LITMIR.BIZ

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the box.”

      “What?” Hope jumped off the bed and wrapped her arms around her body.

      “I know that sounds bad, but—”

      “While I was sleeping? No way.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Don’t you think I’d hear him?”

      Cam winced. “Maybe not.”

      She visibly shivered. “That’s just creepy.”

      “And one of the reasons your dad wanted me here.” Joel slid that in there in the hope it would cut off any argument he’d get on the helicopter when they flew out of there the second after they located Mark. Thanks to all she’d described about this retreat so far, he’d leave when she did and not a minute earlier.

      She held up a hand. “Don’t start.”

      Looked like her fear or disgust or whatever it was about the lockbox had disappeared. “Your dad is being practical.” Joel suspected her father was also engaging in a bit of matchmaking, but Joel decided not to share that thought.

      “The word you’re looking for is overprotective.”

      “Hope, I think—”

      She turned to Cam. “So, now what?”

      He bit his bottom lip in what looked like a poor attempt to block a smile. “We check the helicopter and do a quick search around the campground.”

      Those priorities worked for Joel. “Cam will question the men here at the campground and maybe see if Charlie knows anything or can give us some direction.”

      “He knows these woods better than anyone and probably can tell us where someone might hide.” She sighed as she shook her head. “I swear if Mark is just being a big baby and staying away because a woman yelled at him, I’m going to hit him.”

      “Absolutely fine, since nailing him with an arrow is out. Unfortunately,” Joel said.

      Cam nodded. “Sounds like a reasonable plan.”

      She let her hand drop to her side again. “But Mark being a jerk still doesn’t explain the missing satphone and the stalker.”

      “You’re sure Mark wasn’t the one following you?” Man, Joel wanted that to be the answer. It was simple and clean, but he knew life rarely worked that way. Not for him.

      “The build was all wrong. Mark is stocky and a bit out of shape. This guy was lean and moved fast.”

      “I don’t like that at all.” Cam shook his head as he peeked out the small window next to the cabin’s front door. “Heads up—the troops are gathering by the fire pit again. Looks like Charlie is giving them orders.”

      “I bet Jeff pays attention to Charlie,” Hope grumbled.

      Cam snorted. “Annoying but at least they’re listening. Good to know they can.”

      Sounded like time had run out. Joel didn’t want to spend one more second in planning mode. “Okay, we meet back here in two hours. If we haven’t found anything, we start looking in the other cabins.”

      Hope reached down. “I’ll bring—”

      No way was Joel dealing with that. “The bow stays here.”

      “Fine.” She got up and joined the men at the door. She glanced at Cam. “I thought you had to be somewhere else today.”

      He nodded, like he always did. “I’m fine for now.”

      “Maybe we should all be in on the questioning. I mean, I already checked the woods.”

      Joel knew that would eat up too much time. “This go-round we’ll look for tracks.”

      “Want me to do that? It’s more of my specialty than yours,” Cam said.

      “We’ll be fine.”

      Cam reached for the doorknob. “I bet.”

      “Can I have a gun?”

      Her question stopped both men. Cam froze and Joel did a quick count to ten. She could handle it, but she was still spooked and he had to be sure she was back in full control before he handed her a loaded gun. Still... “No.”

      “Can you shoot?” Cam asked.

      “Been practicing since I was ten.”

      Joel wasn’t having this conversation right now. He reached around and shoved the door open, bringing the warm breeze inside. “Shooting a person is different.”

      Her head snapped back. “Are we doing that?”

      He hoped not. “Maybe.”

      “And you would know how hard that is.”

      He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Yes, I would.”

      * * *

      THEY’D CROSSED OUT of sight of the campground before Hope broached the difficult subject. Actually, about a hundred feet away she opened her mouth and then closed it again, focusing on the sway of branches against the increasing wind and the clomp of their feet against the ground.

      Later they hit the point where she could see sunlight up ahead and knew the helicopter sat a short distance away. She didn’t hold back. “Are we going to talk about it?”

      He stopped scanning the trees and large expanse of forest around them to spare her a glance. “About what?”

      Men were clueless. “Us.”

      He exhaled. “Hope—”

      “I know. You don’t have to list off the reasons why we should pretend we’ve never slept together.”

      “I never said that.”

      “You act like it.”

      “And, for the record, it was more than sex.”

      “Was it?” She asked even though she couldn’t stand to hear him dismiss their relationship as unimportant—again.

      True, they hadn’t been together in what felt like forever. She’d convinced herself she didn’t care and could move on, but seeing him made her realize how untrue that was.

      He picked a leaf off a branch that nearly whacked him in the face. “We can’t do this now.”

      The world around her barely registered. Not when this topic came up.

      She’d heard all of the excuses. They ran through her mind on constant play. They spilled out of her now before she could call them back. “This is the wrong time. I’m the wrong guy. You deserve better. My background is a mess. My job is dangerous.”

      He stopped. “Excuse me?”

      “Have you invented more reasons? I’ve heard all of those, and none of them sent me running.”

      “Wow.”

      She debated storming ahead, leaving him floundering, but refrained. Childish wasn’t the answer when what she really wanted was for him to treat her the way a woman deserved to be treated. “Imagine how I felt as you ticked off that list, or some version of it, day after day. You always had a new reason to push away and leave, but you never found one to stay.”

      “That’s not true.”

      She knew it was because she had lived it. “All those months ago I asked you to move in with me since you were basically staying there every night anyway, and you flew out of town on a business trip the next morning instead of giving me an answer.”

      “That was legitimate.”

      “Joel, come on.”

      The leaf disappeared as Joel crushed it inside his clenched fist. “Your father said you were dating again.”

      Her gaze slipped back up to his. “What?”

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