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A longing so deep it hurt squeezed his chest. A longing to be back on the farm he loved. For a peaceful life with his livestock and his crops and his family.
Nick.
No. He couldn’t rest. Not yet. Not until this was all over and done and the man who’d had his big brother killed had paid the ultimate price for his sins.
Then, and only then, could Kyle relax.
“Hey, you okay?” Natalie asked, peering at him over the top of her menu.
“I’m fine.” Kyle cleared his throat and concentrated on the food choices. “What are you going to have?”
“Not sure yet.” She frowned. “Everything looks good.” She laid her hand on the laptop she’d placed on the table beside her. “I’m thinking maybe the Fork Favorite. Never tried sweet potato pancakes before, but they sound awesome. How about you?”
“Think I’ll get the Texas Two-Step, with a side of grits.”
“How Southern of you.” She grinned, and he winked.
The waitress came and took their order before returning with two mugs of coffee. All seemed right with the world. Until the front doors of the restaurant opened again, and Natalie gasped.
“What?” Kyle asked, twisting around in his seat to see the entrance. “Aw, crap.”
What the hell was his team doing here? He’d expected a phone call from Hayley in response to the text he’d sent back at the motel, not an in-person meeting. Besides, he’d given them strict orders to stay hands-off on this one unless he asked for support.
Commander Brighton had supposedly even arranged a special getaway vacation for the other guys and their new girlfriends. Shaking his head, Kyle dumped sugar and cream into his coffee. Well, at least maybe this would expedite matters and he and Natalie could get this whole thing with the notebooks straightened out right away.
“Dude!” Scotty said, striding up to the table with Hayley in tow. “Fancy meeting you here, huh?”
“Yeah.” Kyle scowled up at him. “Fancy that, since I sent a text less than an hour ago. I thought you guys would be relaxing on a beach in Fiji or something by now.”
“Nah. Who needs a fancy foreign resort when you can come down here for a week of fun?” Gage answered. He pulled up two chairs, one for him and one for his girlfriend, Anna. “America at its best.”
Well, crap.
Kyle scrubbed a hand across his face. He should’ve been more specific with Brighton on destination ideas. He glanced at Natalie, who sat stiff as a board in her chair, her expression hovering somewhere between prim church lady and deer-in-the-headlights. It hadn’t been that long ago that his team had abducted her to try to get answers from her. The interrogation had ended with Kyle calling in the FBI, even as she begged him not to.
He couldn’t really blame her for not trusting them, after that. Their feet bumped under the table, and Natalie jumped at his touch, shooting him a withering glare.
“Man, this place is awesome!” Spencer said, pushing a second table up to Kyle and Natalie’s, then pulling out his girlfriend’s chair before taking his own. “Hi, Kyle.” He raised a hand to his commanding officer from the opposite side of the table. “Uh, Natalie, this is my girlfriend, Toni Williams.”
Natalie bit her lower lip, her dark brows knitted as she slowly extended her hand. “Natalie Matthews. You’re Coran Williams’s daughter, right?”
“Yes,” Toni said, her voice quiet, clearly uncomfortable with the question. Kyle knew she had never had the best relationship with her father—and he could only imagine things had gotten more strained since Coran Williams’s arrest. Toni had personal reasons for feeling hurt by her father’s treasonous behavior, since he’d made her an unwitting part of it. She was the head of the charity that had given away the e-readers to children in educationally underserved regions of the world. It was a cause she believed in—and one that her father had twisted in order to get his coded intelligence data into various countries. Finding out his true motives for donating all those e-readers must have been hard for her. He was glad she had Spencer at her side to help her through it.
Seeming to pick up on Toni’s discomfort, Natalie changed the subject. “So, what brings SEAL Team Ten to Nashville?”
“Music. What else?” Scotty said, chuckling.
“Not me,” Gage said, frowning. “I thought Elvis lived here.”
“That’s Memphis, loser,” Spencer said, rolling his eyes.
“How’ve you been, Natalie?” Hayley asked. “Kyle said you wanted to talk to me?”
From what Kyle remembered, the two women had seemed to reach a kind of understanding during the interrupted interrogation attempt back in DC. Kyle had been suspicious of the relationship then, but hadn’t really thought about it much since, considering he’d never really thought he’d see Natalie again.
“Good, thanks,” Natalie said. “Getting on with things.”
“Yeah, I understand.” Hayley smiled. “Me too.”
