Operation Alpha. Justine Davis

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      Besides, it wasn’t that at all. It was simply that she liked that he’d been so happy over a simple thing like playing with a dog. Her world seemed to be overflowing with teenage angst these days, and seeing somebody so pleased with such a simple thing was like an antidote. And it had nothing to do with the leanly muscled body or the chest—and abs—that had been on display before he’d pulled his shirt back on. Hastily enough that she found the seeming self-consciousness rather charming until she remembered this was, after all, his place of work.

      When Quinn gestured to him to take a seat, he headed for one of the empty ones near his boss. The dog got in his way, though, and they seemed to try to dodge each other for a moment before he finally ended up sitting down in the chair closest to her. He gave the dog a look she couldn’t define, except to say it was as wary as if the animal had suddenly morphed into a wolf.

      “Cutter seems to think we’ll need you for this,” Hayley said, sounding amused, although Ria wasn’t certain about what. She had only just met Quinn’s wife, a pretty woman with lovely green eyes, but she already liked her.

      “Does he now,” Liam said with an expressively wry quirk of his mouth. Ria wondered where he was from, what place had put that slight drawl in his voice. “And just what is ‘this’?” Liam asked, shifting his gaze from the dog to Hayley.

      “We’re about to find out,” Quinn said equably. He looked at their two visitors. “Which of you has the problem?”

      “Neither of us, really,” Emily said with a glance at Ria.

      Ria smiled. “I’m just the wheelman, as it were. But I understand her concern.”

      She also had her doubts that this vague, nebulous job was something an operation the apparent size of Foxworth would take on. This building of theirs was expansive and well equipped, including a small kitchen and bath, a living area with fireplace that could be in any nice home and even a bedroom in the back corner. She also thought she’d caught a glimpse of a helicopter in that warehouse-looking building at the other end of the gravel parking area. Foxworth was much bigger than she’d expected.

      Emily’s explanation played back in her head. They used insurance money to start it, Mr. Foxworth and his sister. Their parents were killed by terrorists.

      So he understood loss. But even that seemed on a much grander scale. And yet...

      He never belittled me or the smallness of my request. He understood how important my mother’s locket was to me, how it was the only thing I wanted in life, to have it back, because it was the only thing I had left of hers. And he found it. He turned the thieves over to the police but only after he got the locket back.

      Emily’s heartfelt retelling of her story had been the final factor in Ria’s decision to at least give this a try. And that’s what she should be focused on—Emily’s worries, not the distraction of the sandy-haired guy with the quirky grin sitting too close to her.

      “Emily?” Ria liked how Quinn said it. He was a big, powerful-looking guy, but he wasn’t afraid to be kind or gentle.

      “I think,” Emily began, hesitated, then plunged ahead. “I think a friend of mine is in trouble. Maybe bad trouble. Will you help?”

      Ria thought asking that before explaining was a bit hasty. But she had, it seemed, underestimated Foxworth. It was Hayley who answered, as if she knew perfectly well what her husband would say. As she apparently did.

      “Of course.”