The girl behind the counter gave an unsure smile. Jared had probably put the fear of God in her with each phone call, and if Brock wasn’t half-interested in returning the calls, she might be blamed. Can’t subject the poor girl to Boss Man’s attitude. “Fine.”

A few minutes later, they were in a swank suite, and nothing about his ice cream and rope shopping list would happen anytime soon. Sarah paced. She’d checked out the room, remarked on the awesomeness of it all, but her demeanor had shifted, and screw Jared for that.

“So, you wanna…” He shrugged. Pool. Hot tub. Ice cream. Where did he want to turn the conversation when the mood had clearly been assassinated by the Titan Group’s head honcho from a thousand miles away?

“Call him.” She slapped her hands to her hips and jutted an adamant chin. “I’m concerned. Curious. For heaven’s sake, Brock. Multiple emergency messages. Call him.”

“We didn’t part on the best of terms.” He scrubbed his face with a hand and stared at the hotel room phone, willing it to combust. No such luck, and Sarah was right. “Fine.”

He dropped onto the bed, and she joined him. Inches away, but miles in thought. Not how he thought they’d spend their first moments in bed in Saint Lucia.

“Call him,” she urged again. There was that bite of her lip. Nothing aroused or excited on her face; it was pure nerves.

He pinched his eyes closed and picked up the handset. A few punches of the dial later, and Brock’s international call to Titan’s headquarters rang in his ear. He used a backdoor number that would connect to Jared’s office. If there was an emergency, maybe the bastard wouldn’t be there. Maybe, like he thought before, this was just Jared giving him a proper heads up that the time had come, and even if Brock was on vacation, Jared was gunning for him.

An unfamiliar unease made his stomach twist as Sarah stared, barely blinking. Brock wasn’t one to overthink, but right now, he was. Weeks ago, everything had been so normal. Jared was his buddy. His mentor. Sarah was sweet and innocent. No reasons to check out the self-help section in the bookstore. An abduction had changed it all, and he’d never seen it coming. What was he missing now?

“Brock,” Jared barked when he picked up the line. There was nothing unordinary about that, except that the tension between the two men was palpable.

“Jared.”

There was a familiar heave of a burdened sigh. “I have a situation. Obvious reasons, you’re the last person on the planet I’d want to call. But this cropped up fast, and I have no options. None. Except for you, asshole.”

Having no choice would be the only reason Jared lasted on the line that long. He wouldn’t ask for help when a trust problem existed. There must’ve been a red-flag issue that required differences be ignored temporarily.