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So, had her father really worked as an engineer in aerospace? Given what Jo knew about him, things he’d said to her in the past, that would make sense. But they couldn’t know for sure. “We can at least look into it and rule it out, if nothing else.”

The very idea that her father was a completely different person than he’d let her get to know ... her mother too ... The room tilted. Jo pressed her palms against her eyes.

Strong hands gripped her arms. Cole’s hands. “Are you okay?”

Cole’s voice. He was here with her now in this crazy moment. People she trusted were letting her down left and right. People she loved weren’t who they claimed to be.

The next thing she knew, she was sitting at the table. Cole had scooted close and looked at her with concern, but he didn’t repeat his question. Hawk and Remi waited in the kitchen, but she suspected they watched her too.

“I don’t know who my mother was. Scratch that. Yes, I do. She was a woman in hiding. And my biological father, he was hiding too. And whatever or whoever sent Mom into hiding also killed her. Now my life is also threatened, and maybe my sanity. So no, Cole, I am not okay.” She might never be okay.

I need air.

Jo bolted from the chair, and it crashed to the floor behind her.

She raced to the sliding glass door and threw it open, stepping out into the cold, windy, rainy night.

She was running away far too often for comfort.

She couldn’t get enough air and sucked in the arctic blast. The cold rain bit into her skin like tiny knives.

God ... this makes me question everything about myself if I can’ t even trust the most important people in my life.

Cole had followed her out and closed the door. He remained a few feet behind her as she leaned against the rail and looked out into the darkness, listening to the violence of waves crashing against rocks. She let the wind and rain batter her face.

Cole had given her space.

She couldn’t even trust her own parents.

So what made her think she could trust Cole?

He stood next to her and slipped his hand into hers.

He bore the brunt of this turmoil out on the ledge overlooking the ocean.

He bore it right alongside her. She squinted up at him.

Dim lighting from the house illuminated his face. This man weathered the storm with her.

“I won’t leave you alone in this.” Cole spoke over the storm.

Good. At least he’d clarified. He might leave, because that seemed to be his MO, but not until this was over. She would take what she could get. These were desperate times.

For him, she’d go back inside. He held her hand and tugged her down a hallway and into the study—out of earshot of his brother and Remi. Cole led her to a leather sofa and urged her to sit.

She gladly dropped into it, then he sat close to her.

“Whatever this is, if we aren’t misconstruing all of it, it seems painfully obvious to me that your parents were only trying to protect you.

That’s all it is. Protecting you was everything to your mother.

If she never told you about your real father, that too was part of keeping you safe.

If he didn’t know about you because she didn’t tell him, that was part of her plan. ”

“You say that, but you didn’t even know her.”

“I say that because I understand that part of her. I knew your father, and I see the actions of a man striving to protect his daughter. He isn’t perfect. No one is. And I understand their need to protect you to my bones. For me, it’s personal too.”

“I feel like I’m paying for their sins, whatever bad thing they did.”

Cole’s expression grew somber. His breathing quickened. “We don’t know that either of them was involved in something illegal.”

“And yet, we’re making a lot of assumptions already. Seems to me when a man runs and leaves his daughter behind—except, of course, to warn her about a bomb—he has to be involved with something bad.”

“You’re correct to say we’re making a lot of assumptions. So let’s just hold off until we have more information.”

“There is just one thing that I’d like to talk about. I don’t want to make any more assumptions.”

“What’s that?” His expression told her that he was dreading what she might say next.

“Why, Cole?” she asked. “Why is it personal? You left. You didn’t communicate with me for months.” Why did she even care, with everything else going on? But she did. “Outside, you said you were with me in this. How can I believe you?”

He sighed. “That’s a fair question.”

Jo angled to look at his features. The first time she’d seen him, fighting to survive but struggling to live on that beach, she thought he was the handsomest man she’d ever seen.

He looked like a dark-haired Ryan Gosling to her.

Even now, as she waited for his reply, not knowing if he would completely shatter her heart and her hopes, he took her breath away.

“Where have you been?” The question came out on a whisper.

“You know I got called back to DC to answer more questions. I wasn’t so sure I would come out of the chaos that happened last year completely unscathed.

And that whole thing made me second-guess myself.

I started thinking that I wasn’t right for you.

Being with you wasn’t fair to you. You deserve someone so much better than me. ”

She’d heard enough and stood. “Stop it. Don’t give me ridiculous cliché excuses. You might as well say, ‘It’s me and not you.’ I’m done with lies from my parents. And now you.”

Heart in her throat, Jo started for the door.

Cole caught her wrist and pulled her back around and almost into him.

She was powerless to move, despite the pain in her heart. I’m so pathetic to let him do this to me!

“Jo.” He swallowed. She could see the emotion spilling from his eyes.

She closed hers. She had to muster the strength to pull away. He pulled her fully into his arms. She could not let this happen again.

Then he leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I would do anything for you. Don’t you know that?”

Oh, her heart curled in on itself. But she had to be strong, and she took a step back to look up into his dark eyes and pained expression. “I don’t know that. I want to believe you. But you promised to tell me, and so far you haven’t.”

“I didn’t come back because I was protecting you.”

“What? Now you sound just like my father. That’s what that was about. You get my parents because you stayed away to protect me?” She’d heard it all and pushed away from him. “I want the truth. I don’t care how hard it is.”

Cole looked like he was fighting an internal battle that he might not win. He scraped a hand through his hair and paced. “I guess I’m doing this. I’m really doing this. I’m not supposed to do it. But how can I keep you in the dark?”

While he apparently worked through this, his words and behavior scared her. Maybe she didn’t want to know after all.

“I mean, when you left for DC, I thought I’d hear from you again,” she said. “You could have at least said goodbye and told me you weren’t coming back. Hawk didn’t tell me a thing. I was just in the dark.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. Last year, when I was investigating the helicopter crash that killed my team, I made some enemies.

I came across looking like a rogue agent, and unfortunately not everyone believed my story.

So I got called back to DC, and while I was there, I was being followed and knew it wasn’t safe.

I ... wasn’t safe to be around. So, I mean, literally, I was trying to protect you. ”

Well, her anger and hurt dissipated with this new information. “Oh, Cole. I’m sorry. But how can that be? You were cleared of any wrongdoing.”

“Officially. Unofficially, it only takes a simple twisting of perception. Come on, you thought I was an assassin too, didn’t you?”

Yeah. Until she learned the truth. “So, what happened?”

He got close. Really close. And whispered. “Look at me. I need your complete attention.”

Deep concern filled her. He was terrifying her. “You have it,” she said. “You’ve always had it.”

She could tell he held back a smile. “I’m not a hero, Jo. I’m a coward. If I was stronger, I would have been more like your father and stayed away. I don’t want you to be in any kind of danger. I just can’t talk about it.”

She stiffened and stepped back, and he pulled her closer.

Tugged her to him and whispered in her ear again as if someone could be listening.

“I was made to go on an off-the-books mission, okay? I couldn’t tell anyone.

I was warned not to contact anyone. They relied on my special forces experience, past behaviors of going dark and ghosting others.

” He sucked in what sounded like a painful breath. “I can’t tell you more.”

She stepped away. That sounded credible enough, but that wasn’t everything. “But ... when was it over? I mean, when did you finish?” The mission. She hadn’t said the word aloud because he seemed determined to hide that aspect of this conversation. After all, you never knew who was listening in.

He rubbed his forehead, then dropped his hand, the pain and regret clear on his face. She figured the hurt and anger she felt at his words were equally clear on hers.

“I’ve been free for about four months.” His frown couldn’t have been any deeper.

“I had to make sure that it was over, and I wouldn’t forever be coerced back into secret missions.

I couldn’t tell you anything. I shouldn’t be telling you now.

And you’d been through so much. With all my baggage, you had enough of your own problems. I figured I was doing you a favor by staying away.

You deserved better. You deserved to be safe.

That’s when I started my own gig offering private investigations and protection services and partnered with CGIS, based out of Colorado, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you.

And then I got this idea that I could help you and end the danger that chased you into hiding.

I got this absurd idea that maybe if I did that, you could forgive me for going dark on you. ”

Palms out, he stepped forward.

She stepped back.

“I would give anything to go back and fix my mistakes. I would give anything if I hadn’t hurt you. Believe me, I hurt myself too.”

And then Cole pursed his lips. He held something back. What had he been going to say?

“Tell me. What were you going to say?”

So much pain etched his features. “Now ... now isn’t the time, Jo. I’m sorry.”

“I can’t take any more.” She left him standing there and rushed down the hallway until she found her room.

Not really her room. She slammed the door and pressed her back against it, hating the drama-queen act.

She’d asked him for an answer, and he’d given her one, and then she’d thrown it back in his face? She sounded so pathetic.

So desperate.

I should never have kissed him. Because now she couldn’t stop thinking about the feel of his lips and his rough face.

Jo wouldn’t risk leaving her room to step out onto the deck so she could get a good slap of cold in the face.

She didn’t want to risk facing Cole again.

Or, for that matter, Hawk or Remi, who were still here.

For her protection. How much did either of them know about the reasons Cole stayed away, if anything?

Jo rushed to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Too many conspiracy theories were floating around in her brain, coming from all directions, and she had to make the noise stop.

God , please make it stop.

It was nearing eight o’clock, not really bedtime, but she was exhausted, so she got ready for bed. But she couldn’t sleep, so she turned on the small lamp at the writing desk, pulled her tablet out of her bag, and turned it on.

Jo started searching all the information on Advanced Technologies and Gemini Aerospace, but she couldn’t gain access to former employees of government contractors.

Still, she couldn’t help herself and read all about both companies and the various clients they served in the aerospace industry. None of it mattered, really.

Except...

Hmm.

Pop had told her that he hadn’t married and had no other children, but he’d clearly lied about his life. What else had he lied about? His family?

She didn’t have the resources to learn the truth, and despite the way she acted toward Cole, she hoped that he was still in this with her.

She hoped his connection—Allison—discovered more about her father, Ransom Driscoll.

He was alive, he could tell Jo why she was in danger.

He could tell her more about her mother and their life. ..

Before .