No Place to Run (KGI #2)(45)

She looked away, embarrassed by the fact that she could so easily forget what was at stake here. She cleared her throat as if that somehow would make the feeling go away.

The sky turned lavender, and only one star hung stubbornly in it, bright like a diamond against velvet. Her gaze was fixed on the star, and she was unable to look away. Stars had always fascinated her. She’d spent countless hours wishing on them as a child.

She’d learned young that wishing was an exercise in futility, and that the only useful trait was self-reliance. She’d spent years trying to make the wistful little girl inside disappear. At first she’d been bent on protecting her, and then she’d tried to ruthlessly drive her from existence.

The woman who’d shot her father and felt no remorse was a long way from the child who’d only ever wished for love and a family—a real family.

“What are you thinking about over there? You’re about to chew your bottom lip off.”

She immediately relaxed her mouth and managed a faint smile. “Nothing important. Tell me about KGI. How did you get it started and why do you do what you do? It seems an odd career choice.”

He cast a sideways look at her and shrugged. “It pays well.”

She arched an eyebrow. “That’s it? It pays well?”

“I suppose you could say it’s in the blood. My entire family is military. Never a time we weren’t. My father, his father, his father’s father. Uncles, cousins—you name it, we served.”

“But you’re not still enlisted right? I mean KGI is private.”

There was only a brief flicker in his eyes, and if she hadn’t been watching she would have missed his hands tightening just a bit on the steering wheel.

“Your father didn’t tell you about us? You said he knew what we were.”

Her lips thinned. “My father only told me what he thought I needed to know in order to get close to you. He didn’t give me your life story or anything.”

He glanced back to the road. “No, I’m not enlisted. I was an army man. Garrett and Donovan both joined the Marines. There’s also Ethan, Nathan and Joe who you haven’t met. Ethan was a Navy SEAL.”

“Was? So none of you are still in the military then?”

“Nathan and Joe are still active duty. Army.”

“And does Ethan work with you?”

Sam grimaced. “Some. Probably more in the future. He and his wife have had a rough time. His focus is her right now.”

“Oh. I mean that’s good.”

“Yeah, they need the time. They’ll be fine though. Rachel’s tough. She’s a fighter.”

Sophie looked at him curiously. A warm glint had entered his eyes when he spoke of his sister-in-law, and it made Sophie curious to know the story lurking behind those enigmatic words.

“So you formed KGI when you left the military? That seems like such a daunting undertaking. I can’t even imagine.”

Sam smiled. “Not so much. I had a lot of good contacts. I saved an upper-level CIA operative’s ass during an incident at one of the U.S. embassies. He told me if he could ever return the favor to call him. So I did. Call him. It’s through him that a lot of our jobs are done, but we take jobs in the private sector as well.”

“Like?”

She couldn’t imagine normal, everyday people needing a military operation. Her father yes, but then he was as far from normal as one could get.

“Most of our hostage recovery missions are contracted through governments and not always our own. We’ve been hired by smaller countries without the military might of a more developed nation.

“In the private sector we’ve taken jobs to recover kidnap victims and we’ve also done fugitive recovery.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean like prison escapees?”

He smiled. “No, not quite. More like criminals who haven’t been apprehended yet or are on the run before they’ve been tried for their crimes. The job is a lot of things, but predictable and boring it’s not.”

“It sounds very dangerous,” she murmured.

“It can be, but we’re good at what we do. We hire and train the best.”

She grinned cheekily. “You sound like a commercial now.”

He reached over and chucked her on the chin. “No one likes a smart-ass.”

She caught his hand and kissed the tip of one finger. His eyes went molten, and for a moment he swerved as he took his attention from the road.

“You’re a menace,” he muttered.

Her eyes widened innocently. “What?”

He shook his head and chuckled but faced the road and returned both hands to the wheel.

CHAPTER 18

“I’M in position,” P.J. said into her receiver.

Out of habit, she took a wide, slow sweep from left to right with her scope and took in any potential problem areas.

“There’s a weak area to the west of the house. Three large trees connected by a mass of honeysuckle so thick you can’t see through it. Someone could hide in there and never be seen.”

“Should I break out the chain saw?” Cole drawled.

P.J. rolled her eyes. “You probably couldn’t handle that much power.”

“I’ll show you power,” he muttered.

“Children,” Dolphin reprimanded.