“TOOK YOU
He’d taken the extra minute to call this latest letter in to his FBI contact. “Right. The pole.”
“Ready?”
He forced a smile. “Yep.”
They stepped outside. Ben checked and rechecked the front door lock as they stepped outside, then looked around with an eagle’s eye. There was a male jogger, a newspaper delivery guy on a bike weighted down by bags of newspapers and a woman in a sports bra and tiny shorts on in-line skates.
Nothing out of the ordinary for South Village, but the urge to wrap Emily up and tuck her away someplace safe for the rest of her life was strong.
Then there was Rachel. How he felt about protecting her was far more complicated. She’d once turned her back on him with ease.
And yet he found himself utterly incapable of doing the same.
Garrett sat on his front step reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, looking big and muscled and capable of taking down anyone he chose.
Ben sighed with resignation. “You going to be there for a little while?”
Garrett eyed him over the top of the paper. “Yep.”
Ben hitched a shoulder toward Rachel’s front door. “You’ll keep an eye out for a few?”
Garrett looked at the house, then back at Ben. “You expecting trouble?”
“I always expect trouble.”
Garrett nodded. “I’ll keep an eye out.”
Since neither Asada nor the bogeyman jumped out and announced themselves, he and Emily left the small front gate for the street.
Though it was still spring, this was Southern California, where there were two seasons-hot and hotter. Even at the crack of dawn Ben could tell the day would be on the fiery side of hell by noon.
“Phat day, huh?” his daughter said, and led him down the sidewalk.
“Phat,” he repeated, and made her laugh.
They passed a dinner theater and a do-it-yourself ceramic studio. And a shocking amount of people for just after 6:00 a.m.
“Early commuters,” Emily announced cheerfully. “Did you know on the weekends we’re up to twenty thousand people walking through here?”
That was 19,999 too many if you asked him.
They passed an ice-cream shop, which was also open. And also packed. “Don’t you love it here?” Emily asked. “You can buy ice cream 24/7.”
Love it? The crowds, the noise, the hustle and bustle, sucked the soul right out of him. What he’d love would be to leave right now, put ten thousand miles between him and this place. He didn’t belong here, on the very streets that had made him miserable. Hollow.
He should be used to that hollow feeling-he’d been raised on it. Then he looked into Emily’s happy, expectant eyes, and pushed away that feeling.
At least for now, he was going nowhere but crazy any time soon.
“This is it.” Around the corner, Emily gestured to a small outdoor cafe that had heavenly scents making his nose and stomach come to life. The tables were wrought iron and close enough that Ben could catch snippets of everyone’s conversation around them. Already seated were an eclectic mixture of urbanites, construction workers and shoppers. Ben sat and opened the menu that had more choices for coffee than for food.
“When summer comes,” Emily told him, carefully setting down the laptop she never seemed to be without, “I’m going to ask the owner if I can work here.”
“When you’re twelve, summer isn’t for working.”
She frowned. “What is it for?”
He’d never been a normal twelve-year-old, so hell if he knew. “For hanging out with friends?”
Some of the sunshine went out of her eyes. “I’d rather work.”
Ben remembered his preteen years pretty much sucking, too, but Emily came from a different universe. “What’s the matter with friends?”
“Nothing.”
“Em.”
“The other kids are all weird.”
“Weird, how?”
“The girls are into boys and the boys are into skate-boarding.”
“Well, then things haven’t changed much.”
She lifted her menu in front of her face, blocking him off. “I’m hungry.”
Okaaay. Leaning forward, he hooked a finger in her menu and lowered it. “Just let me say one thing.”
“Do you have to?”
“As your dad, yes.”
With a dramatic sigh, she set aside her menu, looking more than a little wary.
“Worrying about you sorta comes with the territory of being your dad. I can’t help myself.”
“Do you
“Huh?”
Her eyes were shuttered now. “Would you rather you didn’t have the territory at all?”
How was it he forgot how smart she was? “No, I want the territory. Emmie.” He touched her hand when she looked away. “I want to be a dad.
She bit her lower lip. “Sure?”
“I’m very sure, sweetness, but thanks for checking.”
She grinned.
He grinned back. “So…”
“So, I’m fine.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Short of alienating her by pressing, he had no choice but to drop it. They ordered enough food to keep their arteries clogged for the year, and Ben spent the entire meal trying to spot Asada, or someone sent by him, in every face.
He hated that. He hated the helplessness, the vulnerability. With Asada in hiding, the cat-and-mouse game was on, with everyone Ben cared about as the mouse.
After breakfast, they started walking back. “Turn here,” Emily said, pointing to an alley between a lingerie shop and a gallery. “Shortcut.”
In his world, an alley was a death trap. “Let’s walk around the building and-”
“Hear that? Oh my God, look!”
Before he could stop her, she’d run into the alley, set her laptop on the ground and scooped something up into her arms.
By the time he reached her, Emily was jumping up and down with the bundle still in her arms. “Can we keep it, can we, can we?”
The “it” in question was the smallest, ugliest puppy on the face of the earth. Drab brown, flat face, hanging ears…the thing couldn’t have weighed more than three pounds soaking wet. In Emily’s arms, it seemed to sink in upon itself, ribs sticking out, eyes huge and pathetic and right on them. When Ben came close, it shrunk back with a whimper, then licked Emily’s hand.
“He’s a stray.” Emily hugged it tighter. “No collar. Oh, look…he’s half-starved.” Emily blinked up at him. “He’s an orphan, Daddy.”
Ah, hell. “No.”
“But we can’t just leave him here.”
