Riptide (Renegades 6)

“Oh.” Compassion softened her expression. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’ve made peace with it. I’m the black sheep. My parents are doctors, my sisters and brother all went into high-achieving white-collar professions.” He shrugged and refocused on figuring her out. “What could you possibly have to talk to my lesser half about?”

“Sorry, it’s personal.” She gestured to the club with her wineglass. “How do you stand all this? It’s maddening. And the women—” She cut herself off and turned that smile on him. “Oh, wait. You’re male. Never mind.”

Zach laughed, deep and amused. She was refreshingly different. Intelligent, grounded, quick. Just talking with her pulled Zach out of the bullshit he’d been dealing with for the last six months and planted his feet on the ground. He liked that. A lot.

“You aren’t at all what you seem, are you?” he asked.

“Evidently not. I’ve been mistaken for half a dozen different professionals today.” Her attitude had shifted from don’t-talk-to-me to you’re-adorable-but-I’m-still-not-interested in ten minutes, making Zach wonder if he’d ever be able to get her to the begging-for-more stage. He always did love a challenge.

But then she set her glass down and stood from her stool. “Well, thanks for my princess wine, but I need to get home.”

3

Los Angeles. Zach had taken off to Los Angeles. Tonight. What were the chances?

This stress was eating away at her. Tessa had already endured so much, sometimes she thought she’d snap. And right now, after traveling fifteen hours with a three-year-old just to get here, then waiting days for the opportunity to convince Zach to relinquish the most important thing in Tessa’s life, this bad news—no, horrible news—threatened to open a well of emotion she’d been stuffing for years.

“Hey.” Ian reached out and put a hand on Tessa’s arm. His warmth penetrated her suit jacket and slid along her skin. “Are you okay?”

She could see why women chased the man. He was wildly attractive, and now she knew he also had a sense of humor and compassion as well. He also had an overwhelming—as in intoxicating—charisma.

But it didn’t explain why he was still sitting here talking to her. Part of her wanted to stay, just to bask in his attention. She was bewildered by the fact that his gaze hadn’t strayed from her once. Maybe he was so used to these barely clothed beauty queens, they didn’t faze him anymore. Though she was pretty sure that didn’t happen in a straight man’s world. Even her gay friends would be ogling them for their style. But not Ian. And after a lifetime of taking care of others, Ian’s touch and attention felt like the sun on icy skin.

Which was dangerous in her present mental state.

“I’ll be fine,” she told him. “I always am.”

She tipped back her wine and finished off the glass—something she’d regret in about thirty minutes. She’d already had two glasses while waiting. But this one, downed so quickly, was probably going to knock her on her ass. Good thing her condo was within walking distance.

She dropped a twenty on the bar for Jack. When she turned, a beautiful Hawaiian woman paused in front of Ian with a steaming plate of fajitas. “Would you like to eat at the bar?”

He glanced at Tessa. “Is this yours?”

“No.”

Ian told the waitress, “We didn’t order.”

“Your friends ordered for you,” she told him. “They said

you haven’t eaten since breakfast.” The waitress set the food down on the bar. “I’ll check back with you.”

With a quick smile, she hurried off to serve another customer.

“That was nice of them,” Tessa said. “I’ll let you eat.”

She was still distracted by Ian’s heartbreaking news. How in the hell was she going to find Zach in Los Angeles? She’d have to hire a private detective. She sure didn’t have enough time off work to search for him herself. She might know how to research a topic to death, but she’d discovered during her search for Zach Ellis that research couldn’t replace detective work. And despite her supposed cop-like similarities, a detective she was not.

“Where are you going?” Ian asked.

“Back to my condo.”

“It’s still early.”

“That’s all perspective. Besides, I have someone waiting for me.” And she wanted to climb into bed beside her little muffin and cuddle. As long as she still had Sophia, she could handle anything.

“As in a boyfriend or husband or something?”