That was as much as Walker knew but he wanted to find out more. However, he couldn’t focus his attention on Mark while Raines was giving him the third degree.
The first time Walker had seen Mark, it had been like a punch to the gut. All the feelings Walker kept tamped far down inside him bubbled to the surface. No one knew except his trainer, Jake Tyler, now Jake Mitchelson. Well, no one knew before now. Why did Si Raines have to be so fucking perceptive? Why the hell did Mark have to be Raines's best friend? Why had Walker flown here without thinking this through? Questions, questions.
Walker rubbed his temples. It had been a long day; the flight had been delayed, and now he had to face the wrath of Raines, instead of a quiet drink with the man he wanted to talk to.
Thank God! A distraction. A huge man who looked uncomfortably like his section leader, Mitch Mitchelson, walked towards him bearing a large tray. Walker knew from his previous trip here that Greg Mitchelson was Mitch's younger brother and a demon in the kitchen. Walker was so hungry he would have eaten anything, but Greg's chow was good. Even Jake spoke wistfully about his food.
Greg smiled at Walker as he put a large burger and a plate of fresh onion rings in front of him. Raines leaned forward to take one of the onion rings and Greg smacked his hand.
"Ouch!" Raines glared at Greg. "What did you do that for?"
"This is not your food. Hands off."
Greg's glower was as fierce as Raines's.
"You work for me remember? It's all my food."
"Customers eat the food. Customers pay for the food. Thieving bartenders keep their hands off."
Greg stormed off towards the kitchen. Walker had a feeling this was a conversation he'd had many times. Raines glared angrily after him.
Walker nudged the plate toward Raines. "You can help yourself."
Raines scowled at him. "It won't make me like you, and it will just get me into more trouble."
Walker shrugged. "Your choice."
They were really good onion rings. He was more than happy not to share.
"Are you coming over to the bar or am I spending the night drinking by myself?"
Walker nearly choked as Mark spoke. He hadn't seen him approach. He looked up to see Mark grinning at Raines, a bottle in each hand.
Raines nodded. "I'm coming."
Walker kept his head down and concentrated on his food. This had been a waste of his time. He needed to finish his dinner and get the hell out of there before he made an idiot of himself. He couldn’t think of a word to say to this man…that wouldn’t end with Raines’s fist in his face.
"Who’s your friend?" Mark asked.
"Not a friend," Si growled.
Mark looked between them; his eyebrow raised. Then Howie was there, a big smile on his face.
"Hey, Mark, this is Walker. He's one of Jake's team."
Walker groaned inwardly, seeing the smile fade from Mark's face to be replaced with a suspicious frown.
"Are you one of the guys giving Jake shit?" Mark demanded.
The smug look on Si's face told Walker he wasn't going to get away without answering this.
"Yeah, we were the Valentine team."
He wasn't quite sure where the godawful nickname had arisen, but now they were stuck with it.
Mark looked confused rather than angry. "What are you doing here?"
"He's here to talk to you," Si said.
Now Mark really did look confused. "Me?"
Si’s grin was evil. "Yep. He's come all this way to talk to you. Why don't you sit down and share his onion rings? I'll be at the bar when you're done."
He got to his feet and herded Howie away. Mark looked at them and then down at Walker.
"Why do I get the feeling there's something going on that I don't understand?"
Walker sat back, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and looked up at the man he'd dreamt about for weeks. He was annoyed now and that gave him the courage to speak to Mark. "Because you know that asshole."
He guessed he shouldn’t talk about the guy's best friend like that, but Mark just laughed and sat down in Si's seat.
"You're right there, I do. May I have one of your onion rings?"
"At least you asked. Help yourself." Walker nudged the plate toward him.
"Let me guess. Si tried to help himself to your food and Greg told him off."
Walker gave a humorless chuckle. "Happens a lot, does it?"
Mark gave a groan which slipped straight to Walker's cock. "So good. Yes, more than you think. What did you want to talk to me about?"
Walker couldn't meet his gaze. "I… uh…it really doesn't matter."
There was a long pause and Walker finally looked up to see Mark studying him with those intense brown eyes. They were like liquid chocolate.
"Did you really give up your only weekend to talk to me?"
Walker nodded. "You know what it's like in the agency. We just finished training, and we’re about to go out on our first mission. We’ve got seventy-two hours leave. I have to report back Monday morning."
"Okay, but why did you come to talk to me? Do you need a physical therapist? Are you hiding an injury?"
Under the barrage of questions, Walker cringed. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. He felt like a teenager talking to his first crush, except he'd never really had crushes, and now he was a thirty-year-old man trying to talk to the first person ever that he'd had feelings for.
"I don't know what to say," he mumbled.
"Why don't you just get it out there?" Mark's voice had softened, obviously seeing his distress, and Walker took courage from that.
"Would you have a drink with me?" Walker blurted out.
Mark blinked, but then he grinned. "Sure. Si can wait a bit longer. I'm sure he can find someone else to harass."
Walker expelled a breath. At least he'd gotten over the first hurdle.
"Let's get more onion rings," Mark suggested.
Walker gave a nod and Mark waved at Howie, gesturing at the plate. Howie gave the thumbs up and disappeared into the kitchen.
"You could start by telling me your first name," Mark said.
"Just Walker,” Walker said firmly. “No one calls me by my first name except my family."
"I'm Mark Peterson, but you probably already know that as you came to speak to me."
"I knew your name was Mark," Walker said.
"I'm sorry if I seemed hostile at first."
Walker shrugged. "I'm used to it."
"You get that response all the time, huh?"
"When you fuck up as badly as we did, it's not something you ever shake off."
Mark furrowed his brow. "I thought that was all done now. Jake said you guys got through the training okay. He said you worked well as a team."
"We're good as a team. But no one likes us. That hostility…," he nodded toward Si, "is something we encounter all the time. I thought…." Walker took a long time to marshal his thoughts, "once we completed the training and quit being asses to Tyler, sorry Mitchelson, that people would get over it. It turns out the entire agency doesn’t like it when you're an ass to your trainer who also happens to be a former kickass operative himself."