Relentless

Ben stared at her with narrowed eyes. “What are you saying? Did you know him?”

“No, but he said he wanted me to give him something.”

All three of them swore that time, but Ben said it the loudest. “Sick jackass.”

Bile rushed up her throat at the thought, but she choked it back. “No, not that. Like, hand him something. Something he thought I had in my possession.”

Squinting and closing one eye, she tried to push out the visual images of the terrible things that could have happened and focus on the attacker’s words. But they wouldn’t come to her. With all the panic bouncing around in her head, she didn’t have room for much else. She wondered if she’d even remember the names of all the men she’d met tonight by this time tomorrow.

“Excuse me?” Connor asked the question in a rough tone. “Go back a second and explain.”

She rubbed her forehead and tried to ignore the three sets of eyes boring into her. “He kept asking me to give him something.”

Davis made a quick note in his small notebook. “What?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know.” She shook her head. “He never said.”

They all wore matching frowns. Except for a bit of feet shuffling, they stayed quiet. The room whirled with activity behind them. It was like riding around and around on a carousel with all the noise and sights blurring around her.

Finally Ben turned to Connor. “Our phone connection was on during most of the attack. Have Joel play back the tape and you might be able to pick up something in the background. Whatever is on there was enough to have me jumping out of the car and heading for the apartment.”

Davis nodded. “I have your car keys, by the way. You’re lucky no one stole it with the way you left it.”

“Like I care about a car right now.”

The conversation leaped to a point that had her gaze bouncing between them. “Wait, go back. What tape?”

“Office protocol. All of our calls are taped in the event of an issue like this one.” Connor made the comment as if it explained everything. As if it made sense.

The idea was like a whack to the center of her chest. She dealt with a high level of stress in her job, life and death all the time, but she never worried about being shot. At least not until she’d met Ben. “You mean this sort of thing happens to you guys a lot?”

“I wouldn’t say a lot.” He threw it out there and they all nodded.

Her head threatened to implode as she worked through all the facts. “And you tape everything. Even private calls?”

Davis frowned at her. Shot her one of those “how could you not be following?” looks men sometimes gave when they thought they were making perfect sense.

Wasn’t that annoying?

“We only listen if there’s trouble,” he said.

“Who are you guys exactly?” Her voice rose and more than one head turned to look at her, including Joel, who shot her a wide smile.

Ben answered, “The good guys.”

Again with the cryptic comments. That one explained even less than the last ones about the attacks and the tapes. Still, she was alive, and that meant she was willing to cut them some slack and ignore the more controlling parts of their personalities.

But only some. “Right now I’m inclined to agree, but maybe more information would help.”

Ben opened his mouth but Connor started talking first. “The Corcoran Team.”

These men needed some work on the concept of sharing. “And?”

“We’re a private group. We assist in kidnapping rescues and conduct threat assessments, sometimes for the government and sometimes for businesses...and others.”

She wasn’t sure he’d actually explained. If anything, she was more confused. And there were some scary words in there. “By ‘assist’ and ‘conduct’ do you mean you do those things legally?”

Davis shrugged. “Okay. Sure.”

Now, that was convincing. She almost rolled her eyes. “Do you think this was a kidnapping? Someone wanted me or some poor woman this guy thought was me?”

Connor looked over at the police milling around and nodded a hello to Detective Willoughby before turning back to her. “We don’t know yet. Maybe.”

Ben blew out a long breath. “A little tact might be a good idea.”

“No, it’s okay.” She meant to wave him off but accidentally brushed her hand against his where it lay on her shoulder. Then she kept it there, letting him fold his fingers over hers. “I’d rather have the truth.”

Connor looked from her face to her hand and back again. “We’re not sure what that is yet. I’m just happy Ben was close by to step in.”