“Thanks for coming,” Jaden said before walking over to the pot and pouring a cup of black coffee.
He joined Daniel at the island, sitting across the large slab of white granite from him.
Daniel slapped his palm onto the table, leaving the picture behind when he picked up his hand. “What the fuck is this about?”
“You must have some idea.” Jaden glared right back at Daniel.
“Why me?” He wanted to hear the reason from Jaden.
“You’re the only one I can trust with this,” Jaden said. Daniel didn’t like his friend’s expression. Those creases on his forehead and worry lines bracketing his mouth should’ve made Daniel turn around, hop into his rented king cab pickup truck and stir some dust up on the road out of there.
“Call Gabriel or Bear,” Daniel stated. “Bear does this for a living now.”
Jaden just looked at him.
“You already tried.”
“No. You’re the only one I contacted,” Jaden said plain as day before taking another sip of coffee. “But calling Bear is a great idea.”
Before Daniel could protest, Jaden had his cell in hand. He sent a coded text first. Then, he phoned Bear and put the call on speaker.
“For a ghost you sure have popped up on my radar a lot lately,” Bear teased. Damned if he didn’t sound the happiest he’d ever been.
“Hey, bro. You’re on speaker and I have a surprise. Daniel Damon is here with me,” Jaden said.
There was a moment of silence followed by, “How the hell are you, man?”
A former D-Force soldier, Bear had lost most of his men when an Iraqi informant double crossed them. The situation was hauntingly familiar. If not for the close air support that had been called in, Bear wouldn’t be alive right now. He’d had a long road to recovery after taking a hit to his leg. Daniel didn’t want to admit to himself or anyone else just how good it felt to hear his former friend’s voice.
“I’m taped together all right.” Daniel wasn’t ready to unpack how he really felt.
“It would be okay if you weren’t,” Bear’s voice went church-service quiet.
Damn.
“I hear you’ve become a mountain man.” Daniel needed to change the subject.
Bear chuckled, conceding the new direction. “I can breathe out here. Fresh air is good for the soul.”
“You’ve become quite the handy man,” Damon continued, keeping the focus off himself.
“I shouldn’t be surprised you know that.” Bear lowered his voice. “You can call anytime, Damn. You know that, right?”
“You can’t fix me, bro.” Daniel turned and then walked outside.
After a few deep breaths meant to keep his blood pressure from exploding, Daniel returned to the kitchen.
“I get that your wife is about to pop and that means no work for you.” He’d put that much together the second he set eyes on Lauren. Daniel even admired his onetime friend for putting his family first. God knew Daniel should’ve been there for Naomi. He’d regret that decision for as long as he could breathe. “But I’m the wrong person.”
“I disagree, which puts us in a stalemate.”
Jaden locked eyes with Daniel. The challenge in the air was the first one to look away lost. Jaden might not realize it yet but he already had.
There was no way Daniel planned to take on this mission and Jaden needed to know it so he could find someone else.
“You came a long way for nothing three days ago.” Daniel intensified his glare.
“Really? When did you renew your passport?”
“I have other ways to get into the country. You of all people should know how to get around customs,” Daniel shot back.
“I worked for the wrong team once.” Jaden looked down at his mug. The staring contest was over. Daniel had won.
So why did he feel like an ass?
“And now you own an orchard. What’s up with the peaches?” Daniel changed the subject.
Jaden lifted his gaze and his left eyebrow shot up. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t. Humor me. Why a peach orchard?”
“Because peaches do well here.” Jaden’s tone was flat like everyone should know that tidbit.
“Excuse me for skipping 4H Club in high school.”
Jaden took a slow sip of his coffee. He set the mug down and clasped his fingers. “She’s thirteen-years-old, man. She’s missing. And I can’t help her.”
Daniel turned away from the pained look on Jaden’s face. Showing emotion was deadly in their old line of work. Daniel had done an excellent job of shutting his down in order to nail a mission. It had made him a little too good at turning his emotions off with his wife and child, too.
Now all he ever did was fucking feel. The only emotion he could touch was anger.
“She a relative? She doesn’t look like you,” Daniel bit out.
“No.”
“Tied to an ‘organization’ I don’t want anything to do with?”
Jaden’s irritation rolled off him in waves. “Told you, I don’t work for governments anymore. I got a new gig going here and I help the good guys now. And, no. We’re not related but that doesn’t mean I don’t care or don’t want to do whatever it takes to bring her home. She’s a kid and she deserves to be found.”
“Sounds like a job for a city cop if you ask me.” Daniel kept up the calloused asshole routine.
“This is an international case. The family isn’t getting much cooperation from the government here. The tourist destination doesn’t want a blot on their tourism record, so resort employees are making up stories about her.”
Daniel had heard about dozens of cases with sweet-looking make-up free faced teens who’d gotten mixed up in the wrong things or with the wrong crowd and ended up drugged-out runaways. The parents always offered up the sweet pictures, the ‘befores’ to the media and people ate up the sad stories. The real pictures of these kids, the ‘afters,’ were unrecognizable. “You said she’s thirteen? Maybe she wants to be lost. Decided the beach was better than coming back to the states with her lame parents.”
Kids did stupid stuff. He knew.
