Emma.
Like he knew exactly what he was doing when he said it.
Why the conversation got under her skin so swiftly, she couldn’t say, but one thing was already clear.
Zach Steele was going to be a problem. Because he might be right.
About Navarro. About the security issue.
About the fact that something was wrong on this island, and they were only beginning to see the edges of it.
Chapter 4
Preliminary Recon
Zach didn’t pauseuntil he reached the far end of the corridor.
The administrative wing smelled of coffee and fresh paint. New construction still settling into place. The flooring gave slightly under his boots—not enough to concern structural integrity, but sufficient to notice. Everything about Ivory Drift felt temporary. Unfinished. Vulnerable.
Emma’s voice drifted through the open office door. Calm. Controlled. Managing the room.
He’d been harder on her than necessary. He knew that. Nick would probably tell him so in the next sixty seconds.
Footsteps behind him. Quick and light. Nick’s gait.
“You enjoy making friends,” Nick said, falling into step beside him.
Zach pushed through the exterior door without slowing. “I enjoy not getting people killed.”
Sunlight hit him first, then the heat. The Caribbean morning was rapidly climbing toward eighty degrees. Palm trees swayed in the offshore breeze, their shadows cutting sharp lines across the courtyard. Beyond the resort’s central buildings, the lawn reached for the beach, a manicured expanse of grass servingno tactical purpose whatsoever. Well, other than the wide open sight line, of course.
“Emma’s good at what she does,” Nick said.
“She trusts too easily.”
“Or she understands people better than you do.”
Zach stopped. Met his brother’s eyes.
Nick didn’t flinch. He never did. Of the three of them, Nick was the diplomat, the strategist, the one who saw patterns in human behavior the way Zach saw threat vectors. Different skill sets. Same protective instinct.
“She sees potential in people,” Nick continued. “That’s her job. Yours is to see danger. You can both be right.”
“Until she hires someone who gets past my vetting.”
“That’s why there are multiple layers.” Nick’s expression softened. “I trust her, Zach. You should too.”
Trust.
The word sat heavy in his chest. Trust was earned, not given. It was a calculation based on evidence, not optimism. Emma had been on the island for months now. Isolated. Wrapped up in hiring. She didn’t know the stakes.
She didn’t know what was coming.
“I’ll trust her when she proves she can handle the reality of this job,” Zach said.
Nick studied him for a moment. “She already has. You weren’t paying attention.” He walked away, heading back toward the entry, leaving Zach standing alone in the courtyard.
Zach exhaled through his nose. Rolled his shoulders. The familiar weight of the survival knife on his thigh steadied him. He had a perimeter to walk.
