Annica showed the latest message to Cole. He repeated it in a quiet mumble, followed by a “Hmm.”

“We’re definitely taking cover,” Annica whispered.

Cole pushed the phone back toward her. “Go ahead,” he said.

“Go ahead what?”

“Get back to him. Tell him where we are.”

She started typing. “And I guess I should ask him what the hell he meant by take cover.”

A moment later, her phone lit up with updates about “security” tracking down someone who’d been lurking around the beach house.

“Security?” Annica said to Cole.

“You know Jackson,” he said. “I’ve only known him for a few hours, but I can tell he’s thorough enough to have a security team working the perimeter. Unless it’s normal to have a party in the middle of a major mission.”

“So, we were like the bait?”

The sound of a car door closing bounced of the rock face across the street, followed by the sound of an accelerating engine. Whoever it was, “security” or their lurker was now leaving at a high rate of speed.

“Let’s stay here,” Cole said.

“Hiding here in these plants?” Whether the bugs were just in her head or up her pants, a creeping sensation made Annica spring to her feet. She wanted to move away, back to the road maybe. Somewhere clear and open.

Or the beach . . .

“Where are you going?” Cole said.

“I don’t know.” She looked up toward the road again.

“Don’t go up there.”

“He drove off.”

“Even if he or she did, we’ll have to wait before using the bike again.”

“Because it’s too loud?” But in the silence of Cole’s response, she knew the answer. She looked at her phone again and said, “So what should we do then? Call Jackson?”

When he finally answered his phone, Jackson sounded out of breath. He also sounded more scared than she’d felt while waiting for the car to leave. She explained where she’d run off to, but it barely took the sharpened edge off his tone.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your security?” she asked.

“Tell you? I thought you would have assumed.”

“I try not to do that. It gets in the way of work.”

“What work? Journalism?”

“Is Ethan still there?”

“Everyone’s still here,” Jackson said. “I wish you would’ve stayed, too. What the hell are you guys doing?”

“Nothing,” Annica said, suddenly wanting to switch the call off the speaker setting. She had been watching Cole’s face in the dark, how he tried looking away and disinterested when Jackson went into his familiar protector routine. “We just wanted to get away for awhile.”

“Get away where?”

“I had more questions for him.”

“Yeah, okay. We’ll go with that.” Jackson said. “But now we’ve got a real problem.”

She huffed, resisting clenching her jaw. He was only looking out for her, in his own way. She knew that, but it still bugged her. She was a grown woman. “So you expect me to stay under your wing this whole time?”

“What? Under my what?”

Cole was looking straight at her now. His face had softened, his hands held with palms facing her, motioning down. Slow down.

“Okay,” Jackson said, coming back to the conversation after sharing a few murmurs with someone at the house. “We need you guys to hang tight for a minute. Do what you gotta do. Talk, interview, whatever.” She caught Cole’s smile. “Just stay off the roads until we can finish our sweep,” Jackson said, then hung up.

“Looks like I rubbed off on you a little bit,” Cole said, grinning.

“How so?”

“Challenging authority.”

“No,” she said. “Jackson isn’t authority.”

“You sure?”

She rolled her eyes, slipping the phone back into her pocket. “Okay. Should we go for a walk?”

“Great idea,” Cole said. “I found a path we can try. Looks like it leads down to the beach.”

“Oh. The beach, huh?”

“Or we could stay here in the jungle,” Cole said. “Get eaten alive by bugs.”

She looked him over, how he kept watching the road, scanning back and forth and then back to her. Through all of his usual outward bravado, even Cole was a little worried now. Or at least . . . concerned. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go to the beach.”

They walked single file down through the thick brush, the soft clay giving way slightly beneath her feet. At every turn of the path, she was met by a whole new bouquet of flora perfumes. Jasmine. Then hibiscus. Everything teeming and alive here. It felt so vibrant, even at night. She could sense its energy as she walked through the close darkness of the jungle, the heat of the day still trapped in plant cells. She had heat trapped in her bones, too, and desires, wants on the cellular level that only Cole could satisfy.

It was fitting that they were on their way back to the beach. Where the interviewing had all started. And where they could continue it in peace. Maybe even finish it. She was definitely feeling motivated enough. Industrious enough. Hot enough, despite their latest wave of danger.

When she slowed up at a particularly steep portion of the trail, Annica felt his warmth cover her. His hands on her shoulders.

“You got this?” he said. “Can you see?”

The moonlight filtered through the canopy and shone in shards of pale blue against the clay path. Some of the rocks were shiny, perhaps from ocean mist. The slope was steep, but she had Cole to guide her.

“Don’t slip,” he said, laughing, perhaps for her nerves. She, at least, felt the need for such an outlet. Something to take up some of that energy. She moved slowly, avoided the rocks, her feet sucking into the clay, his hands by her shoulders.

“Or I could just pick you up again,” Cole said.

She suppressed a shiver at the thought of being pressed firmly against his chest again. “No, I got it.” She walked slowly but steadily, her weight leaned back. And then her weight was completely swept off her feet, her body spinning in the air over Cole’s shoulder. His laughter vibrated through it. Annica tried struggling free, but she was upside down, hair hanging, hands stretching down his back, feeling him work his way down the path under her.

“This is ridiculous,” she said, staring at his ass. She stopped struggling. “Okay,” she said, “I guess you can just carry me all the way down.”

“That’s the idea,” he said.

Did he have some sort of obsession with carrying her?

“Cole?”

“Yeah?”

“Never mind,” she said, resting her head against his back. She couldn’t see where they were headed, but could feel his pace slowing. The moonlight had gotten stronger. The breeze, too, was more open and flowing. On the ground, clay had been replaced with sand. He took a few more steps, the ground going from dark to light.

“Ready?” he said before swinging her back around, over his shoulder, and dropping her gently on her feet in the sand. She was facing away from the beach, looking up at him. “This whole thing,” she said, “seems to be going right along with your plan. Isn’t it?”

“What plan? Surviving?”

“Finding another way onto this beach with me.”

“I guess that’s part of it, too,” he said. “That’s part of my survival.”

“You sure about that?” Annica moved in closer to him. “I feel like I’ll decrease your chances.” She slipped a hand in his and then pulled away, pulling him with her as she walked along the edge of the forest, careful not to get too close to the ocean. Careful not to be in the open and visible. Careful of another rogue wave. “In case someone’s watching down the beach,” Annica said.

“What do you mean?”

“Staying close like this, to the cover.”

“Oh,” Cole said, “for cover.” His voice stayed quiet and mysterious, as if he hadn’t thought about it.

“If there’s someone looking for us, they could be looking down the length of the beach.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Got it.”

“Do you think we screwed up?”

“Why?” he said, his face suddenly lighting up with a smile. And then a chuckle. “No. You mean by coming out here?”

“My judgment is definitely a little off.”

“Mine, too,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t at all, so far.”

“This could be perfect,” he said.

Perfect. What was he talking about? Although, as they walked along curving edge of the jungle, she had the vague idea of perfection lurking behind one of these shady areas, some place where they could find it together. Where they could make it, inside themselves.

“Here,” Cole said, pointing to a dark shape of rocks. “Why don’t we sit on those rocks.”

“Those are lava rocks, Cole.”

“Oh,” he said. “You believe in the curse? I don’t think it applies if you sit on them.”

She grinned. “Unless you want me to sit in your lap the whole time?”

“We could do that.” He pulled her in close again, their sides touching. “Why don’t we do that here on the sand so I can be comfortable, too?”

She considered it, but a sound up above, along the road, drew her attention away. “What was that?” It came and went, perhaps the washing drone of a car speeding by. “I wonder if that was Jackson, or the first car coming back.”

Cole was pushing her closer to the clearing, near the rocks. He sat, pulling her down, laughing. “Just stay here and shut up.”

“Excuse me?” she said. But he didn’t answer back. She sat and actually shut up, and to her surprise it felt good, whether or not he’d insisted on it. And no matter how he’d insisted. She sat and closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the silence—save for the ocean wash. After a little while, she could hear the distant rumble of a jet high above, faintly. It was coming from the big island of Hawaii. Or just passing through to one of the continents on either side of this huge expanse of ocean. She felt small thinking about it.

She tried calling Jackson again, but there was no answer. She checked back with Cole, who’d been lying back in the sand, hands folded over his chest. Hands gently moving up and down with each breath. “How far back do you think it is?”

“The house?”

“Yeah, we could walk to it. We could just walk down the beach all the way.”

“Maybe a mile,” he said.

“What do you think?”

“What do I think about a mile?”

“Yes.”

“I think it’s a long way to walk in sand.”

Annica had never thought of that. She’d never had to walk very far in sand, and certainly not in any of these conditions. Sand to her usually meant something much different.

Cole had lifted his back off the sand, sitting up to look at her.

“So what do you think?” she said again.

“Let’s say I planned the whole thing,” he said. “All this, leaving the house and coming down here like this, getting stuck.”

She watched him carefully—the way his eyes moved back and forth, scanning the beach. A faint glimmer in each from the moon.

“Let’s just say I just wanted to get you alone again,” he said.

“Cole?”

“Yes?”

“Who are you?”

“Oh,” he said with a sigh. “I’m just some idiot security guard.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“What part of that is inaccurate?’

“You know,” Annica said.

“Okay,” he said. “Who are you?”

“A reporter.”

“Not an idiot,” he said.

“And neither are you.”

“Okay,” Cole said. “Can I ask you something else?”

“Sure. Isn’t what this is all about? Questions and answers?”

“Yes, but it’s usually you asking me the questions. Or at least it should be.”

“Go ahead.” She held her hair back out of the wind. She wanted to tie it back, but whatever was running through his mind looked too important to take her attention away. She looked at him closely. “What is it?”

He took a deep breath. “The last few days have been, well, intense. I was ready to give it all up a few days ago. But no . . .” He looked over at her, the intensity in his gaze sending a shiver through her. She snuggled up to his side. He felt warm and his body chased away the chills. He looked down at her, locking his gaze to hers. “I just wanted you to know that this is more to me than just something to pass the time the next few days. It was from the beginning, it just took me until tonight to wake up and see it.” His arm snaked around her, pulling her more firmly against his side. She relaxed there. It felt safe. “You can tell me anything, too. It goes both ways.”

“It certainly does.”

“So go ahead, the deeper the better.”

“I’ve already asked you most of it.”

“How about off topic?”

Well, there was no sense in going half way. If she was going to take the leap—she cringed at the words—then she had to know. Why. “You were really going to do it? Jump off the railing?”

Cole’s arm tightened around her, but he didn’t move from her side. “I don’t know. I haven’t stopped to think, really think, about any of it. I told myself not to, or I wouldn’t survive it. The last few years have been about nothing more than scraping up enough money to get out of there.”

“Get out of Hawaii?”

“It’s been a personal hell hole for me.”

She took a big breath of ocean air. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Most people do. But most people aren’t involved in my line of work.”

The Kahn facility. And the room with the chute. Somehow the ocean air was gone from her. The vitality of the forest, its moisture and its windblown salt replaced with the stale air of the facility. The sorting belts. The islanders, slaving under watchful eyes. Under trained guns, perhaps. She could see them now, their sad eyes above masks.

She felt an ache in her heart, thinking about just how many victims were affected by the various operations of the Kahn Brothers and the various worldwide players who used them, from the street-level drug pusher all the way to the top to “import-export” millionaires.

“We’re gonna do this, Cole. No matter what, and regardless of whatever mistakes we’ve made in the past.”

“You’re alluding to me . . .”

“Both of us.”

He was nodding. “We’re probably both going to leave here and never want to return.”

Another gust of wind blew her hair wild. The feeling was nice. She felt free. She liked Hawaii. “Well, I might come for a vacation,” she said. “But just not this island. And never to work.”

“Are you going back to Washington?” he asked.

“That’s where I work, unfortunately,” she said. “Where will you go?”

“Maybe back to San Diego. That’s where I usually live. Unfortunately.”

“I heard San Diego’s nice.”

“It is,” Cole said. “It’s just the people . . . Not even the people. I mean my people.”

“Maybe it’s time for a change.”

“Got any suggestions?”

“For people or place?”

“I’ve already got the people figured out,” he said. “Or rather, person.”

“You do, huh? What about place?”

“Hmm . . .”

Annica smiled. “Something closer to DC?”

“Closer to you?”

“Maybe, if you can handle the excitement after this.”

“I can handle it. I’m not sure if you can, though.”

“Oh?”

“It sounds like another one of your mistakes.”

She was looking over to him, still sitting next to her. Starting with his legs stretched out in the sand, and up to his body, two thick arms planted in sand. She remembered how just hours ago those were planted on either side of her. And now he seemed to be proposing it again.

“Is that what you think this is?” Annica said. “A mistake?”

“Not for me. But I’m not a reporter with a legit job and no criminal record.”

“You’re saying I’m a normie?”

“Kind of.”

“What’s wrong with being a normie?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“You just don’t think a normie should hook up with a guy like you?”

“A fuckup like me? No. Of course not. I think you should probably stay the hell away.”

“Why don’t you let the normie make up her own mind?”

“Okay,” he said, holding her hand now and pulling her closer, her butt sliding across the sand.

“Hey,” she said, not fighting back. She’d been dragged around like a piece of meat all night. And she didn’t exactly mind it.

“What? I’m helping you make up your mind.”

“You just said I should stay away.”

“I know,” Cole said, his hand wrapped around her side. It sent more shivers through her body. “Now I’m showing you why.”

She let him show her, letting her body fall into his, and into his control again. And then leaning against his arms as he laid her on the sand. Arms on either side. The dark outlines of his broad face, looking down at her. A smile in the dark.

“I want to be convinced, either way,” she said.

He started at her neck, convincing her flesh with the soft and warm suction of his lips until she groaned from it and turned her head away, turning into the sand. Her hair hardly mattered now, whether blowing in the wind or pressed into sand. She wrapped a leg around him, up the backs of his legs and behind his thigh and then over the solid hump of his rear. Holding him tight against her, his hips falling to hers. She wanted that kind of convincing, something concrete. Solid proof. She reached for it, her hand dragging through the sand down to him, feeling at the crotch of his jeans, rubbing what they’d already started up. Up, a little more now. She was partly convinced.

And now his lips at hers, his hands hard along the sides of her body, fingers pressing in, their breaths synchronized, taking in air, sucking. She felt alive like the night plants, alive and wet after the rain. After everything had washed away and left her empty for him.

Empty, and perhaps a little idiotic. She knew the absurdity of this, rolling around in the sand with the lead subject of her story. Only hours after he’d pointed a gun at her. Only hours after she landed in a trash bin. Cole didn’t seem to mind about the trash, his lips coursing across her skin. And she didn’t mind about the gun, now, as she felt the only thing she was interested in hardening against her hands. He groaned with it, the buzz passing through his lips as his mouth climbed over her chin and began sucking on her bottom lip. She moaned back into him, into their hot kiss.

There was no more space between their bodies, no room for her hand to explore, for her fingers to encourage. It was just the bulk of him, the muscled solidity of Cole’s ex-military and perhaps ex-private security body pressing against her in the sand. And a little more than that, what she’d been working on, what they’d been helping together: Cole’s erection hardening through his jeans, and through hers, rubbing stiff along her inseam. Like two high-schoolers again, dry-humping on the beach as if their lives depended on it. But most unlike high school, their lives actually did depend on lying low somewhere. In the shadow of the jungle, lying low on the sand, compact. Together, as close as possible.

As close as they were, she wanted closer. Cole, too, grinding into her now. Closer, without the hindrance of clothes or context. She worked for it, forcing her hand between them again, between their clashing hips, slipping in to make more space for her other hand, prying him off her just long enough to undo his belt. Loose now and clattering, his pants slipping off his hips, her hand diving in and his body squirming with her hungry grasp.

She had a firm hold on his cock now, through boxers, the last barrier. Until his own hand took hers and pushed it inside so she could feel him completely. Every inch. Skin. She gripped him firmly, moving her hand along his length. Cole’s head leaned back and his mouth fell open slightly as a low groan escaped. She pumped him twice more, then ran her fingers over the head. His cock jerked in her hand and then his hips, all of him moved to push his jeans off his legs, followed by his boxers. He kneeled, stripping off his shirt and then laying them both on the ground beneath him, before moving her to lie on top of them. He was bigger than she was, so big that his clothing made almost a blanket for her to lie on. Definitely more comfortable than the sand directly beneath. Speaking of how big Cole was—she looked up. His erection was long, thick, and pointed up toward his abs. Christ, the man was big fucking everywhere. She licked her lips and another slow groan escaped him. He leaned forward, kissing her again, long and deep, and then without any more words, he reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt. He cast it aside on the sand, and then his hands returned, moving across her skin, grazing her breasts. Her nipples stood to attention through her bra. That was sent the way of her shirt and Cole sat back, drinking in his fill. The shadows of the moon washed across his body, highlighting the dips and curves of his muscular form and a shiver ran through her.

“Cold?” Cole asked. “I better warm you up, then.” He moved quickly, her pants disappearing, and then his warm body lay over her, covering her from the elements. He sucked a nipple into his mouth, and it was her turn to groan. His hands never stopped moving, learning every part of her as they traced along her skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake. They weren’t from the cold. God, she’d never be cold again. Cole’s touch had ignited a fire inside her that felt like it would burn for all eternity.

His lips kissed their way up her neck, even as his hand dipped lower. “Let me make you feel good,” he whispered in her ear, eliciting a round of shivers. Her back arched involuntarily, pushing her hips up into him. His hard cock brushed against her core. She needed him inside her. Now.

“Make love to me, Cole. Right here.”

His lips and hands never left her body, but she felt the small hesitation. His head lifted up, looking her straight on even as his deliciously hard body remained pressed against hers. “Are you sure?”

He needed reassurance? That she could do. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.” She searched his gaze, wanting to give him what he needed. “What you told me before, this isn’t just a way to pass the time for me either, Cole.” She shifted beneath him and every nerve ending sparked at his body gliding against hers. “You had me before I even met you. You need to know that.”

He didn’t say another word, his lips coming down on hers and taking her mouth. Hard. Rough. Just how she wanted it. His tongue thrust inside as his hips moved against her, his cock grazing her entrance. “Please, Cole. Now.”

His mouth broke away and he stopped for just a moment, his breathing ragged. “God, Annica. I want nothing more, either, Baby.” He reached down, running a finger through her wetness, making her head fall back and her eyes close. She felt his head nudge at her pussy and she opened her legs wider. Cole’s mouth was back on hers, taking her mouth as his hips pushed forward, thrusting him deep. She gasped and his tongue slipped inside, moving with hers as he pulled out, slowly, before thrusting back inside her again, deeper. “You okay?” he grunted out. “Fuck, you feel incredible.”

His hips moved again, sliding him over the perfect spot and her pussy gripped around him. Could she possibly come that quickly? It seemed impossible, but then nothing about Cole had been ordinary. They’d been engaging in foreplay all afternoon, perhaps all month. There was nothing left to do now but feel and hang on for the ride. She reached up, gripping him behind his neck and drawing his mouth down for another kiss. “Cole?” she said.

“Hmmm?” He hummed against her mouth, turning her bones to jelly.

“Fuck me.”

Her words unleashed something inside him and he moved again, harder and faster, frantically thrusting into her and fueling the heat that had been growing inside her for hours. Every delectable movement pushed her higher, burned hotter, until his cock glided over the secret spot inside her. Her legs rose, wrapping around his hips and she pushed her body against his. “More.”

Cole grinned. “With pleasure.” He moved again, grabbing one of her legs behind the knee, holding it against him and moving it to his shoulder, shifting his cock even deeper inside her again. Her pussy rippled around him as he surged into her, her moans turning into loud cries. Cole silenced her by taking her mouth again, swallowing the sounds as ecstasy washed over her. Her body locked around his as he thrust deeply inside, his hips rocking against hers, deliberately brushing against her clit and holding himself there again and again, prolonging her orgasm. God, nothing had ever felt so amazing. He moved inside her once, twice more, before holding himself taut over her, his cock swelling and then pulsing inside her.

Finally, the world returned, and yet it felt like the earth was still moving under her. Cole had withdrawn from her body, but he still lay pressed against her, and she brushed her hand along his chest as his lips caressed hers. A noise sounded above her.

She drew her hand away.

She drew her mouth away.

Something was wrong.