The sound of the helicopter seemed to have scared off her tracker, and for that reason alone she was willing to hear Joel out. For a few seconds.
“You haven’t been picking up your phone.” His gaze did another bounce up and down her body, hesitating over her torn-up knee. “Where is it?”
Good question. “Lost.”
His near-black eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“Long story.”
“Any chance of hearing it right now?”
“First, you answer a question of mine.” She glanced past Joel to the pilot. He jumped down and headed for them.
“Shoot,” Joel said.
“There is no way you just happened to be out here, tooling around West Virginia, when you live in Annapolis. So, what’s going on?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. “You know where I live now?”
No way was she walking into that discussion. “Let’s stick to my question.”
“Fine, it’s not a coincidence.” Joel’s expression went blank. “Your father sent me.”
Figured. “It’s still your turn to explain, so keep talking.”
She loved her dad, but his protective streak stayed locked in hyperdrive. He ran a private security company, one Joel used to work for. All that danger made her dad a bit paranoid. Though, admittedly, in this instance that was a good thing.
“Your dad and Baxter Industries.” Joel shifted his weight, putting his feet hip-distance apart. “Seems your dad wanted you to have backup out here. Combine that with the twitchiness of the Baxter Board about having a twenty-six-year-old woman, alone, guiding the male executives, and you get me.”
“How very sexist of them.”
“They clearly don’t appreciate how competent you are outdoors.”
She had no idea if that was a shot or a compliment, so she ignored it. “If the phone isn’t working, how did you...oh, right. The GPS locator still functions.”
“Yes.”
“So, Dad tracked me down and sent you by helicopter.”
Instead of answering, Joel motioned to the pilot. “This is Cameron Roth.”
She wasn’t in the mood for meeting people just now, but there was no reason to be rude. “Okay.”
“We work together,” Joel explained.
“At where exactly?” She’d tried to find out where Joel went when he left her dad’s company. One night, bored and feeling lonely, she conducted a search, hoping to locate him, and uncovered nothing.
Her father finally let slip Joel lived in Annapolis, less than an hour away from her place in Virginia, the same place he used to live with her but never bothered to visit now. Being ignored made her stop checking in on the guy. If Joel didn’t care enough to make contact, she wouldn’t either.
“Ma’am.” The other man butted in with a nod of welcome. “You can call me Roth or Cam.”
The guy looked about the same age as Joel, a few years older than her, and shared Joel’s used-to-be-in-the-military look. Broad shoulders with muscles peeking out from under the edge of his T-shirt. They both carried their bodies in a permanent battle stance, as if they could shoot or tackle at any moment, if needed.
Joel had the Tall, Dark and Whoa-He’s-Hot thing down. That hadn’t changed in their months apart. Cam’s lighter hair and blue eyes made him seem less intense, but knowing the male type standing in front of her, she doubted that was actually the case.
Joel clapped. “There. That’s settled.”
Looked like the menfolk thought explanation time was over. She disagreed. “Let’s go back to my question. Why are you really here? And skip the sat phone talk this time.”
“Your father sent me to look for you.” That smile widened. “Now it’s my turn to ask a question.”
“Did you really answer mine?”
Cam laughed. “She has you there, man.”
Joel nodded in the direction of her hand. “Is there a reason you’re carrying a knife, or is the plan to stab the helicopter?”
She glanced down, then back at Joel. “Are you worried it’s meant for you?”
“I take it you two know each other pretty well,” Cam said.
The conversation kept jumping around. She’d only remembered the knife when Joel mentioned it. The burning from where it pressed into her palm suddenly hit her.
Then Cam’s comment grabbed her attention.
“Joel didn’t tell you who I was to him?” She wanted not to care, but the hurt swallowed up her indifference.
Cam looked from her to Joel and back again. “Let’s just say I’m thinking he left out some important pieces about your joint past.”
“Hope.” Joel snapped his fingers and brought the focus back to him. “The knife?”
She stared at it in her hands. “What about it?”
“Why are you holding it as if you’re ready to attack?”
She couldn’t come up with a reason to stall and certainly had no reason to lie. Not about this. Not to him. “Someone was following me.”
Both men leaned in closer, all amusement gone from their faces. Cam’s mouth opened, but Joel was the one who barked out a question. “What?”
Now that she had their attention, she decided to spill it all. “And I think one of my executives might be dead.”
Chapter Two
Joel called up every ounce of his practiced control to stay calm. Before he’d joined the Corcoran Team, a private security organization out of Annapolis, Maryland, that specialized in risk assessments for companies and governments, this sort of thing would have had him spinning and drilling her with questions.
Connor Bowen and the rest of the Corcoran Team had taught him the importance of patience and holding still for the right opening. Without those skills, the high-priority, under-the-radar kidnap and rescue missions they conducted would fail. Because when you worked outside the legal parameters and without a safety net, mistakes couldn’t happen.
After a lifetime of kicking around in the intelligence field, Joel knew he’d finally landed in a place that felt right. He’d buckled down, used his tech skills to fill in after the last tech guy left and tried to forget about her. Hope, his greatest weakness.
Now he seriously considered telling Cam to get lost for a few minutes, though he doubted the guy would budge. Not when he was staring as if he’d never seen a woman before and was hanging on every word of the discussion.
Joel couldn’t really blame Cam on the gawking part. Hope looked as good as Joel remembered. Better, even. The long dark brown hair and near black eyes hadn’t changed. From the dimple and girl-next-door hotness to the tanned legs and smokin’ petite frame, he found her almost impossible to resist.
Add in her smarts, competency with weapons and near fearless determination when she wanted something and he’d had no choice but to dump his job and move to the next state to keep from falling deeper into her. Or that’s what he’d rationalized at the time.
But right now he worried more about the danger that appeared to be haunting her. “Say that again.”
She cleared her throat. “I have a missing executive.”
Joel had no idea what that meant. “You said dead a second ago.”
She