Law grinned wide as he lifted the massive burger to his mouth. “I’m on furlough. What about you? You heard from him lately?”
Yardley’s face went blank as she reached for her fork.
Law watched her while he chewed. They didn’t need familiarity to sense trouble in each other. “Has it been more than a month?”
“Almost two.” She was still staring straight ahead.
“He works for Doctors Without Borders, right? Why aren’t his people talking to you?”
“I don’t have to right to ask them anything about him.”
Law knew what that meant. Yardley wasn’t listed on the guy’s who-to-call-if list.
“What about your spook grapevine?”
She shook her head. “The usual channels aren’t open to me.”
Law almost asked why before his own covert experience kicked in. She couldn’t ask because most likely he wasn’t listed “on paper” as being wherever the hell he was.
Yardley had mentioned she was seeing a guy when she’d visited him months ago. Which had shocked him. Like him, she kept her personal life personal. Her private life was downright classified. Even now, he knew nothing about the guy beyond the fact that he worked for Doctors Without Borders. Yardley wouldn’t say what he did, or even his name. But the fact that this mystery man owned Yardley’s heart told Law all he needed to know about the guy. He had to be a stand-up, dedicated prince of badassery.
Yardley wasn’t likely to fall for a doctor. Law suspected the man worked security, off the record, for the organization that by its very nature struggled to remain independent and neutral, not part of any government or international system. They didn’t work first-world places. More like third, fourth, and falling-off-the-map places.
Now he was missing in some godforsaken shithole in the remotest part of one of the most dangerous places in the world. Two months was a long time to be out in the cold. Yard was worried. Now he was, too.
Law looked down at his empty plate feeling bad for having brought the subject up. Yard was hurting and he had nothing to offer her private pain but respect.
He didn’t bother with the usual He’ll turn up or He’s going to be fine. Those words would be wishful thinking at best. There was nothing he could do to help. He wasn’t even certain he could save himself, at the moment.
His mind slid into his own misery. He’d walked out on Jori. And that, he was discovering, was going to bother him worse than the itch he’d gotten to scratch.
“You seeing anyone?” Yardley was studying him now with the interest of a K-9 on the scent.
Why had he mentioned relationships? He never talked about his. Then he remembered Yardley had talked with Jori when she answered his phone. Time to cover up.
“Usual story. She kicked me out.”
“Hard to believe.”
“You helped. Thanks for being all mysterious on the phone with her.”
Yardley chewed a forkful of salad to give herself time to think. She’d spent her professional life working with highly disciplined, highly motivated professionals, mostly men, in law enforcement and the military. Sometimes those who partnered with her highly intelligent, highly motivated animals were more in need of TLC than their canines. Dogs were better at getting what they needed than many of their human counterparts. First-responder handlers, always the ones turned to in a crisis, learned to tuck their emotions away while they coped with the needs of others. Those without strong family ties sometimes lost the ability to relate to their own needs.
Her brother wasn’t even on the map about his own feelings. Once he’d thought he was invincible. Now that life had shown him otherwise, he was hurting in a way that might just destroy him.
Of course, she couldn’t very well point that out. He wouldn’t thank her for it. He might even walk out. He’d done so before, most memorably at the reading of their father’s will eight years ago. His final words had stayed with her, along with a certain amount of guilt.
He didn’t give a shit for me when I was alive. I don’t need shit-all from him now.
Law had refused the inheritance of Harmonie Kennels and never looked back. Her good fortune, but her brother’s loss. No one, especially Law, needed to be alone forever.
She’d seen that micro expression of hurt when she’d mentioned the woman. Maybe she threw him out, or maybe he ran. Either way, he wasn’t happy about it. And that might just be the best news of all.
If Law was emotionally involved, even if he saw it as a negative, that was more than enough to work with for a smart woman willing to do the mining of the heart of a difficult man. A woman who trained dogs would know how to work with Law’s nonverbal way of dealing with his emotions.
Yardley reached over and snagged one of his onion rings. “What was wrong with her?” Law looked confused by the question, but she knew it was a dodge. “The woman who threw you out.”