Lawless

Still, that didn’t mean none of them had done it. Someone had and the nerves jumping around inside her wouldn’t quiet down until she had answers, the right number of campers and her phone.

“And where were you this morning?” Joel asked the man in front of him.

Charlie didn’t move. “Checking on the food situation.”

From the question Hope guessed Joel wasn’t as willing to believe as easily as she was. Then again, he’d just met the group, and they were down two members.

“Let’s try it this way.” Joel shifted his weight. Not a big move. Barely perceptible but something about it made him appear taller and less willing to play games. “When did you last see Mark?”

Charlie’s gaze bounced from Joel to Cam and back again. “What’s with the weapons? Are you police?”

The look on Joel’s face, the way the corner of his mouth inched up, came close to a smile. “Pretend I am.”

Charlie didn’t share his amusement. “I don’t think I will.”

Much more of this and they’d never get to an answer. As it was, Lance and Jeff stared, watching the verbal volleys with their mouths hanging more open with each sentence.

Hope decided to act like what she was—in charge. “Charlie, help me out here. Mark wandered off and now I don’t know where Perry is.”

“I’m pretty sure Perry is in taking a second run at the chow line.”

This time the relief walloped the air right out of her lungs. “So, you’ve seen him this morning?”

Charlie nodded. “About fifteen minutes ago.”

“That’s a relief,” Lance said.

She saw Joel opening his mouth to say something and jumped in first. “But it doesn’t explain the Mark issue.”

Charlie waved her off. Even threw in a “bah” right before he started talking. “He’s just blowing off steam.”

The men kept saying it, but the explanation wasn’t good enough. “I can’t find him and I need him to check in before we do one more thing.”

Jeff swiped his thermos off the ground. “We need to go out looking for him.”

“How exactly?” Joel asked.

The question caused Jeff to go still. “What?”

Hope knew where this was going. She felt the conversation rolling downhill and couldn’t grab a two-second break to throw her body in front of it.

She couldn’t speak for Cam’s expertise, but she guessed it was off the charts. But Joel knew everything about surviving outdoors. He was the one person in the group better at outdoor activities than she was, and that was saying something.

He thrived in this environment. His father had groomed his kids to fight and shoot, readying them for the domestic civil war he insisted was coming.

Lost in paranoia and reeling from the unexpected loss of his wife, Joel’s dad believed the government had lost its way and only small pockets of freedom-loving people would save the world. He went about it by toughening up his kids, making them sleep outside and denying them an education until the state stepped in.

The upbringing was sick and wrong and it shaped Joel in ways she still hadn’t explored. He liked to joke and act as if certain things didn’t bother him, but she knew. But there were times when his gaze would wander and those dark eyes would glaze. He’d go to whatever place he built in his mind to find normalcy. And he wouldn’t let her in.

“Do you know anything about wilderness survival?” His voice stayed deceptively soft as he aimed the question at Jeff.

The other man held eye contact for a few seconds, then broke it. “We studied up before we came out here.”

“Oh, good.” Joel stared at Cam. “They studied.”

She got the point, but the conversation promised to run them right into a brick wall. “Joel, that’s enough.”

Not that he heard her. He continued to stare at Jeff.

She knew the hard truth. None of the testosterone-jousting did anything to help them locate Mark.

“Which cabin belongs to this guy?” Cam asked.

“That one.” She pointed to the building directly next to where hers sat in the middle of the makeshift line. Because she appreciated the assist, she followed Cam’s lead. “Charlie, can you take the guys and put together some provisions? If we’re going to spread out and search for Mark—”

Joel frowned. “Are we?”

“—they need to be ready.”

Charlie started shaking his head before she finished the sentence. “I’m not convinced this is necessary. He’s probably sulking. Struck me as the type.”

“He’s the vice president of finance,” Jeff said, as if that explained everything.

When Joel finally performed that eye roll it looked like he’d been dying to do since Jeff stood up, it was obvious he wasn’t convinced. “So?”

But she had a plan and it depended on everyone agreeing and moving on. “Charlie, if you could, maybe, keep everyone together, that would be a great help.”

He stared at her, not saying a thing. A gust of wind shook the leaves and the sun beat down on the campground, but the silence stretched out. Finally, Charlie began a slow nod. It picked up in speed as it went and seemed to last for a long time. “Ah, got it.”

She blew out the breath she’d been holding. It scratched her throat as it rushed out. “Thanks.”

“Gentlemen?” Charlie motioned for the managers to follow him. “Let’s go find Perry and get packed.”

Joel didn’t speak until the place cleared out and the voices faded as everyone slipped through the path between the cabins and headed for the kitchen cabin and open seating area about thirty feet away before he faced her. “What’s with the search party talk?”

“Some of this crew think they are mountain men. I was worried they’d run off with butter knives and try to slay bears or something equally stupid.” She’d dealt with the type for a long time and developed some skills, the top one being not to let them rally and slide into attack mode.

Cam nodded. “You wanted Charlie to keep them occupied while we searched.”

She looked at Joel, waited for him to say something. She expected a lecture on knowing the parameters of her job and leaving the investigation to him, the professional.

Instead a smile broke across his lips. “Your dad would be proud of your covert abilities.”

The compliment rushed right to her head, making her as dizzy as drinking the finest wine. “You don’t grow up with a former special ops guy and not learn a few things.”

That smile only widened. “Apparently.”

“Besides, Charlie gets it. He knows the kind of people who come out here,” she said, hoping to focus on all she had to do and drag her mind away from Joel. “He can help.”

Cam chuckled. “If Joel doesn’t tick him off.”

Very true. “Well, there’s that.”

They walked to Mark’s cabin. The men’s footsteps matched and she had to push her gait to keep up. They had long legs and moved quickly and quietly. She had a case of nerves that shook her hard enough to knock her over. She wanted to believe there was a reasonable explanation, but as the minutes passed her faith waned.

She used her master key to open the lock. All three of them stepped inside and stopped. Their shoulders touched and they still took up most of the open space.

They kept silent as their gazes scanned from wall to wall. The room consisted of two double beds and a small sitting area. With only a few suitcases, a coffeepot on a hot plate and rows of clothes on hangers inside the open closet, the visual inventory didn’t take long. There was one door, which went to a bathroom only slightly larger than a closet because the shower was outside the cabin in every building but hers.

Joel’s shoes scraped against the wood floor as he stepped farther inside. “There’s not much here.”

She had to take the blame for that one. “I found I have to really limit what they can bring along or some folks come out here with laptops and three suitcases and think someone else will drag it along.”

“Very practical.” Joel rummaged through a duffel bag on the floor and peeked under the cushions on the loveseat.

Metal screeched as she slid the hangers on the old rod. She spotted a few shirts and extra sneakers on the floor. There wasn’t as much as a chest of drawers in the place.

“Blood.” Cam didn’t add anything else. One word and so deathly serious.

She spun around to find Cam standing by the bed closest to the door. “What?”

Joel got there first, but she was right behind. They all crowded around the bed, staring and unmoving. No one touched anything.

She tried not to state the obvious, but she didn’t see anything except crumpled white sheets and a stack of pillows with a clear head indent in them. “What am I looking at?”

Cam nodded in the direction of the bottom of the bed. “The underside of the cover.”

Before she could reach over, Joel put out an arm and held her back. Two steps put him at the small table on the other side of the room. He was back in a flash with a pen in his hand.

With the tip, he lifted off the cover and flipped it back. Dark streaks ran about a foot along the underside. Splotches stained the navy blue blanket underneath. The dark shade hid the color. But she knew.

The dizziness hit her full force and the room spun. She would have grabbed for Joel but he’d crouched down to study the bed close up.

“It’s not a lot,” she said, looking for any positive spin on this horrible find.

“Well, it’s more than a few drops,” Joel said. “Almost like the spill of a glass of something.”

“Are you sure it’s blood?” She wanted them to say no, but she knew they wouldn’t.

Joel stood back up. “Not without tests, but I think we should assume it is until we see Mark walking around here.”

“Maybe he cut himself and didn’t tell me?” She was willing to believe anything at this point, so long as the man was healthy and fine.

“What about this gun?” Joel asked.

The question shot out of nowhere and slammed into her with the force of a body blow. They could add the weapon to the list of things suddenly gone missing.

Dread washed over her and she would have sat down hard on the floor, but Joel reached over and settled a hand on her elbow. Technically, he wasn’t holding her up, but inside she felt as if he were holding her together.

She tried to explain over the knot of anxiety wedged in her throat. “Unbeknownst to me, he brought it along. He waved it around at dinner, acting like a big shot.”

“Guy sounds like a jerk,” Cam said.

She felt obligated to defend him on some level. “He was showing off, but my rules are clear. No weapons.”

Joel shrugged. “I’m armed.”

“So am I,” Cam agreed.

They acted as if they were the only ones concerned with safety. “Yeah, well, that makes three of us.”

Cam smiled. “Really?”

“We all know the most dangerous person in a situation like this is the nervous novice with the gun.” Joel nodded and she took that as approval and kept going. “I can’t have people out here with weapons, or sooner or later one of them will shoot off a hand by accident.”

He looked around the room. Even opened the bathroom door. “So where is it?”

“What?”

“The gun.”

“I have it.” She remembered the fight and what she did. “It’s in a small lockbox in my cabin.” But somehow deep down, she knew it was gone.

Joel stopped in the middle of the room and fixed her with a serious glare. “A hundred bucks says it’s missing.”

Just went to show how alike they were. She knew, he knew. Heck, maybe even Cam knew.

Still, she had to ask. “Why would you say that?”

Joel didn’t hesitate. “Experience.”

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