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Her lips tightened. "Well, I don't think you ever understood my world, either. But we don't need to talk about the past, Tyler."

An awkward silence fell between them. Thankfully, the coffee was done, so he filled two mugs and handed her one. "Do you want creamer?"

"No."

He sipped his coffee, grateful for the immediate hit of caffeine. He was still trying to catch up with what was going on.

After a moment, Rachel said, "Are you going to look into Jack's disappearance?"

"I don't know yet. It's more than likely he just walked out." He paused. "What were you treating him for?"

"I can't tell you that." She paused, her gaze softening. "But I can tell you that I really think he needs your help, Tyler."

He shook his head, still finding that difficult to believe. "I'm not sure that's true."

"What happened between you?"

"I can't tell you that," he said, echoing her earlier words. He could see that she liked his response as much as he'd liked hers.

"Fine. I'll look into this on my own. I need to know he's okay, even if no one else does."

"I didn't say I wasn't going to look for him."

"You didn't say you were," she countered.

"Isn't this against the rules?" he challenged. "To go looking for a former patient, to dig into his personal life? Aren't you the person who always follows the rules, who can't make an exception for anything?"

She set down her coffee mug. "Clearly, you have a problem with me, and I've said what I came here to say. You can do what you want with the information. I'll do the same."

"Wait," he said quickly, realizing she was about to walk out. "I do want to find out what's going on. And I'd like to start with the security team at your hospital."

"I doubt they'll tell you anything more than they told me."

"They may know more now than they did last night. And I'd like you to go with me. Are you working at the hospital today?"

"I am. But not in the ER. I only work there a week a month. And today is a catch-up day for me before I see patients again on Monday." She paused. "It was strange that I was actually in the ER when Jack showed up. Most nights I wouldn't be." Clearing her throat, she added, "I'll go to security with you."

"Good. I need to get dressed, and I have to stop in at my office this morning for a briefing. I can come by around noon. Will that work?" he asked as he walked her to the front door.

"I'll be there. Come to the fifth floor, suite 512." He opened the door, and she stepped out on the stoop, then added, "I wouldn't have come here if I wasn't worried about Jack."

"I understand."

"I believe he's in trouble."

"Where Jack is concerned, trouble isn't usually too far behind." He closed the door before she could ask him to explain that statement, which he couldn't begin to do at this time.

His relationship with Jack had been complicated since he'd first joined Delta. Jack, who had been six years older than him, had taken it upon himself to give him as hard a time as he possibly could, calling him Iowa and treating him like he didn't have a brain in his head.

Over time, they'd gotten to a place of mutual respect, at least on the battlefield. But off duty, they'd never really been in sync, and he couldn't imagine out of all the people Jack could have gone to for help that he would have picked him, especially not after he'd walked out on him three years ago.

Things had to be really bad, or Jack was out of his mind. Either way, he needed to find out. As complicated as their relationship had been, they had saved each other's lives on more than one occasion, and he couldn't look away from the problem Rachel had just delivered to his doorstep.

Unfortunately, he wasn't going to be able to look away from her, either. This day was definitely not off to a good start.

Chapter Three

Tyler was still thinking about Jack and Rachel when he arrived at his office, which was located in a three-story building in Murray Hill. He worked for a special FBI task force that operated independently from the NY field office at 26 Fed and was run by Jason Colter, a former coworker. When Jason had told him he wanted him for his team, he'd leapt at the chance to get into a smaller unit that moved fast, efficiently, and sometimes very close to the line.