It must be nice to have close friends. They’d walked and then gotten in a car. It had just happened to be there with the keys under the mat. Julia figured Holt and Shane were behind this. She didn’t complain or ask questions, because the thump in her ankle had kicked up again. Once they were settled—and she hoped that happened soon—she’d dig into her bag and find more of those meds Holt had given her.
Cam took one last turn, then drove the car into the bushes. Right in. He had the old sedan tucked in between rocks and trees and now surrounded by shrubs. It was an interesting hiding place. Effective except for the part where she had to get the door open...and she had no idea where he intended for them to hide.
She recognized this area even though it wasn’t one where she spent a lot of time. They were a few miles from the old shipyard where her father used to work. She could smell fish and feel the pickup in moisture in the air as they got closer to the water.
The place, like everything on this part of the island, had fallen into disrepair. Sandy talked about buying the land back and revitalizing the area, but Calapan wasn’t exactly open to a big tourist crowd, which made the task a pretty bad investment. From what she saw of Sandy’s life, he didn’t make a lot of bad investments.
Unless Cam planned for them to hide in a tree, she didn’t understand why he’d brought her here. “You know it’s going to rain again in, like, five minutes, right?”
“Welcome to the Pacific Northwest.” He held out a hand to her. The other one carried a flashlight.
Even in the darkness, guided only by one beam of light, she could make out his strong fingers. She grabbed on and didn’t let go. “Where are we going?”
“I thought you knew every inch of the island.” He marched, forging a path for both of them.
“I never said that.” Then there was the part where she’d specifically tried to stay away as much as possible over the years.
At first when she did come here, usually to visit her father in the clinic, she’d always expected to see new buildings and new restaurants. A turnover in stores and fresh faces. That rarely happened. People who grew up here tended to stay here, except for the few like her who escaped.
Not many people landed here without any ties to the place. Most of the land was owned by a few, and neighboring islands like Bainbridge offered more of a welcoming community feel than Calapan. Here, neighbors sat miles away from each other and didn’t want to get involved. Poor Rudy had found that out the hard way.
She thought about him and her mind zipped back to all that had happened in such a short time. That took her gaze to their joined hands and then to the sturdy man beside her who cradled her hand in a gentle hold even as he marched them through the tall grass and overgrown branches.
They broke around a cluster of trees and she stopped. Stood frozen to the ground. In front of her sat something that looked like a construction trailer. Old, with a rusted roof and a broken front step. She had no memory of the building, but it could have come after her time, before the shipyard wheezed its final breath.
Cam glanced at her. “Impressed?”
Kind of stunned, actually. “For a guy who isn’t familiar with the island, you sure knew how to find this place.”
She waited for the doubts to hit her again. She’d been swamped by them at the police station and unable to wipe her expression clean before Cam saw it. The strange anxiety over trusting him hadn’t lasted long or lingered. It was just that Kreider had talked and she had listened and the words had made sense.
Then she’d remembered she was dealing with Kreider, the same guy who’d brought her father in to dry out but never arrested him. Who sometimes even looked the other way while her father drove around the middle of town drunk. A good old boy who protected his favorites and hated outsiders. The guy who found reasons to lock up anyone who was even a little different.
The idea of Kreider being too incompetent or too full of hate to see Cam as a protector was not hard to imagine. Kreider and Cam were too different, and if it came time to choose between them or pick one to believe, well, there wasn’t even a contest. She picked Cam.
He clicked a button on his watch, and the dial lit up. “I’d like to wow you with my brilliance, but the GPS did all the work.”
A handy tool. She noted that for a future purchase even if it did seem a little anticlimactic for Cam. She half expected him to have an invisible plane. “Okay.”
“Holt found the place abandoned and set it up as a safe house for us after he cleared the area.”
She was starting to like Holt. “Does clearing the area involve shooting a gun?”
“More like checking for vagrants and animals.” Cam squeezed her hand. “We have a no on both.”
They’d been so busy dealing with the two-legged kind of trouble that she hadn’t even spared a thought for critters. The size of the raccoons alone around here could scare a normal person to death.
“Holt also dropped off some supplies.” They went to the door in single file as they walked on a board across what looked like a deep puddle of water.
“Maybe I should have stuck with Holt.” The quiet hit her and she glanced up in time to see Cam’s jaw tighten. “Kidding.”
“Believe it or not, I don’t find that funny.” He dropped her hand as he reached for his gun but came up with air, since Kreider had stripped him of his weapons hours ago.
She tried not to take the loss of contact personally, but he sounded as though he was serious. His tone matched his frown and neither said happy or anything similar. The idea that a man like Cam, with his confidence and control, could need reassurance struck her as funny, but she didn’t dare laugh.
She went for damage control instead. “I don’t find him attractive. Just you.”
“That’s better.” He winked at her. “Stay here.”
“Yeah, I know the drill by now.”
He stopped before taking the last step onto the broken staircase. “You know we’ve only been together one day.”
“It feels like months.” That wasn’t an exaggeration. She felt as if she knew him. As if deep down they’d bonded on some level that allowed them to fast-forward through the getting-to-know-you stage. Maybe that was what happened when the initial meet consisted of a hostage and shooting situation.
“I’m going to hope that’s a good thing.” He moved, balancing for a second on the piece of a rotted stair before pulling his body up to the deck.
He took careful steps. With each move he’d put a portion of his weight down. Once he heard the crack or the creak, he’d go forward. Almost sprint across as if to barely touch the piece of wood.
It felt as if it took forever for him to get to the door, but the journey only lasted a few minutes. Without looking back he turned the knob, then slipped inside.
With him out of view, the sounds of the night amplified. Crickets chirped and the leaves and branches swished and swayed. She could hear something scurry nearby but decided not to think about that. She blocked the critter just as she blocked the terror racing through her at the idea of someone sneaking up behind her.
She thought about that possibility and whipped around to confront whatever might be out there. Only a breeze greeted her.
“Are you okay?”
Cam’s voice cut through the night and the nerves jumping around inside her. She glanced up to see him standing there with his hands on his hips, looking every inch a man in charge.
“I’m good.” That qualified as a lie, but if she told him about the shaking knees and chattering teeth, she might accidentally distract him.
He held a hand out to her. “Let’s get you inside and off that ankle.”
He remembered. Of course he did.
She lifted an arm just as he leaned down. He had his hands under her armpits and her feet off the ground in no time. She spun through the air with her body pressed next to his. When the world came back into focus, she balanced against his chest with her arms wrapped around his neck.
“You’re carrying me.” It seemed like an obvious comment, but she wanted to point it out just in case.
“Yeah.” The breathiness in his voice mirrored hers.
Like everything else about him, that was way too sexy.
“I can stand.” Not that she really wanted to at the moment. The feeling of his strong arms around her had that shaking inside her turning into something else.
“That’s a shame.” He pressed a light kiss on her mouth, then loosened his grip.
Her body slid down his. The friction had her breath hitching in her chest and her common sense in free fall.
Some of that shine of the moment dulled when they stepped inside. To think she’d made fun of him for demanding pristine accommodations. But this was not good. There was a cot with blankets folded and stacked on the end. She gave credit to Holt for that and the bag of food and duffel bag on the floor.
The rest of the place consisted of dust and cobwebs. Cleaning was not her thing, but neither were spiders. She shivered and not in a good way.
“It’s set up to look abandoned,” he said with more than a little amusement in his voice.
“Uh...” That sounded like crazy talk. A bit more in line with the scenarios she spun in her head about guys working undercover, but still a little weird. “What?”
“Holt cleaned it up, then added some charm. The idea is that if someone comes looking tomorrow or any day soon, they’ll see what they expect to see.” Cam glanced around. “A stripped-down, no-one-lives-here building.”
Now she was impressed. “You guys think of everything.”
He shrugged as he stopped in the middle of the room. “Usually.”
Something about that tone. She could pick up the nuance, which amazed her, since she missed all the subtleties of conversation at the office. “Meaning?”
He didn’t say anything for long minutes. Just stood there staring down at the tip of his shoe. “Nothing prepared me for you.”
Something spun around in her belly and she thought it might be fear mixed with a twinge of hope and a dose of excitement. “That sounds like a compliment.”
He turned to face her. “Not that many things throw me off stride.”
“Let me try now.” Before he could say no or reason through the arguments, she had her arms around his neck and her lips on his.
The kiss dragged her under right from the start. She heard roaring in her ears, and excitement bubbled in her chest. Touching him, holding him, being this close filled her with a lightness she couldn’t remember ever feeling before.
The throat clearing came a second before Holt’s dry voice. “Am I interrupting?”
Cam jumped and put his body in front of hers. Actually held out his arms so no part of her peeked through except her head, which she kept moving to get a better view.
“Maybe I don’t like Holt that much after all.” She was only half kidding.
“That’s what I was just thinking.” Cam didn’t sound amused at all.
* * *
HOLT COUGHED. IT was the worst fake cough Cam had ever heard. Didn’t help that Holt laughed while doing it.
Then he held up a hand. “Sorry.”
Somehow Cam doubted that. “Are you?”
Holt walked into the building. His shoes tapped against the floor and Cam wondered where that sound was five minutes ago. No one got the jump on him. He’d been trained not to let people sneak up on him. He’d failed that test in the past few minutes.
Further proof that being near Julia put him in a tailspin.
“Wanted to make sure you found the place and give you a status.” Holt nodded to Julia as he talked.
“On what?” she asked.
Holt’s mouth opened and closed again. Clearly the guy wasn’t sure how to relay the information without debriefing Julia in the process.
Cam almost laughed at that, since this was the woman who had heard evidence against him and still sided with him. She didn’t exactly cough up details in order to protect her own butt. She could be trusted, and he never thought that about anyone.
He could even admit it. “You can talk in front of her.”
“Whoa.” Holt made a face. “Really?”
Cam knew the reaction was about Cam’s own issues, but Julia took exception. “Do you want a reference?”
“I wasn’t... Never mind.” Holt checked his watch. “The guy is following Shane.”
“What are we talking about?” Julia sat down hard on the edge of the table. The confusion on her face came through in her voice.
“There’s been a car shadowing you and Cam,” Holt explained. “Shane managed a pretty stealthy switch and now the car is following him instead of you, but the driver doesn’t know that.”
An impressive maneuver and one Cam was grateful for. He’d picked up the tail early but didn’t let his concern show. An emergency code to Holt took care of the problem, which explained why they worked in groups. Swinging some of these switches alone would be tough.
“Is it the police?” She did not seem even a little upset about the idea of tricking the police.
“Nah, it’s a guy named Ray Miner.” Holt slipped a piece of paper out of his back pants pocket. “Connor and Joel have been working on this.”
Cam took the sheet and stared at the coded message. “Of course they are.”
“This Ray is a mercenary type. Retired military who’s had trouble in and out with drugs. He showed up on Calapan almost a year ago and now his bank accounts are flush.”
“That’s stupid.” She looked back and forth between them. “Doesn’t it make it easier to prove his guilt, if he is guilty of something?”
Holt shook his head. “They’re hidden accounts. He’s not an amateur and Joel had to dig to find them.”
And that was the part that worried Cam. Kreider had ego issues. Cam didn’t know what Ray had other than a uniform that didn’t belong to him and some skills. “Ray is our fake police chief.”
“Yeah, he clearly doesn’t like you.” Holt’s voice grew more serious as he talked. “He’s been passing your photo around town, suggesting you’re dangerous.”
Julia linked her fingers together. Within a few seconds her knuckles turned white. “You think he killed Rudy?”
“Probably but he’s not the leader type. Someone else is running this.” Before Cam could ask, Holt filled in the rest of the details. “Kreider has gone missing. He was smart enough to remove the tracker I put on his car.”
That did it.
“You’re leaving in the morning.” Cam stared at Julia but refused to debate this point. She’d stayed too long and he didn’t trust Sandy. Cam wanted her back in Seattle in a hotel. The idea of her rolling around in crisp sheets did appeal to him. “First ferry. We get you to Seattle. If that’s not safe enough, we put you on a plane to Maryland.”
“Why?”
“The home office is there. The Annapolis group can watch over you. No one will think to look for you there.” The more he thought about it, the more he liked the plan.
“One flaw.” She held up a finger. “I’ve never been there and know no one there.”
“That’s what the team is for.” Connor would watch over her. The women would take her in. Sure, he’d have to fight off all kinds of matchmaking attempts, but no one would be shooting at her, and that was worth it to Cam.
“You don’t think that would be a little odd?” She looked as if she was fighting a laugh. “You dump me on these people and then stay here?”
“This is what we do.” They rescued people and kept them safe. That was exactly what this would be.
“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”
She was missing the point, so Cam tried again. “This is not about comfort. It’s about safety.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I knew you were going to say that.”
This was not the time for this argument, but Cam was fine to have it. He took a step toward her, but Holt blocked his path. “Can I talk with you for a second?”
That sounded like a request, but it wasn’t. Cam wanted to say no, but Holt would just threaten to kick his ass, and nothing good could come out of that situation to calm Julia’s nerves.
Holt didn’t even wait for an answer. He opened the door and stepped out on a solid plank on the deck. Cam closed the door behind him and joined his friend and team leader. And waited. A lecture would hit any second now. Cam could feel it.
“I like her,” Holt said.
That was not where Cam had expected the conversation to go. But he was wary because Holt could easily be luring him in. “Okay.”
Holt had both hands on his hips. “Anything you want to tell me?”
There it was. The circle around to the private stuff. Cam pretended he didn’t get it and went right to the work angle. “We need to look into people in addition to Kreider. He has the connections, but I can’t believe others would follow him. He’s not the kind of guy who can command men for long.” Cam wrote a list in his head. “There’s this guy named Sandy—”
“No.” Holt actually made a weird sound that came out kind of like a growl. “About Julia.”
Yeah, this was The Talk. Cam braced for the rest of it. “She’s pretty tough.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Bright, smart, confident. Doesn’t scare easily.” He could go on but thought he’d said enough. Too much and Holt would shift this conversation into a place Cam didn’t want it to go.
Holt’s eyebrow lifted. “Pretty.”
He said it, but Cam was not about to disagree. “True.”
“Look, I’ve watched this whole scenario play out before. You’re not the first Corcoran Team member to lose his head over a woman.”
Cam knew all about the Annapolis office and how they got paired off one by one. Found amazing women and surrendered their bachelorhoods. He and Shane and Holt had joked about never drinking the water back at the Annapolis office because there had to be something in it that made reasonable men fall stupid in love. They’d also promised they would not fall into the same trap.
The danger and the missions didn’t really allow for a home life. Cam wasn’t quite sure why the Annapolis office didn’t see it. Not that the women weren’t great. They were. Every woman matched up well with one of the members. But the point was anything could happen. Cam didn’t see a reason to take the risk when there were plenty of women out there who were fine with a no-strings relationship.
They were confirmed bachelors and Cam wasn’t ready to let that go. “That’s not happening.”
Holt smiled. “She’s hot. Like, way hot.”
That was the kind of smile, as if he was mentally conjuring up Julia’s face, that made Cam homicidal. “Holt, get to the point. Now.”
“You know what happens next, right? You fall, hard and fast.” Holt leaned in and his voice dropped lower. “You get tied up and ripped apart.”
Cam had watched Joel suffer and squirm. He’d loved Hope and feared for her safety. The combination had him spinning in circles and miserable until he won her back.
Cam did not want a piece of that misery. “I’m not involved with Julia in that way.”
“You looked pretty involved with your hand up her shirt.”
Did that happen? Cam just remembered his palm hitting bare skin and his mind imploding. “You’re spying on me now?”
“I was going to walk up to the place sooner, but you were in midkiss. And not to question your skills, but it’s not as if you noticed me.” Holt held up a hand. “Which brings me to my point.”
Cam beat him to the punch because hearing the accusation just might lead to a punch being thrown. “I’m not going to blow the job. I have never messed up a mission or put anything before the team.”
“When it comes down to a choice between her or the assignment, you need to think about what you’re going to choose.” Holt wasn’t whispering now. His deep voice carried on the still night.
“She’s the assignment.” The words rang hollow in Cam’s ears. He couldn’t sell the argument, because not one part of him believed it.
“That’s just it, Cam. She’s not. You dragged her into this.” Holt’s shoulders fell as he blew out a breath. “You made her a target when you ran into her yard and brought her into this mess.”
The anger simmering inside Cam spilled over. He knew he was responsible. Knew and hated it, and having it thrown in his face didn’t make the situation better. “Don’t you think I know that? If I could go back and replay that and keep her safe from the beginning, I would.”
“I know.”
“But being shot at messed up my thinking.” And once he’d had her he couldn’t bring himself to store her. He wanted her by his side. He said this was to watch over her, but there were moments when he knew that wasn’t true.
“Then give some thought to how this is going to end.”
Cam got lost in the vagueness of that one. “The job or with Julia?”
“See, the fact that you’re asking that question proves my point.” Holt took off down the stairs. If he was worried about his footing, he didn’t show it. He stopped one step from the water. “And because I’m your friend and a good leader, I put a condom in the bag.”
“What?”
Holt smiled. “You’re welcome.”
The idea of being free to touch Julia... Cam couldn’t even let his mind go there. “You’re sending mixed messages here.”
“I know.” Holt didn’t bother turning around this time. He just waved a hand over his shoulder and kept walking. “I’m just waiting to see which one you’re smart enough to follow.”
The longer he stood there, the more Cam questioned the answer.