A Father's Desperate Rescue (Man on a Mission 5)

Dirk’s iPhone signaled an incoming email, cutting her off. Less than a minute later, Mei-li was standing behind Dirk, looking over his shoulder at the properties of the picture he’d downloaded. “Damn,” he whispered under his breath. “Different GPS coordinates...again.”

“Let’s see where this picture was taken.” When Dirk pulled up the location on Google Maps, she frowned. “Aberdeen? That’s on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island. It’s almost as if they know we’re trying to track them and are trying to throw us off the scent,” she murmured to herself.

“You think...?”

She shook her head. “If they know, why not just turn geotagging off?” She laid an apologetic hand on Dirk’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

He turned and looked up at her. “For what?”

“I should never have told you about the geotagging. I shouldn’t have—”

“Given me hope?” he said, interrupting her.

“Given you false hope.”

Dirk stood abruptly. “Not false hope,” he said, his voice very deep. Very sure. “Okay, it hasn’t helped so far. But I’m not giving up. It could still happen.” His hands cupped her cheeks, tilting her face up to his, and he brushed his lips against her forehead. Then he kissed the corners of her eyes, one after the other, and Mei-li caught her breath.

Before he could kiss her lips, as she desperately wanted him to do, they heard a knock, and Rafe called out through the closed door, “Dinner’s here.”

Mei-li was unpleasantly jerked back into reality, realizing neither of them had heard the butler’s entrance doorbell indicating room service had arrived. She started to pull away, but Dirk caught her arms and refused to let her go. “Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t kiss me unless you mean it.”

“Why the hell would I kiss you if I don’t mean it?” he demanded, his hands tightening on her arms.

“I don’t know. But I—”

He kissed her, effectively silencing her protest. And he put his whole heart into it. His whole soul. Mei-li didn’t know how she knew that...but somehow she did. And she was kissing him back. Giving him the same total commitment.

The knock sounded again, louder this time. “Mr. DeWinter? Dinner.”

They broke apart. Mei-li couldn’t have spoken even if she’d tried, but Dirk managed to call out, “We’ll be right there.”

* * *

Dinner was almost over when Dirk announced to everyone at the table, “I appreciate everything you’ve done today. You have no idea how much it means to me. But there really isn’t anything more for you to do tonight, so you might as well call it a day.”

“You have one more delivery, don’t you?” Patrick asked. “Are you sure you don’t need me?”

Dirk’s mouth twitched into a ghost of a smile. “You’ve done enough, Patrick. Go home. Study. Mei-li and I can walk to the Clock Tower and back.”

“Walk carrying all that money?” Rafe asked.

“No one will know,” Mei-li assured him. “The cloth grocery bag is an effective disguise. Half the women on the streets will be carrying one, with nothing more valuable than groceries.”

Rafe stood and flexed his shoulders. “Guess I’ll head back to my hotel, then. Don’t need a cab—the walk will give me the chance to stretch my legs. Anyone coming with me? Mike? Chet?” Mike agreed, but after a quick look at Vanessa, Chet declined and the other two bodyguards left together.

Patrick glanced at his watch. “I’ll say good-night, too. If I leave now, I can catch the next ferry.” His eyes met Dirk’s. “But I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow.”

“You already missed two days of classes,” Dirk demurred. “I appreciate the offer, but it’s not necessary.”

Patrick’s lips thinned. “You think I care about that?” he asked with a sudden flare of anger. “You think I can just go back to school and not worry—” He quieted when Mei-li placed a hand on his arm. “I’ll be here,” he said implacably before stalking out.

Dirk’s eyes sought Mei-li’s. “I didn’t mean to insult him,” he said.

“You didn’t. You were just trying to think of what’s best for him. And Patrick will realize it by the time he gets to the ferry.”

Vanessa and Chet exchanged glances in the silence that followed, then Vanessa said softly, “Mr. DeWinter?”