Only Her (A K2 Team Novel) (5 page)

“You’re one magnificent man, Cody Roberts,” she said, following it up with a sigh. When he called the dogs and went inside his house, she fed the cats, then showered and dressed for work. His silver truck was gone when she backed out of her driveway, so she probably wouldn’t see him again until he came back from wherever he was going. She would tell Michelle, her receptionist, not to come get her when he dropped off his dogs, even if he asked for her.

As she turned onto the street leading to her clinic, she sent up a little prayer that no more poisoned pets would turn up. Also, she needed to contact the police again. Not much they could do without any leads, but they could keep an eye out as they patrolled the neighborhood.

She slowed as she approached her building. At the sight of the man leaning against the bed of the silver truck with darkened windows, Riley cursed her stupid heart for doing a happy dance. His two dogs sat at his feet, their attention on him. Maybe she should hire him to give obedience lessons to some of her more rambunctious patients. Giving him a wave as she drove past, she parked in the back. Neither Brooke’s nor Michelle’s car was in sight, which meant she would have to deal with Cody, so there went her plan to avoid him.

Perversely irritated, she took her time as she turned on the lights, started the coffee pot, booted up the computers at the front desk and in her office, and made a quick check on the three small dogs, two cats, and one extremely vocal potbellied pig being boarded. When she could think of nothing else to delay her, she unlocked the front door.

Mr. Magnificent leaned against a post under the overhang, arms crossed over his chest, dogs again sitting docilely at his feet. For all appearances, her sexy neighbor appeared to be half asleep. Riley wasn’t fooled, though. As much as he might wish otherwise, she was beginning to see past the image he projected. Under that lazy stance and deceptive calm a storm brewed. Not good that storms fascinated her.

“Cody.”

“Riley.”

She sputtered a laugh, and was rewarded with a crooked smile and a flash of that dimple. Yep. The man intrigued her. So much for keeping him at arm’s distance. “Come in. My receptionist isn’t here yet, so I’ll get these guys checked in.” Cody and his dogs followed her, stopping at the counter. She went on around.

“Will you use the food I brought for them?”

“Of course.” She resisted sliding her hand over his bad boy scruff, and it was close, but she didn’t lick her lips either. Yummy was the word of the day, though. He wore an olive-green T-shirt that stretched across broad shoulders, and tan cargo pants covered his bottom half. Testosterone radiated from his every pore, and she lowered her gaze to the check-in sheet to keep him from seeing the lust that was surely shining in her eyes.

“I’ll get their stuff out of my truck in a minute then.” He glanced down at the dogs. “They need to stay together, okay?”

“No problem.” Certain that she’d gain control of her libido, she lifted her head, her gaze falling on the small logo on his shirt. “What’s K2?”

“Where I work. Is there someone around at night when you’re not here? You know, should one of them get sick or something.”

She’d never had anyone ask her that question before, which just went to show how much he loved his dogs. He’d been keeping their conversation all business, and she followed his lead. “I have a college student who sleeps here at night. He leaves at six, so the boarders are only unattended for an hour, until I or one of my staff arrives.” Apparently, he wasn’t going to explain what K2 was, which made her all the more curious as to what he did.

“I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Hopefully in a few days, but I’ll keep in touch.” He locked gazes with her. “Can I get your cell number? You know, so I can call and check on them. I might not be able to call here during normal hours.”

She broke eye contact before she embarrassed herself just staring at him. It made sense to give him her number, but it seemed like they were moving into alien territory. Did she want him to be able to call her anytime he wished? She glanced up to see he was watching her. “Sure.” She rattled off her number, and he put it in his phone. “I’ll need yours. In case of an emergency, which I don’t expect to happen, but better safe than sorry, right?” She waved the boarding form in front of his face. “I need it for our records. That’s all.” Now she was babbling.

After giving her his number, he ordered the dogs to stay, then left to get the food he’d brought. She used the form to fan herself. “Jeez, Riley, you’re behaving like a high school girl with a crush on a cute boy.” One she had kissed and who had held her as she cried, and now they were acting as if none of that had happened.

She leaned over the counter and peered down at Pretty Girl and Sally. “Either of you got any insights on your Mr. Magnificent you’d be willing to share?” She would swear that both dogs looked back at her with amusement. “Right. Mum’s the word.”

“Why are you talking to yourself, and who’s Mr. Magnificent?” Brooke asked, walking up behind her.

The front door opened, and Riley turned to Brooke and lifted a brow.

“Ahhh,” her assistant drawled, her gaze raking over Cody as he walked in, a slow smile forming on her pretty face.

Riley wanted to hiss like a territorial cat warning off an invader. This was where she should turn him over to Brooke and go on about her business, but her feet refused to move. Her receptionist followed Brooke in, stepping up to the counter.

“Hello,” Michelle said. “Can I help you?”

Both of her employees were single, and both were eyeing Cody as if he were a Popsicle they wanted to lick. Not that she blamed them, but it still irritated her.

“I’m helping him,” Riley snapped. Three pairs of eyes settled on her. The two females looked at her as if they’d never seen her before, which this side of her they hadn’t. Hell, she hadn’t even known she had a
this side
. As for Cody, he was unreadable, but then there went the slightest curve of one side of his mouth. Against her will, she smiled back.

“Ahem . . .”

At the sound of Brooke clearing her throat, Riley realized she and Cody were standing there, staring at each other. Heat rushed into her cheeks, and she grabbed the bag he had set on the counter.

“Any instructions?” she asked, getting her professional mask back into place.

“Just that you keep them together. Can I see where they’ll be?”

“Sure. Come with me.” With any other boarder, she would have had Michelle or Brooke take the owner on a tour, but she wasn’t about to leave either of those she-wolves alone with him.

He came up next to her, close enough that her skin warmed where he almost touched her, and God, he smelled good. The man was entirely too potent and sent all of her senses into a frenzy. She was honest enough with herself to admit that she’d never had it this bad for any man before—not since Reed, anyway—which was tough luck as Cody had made it clear that nothing was going to happen between them. His dogs followed along, their toenails clicking on the tiled floor, and she concentrated on them.

When she had remodeled, she’d included four large kennel spaces along with smaller areas for the cats and little dogs. The dog pens had access to individual outdoor fenced-in yards. As she had no large dogs in residence at the moment, Cody could have his pick.

“You have a preference?” She waved a hand at the pens.

After a quick glance, he took the bag from her hands, went to the pen at the end, and opened the gate. “Come,” he said in a voice she was learning to recognize as one he only used with his dogs. It was firm, but there was a gentleness in his tone, and she wished all animal owners were like him.

Pretty Girl and Sally trotted into the cage, then turned and looked up at him as if questioning what their next move should be. He squatted in front of them. “I’ll come back for you, I promise,” he said, a hand on each of their heads. “You be good for Riley, or I’ll take your balls away for a week.” At the word “balls” both dogs’ ears perked up.

From the bag, Cody removed four balls, two large bone chews, and a tug rope. The dogs eyed the balls with longing. “Not yet,” Cody said. “We’re not done talking. If for some reason I don’t come back, it doesn’t mean I don’t love you. It just means . . .” He bowed his head.

Most pet owners when boarding their animals just dropped them off. A rare few asked to see where their furry people would be kept, and Riley couldn’t think of a time when one had talked to their pets the way Cody was with his dogs. Feeling as if she were intruding on a personal moment between him and the dogs, she quietly left the room and waited for him in the hallway. For some reason, tears stung her eyes. What did he mean by implying there was a chance he might not come back? Although she didn’t know him well, she knew without doubt that he wouldn’t willingly abandon those two animals.

A few minutes later, he came out and stopped in front of her. “I expect to be back in a few days. I’ll keep in touch and let you know when to expect me.” His gaze moved to the wall behind her shoulder for a few seconds, and by the haunted look in his eyes, she could swear that he was seeing a ghost from his past. Then his eyes focused back on her. “With what I do, there’s always the chance I won’t return. You don’t owe me anything, and you can say no, but I’m going to ask two things of you.”

“If it’s in my power.” She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to refuse him anything. The man was tortured by something, and her soft heart had already decided to hurt for him.

“The first thing, promise you’ll find good homes for them.”

She nodded. “I can do that. And the other?”

The way he hesitated told her that whatever he was about to say, he’d rather not. “There’s a dog, Layla, that got left behind in Afghanistan. If she can be found and I’m not able to, my teammates will get her here. I’d like you to reunite her with Pretty Girl and Sally. So should the unexpected happen, and you do have to find a home for these two, just make sure that whoever it is will take a third dog. Will you do that for me?”

Was it possible to fall for a man because of a few words he’d said? She wondered if he realized how much he had revealed about himself just then. Riley swallowed the lump in her throat, and not trusting her voice, she nodded. The bigger-than-life man standing in front of her with pain shining in those dark eyes had a bigger-than-life heart.

“Thank you.” He lifted his hand and trailed a finger down her cheek. “Another time, another place, Riley, you and I . . .” He trailed off, his gaze falling to her mouth.

Yes, kiss me.
He didn’t, though. As he walked away, she said a prayer that he would stay safe, while wondering what was wrong with this time and this place.

CHAPTER FIVE

H
e’d come close to kissing her again. Almost wished he had. The vibes for this operation weren’t good. It was probably because of his state of mind and had nothing to do with any danger he would face tracking down two kids who thought they were in love. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that what seemed like a piece of cake was going to turn out to be far from it. He should have kissed her good-bye.

“You’ll be flying into Des Moines where I’ll have a car waiting for you. It’s about an hour and a half drive to Fort Dodge, the last place the couple was spotted,” Kincaid said, drawing Cody’s attention back to the briefing.

Cody eyed the digital map Kincaid had pulled up on the wall. “Who the hell runs away to Iowa?”

Ryan O’Connor, his teammate on this operation, smirked. “What, you don’t like potatoes and corn?”

“Corn and potatoes, I don’t have a problem with. It’s dumb kids I don’t like.” Cody sat back in his chair. “What’s the background on these two?”

Kincaid slid dossiers across the table, one to him and the other to Ryan. “Small problem. The boy’s father is an antique gun collector, and several of his pieces are missing.”

The bad vibes that had been doing a slow dance in his head decided it was time to do a jig. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never had misgivings before about walking into any situation. For a millisecond, he considered telling Kincaid that he wasn’t ready to return to action, but then he’d probably be ordered to see a head doc. Besides, the mission was just to retrieve two kids, nothing he couldn’t handle.

At the Pensacola airport, a Learjet was waiting to fly them to Des Moines, arranged so that they wouldn’t have to go through airport security to board a commercial flight. Considering both he and Doc were carrying, and each had knives secreted on their bodies, they would have set off all kinds of alarms.

“When am I gonna get to meet your woman?” he asked, once the Learjet’s wheels lifted.

Ryan laughed. “Don’t let Charlie hear you call her my woman. She’ll punch you in the nose.”

“I’ll make a note of that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all my mates getting hitched. No way I’m drinking the water at K2.”

“Your turn will come, and it’ll have nothing to do with the water. It just takes the right woman.”

His friend sounded happy, not like the man who a year ago had mourned the death of his first wife. Cody had sensed that there was more to the story than a simple robbery gone wrong, but if so, Ryan had never shared the details. All of his teammates were disgustingly in love, their eyes lighting up at the slightest mention of their wives or fiancées. It was one of the things that made Cody uneasy coming to K2, like an outsider peering into the windows of their happy homes.

Although his parents had been baffled by their son’s love of all things military since the day he’d found a G.I. Joe in the toy box at day school, he couldn’t remember the last time they’d hugged him. They’d made it quite clear they didn’t approve of his life choices, and displays of affection weren’t in their DNA. All the love business going on around him unwillingly fascinated him, but no way was that a poke of envy he felt.

He had met Kincaid’s family, and the man they’d called Iceman during their SEAL days, the man he’d once suspected might live out his days alone, had gone all touchy-feely, unable to keep his hands off his wife and children.

Then there was Jake and Maria. Someday he would get Jake drunk enough to learn how he’d gotten up the nerve to go after the boss’s sister, risking life and limb. That had to be love, right? Not long after that, Jamie Turner had fallen into the trap with a woman named Sugar. Cody was pretty sure Jamie could entertain him for hours with that story. And now Ryan was about to marry a stunt plane pilot who would punch Cody in the nose if he said the wrong thing to her. Already he liked the woman.

It boggled the mind how each of his teammates had somehow found a woman who perfectly suited him.

“You’ll meet Charlie as soon as we get back. Kincaid’s having an engagement party at his beach house.” Ryan glanced at him. “You’re welcome to bring a date.”

Hell. Cody Roberts didn’t date. Not anymore. Yet, the way Riley’s eyes had darkened with desire when he’d kissed her popped into his mind. Since she was the only woman he knew in Pensacola, maybe he’d ask her. It wouldn’t mean anything, wouldn’t be a real date, just neighbors going somewhere together.

Liar.
Not liking that voice in his head, Cody lowered his seat back and closed his eyes, pretending to go to sleep. Problem—behind his closed eyelids, there was Riley’s sweet mouth, parting open when he’d almost kissed her. He willed away the image of her leaning against the wall and how he’d wanted to push his body hard against hers and take her right then and there in the hallway of her animal clinic.

A woman who cried at the loss of someone else’s pet deserved better than he could ever give her, though. After he got home and picked up his dogs, maybe he’d look for someplace else to live so he wouldn’t see her every day.

“We’re on the ground,” Ryan said, punching Cody’s arm.

Cody blinked open his eyes, surprised he’d fallen asleep. Too afraid the nightmares would come, he never slept on planes or wherever someone might hear him call out. Since his teammate wasn’t looking at him as if he’d just stepped off a spaceship from Mars, it seemed he hadn’t yelled anything.

He’d nodded off thinking of Riley. Maybe she was the answer to keeping his demons at bay. If he could fill his mind with her before going to sleep, there might not be any room for whatever ghosts were haunting him.

“Let’s roll,” Ryan said, grabbing his bag from under his seat when the plane came to a stop. “I want to get this kindergarten operation over with so I can get home. Charlie has an air show Sunday I don’t wanna miss.”

And Cody only had his dogs to go home to. But that was the way he wanted it, right? “Yeah, let’s get it done.”

The pilot opened the cabin door, and Cody followed Ryan out onto the tarmac, where a man wearing a rental car–logoed shirt handed him the keys to a black Range Rover.

“Gimme.” Ryan made a grab for the keys.

Cody fisted them. “Nope.” He slid behind the wheel before his teammate took it in his head to wrestle for the keys. “Sweet,” he said, checking out the interior.

“I’m driving tomorrow.” Ryan tapped his phone to bring up the hotel coordinates for the place that Kincaid had booked for them for the first night. Before leaving the Des Moines area, they got a bag of burgers and two large coffees to go at a fast-food restaurant.

After turning onto the highway in the direction of Fort Dodge, Cody took a sip of his black coffee. One thing he liked about a mission was that he didn’t crave a drink. He supposed it was ingrained in his brain that alcohol and missions don’t mix, not that the one they were on now was risky. But boots on the ground was a whole different mindset, whether it involved dumb love-struck kids or bullets whizzing past his ears in the middle of some hellhole desert. Or maybe being on an operation meant he wasn’t sitting at home in the dark, afraid to go to sleep, needing the scotch to dull his mind.

“What’s the latest on Layla?” Ryan asked as he munched on a handful of fries.

At the mention of her, Cody swallowed the lump of hamburger that now felt like a jagged rock scraping its way down his throat. He drank some coffee to help it go down before answering. “The dog Wizard thought might be her wasn’t. He’s got everyone looking for her.”

“Wizard won’t quit until he finds her.”

“If . . . if she’s still alive.” He was losing hope, but Ryan was right. Cody had saved Wizard’s life, and the man believed he owed Cody, so he wouldn’t give up. Problem was, Wizard’s time in-country was about up. If Layla wasn’t found soon, then she wasn’t going to be.

Thinking of the dog he’d left behind always sent him to a dark place, and he didn’t need to go there in the middle of an operation. He passed a slow-moving car, a classic Mustang, a couple out for an afternoon ride, it appeared. The woman’s hair reminded him of Riley’s, and he filled his mind with her. As soon as he did, the churning in his gut eased.

“So there Jake and I were, about to get it on for the first time, and in walks Saint.”

“No kidding? What did you do?” Riley needed this lunch with Maria. She’d been laughing from almost the time they sat, and it felt good to get her mind off an animal serial killer for a while.

Maria grinned. “Gave my brother a piece of my mind for interfering in my love life. He’d sent Saint to replace Jake as my bodyguard ’cause he knew exactly what Jake and I were up to. Logan finally came around when he realized Jake and I loved each other, so we’re all good now.”

Riley pushed aside the last few bites of her chicken taco salad, while watching Maria devour a platter of cheese enchiladas. “How is it you don’t weigh a thousand pounds?”

“Jake makes sure I get a lot of exercise.” Maria winked, giving a lecherous grin.

“Lucky you.” She’d met Jake once when he came into the clinic with Maria to drop off their cat for boarding. The man was crazypants hot, but he’d only had eyes for Maria, which Riley thought was really cool. Not that she blamed him. Maria was strikingly beautiful with her olive skin, dark sloe-eyes, and wavy black hair.

“Still no love life for you?”

Her sexy neighbor with the cowboy name popped into her mind. Nah. He was heartache on a stick. Still . . . “There’s a guy I’m attracted to, but I think he’s got issues.”

“Those are the kind you want to avoid.” Maria signaled for the check. “Although I’m not one to talk. Jake’s middle name was
issues
for a while there.”

“You’re right, but he’s my new neighbor, so he’s going to be hard to avoid. Not to mention, his picture is in two places in the dictionary. Once under eye candy and then again under, oh my God, he’s got a hot bod.”

“Want me to check him out?”

“You mean like look at him?”

Their waitress set the check on the table, and Maria grabbed it before Riley could. “You paid last time. No, I’m talking about running his name, see if he’s got a record. At least you’d know if he’s trouble as far as the law is concerned.” She put a credit card on top of the bill and pushed it to the end of the table.

“Isn’t it illegal for you to nose into someone’s records?” Even though Riley was tempted, it didn’t feel right.

“No, records are public knowledge.” She shrugged. “Up to you.”

“I don’t know. I think Cody’s the kind of man who wouldn’t appreciate me checking on him like that.”

Maria’s eyes widened. “Cody? What’s his last name?”

“Roberts, but let me think about it before you do anything.”

A wide grin lit Maria’s face. “I don’t have to check into him. He works for us. Oh man, this is going to be fun.”

“That’s your company, K2? You never said exactly where you worked, come to think of it.” Wow, she could get the scoop on Cody, but she still felt uneasy about prying into his life. “Exactly what is K2?”

“K2 Special Services. We do a lot of things, some I can tell you about and some I can’t as they’re classified.”

Secret stuff? That made Riley all the more curious about her neighbor. She glanced at her watch. “I’d love to hear more, but time to get back to the clinic.”