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She smiled a misty kind of smile that should've started an alarm bell clanging in his head. But he didn't care. He'd take this fearless woman along for the ride as far as she wanted to go.
"Can you find the exes?" The mist cleared and Lola had gotten down to business.
"I'm not sure about Meg, Ian's ex-wife. She works as a nature guide in the Colorado Rockies, but I don't know the name of her company. But Raven..."
Lola slugged him in the arm. "I don't like the look in your eyes when you mention Raven. It's kind of...wolfish."
"Raven?" He chuckled. "Not my type at all--way too high maintenance. Anyway, she's a translator at the United Nations. You shouldn't have any trouble at all tracking her down and leaving a message. She also used to work for Prospero as a translator."
"Okay, then. What are we waiting for?" She slipped the car in gear and pulled away from the curb. "We're going to call Doctors Without Borders to bring Gabe in, we're going to call Raven to bring you in and we still have Gabe's formula. They can't do anything to hurt us...can they?"
He squeezed her thigh. "Not if I can help it."
On the way back to the house, Jack had told her more about his life. Despite the danger and the excitement of his chosen career, his day-to-day existence in L.A. seemed bereft of emotion and human connections.
What did he fear? And was it the same fear that had him trying to convince her that what they had together was a fleeting hookup?
After Jack had made the call to Doctors Without Borders and had given them Gabe's location, a huge weight rolled off Lola's back. They wouldn't hear from Gabe for another few days and he still faced some danger, but the head doctor assured them that bodyguards would escort Gabe to the airport and get him on a plane home.
She waved the prepaid phone at Jack. "Curious Colonel Scripps hasn't called in yet."
"After that stunt we pulled in the park, he knows I know. But I still can't believe it."
"I wonder why he turned."
Jack's lips lengthened into a thin line. "It has to be money. It can't be ideology."
"But his ideology couldn't have been that strong to begin with if money lured him so easily."
"Who said it was easy?"
She tapped the phone. "How do we call the UN?"
"It's after six-thirty. Not even Raven Pierre would be working at this hour."
Wanting to rescue Jack from the funk he'd been in since discovering his mentor's betrayal, Lola jutted out her bottom lip in a pretend pout. "How do I know you don't have a history with this Raven?"
A slow smile curved his lips. "Raven is Buzz's girl--always was, always will be. Besides, I have my own girl."
And then he turned all that brooding intensity on her, and she kissed him with every ounce of the passion he'd stirred within her...for the first time wanting him to forget everything but the feel of her mouth beneath his.
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Rosa dragged a scraggly Christmas tree into the house and set it on the floor with a flourish. "There."
Lola laughed. "What exactly is that?"
"It's a Christmas tree." Rosa wagged her finger. "Christmas is less than two weeks away. You seem to have forgotten."
Pushing back from his breakfast, Jack stretched and winked at Lola. "I haven't forgotten a thing, Rosa."
Lola didn't know why the two of them were so light-hearted this morning. They still had a very big problem--secure the formula and secure Jack's safety.
Rosa waved her hand at the window. "I know we have sunshine and palm trees, but it's still Christmas."
Lola checked her watch for the hundredth time that morning, waiting to put a call in to the UN and track down Raven Pierre. "And when are you visiting your daughter in Orlando?"
"Next week." Rosa tilted her head at the little, lopsided tree. "You don't think Mr. Gabriel will be back soon, do you? I'd hate to be away when he comes home."
"Don't worry about it." Now if she could only follow her own advice.
Rosa fussed over them for several more minutes, insisted on washing up their breakfast dishes and scurried out of the house to take care of her husband.
Lola dove for the phone she'd been eyeing with impatience. "Finally. Same code phrase as before?"
