Operation Blind Date

by Justine Davis

  No matter what happened from last night on, he was afraid his life had been changed forever by a few searing minutes with the woman sitting across from him. He glanced at Quinn, caught him looking at Hayley with what the team jokingly called The Look.

  He got it, now. If this was what Quinn had felt when he first met Hayley, Teague was sure of one thing.

  He hadn’t felt nearly enough sympathy for his boss.

  Chapter 23

  “It’s not your fault, Laney.”

  Hayley’s tone was reassuring, but Laney wasn’t in the mood to be reassured. Although she had to admit, sitting here in the sun on the patio outside Foxworth’s back door was relaxing. Not enough to stop her wondering what Hayley was up to by asking her to join her out here for a light lunch, but still, relaxing.

  “I feel like it is,” she said. “I should know more about the guy, I should have listened better. Been more aware. But I just floated along in my safe, quiet life, not paying much attention to anything outside my own little world.”

  “We all do, until something—or someone—comes along to shake us out of that. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sometimes both.”

  “Both?”

  “My mother’s death shook me, badly. But then Quinn came along.”

  “And kidnapped you?”

  Hayley looked startled, but then grinned. “Teague’s been talking.”

  She thought she kept her expression even, but something flickered in Hayley’s eyes that told her she hadn’t quite been successful. She’d wondered, by the way the woman had looked at them both during the assessment meeting this morning, if she suspected something. Now she was almost certain.

  “He said I should ask you about it.”

  “It’s a long story, involving the proverbial black helicopter,” Hayley said, and gave her what she said was the digest version of what had happened after a midnight trek with Cutter.

  “And now you’re engaged,” she said, shaking her head in wonder at the tale.

  “We’d be married already if Quinn had his way.”

  “It’s obvious he’s crazy about you.”

  “And I’m crazy about him. But a girl needs time to prepare, right?”

  “Not to mention enjoy being engaged,” Laney said.

  “Exactly.”

  “Especially when she gets to show off a man like Quinn.”

  “That, too,” Hayley agreed with a laugh. “He is pretty impressive.”

  Laney hesitated to ask what was really on her mind. But she remembered the way Hayley had looked at them so consideringly and figured she wouldn’t be giving anything away the very perceptive woman hadn’t already guessed.

  “After all that drama,” she said at last, “how were you sure it wasn’t just...all that drama?”

  “How did I know it was real, and not just the circumstances?” Hayley asked.

  “Exactly,” Laney said, relieved she wouldn’t have to explain further.

  “Quinn,” she said simply. “He’s been doing this for a while, and he’s helped a lot of people, including women. Some very attractive women. But nothing ever happened between them.”

  Laney drew back slightly. “Until you.”

  Hayley nodded. “So even if I didn’t trust my own judgment, I trusted his. He knew the difference, knew it was real.” Her mouth quirked. “And the fact that he wasn’t thrilled about it at first helped. It’s a lot easier to believe when you see them fighting it.”

  Fighting it. As Teague had last night.

  As if she’d heard the thought, Hayley said softly, “Teague’s a good man. A very good man.”

  Laney stared at the can of soda she held, watching a drop of condensation track down the side, wondering inanely what law of physics determined the path it took. Anything but look at Hayley.

  “Yes,” she finally said, “he is.”

  She hoped Hayley would leave it at that, but in her way she was as tenacious as Cutter.

  “He’s been through some true hell in his life,” Hayley said. “And I won’t say he doesn’t carry scars from it, because he does. I think that’s why he jokes so much, as a sort of camouflage.”

  Laney’s brow furrowed. Hayley had mentioned that once, some time ago, that Teague was the most cheerful guy she knew. The one who lightens the mood with quips and teasing. She’d heard him do that a few times, when they’d been with Hayley or Quinn or Tyler, or even with a couple of people when they’d been at the airport. But rarely when it had been just them.

  “He doesn’t do that with you?” Hayley asked. “Interesting.”

  The woman was really too perceptive for comfort, Laney thought. “Not often. He’s being professional, I guess.” Like he had been last night, belatedly.

  “He always is,” Hayley answered. “At the core he’s unchangeable. He’s good, solid, honest, strong and above all honorable.”

  Laney’s mouth tightened and her eyes stung. She blinked a couple of times, thinking how humiliated she’d be if she who rarely cried started now. With some effort, she managed a light tone.

  “Was that an assessment, or an endorsement?”

  “Yes,” Hayley said simply.

  She sighed. That’s what she got, she supposed, for all that sailing along on the surface, enjoying her easy, peaceful life without much thought about it. The stress of starting her business had been the toughest thing she’d ever had to deal with, and she looked at it as more of a challenge than anything. But she should have known there would be a price...that no one got through life unscathed.

  It seemed the bill for that peace had come due.

  * * *

  Teague found Quinn in the warehouse that served them as storage and also as a hangar for the helicopter. His boss was standing next to the gleaming black craft, studying something intently. He was looking at the bullet hole, Teague realized.

  The rest of the damage incurred the night they’d ended up kidnapping Hayley had been repaired, parts patched or replaced. But this hole, in a harmless place that had no effect on flight, Quinn had opted to keep. Usually looking at it made him smile. Every time they piled into the thing, Teague could count on a moment when Quinn would glance at it and his mouth would curve slightly, and his eyes would warm.

  Teague would tease him about it. And inwardly marvel at how at-ease he felt with his boss. At what a wonder it was to him still, to work for a man he not only respected and admired, but liked. One who was solid, steady and even and always had his back.

  One who would take the teasing with a smile that spoke volumes of the strength of his relationship with Hayley. And Teague believed it; nothing could shake those two apart.

  Yes, he knew how Quinn felt. What he didn’t know was how it felt to feel that way.

  An image of Laney, half-naked on the floor, wanting him, offering herself, shot through his mind. That was just sex, he told himself. It had been a while, she was a beautiful woman, inside and out, she’d been willing; it was only to be expected. Natural. Nature. Trying to take its course.

  And he wasn’t sure if he’d done the right thing by stopping, or just been a stupid fool not to take what he’d wanted, wanted so much it had nearly killed him to pull away.

  “Teague? You all right?”

  “Yes.” No. “I’m fine.” I’m insane. “What next?” Find a cure?

  He was very much afraid there was no cure, except the one he couldn’t, wouldn’t take.

  “Ty’s still working on tracking Edward. If he’s out there and moving, there has to be a trail.”

  Teague forced himself to get his head back in the game. “And if he’s not, if he’s gone to ground, with Amber,” he began.

  “Then we really have our work cut out for us.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “S
tick with Laney. There’s always a chance she might remember something that could be key, something she doesn’t realize could be important.”

  And there it was. The order he’d been dreading. And the time to ask to be taken off this one. All he had to do was say it. Simple. Sir, you should send somebody else. I’m too—

  Too what? Stupid? Too slow to wake up? Too in lust?

  No, he’d just suggest someone else. Send Liam, who was due back tonight from the tech seminar Foxworth had sent him to to help keep his skills sharp. Liam’s family had raised dogs; he and Laney would get along great.

  Or Rafe. Now, that would be something. Laney would bemuse the taciturn, solitary Rafe. The man had little faith left in mankind in general. Laney’s sweetness and loyalty would not only win him over, but probably do him a lot of good.

  That was the solution, he thought. He opened his mouth to make the suggestion.

  “I think...”

  The words wouldn’t come. And Quinn spoke before he could force them out.

  “Take some food. Or take her to lunch. Hayley’s worried she’s not eating enough.”

  Great. Now he was under orders to take her out.

  “Problem, Johnson?”

  The use of his last name warned him, told him he was acting too oddly, that he was getting very close to tripping Quinn’s radar, and if that happened, there’d be no way out of explaining every last damned detail of why he wanted off this case. Not a prospect he savored.

  “No, sir. Sorry. Just...thinking.” His mouth twisted ruefully. “Probably too much.”

  “Get on it, then.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  And with those two words, acknowledgment and promise in one, he was committed. Not for anything would he let this man down. The escape hatch was closed, and he’d done it to himself.

  * * *

  Hayley watched as Quinn threw the ball for Cutter. It warmed her as always to watch them together. He made time for a session almost every day he wasn’t actively out on a case, something she appreciated, as the dog got twice as much exercise from his long throws than her own efforts. She could throw hard, but he had long down pat.

  And a Cutter who didn’t get enough exercise was a Cutter who’d burn off that astonishing energy some other way.

  “Fun?” she asked the dog as the game finally came to an end, Cutter signaling he’d had enough by bringing the ball back and dropping it beside his water bowl before taking a long, noisy drink. His tail wagged at her words, but the drinking continued.

  “He especially liked the part when it hit that muddy spot and he got to wade in knee-deep to get it,” Quinn said wryly as he rinsed off his hands at the outdoor spigot.

  “Might have to take him to Laney again,” Hayley said.

  “She might like the distraction.”

  “Yes. And she hasn’t been as focused on her business as she would be if it weren’t for Amber.”

  Quinn smiled, put his arms around her. “First her eating, then her needing distraction and now her business. You worry too much.”

  “I like her.”

  “And that’s all it takes for you, isn’t it?”

  “Look who’s talking. Besides, Cutter started this, not me.”

  He laughed. “Yes, he did.”

  “So,” she said, “how deep do you think Teague is?”

  He drew back slightly to look down at her. “What?”

  “Teague. With Laney. How far do you think it’s gone?”

  He frowned. “I’d be able to answer that better if I knew what you were talking about.”

  She sighed. “Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t feel that snap, crackle and pop between them this morning.”

  His gaze narrowed. “What are you saying?”

  “And Cutter. He didn’t push that picture of Amber to you or me, he pushed it at Teague.”

  Quinn opened his mouth as if to speak, but then stopped, a thoughtful expression crossing his face.

  “What?” Hayley asked.

  “He did seem...a little odd today. When I told him to stick with Laney, keep prodding her memory.”

  Hayley smiled. “And there you have it.”

  “You’re saying he, she, that they’re— What are you saying?”

  Hayley’s answer was to crouch beside Cutter, who had finished his water intake and come to sit at their feet.

  “Is that it, boy? Is this about more than Amber in trouble?”

  The dog’s tail started wagging madly, and he gave her a quick lick on the chin. Then he made that sound they’d come to know, a low, happy, half bark, half whuffing noise.

  “That’s his ‘you finally figured it out’ sound, isn’t it?” Quinn asked, sounding a bit rueful.

  “Yep. Besides, with Cutter, isn’t it always more than it seems?”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Quinn said, pulling her up and back into his arms.

  “He was right about us,” Hayley said.

  “That he was.”

  “He—”

  She never finished the sentence. Didn’t even try. Quinn was kissing her, and nothing else mattered.

  Chapter 24

  “You should eat.”

  “I did.”

  “Not enough,” Teague said.

  “Somebody appoint you my mother?” Laney asked, knowing she sounded like a cranky child but somehow unable to stop it.

  Her plate sat still half-full, even though the salmon she’d ordered was delicious. She just wasn’t hungry, even though Teague had somehow known her favorite local restaurant and given her little choice about coming with him. Even though sitting out on the restaurant patio in the summer sun usually fired her appetite for the fresh, locally caught fish that could well have come off one of the boats she could see at the dock from here.

  “Yes,” he answered. “Hayley.”

  That took the wind out of her annoyed sails. “Hayley?” That explained the restaurant choice, she guessed. She and Hayley had discussed it once when she’d brought in Cutter.

  “She’s worried about you. Thinks you’re not eating enough.”

  “So that’s why you showed up and insisted we come here.”

  He’d been under orders. She should have known. No way he would have done this on his own, not after last night.

  He’d told her she’d be glad, later, that they’d stopped. She still wasn’t. But she was embarrassed. She’d had time, too much time, to think about what had happened. And what hadn’t. Most of all, how ready she’d been to have sex with a man she barely knew.

  But the whiny part of her insisted she knew the important things. She might not know his favorite food, or color, or sport, but she knew the important things. She knew his character, didn’t she? Because if he hadn’t been who she knew he was, he wouldn’t have stopped in the first place. He would have taken advantage of the situation and they would have ended up in her bed.

  And she still wasn’t convinced she didn’t regret that they hadn’t.

  “Where do you live?”

  He seemed startled at the question out of the blue. She didn’t explain. Somehow saying “I feel like I should at least know where the guy I was ready to jump last night lives” didn’t seem right or wise.

  “Over on Puget View Drive,” he said after a moment. “I rent a guest house. Used to live in an apartment, but the noise got to me.”

  “Alone?”

  She hadn’t meant to say it, but once she had she wasn’t sorry. His fingers, in the midst of tracing the curved handle of the spoon beside his own plate—he’d ordered the same thing she had, but he’d managed to finish most of it—stilled. His eyes came up, his gaze locked with hers.

  “Is that really what you think of me?”

  She sig
hed. “No.”

  It wasn’t what she thought of him. And she realized belatedly she’d already known the answer to the question. If he’d had someone at home, last night never would have happened. He wouldn’t. Teague Johnson just wouldn’t. That honor thing again.

  “Then why did you ask?”

  She wasn’t sure herself. Maybe she wished it had been something that simple. That clear-cut. Something that would keep that barrier between them, nice and solid. Something other than just doing it—or rather, not doing it—for her sake, because he thought she’d regret it later. Because that just made her want him more.

  “I guess,” she said slowly, “it’s hard for me to believe the real reason you stopped.”

  “You are damn near irresistible.”

  She gaped at him. Then heat flooded her face and she knew her cheeks must be glowing. “No, I didn’t mean that, I never thought that!”

  “Teasing, Laney,” he said with a wry smile.

  Did that mean he didn’t think she was irresistible?

  She nearly groaned aloud at her own contrary, mouse-in-a-maze thoughts, darting, dodging, from one idiocy to another.

  “Sorry. I just meant I don’t know many men who would have stopped for that reason. Which I suppose says as much about the caliber of men I’ve encountered before as it does about you,” she ended rather glumly.

  Teague’s brow furrowed for a moment. Then he picked up that spoon he’d been toying with. “I think,” he said tentatively, “if I dug deep enough with this, I might find a compliment in there.”

  That one made her lower her gaze, but honesty made her say, “Yes. You would.”

  “Didn’t see that on the menu, or I would have ordered it up sooner.”

  Her gaze shot to his face. He was smiling, nice, warm, friendly.

  He was joking with her. Teasing.

  Hayley’s words came back to her again...always with a quip, the one who lightens the mood.

  More importantly, Hayley’s words from this morning echoed in her head. He doesn’t do that with you? Interesting.