Operation Blind Date Read online

  “And he trusts us with them, unless he feels we’re not moving fast enough, or in the right direction. Then he butts in again.”

  Quinn chuckled. “Makes you wonder how we functioned at all before he came along, doesn’t it?

  Laney shook her head. “I think I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.”

  “Nope,” Teague said, more cheerful than he had been, now that Quinn had agreed to take it on. “But you are in Cutter’s world now. And you’ll find things go smoother if you just accept that. He’s got his own sort of code, and a way of making sure we all follow it.”

  “And when we don’t, things tend to go haywire,” Quinn said, his tone only half joking.

  “And when you do?”

  “Then things seem to work out.”

  “You’ll see,” Teague said at Laney’s expression. “But the most important thing is, you’ll know for sure about Amber.”

  And he could tell by the change in those expressive cinnamon eyes that he’d managed to say the right thing.

  And Foxworth had a new case.

  Chapter 6

  “I’m not sure of Edward’s last name. His aunt’s name was Reed. Nancy Reed.” She grimaced. “I always thought it was nice he was willing to help her out picking up her dog at my old shop. Not every guy’s secure enough to be walking around with a three-pound Yorkie with a pink bow.”

  “I’d be afraid I’d break it,” Teague said. “Or drop it.”

  “He was always very gentle with her. I think that’s why I...”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “Trusted him?” Quinn asked.

  She looked miserable as she nodded.

  Teague couldn’t think of a thing to say that would make her feel better. Nothing had ever really made him feel better about Terri, so maybe the words didn’t exist.

  “Can you tell us anything else about him?”

  She’d already given a good description of him to Tyler Hewitt, their tech genius, who had used his own software, tweaked even further by former Foxworth client Dane Burdette’s company, to produce a very lifelike image of the man. Two, actually, one with and one without the ball cap with a boat on the front that Laney said he’d been wearing that day at the mall; people tended to focus on things like that. Printed on photo paper, you’d swear they were actual photographs of him. She’d been more observant than she’d realized, once she got into it, Teague thought. She’d remembered not just the cap but a mole behind his right ear and a small indentation over his left eyebrow.

  “And I think Peachy may have bitten him once,” she’d said. “He had a couple of little scars on his right hand.”

  “I wish I could be more help about him,” Laney said now, sounding upset with herself.

  “You gave a great description,” Teague said.

  “I feel so...self-absorbed. I never really noticed him that much at all, until he asked me out. Colleen, my boss and trainer at the shop there, usually handled the drop-offs and pickups, because she knew all the customers.”

  Teague’s gaze flicked to Quinn, who gave him a barely perceptible nod. He was clearly giving Teague the lead on this, and Teague wasn’t sure how that made him feel.

  “Did she ever say anything to you about him?”

  “I’ve been trying to remember,” she said. “She never gossiped, said it wasn’t good business. The only thing I can think of was that once after he picked up Peachy for his aunt, I said how thoughtful that was. She laughed, and said something about him knowing where his bread was buttered. I’m not sure what she meant.”

  “How about the aunt? Ever see or meet her?”

  “Once. She was older than I expected, he’s only in his thirties. I think she might be Edward’s great-aunt, really.” She started to go on, then stopped.

  “Laney?” Teague prompted.

  “I don’t want to be mean,” she said. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with Amber.”

  “We need everything you can tell us. For Amber’s sake,” Quinn said. “Let us decide if there’s a connection. It’s what we do.”

  Laney sighed.

  “She was older than I expected, but trying to hide it. I think she’d had surgery on her face. It had that kind of tight, wide-eyed look. But her hands...they were old.”

  Teague flicked another glance at Quinn, saw he’d picked up on the two things Teague had.

  “What kind of car did he drive?”

  Laney blinked. “I... Uh, a racy little import. You know, one of those classics-brought-back kind of things. Red.”

  Something in her tone made Teague ask, “You didn’t like it?”

  “A bit much for me. I’m more of a utilitarian kind of person.”

  “Did the aunt impress you as well-off?” Quinn asked.

  Laney frowned “Wealthy, you mean? I suppose. She lived in a nice neighborhood. She did have diamond earrings, and a big ring on her right hand the one time I saw her, but it’s not like she was dripping in them. Nice clothes. I didn’t see her car. And if she did have plastic surgery, I suppose she must be. Why?”

  “Diamonds, nice clothes, nephew drives a fancy car and knows where his bread is buttered.”

  Laney’s eyes widened as Teague ran through the list. “You think he was just helping her out because he gets money from her?”

  “Or plans to,” Teague said. “If she’s older, he may be playing a long game.”

  She got there quickly. “Expecting to inherit?”

  “It’s been done.”

  Her nose wrinkled in distaste. Teague liked her for that. Or he just liked the cute way she did it.

  Slapping that thought back, he made himself focus. “Anything else about him? Did he live with his aunt?”

  “I’m not sure. She lived near the U-District.”

  “The university?” Teague asked. “Good hunting ground if you’re a thirty-plus-year-old guy into fresh-out-of-high-school women.”

  Again her nose wrinkled. She muttered something under her breath that sounded like “ew.” Teague suppressed a smile and wondered what the hell he was finding so amusing about all this.

  “Wouldn’t Amber be too old for him, then? She’s my age.”

  Teague couldn’t picture anybody over sixteen thinking Laney Adams was too old. Too hot, maybe.

  “Never mind,” Laney said, answering herself. “For a woman who looks like Amber, what guy wouldn’t make an exception?”

  Teague was glad she’d gotten there on her own, because he had a feeling anything he would have said would have come out wrong.

  “Did Amber have a passport?” Quinn asked.

  “I don’t think so. But she had one of the travel ID cards. We used to go up to Victoria sometimes, at Christmas. Figured it was as close as we’d ever get to Christmas in London.”

  “So she could have made the trip, technically.”

  “Yes,” Laney admitted. “And I’m not saying she wouldn’t, just that I can’t believe she’d fly someplace that’s only a three-hour drive.”

  “People in love change,” Teague said carefully.

  “Amen,” Quinn said dryly.

  Teague grinned at his boss, admitting the statement had been double-edged.

  “And thankfully so,” Quinn added, with a smile Teague had come to know, an inwardly directed expression of pure love that made clear his thoughts were of the woman who had so changed his life.

  “I know they do,” Laney said, her voice tentative, as if she didn’t want to interrupt Quinn’s pleasant musings. “But Amber never did. And I’ve been through a lot of guys with her. She’s always had guys after her. But she never blew me off for one of them.”

  “Until now. With Edward. If that’s what’s happened,” Teague added carefully.

  “Yes.”
>
  “And you didn’t go out with him. Wouldn’t.” Teague hadn’t meant to ask that, but he’d been saying a few things he hadn’t meant to lately.

  “I told you, I wasn’t attracted.”

  Quinn seemed to ponder that. “Good-looking guy, nice car, money, potentially a lot of money.”

  He sounded like he was only musing out loud, but Laney answered somewhat defensively, “I don’t need money, or things, or even looks, but character and kindness and honesty. I’m really picky.”

  “And Amber isn’t.”

  And there it was, Teague thought. Damn, Quinn was good at this. Laney drew back, looking almost hurt at first, but then thoughtful.

  “No,” she finally said, very softly. “She isn’t. Particular, but not picky. A difference she often pointed out to me.”

  I’ll take picky, Teague thought. What could be better than knowing a picky woman had picked you?

  He caught himself again, wondering where the hell this tendency to personalize every damn thing had come from. This was work, this was a job, and he’d better attend to it or he was going to royally mess it up.

  He’d promised her they’d find Amber, one way or another. And that was what he intended to do. All he intended to do. Laney was vulnerable, hurting, and his screwy reaction to her was just his protective instincts in overdrive.

  To prove it, he focused completely on the matter at hand as Quinn worked out the next steps. Foxworth was on a case, and that was where his unruly mind would stay.

  Chapter 7

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Hayley asked.

  Laney looked at the woman who had so quickly become more than just a client since she’d first brought Cutter to her several months ago. She had stopped in just after Laney had opened up this morning, and had obviously talked to Quinn.

  “You seemed really distracted yesterday,” she said.

  Hayley made a face. “Well, you’re right about that. I’m a wreck about meeting the boss for the first time. Somehow I got it in my head the right clothes would make a difference, make me relax. Didn’t work.”

  Laney stifled a laugh, then said, “And I thought Quinn was the boss. Teague said Charlie’s the organization, logistics and money side.”

  “Genius burns,” Hayley said wryly.

  “And you’ve never met before?”

  “No. Charlie’s headquartered in St. Louis, near where they grew up, and prefers to stay there. Quinn’s only here because he loves this part of the country.”

  “Well, and you.”

  Hayley smiled then, a bright, flashing smile of pure and utter happiness. “Yes. And me.”

  Laney felt a stab of...not envy—she liked Hayley too much for that—but perhaps longing. She supposed most women dreamed of having what Hayley had found, a strong, steady man like Quinn who would go to the ends of the earth for her.

  And that’s what gets us into trouble, she thought. Like Amber.

  “We’ll find her,” Hayley said, accurately reading her thoughts. “I promise. Nobody’s better at this than Foxworth.”

  “I didn’t give you much to go on,” Laney said ruefully. She’d spent most of last night trying not to get her hopes up. “I know so little about the guy.”

  “We have an amazing research team that can find darn near anything, or anyone. They can look in places most people don’t even know exist.”

  “That sounds a bit...something.”

  Hayley laughed. “Foxworth’s built up a lot of goodwill in a lot of different places over the years. It pays off.”

  “What a strange operation,” Laney said. “You help anybody who needs it?”

  “No,” Hayley said. “Not just anybody. People on the high road, who tried to do the right thing in the right way, but ran up against a roadblock they couldn’t get over or around, a block that shouldn’t be there in the first place. Sometimes groups, but individuals mostly, who have fought hard on their own but can’t keep going, financially, physically or emotionally. People fighting decisions made against them for no better reason than political expediency. Or stupidity. The powers that be, or petty tyrants throwing their weight around, or bigger types of corruption. That’s what Foxworth fights.”

  Laney couldn’t miss the passion in Hayley’s voice. She might be the most recent to join Foxworth, through Quinn, but she was clearly as dedicated as the rest of them. And if that was truly their cause, she could understand that.

  “Sorry,” Hayley said with a smile. “I didn’t mean to launch on you.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for believing in what you do,” Laney said, meaning it. “Teague said you worked on referral only, though.”

  Hayley nodded. “Word of mouth is the best advertising, and the only kind we rely on. Well, and now Cutter, since he seems to have such a knack.”

  Laney laughed. “I still can’t believe Quinn really decided to help me because of what Cutter did.”

  “It took us all a while to realize the dog knows what he’s doing. And the Foxworth crew is an unlikely bunch to put their trust in four paws, but they’ve learned he’s usually right.” Hayley shook her head. “Sometimes I think he’s not really a dog, but some magical being in disguise.”

  “He certainly communicates better than any dog I’ve ever known.”

  “He knows a lot more human than we know dog, that’s for sure,” Hayley agreed with a laugh.

  Laney picked at a thread that had worked loose on her shirt. “Teague was very kind.”

  “He’s a good guy.”

  “He really seemed to understand how I feel. Because of his sister.”

  Hayley went still. “He told you about Terri?”

  Laney nodded. “How she vanished while he was deployed, and was never found. And how he feels guilty for not being here to protect her. Of course, his parents didn’t help, blaming him.”

  For a long, silent moment Hayley just stared at her.

  “What?” Laney finally asked.

  “Teague,” she said, “never talks to anyone about that. I don’t think even Quinn knows as much as you just said. I certainly didn’t.”

  Laney stared in turn. “You didn’t?”

  Hayley shook her head. “I knew his sister had disappeared, but I had no idea he felt like that, or worse, that his parents blamed him. No wonder he’s not close to his mother now.”

  “I think she was the worst,” Laney said. “I got the idea his father just shut down after.”

  Even as she spoke, her mind was racing. She believed Teague never talked about his sister, it would explain the painful sound of his voice. She’d had the feeling then he hadn’t talked about it in a while, but she hadn’t realized “a while” meant never.

  And yet he had told her.

  It was disconcerting, to say the least.

  “Teague is the most cheerful guy I know,” Hayley said. “Always with a quip, the one who lightens the mood. I knew there was another side to him, deeper, but he hides it so well....”

  She focused on Laney. And the speculation in her vivid green eyes was hard to miss.

  Oh, don’t go there, please!

  Her sudden internal recoil startled her. Shouldn’t she be flattered that the guy let down enough to share an awful, painful story? That he felt enough empathy for her, and her situation, to do something he never did, share a part of himself he always kept hidden?

  If she was honest, she had to admit she was flattered. Problem was, maybe she was too flattered. Teague was an attractive guy, she’d been alone a long time now, and he came with as much of a guarantee as you could get with a guy these days; the benefit of a thorough background check by Foxworth.

  Instead of a casual, thoughtless “he seems like a nice guy, go for it” tossed off by an unthinking friend.

  It st
abbed at her again, the guilt, sharp and merciless. How on earth had Teague survived this for so long? Hayley said he was the most cheerful guy she knew; how did he do it? Was it just a facade, or had he really found a way to...obviously not forget, but live with it?

  “It’s that guy thing,” Hayley said, shaking her out of her thoughts. “Compartmentalization. They really are able to do that, much better than I am, anyway.”

  Laney drew back, eyes wide. How had she known exactly what she was thinking? “You are as perceptive as your dog. And I trust you to realize I mean that as a compliment.”

  Hayley laughed. “Oh, I know. And it is a compliment, to be compared to that rascal in the perception department, since he’s uncannily good at it.”

  Hayley’s cell phone rang, and from her instant smile Laney guessed the lilting, lively bit of music was assigned to Quinn’s calls. She answered, and Laney tactfully turned away, giving her some privacy. But Hayley mostly listened instead of talking. When she finally spoke, it was only to say “I’ll tell her.” Then a pause, an even wider smile, followed by “I love you, too.”

  She tucked the phone back into an outside pocket on her bag. Then she turned to face Laney straight on.

  “We have a lead,” she said.

  * * *

  “I can’t believe you guys did this so quickly.”

  Teague glanced at Laney, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV once more. They were on their way to SeaTac airport with recent photos of Amber in hand. Quinn was a big believer in HUMINT, human intelligence, or as Teague called it, boots on the ground, a holdover from his corps days. But it was Hayley who had quietly convinced Quinn to add another facet to their approach in non-hazardous situations: letting the involved party participate if that was what they wanted. No one, she said, was as invested in the case as the person themselves, and the urgency and emotion they displayed sometimes nudged people over onto their side, into empathy, by the sheer force of it. It made sense, and Teague had seen it work a couple of times now. He’d already had a lot of respect for Hayley after how she’d handled their actions the night she’d become collateral damage in their operation, and this only added to it.