Hope had grown up in a loving home with a father who doted on her. Not every day was easy, of course. She’d lost her mother to cancer when she was a young girl, but Hope never worried about having food or running a drill about how to escape the police. She loved her dad. Joel had seen the bond. It bordered on overprotective, but it beat strong.
“I assure you that if Dad had known I would use my abilities to work for any government agency or a team that helps governments, he likely would have shot me on the spot.” That was the threat—disappoint me and you’re dead.
Hope froze. “Why do I think you’re not kidding?”
“If only.” She’d moved in closer, which put her head back in the line of fire, so he shifted her to the side again. “You need to stand away from the window.”
She looked at him and then to that spot outside that seemed to capture her attention. Through the driving rain and storm that had whipped up right when it looked as if it would taper off, she’d focused in on that area.
“What is it?” he asked.
“You know about trajectories, right?”
If this had anything to do with his dad, Joel lost the track on how. “Sure.”
“One of the ways I perfected my aim in archery was to track the trajectory of my arrow. First I played with my stance and did all this math to figure out the proper draw length, and then I got this fancy computer program. Point is, I figured out I was starting out too high and then the drop off...” She smiled. “You should see your face.”
“You have to admit this is an odd conversation in light of being trapped in a cabin and all.” He put his body in front of her and brought up the binoculars to scan the area.
“True, but the bottom line is Lance’s entry wound is higher than the exit.” She drew a diagram in the condensation on the window. “I felt Lance get shot. We were on the ground and the bullet came from above, so the angle isn’t a surprise, but it’s off.”
Something had clicked together in her mind. He could see the light go on and hear the growing excitement in her voice. The energy bouncing off her was contagious.
But he still wasn’t sure about her point. “That leads you to believe what?”
“I think the shots came not just from someone standing above Lance but from someone in the trees. The trajectory is that steep.”
The comment hung there. Even Cam looked up from finishing off Lance’s arm. Jeff was the only one who’d missed the discussion. He was too busy trading places with Charlie as he came out of the bathroom in a set of clean clothes that looked exactly like the dirty ones he had just shed.
Hope’s intelligence focused all the pieces. As usual, she found a way through the confusion and came up with a reasonable explanation. She was smart and sharp and didn’t hide it.
He loved that about her. Of course, he loved pretty much everything about her.
Still, he wanted to make sure they were on the same page. “So you’re saying this guy is sitting up in a branch shooting?”
“I think it’s a good possibility the shots came from there, but that doesn’t answer every question.”
“Okay.”
“If I’m right about the position, the shooter should have been able to pick us off one by one because we were all truly vulnerable.” She stabbed her finger against points in the diagram on the glass. “That leaves us with a bigger problem.”
That’s what they needed. More problems. “Which is?”
“Neither Perry nor Mark is the athletic scaling-trees type.”
Joel hadn’t met either man, but he totally trusted her view on this. He could climb and she could probably do it faster than he could, and that was saying something. That didn’t mean two businessmen who spent most of their time sitting behind desks had a chance at getting up there. There was a slight possibility that one of them, or one of the men in the cabin, pretended to be clueless and really had sniper tree-climbing skills, but Joel doubted it.
“We’re talking some random guy out here shooting for fun.” Joel glanced at Cam. His grim expression mirrored Joel’s thoughts—that was the absolute worst case scenario. A pure risk and someone they couldn’t get a handle on.
Lance made a strangled sound but didn’t say anything.
“Unfortunately, the theory leads to more questions. I mean, how would the random guy get down without you or Cam seeing him?” She pointed to the open space outside as she asked.
Joel had that exact question. There were possible explanations, but none of them proved all that convincing. Cam and Joel were trained. They were on high alert. Even as worrying about Hope getting hurt occupied part of Joel’s mind, Cam stayed fully focused.