Emotions coursed through him along with the pain in his ankles and knees. He took the pain and tried for more.
Images clicked through his head, moments with Dana the night before. Fury choked him, making breathing difficult, but he didn’t relent.
He ran for almost two hours, along back roads, his tennis shoes splashing up mud. A couple of houses came into view and then a few businesses. The diner stood at the end of a dirt road, only two miles from the interstate and somehow only known by locals and a few truckdrivers. He slowed when its lights glowed into the wild night, walking the last several yards to the front door.
The bell clanged when he shoved it open.
Without halting, he turned and walked to the booth in the far back, his shoes squeaking on the cracked tiles and leaving a wet trail.
Nari Zhang took one look at him, slid from the side of the booth facing the door, and took the seat across from it. He claimed her vacated seat. “We’ll work on putting your back to the door some other night.” She crossed one leg beneath her and then dug a beach towel out of her bag. “Saw it was raining.”
He took the towel and wiped down his head and face. “I don’t want to practice my Mandarin tonight.” The shrink had been teaching him to speak one of her languages, but he wasn’t in the mood.
“I figured.” She retook the towel and shoved it in the beach bag. “We haven’t done this in a while.”
His skin went numb after the run. “I don’t like doing it.” But he’d promised her if he was ever in that state, the purely angry one, he’d text her and meet here after running.
“I appreciate you keeping your promise.” She sipped a cup of coffee.
The waitress sidled up, her orthopedic shoes spreading the water he’d dropped. “Wolfe? It’s a weird night to run.” Janice pulled an old-fashioned order pad from her faded green uniform. “You want the usual, hon?”
“No. Not hungry,” he said, trying to calm his voice for the seventy-year-old.
Nari nodded. “Bring him the usual. Thanks.”
“You betcha.” Janice turned on one shoe and made her way back to the kitchen.
Wolfe didn’t have the energy to fight with the shrink. “Fine, but you’re eating some of it this time.” He looked at her and guilt swamped him again. She’d dressed in a white button-down shirt and dark jeans, her black hair up on her head and no makeup on her pretty face. She was Chinese, and even without makeup, her dusky skin glowed. Her dark brown eyes were bloodshot. “You should be sleeping,” he murmured.
“Sleep is a luxury,” she returned, her small hands around her coffee cup. “I heard about the drugging. You must be pissed.”
That’s why he let her be his shrink. She got him and didn’t try to be all intellectual. “Yeah. Anger is like acid, and it’s eating through me.”
She blew on her coffee and then took another sip. “Any flashbacks?”
“Just to the night with Dana.” He rolled his neck, feeling the muscles tighten anyway. “I’m sure I’ll have more if I try to sleep.” Facing the day his team had died was never easy, and a nightmare in his current mood would be a disaster.
“How about the hyper vigilance?” Nari asked.
“I’m not looking over my shoulder, but I want to lock Dana down to keep her safe.” Unfortunately, Dana wasn’t a woman who would be locked down.
Nari leaned back. “Deal with right here and right now and with what you can control. The rest will come.”
It was good advice. “I just want to kill whoever put that drug in our drinks,” he admitted.
“Sure, you do.” Nari nodded, her gaze soft. “Somebody either tried to kidnap or kill both of you, and they forced you two to take a step you hadn’t intended to take.”
“We’d already had consensual sex, but that doesn’t make this okay,” he said.
Nari’s eyebrows rose. “Ah. Okay. Well, you’re right. The choice was taken away from you both in this instance, and you have every right in the world to be furious.” Nari leaned toward him. “That’s a normal and healthy reaction, Wolfe. Stop being so hard on yourself.”
Janice plunked down a cup of coffee with whipped cream and sprinkles for him. “Be right back with the food.”
He took the drink and sipped. “I made myself a target for someone from my past, which means I need to stay the hell away from Dana so she doesn’t get caught in the firefight. But now somebody has drugged us, and I’ve learned she’s a target too. I need to stay beside her to protect her.” He was being pulled in two directions, and even his ribs hurt.
“That is a conundrum.” Nari eyed his whipped cream.
He nudged his cup to her. “Why don’t you just order your own?”
