“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.”
“We’ve all been working toward the day when you would trust us enough to take some time off for yourself.” She froze. Charlie’s statement startled her. “I only wish it was for a happier reason.”
Gabe wondered how much Maylin buried herself in her work. Obviously far more than she’d realized.
“Me too.” So much regret in the one statement. “I should’ve taken the time off and gone with her in the first place.”
“You can’t blame yourself. That wasn’t why I said it.” Charlie’s voice cracked with frustration.
Okay, at first it’d been unintentional, but if Gabe continued lurking behind this tree he’d be a certifiable creep. Besides, listening to Charlie pour out his concern was grating on his temper. Making an effort to step on a couple of twigs here and there, he walked into the open.
“I need to go now, Charlie. I’ll try to check in when I can.” Without waiting for her friend’s response, she ended the call.
Good. Bye, Charlie. Don’t wait up.
Her peripheral awareness wasn’t half bad, all things considered. And she stood fairly calmly waiting for him to cross the rest of the distance between them. No deer-in-headlights look. Another plus.
To be honest—and he hated that it was true—it was awkward for him to be around civilians. Hard to respect someone who hadn’t ever been punched square in the face and come back swinging. They’d called it the warrior ethos back in Basic. Mostly it was an attitude and a perspective a person either had or didn’t. Maylin’s quiet strength wasn’t a fit for either category. She wasn’t made for combat, but she wasn’t a sheep lost away from the herd either.
He didn’t know how to act around her. At least, not when he had time to consider his actions. The kiss had been hot as hell and he wanted more. But then he’d gone back to all business again and she’d obviously been left off balance. He’d kept himself apart from the mainstream for too many years to be any good at true interaction anymore.
Generally, he preferred to glower at people and intimidate the hell out of them.
“Any news?” Those green eyes were every bit as brilliant in the light of day. She wasn’t even wearing makeup.
Sugarcoating would be a waste of time. Besides, she wouldn’t thank him for it. “Not yet. I took a look through the consulate emails you forwarded me. You’re not likely to get any further with those.”
“The responses were too polite.” She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Didn’t seem like the consulate representatives put any thought into it at all.”
Probably hadn’t. He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “Too easy to dismiss an email as not a real person. A voice across a phone call isn’t much better. And the people answering those inquiries don’t actually know anything.”