Marcos glanced at the latest team to walk through the doors. Soaking wet. The tropical storm bearing down on them was bad.

“Well?” He prayed they’d found something.

Alex Spicer, the team lead, shook his head.

“Not a thing? Nothing?”

“No, sir.”

Marcos clenched his hands into fists.

Payment for Tommy’s next treatment was coming up, and fast. Those were not small installments, and Marcos had to have every bit of the money from this job to cover it. If they didn’t push forward, if Tommy was denied the next round, they’d have to start all over again. Marcos wasn’t sure the little boy could handle a devastating blow like that.

When he found out who those bastards were, who their employer was, who their families were—he’d make them pay.

His son’s life was on the line, and all these people had to do was part with a little money.

Marcos didn’t get it. What he wouldn’t do for a happy, healthy kid...

“God damn it!” Marcos picked up the plate Lacey had delivered his breakfast on and hurled it at the wall.

The ceramic broke apart, shattering into hundreds of little pieces.

He braced his hands on the desk.

Think.

He had to stop focusing on Tommy.

His team knew this island, the people, and they had an in with the police. Whoever this hired team was, they didn’t have that sort of local connection.

“We need resources looking for them. The storm’s blowing in early, so they won’t be able to make it off the island.” Marcos straightened. “They’re hiding somewhere, and we need to find them before they make it to the airport. Get our cop on the phone, and someone put out feelers for some local tough guys. A bunch of white-ass Americans are going to stick out. Move.”

The room emptied in record time.

Now for the part Marcos was not excited about. He’d need to put in a call to the client and explain the current turn of events, on top of putting the hostages’ family off for a few days. At least he could blame the storm.

Marcos picked up the satellite phone, a thought coming lose.

Lacey Miles.

They’d taken her, too.

And that bitch had a social media addiction. How long before he could track her that way? Before she made contact with her family?

Perhaps going soft on the girl would pay off. He wouldn’t say it, but deep down he’d felt...bad that the girl’s family didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about her. Used to be that wouldn’t have occurred to him, but becoming a dad had changed Marcos in ways that he hadn’t predicted.

Shane finally turned the truck toward the backup meeting spot, eyeing the dark clouds over heads. Their window for getting off the island was gone, and they were on to plan B.

He didn’t like plan B.

“The tropical storm must have picked up speed.” Lacey tipped her head sideways staring out the passenger window.

“You sure this isn’t a normal afternoon storm?” He could hope, couldn’t he?

“If this was the typical afternoon rain, it’d be over by now. And there wouldn’t be any lightning. Lighting storms are pretty uncommon here.”

Damn.

They continued on for a few minutes in silence.

There were fewer cars on the road. No one had appeared to follow them at any point during their escape. They’d been lucky. Real lucky. When plans changed to such a drastic degree, things rarely went so well. This time though, they’d pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

Shane knew they’d done the right thing. The minute he’d glanced up and seen Lacey’s wide eyes and worried face, he’d known she was another victim.

But the last time they’d strayed from orders, Cisco had almost gotten killed.

He blew out a breath and glanced across at his passenger.

Tendrils of hair had come loose from her ponytail and curled as they dried into tight corkscrews around her face. Freckles dotted her cheeks and nose.

It was hard to merge the image of the terrified woman he’d come face to face with on the second floor with the calm person riding with him. Even a normal civilian would be frazzled and frantic, but not her.

“How’d you get into...travel blogging?” He glanced at her. Those deep, green eyes of hers pulled him in, making parts of him stir that shouldn’t.

“That’s a long story.” She chuckled.

“How about the cliff notes?”

“Uh, well, I started college with a veterinary medicine plan in mind, but that’s expensive. I switched to focusing on reptiles, because a friend of a friend knew of some opportunities I thought sounded interesting. I got on a research team that went to Australia. Blogged the whole thing, and that kind of took off. After that, I got sponsors and started traveling on shoestring budgets.”

“And that pays well?”

“Well enough. I mean, as long as I can cover production costs and hosting for my website, I’m good. I’ve done a lot of working-my-way across a country, bussing tables, tending bars. Whatever needs to be done to get me from Point A to Point B.”

Shane glanced at her, that way of life so foreign to him he didn’t know how it was even possible.

“My sister looks at me like that.” Lacey laughed, an enchanting sound that grated on his nerves.

The sooner he was away from this woman the better. He didn’t know what to make of her. They’d saved her, but she seemed like the type who’d have figured out a way out sooner or later.

Shane turned the wheel and they proceeded off the main road, through the trees. After a little distance, they turned onto a smaller road. Set onto the hill was a peach-colored, three-story house, surrounded by a nearly fifteen foot wall.

He honked at the gate and waited for Isaac to jog out and let them in.

They parked the truck behind the house, under a thatched awning. Rain dripped down and a little river of water snaked between them and the house.

“I’ll come around and get you.” Shane stepped out and by the time he circled the front of the truck, Lacey was standing on the rough gravel. “We’ll have to get you some shoes.”

“That would be nice.”

“Welcome back,” Isaac called out. He jogged up behind them, rain slicking his hair to his skull. “Took you guys long enough.”

Isaac’s gaze stuck to Lacey.

Shane wanted to punch the guy.

“Hope you enjoyed the scenic tour, ma’am. Lacey, right?” Isaac held out his hand.

“Uh, yeah.” Lacey glanced at Shane then shook Isaac’s hand.

“Aanya and Dev have had nothing but great things to say about you. I’m Isaac.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Shane frowned. The change in Lacey’s body language was minute. Tiny. And if he hadn’t spent the better part three hours driving around the countryside with her, he might not have noticed it. But he did. And he didn’t like it.

“Kyle’s waiting for us inside. We’re trying to figure out what’s next.” Isaac glanced at Lacey. “Want a hand inside?”

“Oh, no, thank you. I’m good.” Her smile was a touch too bright, a fake.

“Come on, then.”

Isaac headed toward the rear of the house.

Lacey remained rooted to the spot, her cheeks pale.

“Something wrong?” Shane pitched his voice low.

“No. Nothing.”

Then why was her voice so tense and tight?

“All right. Let’s get you inside, then.” He nodded toward the door, ambling along next to her. Just because she wanted to make the walk across the gravel on her own didn’t mean he was going to leave an unarmed civilian alone.

“Go on without me.”

“That’s not how we do things, ma’am.”

Lacey must have stepped on a particularly cruel piece of rock. She winced and bobbled, nearly going to her knees.

Screw this. He wanted to get them all inside and under cover, out of the rain.

Shane scooped her up in his arms, her slight weight hardly worth noting.

“Put me down,” Lacey said, but there wasn’t the same amount of fight to her voice.

“I will, once we’re inside.”

She huffed and stared straight ahead.

What was it about their clients that had her reacting that way? What didn’t they know? There was more to Lacey’s situation than they knew about, and Shane didn’t like it. His first priority was his team, and then their clients. If she were a danger to either, well...he found that hard to believe, but then what?

He shouldered through the door into a screened-in patio. Out of the elements, he eased Lacey to her feet.

“Thank you.” There was no warmth or smile in her voice, but that was okay. She didn’t have to like him for him to watch out for her.

“This way.” He gestured through the door. Until he knew more about her, they needed to keep her in sight at all times.

Lacey walked ahead of him, spine ramrod straight.

He guided her to the dining room of their host house, where the rest of the team had set up a command center last night.

Kyle stood at one side of the room, the other guys were seated. Every face was grim.

The clients were noticeably absent, but then again, they weren’t made from the same stuff that Lacey was.

“Everything go okay?” Kyle asked.

“Yes, sir.” Shane nodded and sat with his back to the wall, Lacey in his field of vision.

“Good.”

Lacey wandered to the window, gazing out at the jungle.

“We just got word from our boat. The water is too choppy to make it to the dock for us to load, and flights out of Montego Bay are being canceled left and right. The storm’s picked up speed and is bearing down on us.” Kyle grimaced.

There would be no driving—or boating—to the airport and leaving as planned.

“What’s more, we just got word that Ochi Rios police are on the lookout for us.” Kyle’s frown deepened.

“They must have an inside source on the police force.” Shane leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “That’s what I’d do, if the roles were reversed.”

“That’s not comforting.” Isaac cast a glare his way.

“Last contact with the home office was to dig in and wait out the storm.” Kyle glanced around the room. “As soon as it’s cleared, we make like hell for Montego Bay and catch the first transport off the island. Zain was able to give us a few names based on what I told him, but we still don’t know who we’re dealing with.”

“Lacey has video of them,” Shane said.

“Do you?” Kyle glanced from Shane to Lacey.

She turned from the window, eyes wide.

“Video? Yes, I do,” she said.

“Can we upload it? It’d help us identify who we’re dealing with.”

“On two conditions.” Lacey pushed her shoulders back.

There she was, the ballsy little fighter. He couldn’t decide if he admired that spunk or if he wanted to lock her in a closet for her own good.

“What’s that?” Kyle asked slowly. Men like them weren’t used to negotiating.

“I want them charged—or whatever—for what they did to me. And others.” Lacey’s intense tone made the hair on Shane’s arms raise.

“And?” Kyle asked.

“I need to send a copy to my videographer. There’s still footage he can use for my vlogs—that’s not about my captivity—and I’d like him to get to work on it. Every week I’m not online decreases my income, and at this point, I’m probably making nothing.”

“If we can establish a solid connection, I believe we can do that,” Kyle said slowly.

“They were American, so this is going to be an FBI matter. They’ll pay,” Shane said.

He had every intention of seeing to it that these kinds of people were stopped. If he were to be put out of a job, so be it. He’d prefer that world.

“All right, then, Lacey, Isaac is going to get you set up with a link to get that video uploaded. Shane, I need you to get our surveillance running. The rest of you, get some rest. We’ll take watch in shifts. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” the men around the room said in unison.

“Dismissed.”

Shane didn’t move from his seat. He watched Isaac approach Lacey out of the corner of his eye, noted the stiff way she moved. The crossed arms. She was battening down her hatches, but she’d made a tactical mistake. She’d let him see her unguarded self.

The woman had secrets, and he intended to find out what they were.

It took Lacey almost two hours to get the footage off her camera and uploaded to the server for her videographer to access. The poor camera was pretty beat up, but it had survived. Like her. With any luck, Josh would see it and her email in the morning, then go to town. While much of it had been transmitted at her last Wi-Fi hook-up, he didn’t have anything from her time in Jamaica.

Those first few days where everything had gone according to plan had been magical. The people inhabiting the island were wonderful. The views were breathtaking. She’d been enjoying the idea of a two-week trek from one side to the other, hitting all the major landmarks and sights, but she’d only made it to Negril.

And that was where her life changed.

Lacey stared at her bedroom door, so ready to go to sleep without wondering if it was a bad idea or what might happen when she wasn’t ready. But she couldn’t rest. Not yet.

Shane had disappeared from the command room, as Isaac called it, not long after she’d gotten set up with the link for her camera upload.

She owed him her life. If he hadn’t come back for her or did what he did...

Yeah, the least she could do was say a proper thank you to tall, dark, and deadly.

If there was one thing Lacey believed in, it was thank you. She’d experienced kindness the world over that couldn’t be repaid, but she could at least say thanks.

She turned her back on the room that Isaac had said was hers while they were here and paced down the hall. Other, similar doors were shut, and no sound emanated from within.

Last she’d seen Shane, he’d been outside walking in the rain. The best place to get a bird’s eye view of the place was upstairs. She climbed to the third floor, the double doors leading out onto a wide, open balcony.

She knew that backside.

Shane stood at the railing, rain pelting him, not moving a muscle.

She walked toward him, passing through the double doors.

What was he doing? What did he see out there?

Lacey hung back under the roof, puzzling over this man.

Whatever Aegis Group was, she was sure as hell indebted to them, but mostly to Shane. Something about him bugged her. What, she didn’t quite know. Maybe some sleep would knock her thoughts loose, or maybe it didn’t actually matter.

Shane turned, his gaze going straight to her, their eyes locking.

She felt the chill of the rain in that look.

Lacey wrapped her arms around herself and shifted her weight from foot to foot.

Perhaps this was a bad idea...

Shane let go of the railing and walked toward her.

Even without the tactical gear he was still...dangerous. Maybe even to her, but that didn’t make sense.

Shane was... Like out of a movie. Typecast. The stoic soldier. The rule follower. The stick in the mud. Maybe that was what bothered her—he fit a mold, and she never had.

She tipped her chin up, refusing to be the first one to flinch.

He stopped a polite distance away, and yet he still seemed to take up more than his fair share of the balcony.

“Isaac get you sorted?” he asked.

“He did. I just wanted to say thank you.”

“You already did.”

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to say it again.” She forced herself to uncross her arms and shoved her hands into her pockets instead.

“Not a problem, ma’am. Just doing what we do best.” He gave her a curt nod. She could almost imagine him wearing a hat and tipping the brim at her.

“And what is it you do? I’m still not quite clear on that.”

“We negotiate the safe return of missing family members.” He said it like he was reading a line.

“Negotiate? Is that what you call tossing a flash grenade into a room? I think my ears are still ringing.” She chuckled, but he didn’t so much as crack a smile. Tough crowd.

“In hostile situations, it’s best to act first and talk later.”

“I see.” Lacey rocked back onto her heels.

Her thanks was delivered and Shane didn’t seem to want to invite further conversation. It was probably her impish nature that made her stand there and keep talking at him.

“You know, maybe when this is over I could interview you?” She’d done it a few times with people of interest. The response was always mixed. But a rescue story? People loved that. And he was easy on the eyes.

“I’d have to pass,” Shane said.

“Oh, come on. I bet my viewers would love hearing your take on what happened.”

“Putting our faces out there makes us easier to recognize and tips off our targets. Makes us less effective.”

“It could be one of those interviews where you don’t see the person’s face and their voices are distorted.”

“I’m no good on camera, ma’am.”

“You’re determined to tell me no, aren’t you?”

“Not necessarily.”

Lacey threw her head back and laughed. He wouldn’t even say yes to a question she knew to be true.

“Did they teach you this kind of question and answer technique in army school? Boot camp, sorry.”

“I wasn’t in the army, ma’am. I thought you did travel shows?”

“I do, but I also talk about the people I meet and the things they do. I try to show a real, live version of what people are going through, not just the places I’ve been.”

“And you got to doing this...by researching reptiles?” Shane’s brow wrinkled and his frown deepened.

“Yeah, actually.” Lacey chuckled. “Life is funny that way.”

“You can say that again.” He shook his head.

“What are you doing out here, besides getting a shower?”

“Setting up surveillance. Getting the lay of the land before the sun sets.” He peered out at the gray skies.

“Are we safe here?” She stared at the trees and could all too easily imagine Marcos and his goons striding down that road.

“Hey?” Shane stepped into her line of sight.

Lacey shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Where’d you go?” He was closer now, his big body shielding her from the balcony, from whatever shadows were prowling around in the darkness.

“Nowhere. I’m here.” She smiled.

“What happened? What’d he do to you?” Shane’s voice was quiet, the menacing rumble not for her. For all his cookie-cutter soldier tendencies, she knew at her core Shane was of no danger to her. He exuded protector and safe like few other people she’d met in her life. Maybe that was why she’d sought him out. She didn’t feel at ease in her own head anymore.

“Nothing.” Lacey’s throat tightened around the lie.

“Your face says otherwise. You glanced down when you said ‘nothing.’ You’re biting your lip. Your pupils—”

“Shane.”

“Should I ask the others? Will they know?”

“No, please—”

“Then what’s wrong? What did he do?”

Lacey wrapped her arms tighter around herself, tears prickling her eyes. Guilt gnawed at her, stealing away her relief at being free.

“Lacey?”

“Marcos made me help, okay?” Lacey turned her head, staring at a spot on the railing.

“Help? How?” Shane sidestepped into her line of sight.

“He just did.” Lacey turned.

Shane grabbed her hand, the heat soaking into her chilled flesh. Her fingers curled around his palm, holding tight to the man who’d come back for her. She needed someone to confess to. He might as well know what she was.

“Marcos would bring them to the villa and he said as long as I talked the hostages into doing what they were told, I’d be okay.” Her throat tightened further and she blinked back tears. Fear had made her complicit.

“Marcos, which one was he?”

“The redhead.”

“So you’d—what? What did he make you do?”

“He has this system after he kidnaps someone. He’d scare them, rattle their cage until they’re desperate to go home. Then he sent me in. I’d tell them that when they were allowed to speak to their families, if they did what they were told and paid Marcos, they would go home. And if they didn’t, they’d end up like me. I’m not proud of what I did, okay?” She swiped the back of her hand across her cheek, dashing the unwanted tears away. She hated that she’d been a party to anything Marcos did.

“Lacey?” Shane took a step closer and bent his head. “There’s nothing wrong with what you did.”

“Are you sure? Because my conscience...” She’d lain awake at night, for hours, hating herself for those moments.

“Did everyone get home safe?”

“Yes.”

“Was anyone ever hurt?”

“No.”

“Did Marcos ever...”

“No,” Lacey said sharply. There’d been a few times she’d been scared of Marco’s men, but the ginger bastard had been firm about what they did and did not do.

Shane’s grip on her hand eased.

They both seemed to take an easier breath after that.

She pushed her hair off her face and forced herself to look at Shane and not just his chest. She’d rarely seen such pert, perky man nips and if she stared at them much longer she might start having other ideas to distract herself from the guilt.

“You were a victim. Whatever Marcos did, whatever you were forced to do, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Are you sure?” She studied his dark brown eyes, wanting so badly to absolve herself of guilt.

“Yes.” There was no doubt in his voice. What would it be like to be that certain of things?

“There should have been something I could have done, shouldn’t there?”

“People like this guy? No. You stayed alive and unhurt. You did what you had to, you didn’t hurt anyone, you didn’t kill anyone. There’s no shame—or guilt—in that.”

Lacey blew out a deep breath, some of the toxic weight she’d carried dissipating, leaving her a bit lightheaded. She wasn’t sure if she believed that or not quite yet, but she wanted to. In time it might become truth.

“Do you...want a hug?” The look on Shane’s face was priceless, so uncomfortable and wooden.

Lacey laughed and wiped more tears from her cheeks. The chapter of fear was over, and she could move on. Oh, she probably needed several therapy sessions after these weeks, but she’d be okay. One way or another. She always was.

“Come here.” Shane tugged at her hand.

She leaned into him, not minding one bit that he was soaking wet and his clothing chill to the touch. Underneath all that, he was warm and strong, the man who’d come back for her.

Lacey rested her head against his shoulder, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed.

Maybe he was more than what he appeared to be.

Shane stood there, a bit stiff, but trying to comfort her.

Lacey picked her head up and looked at him. From this angle, she had a great view of that strong jaw of his, the generous five o’ clock shadow.

He dipped his chin, looking down at her with a perplexed expression. As though he didn’t quite know what to make of her. It was a look she was familiar with. People who didn’t understand her way of life looked at her like that. And that was fine. Lacey’s life was different and exciting. Few people got to see and do what she did. Part of her wanted to show him that, how it was out there, living in the moment. But that wasn’t the kind of guy Shane was. He had order practically stamped on his forehead.

They were cut from different weaves of cloth.

She lifted up, just the tiniest bit, and set her lips against his.

It was a chaste, sweet kiss, and yet he jolted at the contact.

She took a step back.

Shane stared at her, eyes wide, lips parted as though he were going to say something.

“Thanks for saving my life,” she said.

Lacey turned and strode down the hall, the skin between her shoulder blades prickling. She didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know he was still staring at her.

She knew without trying that things with a guy like Shane would never, in a million years, work out for her. But she could remember the kiss, the way his body had felt and remind herself that yes, she was alive.