“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.