Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(23)

“Let’s say a higher priority question would be what are we doing next to find my sister?” Because she was here for a reason.

He nodded. “And the best people are on it right now.” He tapped his chest. “I will be joining them as soon as I see you safely back to the guest cabin and make sure you’re comfortable.”

She opened her mouth to protest but he touched her lips with his finger. She resisted the urge to bite it.

Humor sparkled in his eyes, giving his normally grim face a lot more charm than she’d thought possible. “There’s a lot of research in the beginning. It’s damned boring to watch. It also sucks to be the researcher with someone breathing over your shoulder. You wanted us to do this. We will. Right now the best thing you can do is stay out of our way.”

She blew out a breath in frustration. Temper tantrums wouldn’t do any good here. “Is there anything constructive I can do?”

He nodded. “Get out a piece of paper and a pen, or sit at a computer if that’ll work better for you. Blank your mind. Then start recording every single thing you know about your sister’s disappearance. List it all out. If there are relations, draw them. Any odd detail, no matter how insignificant, could be a thing. You gave us a good start, but random things pop into people’s heads later on, when they aren’t under pressure to talk.”

Okay. She settled back on her heels. Those were things she could do. And she did see the sense in what he had to say. “How often do you do this for your team?”

“What?”

“Take the client aside and set them to some constructive, or even not so helpful, task to get them out of the way?” She looked at her feet. If he hadn’t given her something to do, she really would’ve been hanging over their shoulders. “I’m betting some people get pretty irate.”

Everything had been a series of doors shut in her face so far. To finally have help gave her new energy and she wanted to drive them forward, make things happen. It was frustrating to have to wait again.

Gabe’s hand came into her field of view, taking her chin and gently coaxing her to lift her head. When he spoke, his voice was kind. “You’re not irate though. And you’re a big help so far. I’ve had clients screaming and spitting with no useful information whatsoever, expecting us to work internet magic to solve their problem. They’ve gotten violent, hysterical, any range of emotion you can think of. You, so far, just seem to think a lot—which I personally like.”

She risked meeting his gaze and her cheeks heated again. Like. “Is that why you kissed me?”

Oh good, she’d gotten her question out without stuttering. Points for her, because she was all sorts of flipped out internally.

One corner of his mouth lifted in a lopsided grin. “Yeah.”

Not a lot of explanation there. She bit her lip in frustration. “Care to add some detail?”

He ran his thumb across the line of her jaw, sending heat and electric sparks along her skin before he released her. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. I do things in the moment and I don’t always have a lot of thought behind why. Too much thinking makes you miss opportunities.”

He paused, watching her watch him, and she almost looked away, but didn’t. He was too fascinating, too magnetic.

After a minute, he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, then gently turned her in the direction of the trail. “Let’s get you back to the cabin. You can think all you want there. Maybe I’ll bring you some honey.”

She huffed but couldn’t come up with a good response. Overthinking was her issue and he knew it about her already.





Chapter Seven

“Seriously? You’re going to be gone two weeks?” A man’s voice cracked over the smartphone’s speaker as Gabe returned to the guest cabin. Did she have her call on speakerphone?

It’d been an hour and Gabe wanted to give her an update on their progress. Standing on the porch with her back to him, Maylin sighed without bothering to hold her phone away from her face. It wasn’t on speaker. No wonder she hadn’t heard him coming. “At minimum.”

Didn’t she take vacations from work once in a while? Granted, two weeks was a solid chunk, but maybe mainstream did things differently from what he’d thought. Gabe hadn’t ever been a civilian, seemed like.

“What are you going to do with yourself? I mean, of course you’re not going to be doing anything with yourself, but...”

Must be one of the employees from her catering company, probably the kid who’d helped her with cleanup. Gabe snickered in silence. Where did the kid think he was going with that? And why was Gabe so happy Maylin didn’t seem to get where the boy’s thoughts were coming from? Pfft.

“Look, Charlie, I’m going to find An-mei.” And there was the steel in her voice. Dauntless and determined. All that resolution contained in a tight, tempting figure. Gabe’s admiration was growing for her in a whole lot of ways. Oblivious, she continued, “I’ve got the right help now and I can’t just sit by waiting for news.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.” So much conviction in her tone. He and his team had only agreed to locate the girl. They still needed to work out the details of extracting An-mei once they found her—and those were far from trivial—but Maylin seemed sure she’d overcome one challenge at a time. He suffered a pang of guilt letting her continue as she was but he was hoping there’d be a workable solution. “Genevieve can handle the small parties scheduled over the next two weeks with you and the others to support her. I’ve already sent her an email with all of the details and gone over them with her. You get to break the news to the rest of the staff. You’ll all be fine.”