Mike pulled out his phone from the Faraday bag and started to text someone. Was he already telling Zoey about the nano secrets she had shared? Was he telling her about Mayfly?
Summer stopped her thoughts before she let out a resigned and pained sigh. This, trusting Mike, would be a test.
“You ready?” she asked, grabbing her phone out from the Faraday bag.
By the time they got done here, it was likely that STEALTH would know all about the inner workings of ConFlux and their secret work for the Department of Defense.
He slipped his phone into his breast pocket as he looked over at her. “Let’s stick together. No matter what happens, we can’t split up. I don’t want to lose sight of you. Got it?”
She nodded as she looked around. The neighborhood was quiet. It seemed as though everyone in the area was either at work or at school; there wasn’t even a dog outside sniffing around. In fact, if she was forced to describe it, she would have said it was eerily devoid of any evidence of life. How was it possible that there wasn’t even a bird fluttering around, picking at bugs?
The words “calm before the storm” came to mind.
Well, they were that storm.
She smiled to herself as she stepped out of the car and Mike followed. He walked beside her on the sidewalk. “Hold my hand,” she said, extending it toward him.
If they wanted to be ignored, the best thing they could do was to look like a happy, normal couple.
He slipped his hand into hers and, as he did, she thought of the way his fingers had felt on her back as he had loved her last night. The memory made her want to sink into him, to let the warmth of his embrace lull her into a sense of comfort, but they weren’t what they used to be and she would be foolish to think otherwise.
Without realizing it, she mirrored his walk and they moved in sync. Just another of the subtle body language cues that bespoke a happy couple. It was strange how their bodies had such incredible muscle memories when it came to each other—and especially their hearts.
She could so easily imagine falling back in love with him. And as she realized it, she wondered if she had ever really fallen out.
They moved toward the house, strolling along. The suspect’s driveway was empty, but there could be a car parked in the garage.
The gray house sat back from the road, its yard in desperate need of a mow. Weedy flowers poked up through tall grasses as they angled for the sun. The blades of grass brushed against the cuff of her pants, making a scratching sound that she doubted she would have normally noticed, but now sounded as loud as a semitruck barreling down a dirt road.
Nearing the door, they could hear the sound of techno music playing inside, the noise thick with rhythm but devoid of anything Summer would have considered enjoyable. She sent Mike a glance. From the quirk of his brow, she could tell he was thinking something similar.
“Apparently, we are walking up on Studio 54 here,” he joked.
“You think he has glow sticks and bottled water for us when we join the party?”
Mike chuckled. “Just the thought of what it must be like in that house makes me worry about catching some kind of communicable disease.”
“The only thing I think we are going to have to worry about catching from this guy is a case of being chronically single.”
He started to laugh, the sound a bit too loud and out of place, and he clamped his mouth shut.
She stopped at the front door. The music rattled the windows and, from where she stood, she spotted a worn leather couch and a forest-green recliner perched in the man’s living room. The floor was cluttered with spent candy wrappers and take-out boxes, but there was nothing to indicate their baby was inside.
“Let’s walk around back,” she said, making sure that they were still, as of yet, unnoticed.
Mike hopped down from the porch step, holding out his hand to help her. As she stepped down, she let go of his hand. She wanted to go for her gun, to be ready in case something went sideways here, but she talked herself off that ledge.
If the man inside saw them stalking around his house with their guns raised, there was no way she could talk herself out of the situation. Someone would undoubtedly get hurt, and the last thing she wanted to do was to put Joe into a situation in which he was in even more danger. Not to mention how things would play out with Kevin.
She needed to fly just under the radar here.
They moved quickly around the side of the house, slipping through the wooden fence’s gate, silently clicking the lock open and making sure to keep it slightly ajar in case they needed to make a quick exit.
Her body tensed as they moved toward the back wall of the house, careful to stay out of sight from anyone who may have been inside. Hopefully the guy was alone or with only his accomplice, as she had assumed. While she was reasonably proficient with a gun, it wasn’t typically her style to put herself into a situation where it could turn into a Wild West shootout. She was more of a “stick to the shadows and take them out at their proverbial knees” kind of woman.
Mike raised his fist in the air, motioning for her to stop. His body rested on the wall beside the sliding-glass door. His hand lowered to his weapon, readying for the threat, but as he peeked around, his hand moved off his gun and up to his face. Moving back to his position, hidden by the wall, he glanced over at her. His body was convulsing with silent laughter.
“What?” she asked, wondering what the hell had gotten into him.
“This is definitely not our dude.”
“But...he was buying formula and diapers. And he had a history of working overseas and in the Sandbox. Are you sure?” She frowned. The hope she hadn’t known she had been feeling twisted down her chest and pooled at her feet like spent tears.
“You have to see this. Seriously,” he whispered. He stepped in her direction so they could switch positions on the wall and she could glance inside.
As she moved around him, she tried to remind herself that she’d known this was a thin lead from the moment she had discovered the man. She had been grasping at straws; she couldn’t be disappointed now when it quite possibly would lead to nothing.
She leaned around the door frame and peered inside. It took her a minute to make sense of the scene in front of her. There, standing in the middle of what would have been a dining room in most homes, was a man in his midfifties. Around him was a series of white, lattice-style baby gates. The floor was covered with a zoo-animal-patterned blanket. The dining room had been transformed from the heart of the household, where most families had dinner chats and meetings, into a makeshift playpen.
Her gaze moved to the man. His chest was exposed; a pacifier was laced on a string around his neck. He wore an adult diaper and a pair of duck slippers. Sitting beside the man was a bottle and a can of the yellow-lidded baby formula.
What in the hell had they walked into?
She had always thought she was open-minded and relatively nonjudgmental, but standing there staring at this man-baby, she was utterly shocked. And angry. Angry because she’d wanted this to be a kidnapper, wanted to find Joe, and he wasn’t there.
In her wildest dreams, she had never seen anything even remotely close to the scene in front of her. And though she was aware she should look away—that they should bug out and get as far from this as possible, and get back to their hunt for Joe—all she could do was stare.
The grown man dressed as a baby sat, blissfully unaware he was being watched. He reached to his left and picked up his cell phone like he was recording himself. He made gurgling sounds and popped the pacifier into his mouth.
Wow.
There was a tug on the back of her pants as Mike pulled her away from the door. “You agree this isn’t our guy?”
She nodded, unable to put words to the flurry of thoughts and feelings she was experiencing.
Mike took her hand, a smile on his
face. “If all your leads are this interesting, we are going to have one hell of a day.”
Chapter Thirteen
Back in the car, all he could do was look down the road at the unassuming gray house and laugh. “Summer, that has to be one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my damned life.” His words sputtered out from between guttural laughs.
Damn, it felt good.
She covered her mouth with her hands, seemingly embarrassed by the situation in which they had found themselves. “I swear, I had no idea. I just put the pieces together. Something was off.” She started to giggle.
“Oh, I can totally understand how this guy would raise some red flags and how you would want to check him out, but damn.” He roiled with laughter as he thought about the man standing in the middle of a baby-gate playpen dressed like an oversize baby.
He had heard of infantilism, but...just wow.
“I... That...” Summer giggled. “Did you...?”
“Oh, I saw what was going on in there. That was...wow.” Their words filled the spaces between their laughter as they tried to make sense of exactly what they had stumbled upon.
Tears started to streak down Summer’s face as her giggles turned to full-blown roaring laughter. “That...is...the best...thing... I’ve ever seen...in my life.”
For what must have been five minutes they sat in the car and laughed. Though it was one of the strangest things he had experienced, Mike was grateful. It had been so long since they had laughed together like this, and the tension of the kidnapping had seemed to push away the possibility of laughter until they got Joe back. This, these moments lost in the throes of joy, he wanted a life of with her.
He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes then reached over and ran his thumb across Summer’s cheek. “If nothing else, I feel like I need to thank you for that. Seriously,” he said, gaining control over his aching gut, “I will never forget that as long as I live. That was amazing.”
She dipped her head, moving her face deeper into his palm. “I aim to please.”
“That, that right there, is something I know all about. You are by far the best woman I have ever met for that, and many other reasons.” The words spilled out of him without his really thinking about it, but as they dripped from his lips, Mike suddenly felt embarrassed.
He shouldn’t have said that, not right now, and maybe not ever. They were already treading on treacherous ground when it came to their feelings toward one another and any possible future they could have; he shouldn’t be making it any more complicated by opening up to her like he just had. It was just, with levity filling the air had come the desire to be tender and honest. And Summer had opened up to him...she had trusted him with her secret. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
She reached up and touched the hand that still rested on her face. “Before I had Joe, I always thought you were the greatest gift in my life. I was right, but then you ended up giving me a greater gift than I could have ever imagined. If that is all we ever get to have together, then I will consider my life blessed. You...you made me a mother.”
His body drove him toward her and he took her lips with his.
Damn. He loved this woman so much. There were so many reasons not to kiss her, not to take this step or go down this road with her again, but he couldn’t stop himself.
Besides, he could love a friend, and friends kissed...right?
She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer to her, like she couldn’t get enough. This. Her. It was all so hot.
But they couldn’t. No.
Not right now. Possibly, not ever.
He removed his hand from her face as he leaned away, breaking their kiss. “I’m glad to have you back in my life. I don’t know how I survived without you...and your friendship.”
The light in her eyes flickered and dulled. “My friendship,” she said, her words equal parts question and pain. “Yeah.”
He didn’t know what to do to make the light in her eyes reappear, but he wanted it back. She reached down and started the car, effectively putting an end to the moment, and it pained him. He put his hand on hers as she reached for the gearshift. “Summer, you know I never stopped caring about you.”
She pulled her hand away. Putting it on her knee, she tweaked the fabric of her pants. “You can’t do this to me.” She sighed and looked down at her fingers.
“Do what?” he asked, not exactly sure which “this” she was referring to.
“I can’t get my heart broken by you again. It hurt too much last time. I was stupid for thinking we could take things to the bedroom last night. I regret it. I shouldn’t have even made that an option. At least, not yet.” She sounded as if she was at odds with herself.
“Not yet? Does that mean you think there could potentially be something between us? Beyond co-parenting?” he asked, not sure if he should press her with questions.
“Our co-parenting arrangement needs to come first. Joe. He needs to come first.” She pulled her hands into fists and then opened her fingers. “There are so many things going on right now... I’m afraid if we kiss again—if we do whatever—that we will both come to realize it was a mistake. And there is no going back. I don’t want to relive the past.”
He knew all too well about wanting to redo the choices he’d made in his past. His thoughts flashed to the agony on her face the moment he had told her that he couldn’t marry her. If there was one moment he would want to take back, that was it.
Things could have been so different.
“You’re right, Summer,” he said, yielding to their complicated reality and the validity of her words. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“You didn’t see me pushing you away.” She smiled gently, looking over at him. “I—we—just have to both be strong and do what is right. At least, right now.”
He had to find solace in the fact she had left the door slightly ajar, just enough for him to slip into her life and perhaps someday find a relationship. But he held no hope it would be the same as before, or that it would even really happen.
For now, he just needed to be in the moment.
“What other leads do you have?” he asked, trying to pull himself out of the heaviness of the air that surrounded them. “Please tell me that we have another diaper-wearing man to look into,” he teased. “That was unforgettable.”
She laughed, the sound sprinkled with stress. “I’m sorry. I never—Again, I had no idea.”
“Oh, don’t apologize for that. It was awesome.” He laughed. “We need to find Joe, but part of me wants to go back and get pictures of that dude. Troy and AJ would get a kick out of that.” He took his phone from his pocket, about to text his family.
“What are you doing?” All the laughter was stripped from Summer’s voice, catching him off guard.
Why would she care who he was texting? Was she jealous?
“I was just going to tell the fam about the dude. They are going to laugh so hard.”
She frowned, but nodded slightly. “Ah, okay.”
Something was off, but he wasn’t sure what he was picking up on—the weirdness of their relationship or something else.
“You want me not to tell them?”
She smiled, the action forced and false. “You know that if I see them again, they will tear into me for taking you there.”
“Nah, they are cool like that. If anything, they’re going to be jealous they didn’t get to witness it firsthand.” He laughed, the sound as off as her smile.
Her phone vibrated and she retrieved it. “Hello?” she said, answering.
He looked out the window as she put the car into gear and they started to slowly drive away from the man whom neither would forget.
“Any leads?” she asked, her sentence clipped.
He couldn’t make out the words coming fro
m the other end of the line; all he could hear was the timbre of a man’s voice. It must have been someone she worked for. And then a thought struck him...she didn’t work for STRIKE and she’d said she had worked for Rockwood, but who did she work for now? Who was on the other end of the phone, feeding her information and asking her questions?
He tried to check himself before he grew suspicious of Summer or read too much into what was happening. She had told him more than he could have asked for. If she hadn’t told him something, it was for a reason. He didn’t have to like it, but his life was also cloaked in secrecy, and he had to accept their reality. He, too, was limited in what information he could share, and with whom.
She glanced over as he looked at her, guilt flashing across her features.
Could she tell what he was thinking?
He turned, looking out the passenger-side window as they drove toward the highway.
He couldn’t get sucked into the endless confusion of questions and second-guesses. He could be aware, but he couldn’t force Summer to do anything or to tell him anything she wasn’t ready to tell him.
In the meantime, he could wait—as long as it didn’t interfere with their finding Joe.
“Sure,” she said to the person on the other end of the line. “Thanks.” There was a flatness to her voice.
She dropped her phone on top of the khaki bag sitting between them on the console.
He wanted to ask her who she had been talking to and what was going on, but he held back. She would open up to him when and if she wanted to. Until then he had to be patient.
“Who else did you want to look into?” he asked, trying to make the look of disappointment lift from her face.
“The next one on my list doesn’t quite fit the profile we are looking for.” She seemed to forget about the phone call on purpose, like she didn’t want him to think anything about it.
Fine, two could play the ignore-the-obvious game.
Rescue Mission Page 11