Chapter 2

 

Callum McKay swung his legs over the edge of his bed as he picked up the phone ringing on his nightstand. Well, he swung what was left of his legs. The parts that hadn’t been blown off when he’d been in the service. He absently rubbed his thigh as he checked the caller ID.

“It’s all gone to hell, hasn’t it?” Callum said by way of hello. “It didn’t take long. You’ve been there, what? Two hours?”

“Five,” Joe said.

Callum sighed. “Spit it out, then. It’s the middle of the bloody night over here.” Not that he’d been sleeping, but Joe didn’t need to hear about his ongoing battle with insomnia.

“We picked up a tail at the prison.” Joe’s voice was hushed, and Callum guessed he was keeping the information to himself for the time being.

“Law enforcement?” Callum tried to ignore the pain in his legs. Pain that shouldn’t have been there, because the part of his legs that ached no longer existed.

“Don’t know,” Joe said. “But I don’t think so. There were two of them. They were coordinated and knew what they were doing. Plus”—Joe lowered his voice—“I could have sworn I saw signs of respect as they walked through the streets.”

Callum cursed. Signs of respect meant locals who were too scared to look at the men. Signs of respect generally meant one thing—cartels were involved. “Have you gotten the full story out of Julia’s grandmother yet?”

“She’s still in jail, but my contact—Eduardo Sanchez—is working on it.”

“He can be trusted?”

“Yeah, he’s dual nationality and did some time in the Marines way back when. He’s good people.”

“What about the missing friend? She’s been gone, what? Three, four days now. Any sign of her?”

“You remember that?”

“Aye.” Callum sometimes wished his memory wasn’t a steel trap. He stared at his stumps. There were things he would kill to forget.

“There’s been no word. We checked in with the police here, and they said they’ve got officers hunting for her, but…”

“But the system is disorganised and corrupt. You don’t know who’s really looking for her and who really wants her.”

“Yeah. If she left on her own, she could be anywhere. If someone has her, there’s been no word, no call for ransom. I haven’t said it aloud, but there’s a good chance the woman is dead.”

“You think someone killed her over this damn mummy?” Callum asked.

“I don’t know what to think. All I know is we have a missing woman, another in jail and guys with guns on our tail. Can you get Elle to do some hacking magic and dig up everything she can find about Alice Bridges, Patricia Matthews and this damn mummy?”

“Aye, I can do that.”

Callum reached for his prosthetic legs. Although there was a ramp that led straight into the office from the old carriage house at the back of the Benson Security building, Callum didn’t like to use his wheelchair. If he was going to manage the London office, he was damn well going to do it standing—even if it wasn’t on his own two feet.

“Thanks.” He heard Joe’s relief. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m getting a real bad feeling about it. Whatever it is, it’s a helluva lot worse than Julia’s gran let on.”

“Another bloody family crisis. This is what I’m dealing with now. I never had to deal with this crap in the special forces.” Callum put the call on speaker and started to pull the compression sock over his left leg stump. “I should have known when Julia used those doe eyes on me and asked for time off to bail her poor wee gran out of a foreign jail that this would end up being far from simple. We haven’t even opened the doors of this bloody office and already we’re on our second renovation because of family issues.”

Okay, so they’d agreed to help Dimitri find his sister before they even took over the London office and, technically, it wasn’t Dimitri’s fault that someone had bombed the place, but still. Callum had only just bought into the company, the London office hadn’t even taken on its first paying client and already they were up to their necks in yet more of his team’s family drama.

“You about done whining?” The American bastard sounded amused.

“Am I entertaining you, Joe?” Callum strapped on his prosthetic leg.

“Not at all, boss. Not at all.”

“Bastard,” Callum muttered. “While I remember, get Julia to call her parents. Her mother has been ringing all bloody day because she can’t get her daughter on the phone, and I don’t know what to tell her. All Julia said before she ran out of here was that her mother was to be kept in the dark. It’s like being back in high school. I do not have time for this crap.”

“I’ll pass on the message,” Joe drawled. “Now, if you’re done ranting, can we focus on the problem in Peru? I exhausted my reliable contacts pulling a lawyer. I don’t know anyone here I trust enough to do some digging for me or to watch our backs. You got anyone you can recommend?”

Callum ran a hand down his face. Man, but he felt every second of his forty-two years. “I’ll see who I can dig up and call you back.”

“Appreciated,” Joe said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Callum cut the call dead and yanked his jeans up over his half-plastic legs.

Two minutes later, he’d pulled a t-shirt over his head and was striding towards his office. It was time to call his business partners and tell them they’d somehow managed to find trouble all over again.

 

 

Joe had insisted on a suite, when Julia would have rather they had separate rooms—far away from each other, on opposite sides of the hotel. The suite was decorated in a style Julia had come to think of as lush, modern chic. Lots of overfilled soft furnishings and patterned fabrics, in rich colours, interspersed with white. At least she was grateful that the suite had two bedrooms and that they were in a hotel she was familiar with. She’d stayed in the InterContinental many times with her family. That didn’t stop her calling down to management while Joe was making his own calls. She grilled the poor duty manager on the temperature of her dishwashing water and frying oil, as well as on their hygiene standards concerning food preparation. To her credit, the woman was very patient with Julia’s weird interrogation, and now she knew she could safely order off the menu in any of the hotel’s four restaurants.

Which she would do right after she unpacked. But wait, she couldn’t unpack because her bags were in a completely different hotel. Julia eyed the bedroom where Joe had dumped his own bag and was currently pacing while he mumbled into his phone. Maybe she could sneak out while he was talking. She could head back to her original hotel, unpack her bags, barricade the door and spend a peaceful night alone.

As though reading her mind, Joe turned and stared at her while he spoke. He said something into the phone before holding it away from his ear and pointing at her.

“Don’t even think about going anywhere. It isn’t safe, and I will just hunt you down anyway.”

Julia gaped at the man while he continued his conversation with the local police. How did he do that? How did he read her mind? It was seriously disconcerting. Instead of bolting for the door, like any sane woman would do, Julia walked to the large window and looked out at the city.

The suite Joe had insisted on, was on one of the higher floors in the hotel, with views out over Miraflores and the cliffs, to the Pacific Ocean. Not that she’d seen any of these things, except on her iPad when she’d googled the area. Joe had told her that Miraflores was an affluent area popular with tourists. Google told her the name translated into “look at the flowers,” which she thought was pretty. She was also hopeful it meant the suburb had less sand and more greenery.

“Callum says you need to call your mother.”

Joe’s voice startled Julia, making her jerk forward and bump her forehead against the glass.

“Come here.” His hand held her shoulder and turned her to him. He scrutinised her forehead, gently tracing a finger over the area she’d hit.

“It’s nothing,” Julia whispered, aware of how close he was standing.

His sinfully sensual lips quirked up at the corners. “Want me to kiss it better?”

Danger! Danger! Overload, overload, system malfunction!

Joe Barone had a tendency to eat up all the space around him, making her feel like she couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t just the fact he towered over her, or that his shoulders were impossibly wide—it was his intensity. Something she doubted most people noticed because he hid it behind easy charm and a quick smile. But she saw it. Probably because she’d spent so much time over the past year studying the man—covertly, of course. Joe Barone was a coiled tiger. He was dangerous, smart and relentless in everything he pursued.

Which terrified her, because Julia knew he was pursuing her.

“What did you say?” she whispered, aware of just how close he was standing.

“I said”—he ran his thumb over her forehead—“do you want me to kiss it better?

Julia jerked back, away from his touch.

“Maybe later, then.” He took a half step back from her, giving her some much-needed space to breathe. “Callum said your mom has been calling every hour. You’d better deal with it or he might send someone over there to sort out the problem for him.”

Great. Exactly what she needed. A conversation with her mother. Not that she didn’t usually love talking to her mum. It was just that her mum could see through Julia in ways no other person could, and she would know as soon as Julia opened her mouth, that something was wrong. Talking to her mother was a minefield. Maybe she could just send her a text? Or an email? She could do an email. Maybe.

“You hungry?” Joe interrupted the discussion she was having with herself.

“I think so.” A nervous stomach meant she didn’t always feel hunger when she should, but she was aware she hadn’t eaten much on the plane. Airline food was notorious for being badly cooked, and she couldn’t risk getting food poisoning, so she’d stuck to nuts and crackers for the duration of the flight.

“I’ll order something from room service. Did you check out the kitchens already?”

Julia’s eyes sprang up to his. She studied him for a moment, but he didn’t seem to be making fun of her.

“Yes, I did,” she said cautiously.

He nodded. “Good, then call your mom while I order.”

For a moment, Julia couldn’t believe he’d taken her foible in his stride. It was something she’d have to think about. Later. Joe turned away from her, and for some reason, him leaving her space didn’t make her feel better.

“I think it would be best if I send her a vague, but upbeat, email instead.”

“Babe, she’s your mom. You know how to deal with her. But if I did that to mine, she’d hunt me down until she got the real story.”

So would Julia’s mum. On second thought, maybe she’d send a text instead.

Joe reached for the room phone. “What do you want?”

“Fries and bananas.”

Joe looked at her. “Fries and bananas?”

“Yes. The bananas come with their own packaging and fries are deep fried, which will kill any bacteria.”

“Babe, please tell me you don’t plan to spend this whole trip eating fries and bananas.”

“No.” Unless she couldn’t find anything else she thought was safe enough to eat. In which case, the answer would be a most definite yes. Anyway, if she added nuts—in their shells, of course—then she’d have a balanced diet. Almost. “Can you see if they have any nuts? In shells?”

Joe shook his head and ordered the food. While he was doing that, the porter arrived with her luggage from her previous hotel. Julia had to go through it to make sure nothing had been tampered with, which made her irritated with Joe for adding to her stress and messing up her perfectly organised plan.

She had her bag open on her bed—thankfully, the lock hadn’t been tampered with—when Joe sauntered into the room.

“Want to play cards?” He leaned against the doorjamb, his arms folded and his ankles crossed.

Cards? “I thought I’d eat and then get some sleep.” She also thought she’d spend as little time as possible with the man who made every hair on her body stand up—as though reaching for him.

“Not a good idea. It’s too early. If you go to sleep now, your body clock won’t adapt properly and you’ll have jetlag longer.”

“Is that true?” She wouldn’t put it past the charming monster to use pseudo-facts just to get her to do what he wanted.

“Babe, would I lie to you?” His smile was pure devilment.

“Yes.”

He placed a hand over his heart. “Come play cards with me while we eat.”

His faux-innocent look was setting off all kinds of alarm bells. This was another reason she stayed away from Joe. She was woefully out of her depth with the man.

“What kind of cards, exactly?”

“Why, Julia, do you think I would try to get you to play strip poker? Shame on you.”

He was grinning now. Playing with her. Teasing. All things Julia didn’t know how to deal with. Her face burned and she didn’t know what to say. Even if she did, it would invariably be the wrong thing anyway.

She concentrated on her luggage instead, even though she was finished checking it. A couple of seconds passed before she felt Joe come up behind her. When his hands softly cupped her shoulders, she froze in place. Now, she not only didn’t know what to say, she also didn’t know what to do.

“I’m teasing,” he said softly. “You’re safe with me. You can’t say or do anything wrong.”

Her body was so tense and tight that she was sure she’d snap in two if she tried to bend.

“Come play cards, Julia. It will take your mind off things. I can promise there will be no stripping.” He kissed her temple before retreating.

Julia started to breathe again as he walked away. That was, until she heard him say one word— “Yet.”