Only Her (A K2 Team Novel)(18)

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.