiration was growing for her in a whole lot of ways. Oblivious, she continued, “I’ve got the right help now and I can’t just sit by waiting for news.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.” So much conviction in her tone. He and his team had only agreed to locate the girl. They still needed to work out the details of extracting An-mei once they found her—and those were far from trivial—but Maylin seemed sure she’d overcome one challenge at a time. He suffered a pang of guilt letting her continue as she was but he was hoping there’d be a workable solution. “Genevieve can handle the small parties scheduled over the next two weeks with you and the others to support her. I’ve already sent her an email with all of the details and gone over them with her. You get to break the news to the rest of the staff. You’ll all be fine.”

“We’ve all been working toward the day when you would trust us enough to take some time off for yourself.” She froze. Charlie’s statement startled her. “I only wish it was for a happier reason.”

Gabe wondered how much Maylin buried herself in her work. Obviously far more than she’d realized.

“Me too.” So much regret in the one statement. “I should’ve taken the time off and gone with her in the first place.”

“You can’t blame yourself. That wasn’t why I said it.” Charlie’s voice cracked with frustration.

Okay, at first it’d been unintentional, but if Gabe continued lurking behind this tree he’d be a certifiable creep. Besides, listening to Charlie pour out his concern was grating on his temper. Making an effort to step on a couple of twigs here and there, he walked into the open.

“I need to go now, Charlie. I’ll try to check in when I can.” Without waiting for her friend’s response, she ended the call.

Good. Bye, Charlie. Don’t wait up.

Her peripheral awareness wasn’t half bad, all things considered. And she stood fairly calmly waiting for him to cross the rest of the distance between them. No deer-in-headlights look. Another plus.

To be honest—and he hated that it was true—it was awkward for him to be around civilians. Hard to respect someone who hadn’t ever been punched square in the face and come back swinging. They’d called it the warrior ethos back in Basic. Mostly it was an attitude and a perspective a person either had or didn’t. Maylin’s quiet strength wasn’t a fit for either category. She wasn’t made for combat, but she wasn’t a sheep lost away from the herd either.

He didn’t know how to act around her. At least, not when he had time to consider his actions. The kiss had been hot as hell and he wanted more. But then he’d gone back to all business again and she’d obviously been left off balance. He’d kept himself apart from the mainstream for too many years to be any good at true interaction anymore.

Generally, he preferred to glower at people and intimidate the hell out of them.

“Any news?” Those green eyes were every bit as brilliant in the light of day. She wasn’t even wearing makeup.

Sugarcoating would be a waste of time. Besides, she wouldn’t thank him for it. “Not yet. I took a look through the consulate emails you forwarded me. You’re not likely to get any further with those.”

“The responses were too polite.” She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Didn’t seem like the consulate representatives put any thought into it at all.”

Probably hadn’t. He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “Too easy to dismiss an email as not a real person. A voice across a phone call isn’t much better. And the people answering those inquiries don’t actually know anything.”

Her posture sagged for a split second before she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Then I need to get to the nearest Chinese consulate and talk to someone face-to-face.”

She had steel strapped to her spine. He liked it every time he saw it. “Not the nearest. Those are San Francisco and L.A. For the kind of clout you’re going to need, it’ll save time to skip the general consulates and go straight to the embassy. Anyone at the consulates would probably send a message to the embassy anyway for it to be routed overseas. If information came back, it’d come back through the central point of contact first.”

She blinked then gave a slow nod. “Okay then, I’ll go to the embassy.”

He admired her determination, as single-minded as it was currently. Still, someone walking in without an appointment wasn’t likely to make much progress. Though, considering what he’d seen of her drive, she might make it further than most on force of personality alone. Her fluency in Mandarin would help her. He might be able to arrange for a little something to help give her some clout. And while she had attention on her, he’d tap a few contacts of his own.

“We won’t make most of the morning flights out, but we can head to the airport this afternoon and catch a red-eye tonight. It’ll give you time to pick up any toiletries or whatever at the airport.” He leaned back, made an effort not to loom over her, but she was petite. And not the type to back down. It’d been why he couldn’t resist tasting her earlier. Dangerous ground.

He needed to keep his hands to himself, at least until they had a better idea of how this would all play out. If his team beat the odds and found her sister, maybe there’d be something to explore. It’d only make it harder for Maylin if he muddied the waters before this mission was complete, though. Experience—and he had the pain in his lower back to remind him—advised proceeding with caution and keeping it simple. No further complications. No matter how tempting she was without even trying.

“Not a lot of time to book the flight.” She bit her lip.

Besides, plane tickets cost money and cross-country flights weren’t cheap.

* * *

There was the hesitation he’d been expecting. One thing to hire a man for a specific mission and another thing to fly to the other end of the country. “You can stay here. I’ll go and report back any news I find.”

“No.” Her voice took on the edge he’d heard the night before. “I’m going. I just need to know what flight and I’ll reserve my ticket.”

He ought to argue with her. Generally, it was easier when he worked alone, even stateside. If he left her here on Centurion Corporation grounds, she’d be safe. She’d be at higher risk out running around with him. Not immediate, because Gabe had plans to confuse whoever was trying to take her out. But eventually they’d unravel the trail and locate her.

It’d been Lizzy who’d asked him if he was leaving Maylin with the team. None of his people seemed to mind. But they’d all gotten a measure of Maylin at breakfast. The minute he left the property, she’d be after him whether the rest of the team let her go or not. They could stop Maylin, but they might have to restrain her to do it. And none of them wanted to go down that path.

This course of action went with the flow of her choices and provided opportunity to flush out her enemies without her waiting here as bait.

“I’ll take care of it.” He almost flinched under her suddenly piercing glare. “Expenses will be tallied at the end of the job but for the time being, I don’t want to wait on someone else’s funds to get where I need to go to find what I’m after.”

“I’m going to need to take a close look at that contract you owe me.” Anyone else would’ve sounded insulting, but her? No. Somehow it was politely chilling and definitively uncomfortable.

“It’s in your inbox. Once you’ve sent it back with your e-signature, we are all sorts of official. Take this afternoon to review it, send it back, and zip up your travel bag. We leave at seventeen hundred hours. Leave your smartphone and laptop here with Marc.”

“A red-eye leaves that early? And why leave my phone?” The second question was asked at a slightly higher pitch.

Would she start twitching if she was separated from her phone for too long? He chewed on the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. She wouldn’t appreciate it right now.

“The personal electronics stay here with Marc until he can verify they are clean. I’ve got a temporary phone for you in the meantime. As for the leave time, I figured I’d get you something other than omelets or takeout for dinner before yanking you clear across the country.” He paused. “Unless you want me to do a grocery run so you can stress-cook again?”

She laughed. The sound was a mix of surprise and pleasure. “I eat other people’s cooking once in a while, especially when it’s better than what I can cook myself.”

Considering the way she’d whipped up culinary art out of their meager supplies this morning, and then a mobile lunch for them later in the day, he was figuring there weren’t too many in Seattle who could do better than her. “Not sure if it’ll be better, but I have a nearby place in mind.”

She gave him a smile then, a real one, if small. “I look forward to it.”

He sincerely hoped he could take the shadows from her face. Soon.

* * *

“Mister Reyes?” Maylin hissed at Gabe as the elevator smoothly rose. “Welcome to you and your
wife
?”

Maybe she was still groggy from the red-eye flight and a morning driving around DC waiting in the car while Gabe made a few discreet stops, but this was one of those things he could’ve warned her about in advance. Luckily, the concierge thought she’d been surprised by the hotel they were checking into. As opposed to the sudden change in marital status.

Gabe shrugged. “I could have said we were newlyweds, but special occasions stand out too much.”

Maylin struggled to keep her voice somewhat close to calm. “You warned me we’d be arriving in DC under assumed identities. Okay. And you even coached me on my temporary name. I appreciate the instruction. You
didn’t
tell me we’d be sharing a name.”

“Does it bother you?” He wasn’t mocking her, but he didn’t seem overly concerned either. Mostly, he sounded infuriatingly neutral.

And yes, it did. But not for any logical reason she could think of, so why was she making a fuss about it again?

She’d think about it later.

“And what is a classic suite, anyway? It was nice of them to upgrade us for no charge, but what were our sleeping arrangements going to be in the first place?”

“When I looked into this hotel, the classic suites had a wall partition between the bed and the sitting area where there’s a pull-out sofa. I figured it’d give you a little privacy.” The corner of his mouth tipped up a tiny bit.

She drew in a breath and blew it out slow. Hard to make a thing of it when he was being so considerate.

His arm settled around her shoulders, a solid weight but not too heavy. She froze.

“Easy.” For his part, he didn’t even look down at her, his gaze on the display showing the increasing floor numbers as they rose. “Security camera in the upper corner over there. We’re your normal, cuddly couple.”

There was an edge to the word
cuddly
. Not the tough guy mocking tone, but more a bitter something. Like he had a bad taste in his mouth when he said it. She didn’t reply, but tucked herself snug against his side.

Leaning into him came naturally, and it was all a part of the pretense, wasn’t it? Absolutely reasonable, and comforting too. From the minute their plane had landed, she’d been a bundle of nerves as she followed him through the airport to the car rental, and even on the drive to the hotel. His solid strength calmed her, settled the jangling anxiety. She could do this.

“Yes, you can.” Gabe’s quiet comment surprised her and she jerked her head up to stare at him. He chuckled. “Is this where you ask if you used your ‘out loud’ voice?”

She blinked. “I’ve never thought to ask quite that way, but yeah, I guess I must’ve babbled.”

“Not really.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze. “It was just a few thoughts under your breath. You’re doing great.”

“Pfft. Sure. I’ve seen TV shows like this. I’m about to try for a graceful exit and trip over my own two feet.” But the idea of him catching her, maybe the two of them falling to the floor... Oy. She’d been watching too many dramas in the kitchen over food prep.

His chuckle was low, sending shivers down her spine. “One of those moments where your skirt flips up and we find out you’re wearing panties with cute bunnies printed across your bum?”

“M-maybe.” Spluttering only made him laugh harder. She pressed on. “You’ve watched anime, haven’t you?”

He dragged his fingers through his short-cropped hair. “Caught. Your scenario would’ve been a classic fan service moment.”

A pause, then he continued, “When you’re overseas you watch
anything
in your downtime to burn up the hurry up and wait. One of my squadron mates had a hard drive full of those cartoons.”

“Most of those are not kid’s cartoons.” She’d watched quite a bit through school. Still had a few favorites tucked away on her computer.

“Which is why I opted for watching them over a bunch of ponies running around learning about lessons on friendship.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “Well, if we find ourselves in a wait situation, I have other guilty pleasures for us to check out.”