He responded with a humorless laugh and a thumbs-up.
He'd been denying how much Allie still meant to him until he saw her today. But now, a new determination settled inside him. He needed to tell her—if she'd let him. "I'll do my best."
Chapter 3
Allie underestimated how nervous she'd feel.
Knox offered a friendly greeting when he met her in the lobby. But once they got in the SUV, neither of them spoke a word to each other except for a few exchanges about inputting the address into the GPS and which route they should take.
The clock on the dash display stated they'd been driving for four minutes. But the uncomfortable silence made it feel like an hour. She smoothed her hands on her thighs for the third time. Were they sweating? Or was that her imagination?
His silence unnerved her. She knew their rapport had changed. But she expected some professional conversation or small talk—anything but this strained wall between them.
Their winding uphill route drew them deeper into a jungle of endless shades of green dotted with small explosions of red, orange, yellow, and pink.
She discreetly observed him while she tried to decide whether she should start an innocuous conversation about the tropical scenery. His broad shoulders were tight. As was his grip on the steering wheel. His face, taut with intense concentration, staredstraight ahead, like the road could explain the mysteries of life to him.
They finally arrived at a small rocky overlook adjacent to some of Byron Industries's land. Knox pulled into one of only four parking spots and turned off the engine. But he didn't get out. He leaned his head against the headrest, still staring straight ahead.
The view of the island and ocean below was breathtaking. But she was certain Knox hadn't noticed. Five silent seconds passed. And that was more than she could stand. Was this some kind of cold-shoulder treatment?
If he was trying to torture her, he was doing an excellent job.
She unfastened her seatbelt and pivoted toward him. "Knox . . . " What? What did she want to say? What else did she have the courage to say? "Knox?"
He finally turned his head toward her with more kindness in his eyes than she'd expected. "We need to talk. To get some things straight." He pursed his lips and threw a glance out the windshield. "We should get this drone footage first. But before we go back, you have to listen to what I have to say." He sucked in a breath like he regretted the words. "I mean, please. Please hear me out. Okay?"
"Yes. Okay." Wow. The seriousness in his voice surprised her. But at least he wanted to talk. She could wait a few more minutes for that. "Yeah. Um, I'll get the drone ready."
She unbuckled and got out of the car. She willed her body to move straight to the back hatch and retrieve the drone, but her mind was still whirling around everything she had just seen—every inch of Knox—forehead, eyes, arms, shoulders—everything screamed tension. They'd worked together long enough to give her a good baseline of his stress levels. She could read his body language well. It was his thoughts she couldn't decipher.
Knox took the controls while she set the drone on the ground a few feet away. Moments later, it took off with a slight whirring sound and soared a hundred feet in the air.
"Okay," he said. "Go ahead and open the app on the laptop. We can download all the video in real time so we don't have to do it after we get back."
"Good idea." She opened the app and confirmed the video feed was downloading. "It looks good."
"Thanks." He glanced around. "I can handle the drone. Will you keep a lookout? I want to steer clear of any tourists. We'll relocate if we need to."
"Yeah. No problem."
She paced around the small parking area pretending to admire the view—well, she wasn't really pretending. The view was gorgeous. But she was concentrating more on the road and surrounding area. From studying the map Rowan had tracked down, she knew two hiking trails led to this overlook.
Knox was smart to have Rowan locate the paper maps. Their satellite images couldn't provide a map of the hiking trails due to the thick jungle on this part of the island. She wasn't sure how popular the trails were, but she needed to keep an eye out for hikers. Or anyone else who might question their drone activity.
Byron's land was a narrow, fifteen-acre strip of jungle they'd purchased two months ago. From what she could see, they hadn't touched it. Maybe the drone would find more.
She hated to think they'd cut down all that lush vegetation. Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they planned to use the dense jungle to hide their nefarious activities. If they were, in fact, nefarious. No real proof of wrongdoing had been found. But the resort owners and the FBI were notably concerned, so yeah, Byron was probably up to something.
If they weren't, her stint working with Knox in this tropical paradise might be very short.
A rustling in the thick mass of broadleaf trees to her right grabbed her attention. She froze—except for her hand inching toward her holster, just in case. Hopefully, it was only hikers who'd wandered off a trail. She was shocked when six monkeys skittered out of the dense foliage and crossed the road.
"Making friends?" Knox called out.
"Very funny. They startled me. Very cute though. I think—"
The unmistakable crack of a rifle sounded. Not in the immediate vicinity, but . . .
