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She was going back with him.
Whoa. That thought again. Where was it coming from? From some place deep inside that had been doing its own thinking and planning without him even being aware of it. Because the image sprang straight to his brain, fully formed. Like a shot time-travelled straight from the future. Emma, at ASI, working with her best friends, Hope and Felicity. She’d be treated like a queen and he’d make it clear to all the horny unattached operators at ASI that she washis.He loved his teammates but he wouldn’t trust them around a beautiful unattached female, right there in the office.
She wouldn’t be unattached. Nope. He’d be sitting right next to her long enough for the notoriously hard-headed operators to get the message.
“Okay. I hope you’re right.” She still looked worried but climbed into the SUV. “I’m hoping they didn’t zap Toby’s knowledge right out of his head. He looked pretty out of it.”
Raul hoped that, too, but he didn’t say so. With civilians, bitter truth had to be doled out carefully. SpecOps warriors were used to looking at reality, no matter how harsh. By instinct, by nature, and by training they were never dismayed, no matter how bad the news. There was always a Plan B and C and D. And if not – shit happens. Move on. Civilians got discouraged easily.
Still, if Toby could remember nothing at all, then they were up shit creek.
They took off and travelled in silence until they arrived down off the hill. Emma was checking something in her Magical Mystery Computer. Raul glanced at the screen a couple of times but all he saw was streaming data, which he’d never understand, not in a million years. He’d once asked Hope about some data that was streaming on her computer and when she replied, he understood one word in ten.
Emma looked up from her screen when they turned into Van Nuys. “Where are we going? Didn’t Colin give you his address?”
“Yup.” Raul leaned forward and tapped the GPS. “But first I was thinking we might grab a bite to eat. What do you say?”
She looked at him for a long moment before answering. “Grabbing a bite to eat sounds good. It would also give Colin and Toby a moment, and maybe allow Toby time to get his head clear and maybe clean up.”
“That, too.” They were on a timeline but nothing that couldn’t allow the two some private time and maybe let Toby get his mojo back.
“That’s very thoughtful of you,” she said, looking puzzled.
“You sound surprised. I can do thoughtful.” Particularly when the side effects were more time alone with Emma and maybe avoiding some drama in the Colin household. He didn’t say that, though. Emma was looking at him with admiration in her glance so he wasn’t messing with that. No way.
They were driving down toward Market. He pulled to the curb. “That looks like a nice place. Japanese fast food. Unless you know someplace better around here?”
She shook her head.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You speak Japanese, too?”
“Nary a word,” she said cheerfully. “Your manhood is safe.”
Raul gave a crack of laughter. The lady was sharp. Luckily, his manhood was truly safe.
11
The food at the Japanese place Raul stopped at was great. Emma took their business card. It was a hole in the wall but scrupulously clean. They shared a bowl of edamame. She had a fabulous huge bowl of Udon noodles and Raul had tempura, sukiyaki, they shared their dishes and drank tea.
As she’d seen the evening before, he wasn’t a fussy eater and liked everything. She’d had a couple of dates this past winter with a food snob and she’d spent evenings with the guy – Mitch? Mark? – who delighted in sending back dishes that weren’t absolutely perfect. Luckily, she hadn’t slept with him because she wondered whether he’d send her back, too.
And also luckily, Raul hadn’t shown any desire to send her back after a night in bed.
Raul was absolutely right. They needed to eat. After a night, umm, a night of very little sleep, and rescuing Toby, she needed sustenance. Though she imagined that in the military, Raul had operated for long stretches of time without eating at a nice Japanese eatery. Another reason she was glad she did what she did and not what he did.
“So,” Raul said, finishing his tea and planting his forearms on the table. “Toby and Colin.”
“Toby and Colin,” she agreed.
“You think it will last?”
Emma sighed. “I don’t know. Colin feels like a solid person. Toby’s a bit more … flighty I guess. But he seemed overwhelmed with joy to see Colin. I’m hoping it lasts, for both of them. It needs to last at least as long as Toby’s still in danger. We need to keep Toby safe and hidden.”
Raul’s face tightened. “Damn right. I don’t know easy it will be. I don’t know how badly whoever it is who kidnapped him wants him to stay out of circulation. And we don’t know how long the situation will last. What the end game is, and when. We can keep Toby hidden for a while, but he has a job, rent to pay, commitments.”
She sighed. “Yeah. Toby can’t just disappear. He has a life. A career he cares about.”
Raul put his hand on hers, large and warm. “Friends.”
