His protective instincts kicked into high gear. He folded his hand over hers and slid the knife out of her palm. Not an easy task since she had a death grip on it.
Moving nice and slow, he eased the blade back into its case at her waist as he rubbed his thumb over the deep creases on her palm. “Where is this executive?”
“His name is Mark Callah.”
“Okay.” Joel didn’t dig too deep for details. Not yet. “Where is Mark?”
“I have no idea since I lost him.”
Cam grunted. “She’s giving you a pretty logical answer, actually.”
“I got up this morning and he was gone from camp.” She tugged free of Joel’s hold and rubbed her hands together. “I headed for this clearing to use the sat phone and realized some guy was following me. Then your helicopter—”
“Hold up.” For the second time, she jumped right past the most interesting part. “Go back a second.”
“To where?”
Stray branches crunched under Cam’s feet as he shifted his weight. “I’m guessing to the ‘following me’ part.”
She spent a second frowning at both of them. “Blue hoodie. The guy stalked me, then started moving faster and came up the side until we were parallel. He didn’t look up and stayed close. Your helicopter scared him off.”
“Stalked?” Joel didn’t hear much after that word.
“Yes, Joel.” She didn’t roll her eyes, but she looked like she was right on the edge of doing so.
She could sigh at him all she wanted because he was not letting this conversation drop. Not until he assessed the level of danger. “Could this person be one of the executives you have out here on the team-building retreat?”
This time her face went blank. “Wow, my dad really did fill you in on this job.”
“Let’s stick to your story for now.” One more diversion and Joel worried he’d never be able to pull the tale out of her. And he knew from experience any talk about her dad and his protective nature would not make this exercise go faster.
“Except for Mark, most of the Baxter Industries management talk tough but are terrified of being out here. One guy jumped around demanding to go home because he found a tick on his upper arm.” She snorted. “I mean, come on.”
Joel bit back a laugh. “Very manly.”
“Right. So, you understand why I can’t imagine any of them chasing me through the woods, being covert and ducking out of sight for no good reason.”
“You’re throwing out some scary words there.”
“So?”
She could shoot and run and build a camp from twigs, but that didn’t make her invincible. He wondered if she understood that. “My point is this story gets worse the more details you add.”
She glanced over her shoulder and deep into the woods behind her. “Anyway, I’d like to think if it was one of my guys, he would have helped or at least called out when I fell.”
The bad news just kept coming. Joel glanced at Cam. “And now we have a fall.”
She faced them again. “What?”
“You skipped that part before,” Cam said.
Joel guessed that was intentional. “Let’s just say your linear storytelling needs work.”
“I’ll run through all of it if you need me to—”
“I do.” Joel wanted her comment to stop right there.
She talked right over his interruption. “But since you’re here, you can come with me while I get my sat phone and then we can spread out and hunt for Mark.”
Joel caught her in the second before she took off. Never mind her tale about a stalker and the terror in her eyes only a few minutes ago. Now she was ready to head out. “I thought you lost the phone.”
“Yeah, but I know where.”
“Your definition of lost is no better than your storytelling ability.”
“We don’t have time for chitchat.” Her gaze dipped to where his fingers wrapped around her elbow, then bounced back up again. “I’m assuming you guys need to get out of here and head off to some other covert action-movie adventure, so let’s move.”
Nice try. “You’re my job this week, remember?”
“Yeah, we’re going to talk about that later.”
“Talk all you want. I’m staying.” That had been the plan before the knife and the story about the fall and every other bizarre fact she threw out, and he wasn’t changing it now.
But there was some good news here. Her feistiness clicked back into place with full force. While the verbal jabs about his job used to drive him nuts, he missed this side of her, too.
She didn’t back down. She didn’t care about his size or ability with a weapon. She understood he’d never hurt her and held her ground. Probably had something to do with having a former special ops father who made sure his precious daughter and only child could protect herself no matter what.
The attitude had gotten her in trouble more than once. Not with him, but some of the men in her father’s business, Algier Security, didn’t appreciate her refusal to be a good little girl and sit down.
Sexist idiots.
Still, she could be rough on the male ego. He glanced over at Cam to fill him in with a simple explanation. “She doesn’t approve of what we do.”
“Understood,” Cam said with a nod.
Hope wasn’t having any of it. She shot them both one of her men-can-be-clueless frowns. “That’s not true.”
Cam kept nodding, as if he’d figured out some great big secret. “Is that why you left him?”
Damn. “Let’s not go there.” This was just about the last topic Joel wanted to discuss.
Strike that. It was the last. Dead last.
“I figured it out.” Cam smiled. “She’s the ex.”
Suddenly Joel regretted that one night a month or so ago with too much beer and too much talking. Cam had wanted to know why Joel never dated and he mentioned a tough break-up. Cam clearly put it all together.
“Didn’t he tell you the story?” Hope’s eyebrow lifted. “Interesting.”
“How so?” Cam asked.
“Joel left me.”
Cam’s eyes bugged as his jaw dropped. “No way.”
“I know, right?” She shook her head. “Whatever.”
Cam whistled. “I didn’t see that news coming.”
That was enough of that. Joel cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Can we get back to the missing guy and the stalking?”
“Camp is back here.” She didn’t wait for a discussion or arguments. She headed off through the thick branches, with twigs and other debris crunching under her boots. She slowed down only long enough to glance over her shoulder and gesture for them to follow.
“Hope...and she’s gone.” Joel took a step in the same direction.
Cam slid in and blocked his path. “You dumped her?”
“Let it go.”
Cam