A quick time check said they’d be an hour too late.
Clara shifted in her seat, a move she’d repeated more times than he could count. It was probably asking too much to want to settle Clara’s nerves.
For now, he would settle for polite conversation.
“What did your sister say when you called?” he asked. She’d gone outside to phone Stella and he figured she’d needed a break after seeing the way she’d stared at Lauren’s bump. Memories of her sister being pregnant with Ashlyn must’ve brought on the emotions that seemed ready to tip over and spill out. He couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story with Clara. Something from her past?
Clara was a beautiful woman, even behind the red puffy eyes and overwrought emotions it was easy to see her looks. She was intelligent too. A potent combination.
Having a loved one turn up missing with no answers was the only hell that could be worse than death.
It was obvious that Clara cared deeply about the kid in the picture with the ready smile. She’d shown him others from her phone, that same smile beaming in most of them. Other times Ashlyn made faces, twisting her lips in mock surprise or making a big show of frowning.
The kid was animated, which quelled any thought she might have been depressed despite her crummy circumstances.
Daniel didn’t want to care about the kid because the obvious outcome in this case was that they’d be looking for a body.
The girl had personality and even if she wasn’t coming back alive, her loved ones deserved to know the truth about what had happened to her.
“There wasn’t much news coverage on the case,” Daniel stated.
“A celebrity accidently shows a body part during a major sporting event and it hits every major news outlet for weeks. A little girl goes missing in the Caribbean and we hit below the fold one time,” she said.
“Shame,” he agreed.
“When did you look?” She seemed to catch on.
“While you were getting ready. Jaden showed me an article. Said he couldn’t find much more,” he admitted. “I checked my phone and couldn’t disagree.”
“Do you have kids?” she asked.
Answering honestly would only invite more questions. Daniel hated questions and whether or not he had a family had no bearing on this mission. He figured it was time to turn the tables on her. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a psychologist,” she said.
He barked out a laugh.
“What’s funny about that?”
They were in standstill traffic so he glanced at her. She tried to hide being offended and failed miserably. Her initial reactions gave her away, that split-second response told him everything he needed to know. He’d been trained well by the U.S. government. Daniel was one of the best at lie detecting. He didn’t need that training now.
“How much did Jaden tell you about my background?”
“Very little. You’re an ex-soldier, special operations. The two of you served a couple of tours together. He went onto work for a private security firm, a Blackwater-type organization, and you worked for the same company, different division. He was a supervisor and left after being betrayed by someone on the inside. The organization went through a dark time and folded. He decided that he could do a better job on his own, working for real people rather than governments. He lost track of you when the old agency went sideways a couple of years ago. Said the two of you used to be close in the military but you haven’t been much for polite conversation since.”
He gripped the steering wheel a little harder and eased forward a few feet along with the slow traffic.
“You don’t like to talk about your past,” she stated.
“No, I don’t.” A small piece of him wanted to talk to Clara, not because of her line of work. He couldn’t help but admire her strength, her intelligent. He crushed that little piece as fast as he could. He didn’t deserve to unburden himself, to find a way to live with the past and…what?...move on?
“Why is that?” Clara asked.
“It’s not anyone else’s business.” He could feel her eyes on him this time and he didn’t enjoy being examined like she was sizing up one of her patients. “You don’t need to psych me, okay? Believe me, there’s nothing to see here. And even if there was my life has no relevance to this case.”
“Does that mean you’re officially onboard?” She seemed to seize on the slip.
Traffic stopped again and he took the opportunity to glance at the photo on the seat in between them where he’d set it.
“She deserves to be found.”
The next couple of seconds seemed like the air had been sucked out of the cab at the implication they’d be looking for a body. It had been two weeks since she’d last been seen. He wasn’t in the business of creating false hope.
“I won’t make promises that I can’t keep. To be clear, she’s probably already dead or in such bad shape you’ll wish you’d walked away while you still could.” Another stop. Another glance. It was true. Two weeks of an almost constant drip of heroin or crack would make an addict out of almost anyone. Because if she was alive the possibilities of what had happened to her were stark, especially now that he knew she’d gone missing in Jamaica. “Either way, we’ll find her and bring her home. What happens after that is up to the two of you.”
Clara had turned to face the passenger window and, based on her sniffles, she was crying.
Damn. He wasn’t trying to be a jerk. He just wanted to prepare her for the worst-case scenario. A piece of him could be man enough to admit that he also wanted to push her away. The attraction he felt sizzling between them had no place in his life and based on her reactions to him
