Page 17 of Secret Hope (Hope Landing: New Recruits #5)

Kenji slipped out of Sophia's room and immediately turned left instead of right, deliberately avoiding the direct route to his own room three floors up.

The last thing they needed was security footage showing him leaving her room—if Vega's people were tracking their movements, better to keep their group's connections as murky as possible.

He took the service stairs down two levels, then cut through the restaurant level's prep kitchen, nodding casually to staff who barely glanced at another guest who'd gotten turned around. The indirect route would add ten minutes to his journey, but operational security was worth the delay.

His mind raced through the morning's events—Holloway's body staged for Cassidy to find, the text that had lured her there, Vega's systematic plan to frame her.

They needed extraction, and they needed it fast. But first, he had to reach the sat phone in his room without creating a digital trail that connected him to the others.

The path curved around a maintenance shed, and Kenji almost walked directly into someone coming from the opposite direction. His body reacted before his mind caught up—weight shifting, hands coming up in a defensive position, already calculating strike points and escape angles.

"Whoa. Easy there, Rambo."

Spencer stood with his hands raised in mock surrender, designer shorts slightly askew and vintage band t-shirt already showing sweat stains despite the early hour.

But what caught Kenji's attention was how quietly the guy had moved.

He'd been practically on top of him before Kenji's trained senses had detected his presence.

"Spence?" Kenji's heart rate slowly returned to normal. "What are you doing here?"

"Following you, obviously." Spencer's grin was unrepentant. "Saw you skulking around looking all tactical and thought 'that seems way more interesting than breakfast.'"

"You were following me?" Kenji couldn't quite hide his disbelief. "How did you?—"

"Get within ten feet without you noticing?" Spencer's grin widened. "Dude, I studied at the Takeda Dojo in Kyoto for six months. Would've finished the program too, except..." He shrugged, suddenly sheepish.

"Couldn't make the cut?"

"Couldn't stop flirting with sensei's daughter.

Yuki. Man, she was gorgeous. Worth getting kicked out for, honestly.

" Spencer's expression turned more serious.

"But I learned enough. Like how to walk without making noise and how to tell when someone's carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. "

Kenji stared at him, recalculating everything he'd assumed about the trust fund kid. "You studied ninjutsu?"

"For half a year, yeah. Dad thought it would teach me discipline.

" Spencer laughed. "Instead, it taught me that Japanese women are my kryptonite and that I'm surprisingly good at sneaking around.

So what's the story? You look like you're about to assault a fortress or possibly throw up. Neither seems good."

"It's complicated."

"Everything interesting usually is." Spencer fell into step beside him as Kenji resumed walking. "This about that dead guy?”

Kenji couldn’t stop the look of shock that froze his features. “How did you––“

Spencer shrugged, looking pleased. “First thing I do when I hit a new place is make friends with the head of housekeeping. Most people try to schmooz the consierges, but trust me. Housekeeping’s where it’s at. Rosalia told me about the dead guy. So when I saw you skulking, I figured––“

“I wasn’t skulking.”

Spencer raised his hands. “Whatever you say, sensei. I say ‘skulk,’ you say, ‘walk in a tactical manner.’ It’s all good.

” He scratched his head. “I put two and two together.

Not so hard. Cassidy looked looked pretty shaken up at the press conference.

And that Sophia..." He whistled low. "That woman could stare down a tsunami.

Tried to talk to her and she gave me this look that made me reconsider all my life choices. "

Despite everything, Kenji found himself almost smiling. "She's protective of her boss."

"Boss? I thought they were friends. They bicker like sisters." Spencer paused. "Really attractive sisters who aren't actually related, to be clear. That would be weird otherwise."

"Spence, I need to make some a private call."

Spencer's eyes lit up with genuine interest. "Totally. My dad deals with sketchy people sometimes—hazards of international finance—and his security team always says the same thing. Information is ammunition. So what kind of intel are we gathering?"

The 'we' in that sentence should have annoyed Kenji. Instead, he found himself oddly touched by the inclusion. "It's dangerous, Spence. This isn't a game."

The resort’s security extended beyond what was visible—construction permits on file showed extensive underground work that seemed excessive for a luxury resort. And who knew what else Vega’s managers had succeeded in keeping out of official records.

"Never said it was." Spencer's usual jovial expression shifted to something more serious.

"But here's the thing—I might be a trust fund screw-up who got kicked out of ninja school for thinking with the wrong head, but I'm not stupid.

Cassidy's in trouble. The kind that makes her hands shake when she thinks no one's looking. "

"You noticed that?"

"I notice a lot of things. ADHD has its perks." Spencer shrugged. "I like Cassidy. Sophia, too. So whatever's happening, if I can help..."

Kenji made a decision that went against every protocol he'd ever learned. But something about Spencer's earnest offer, combined with the tactical advantages of having an extra pair of eyes, overrode his training.

"Xavier Vega is framing her for murder," he said quietly.

Spencer stopped walking. "Okay. That's... significantly worse than I expected. Like, I was thinking maybe insider trading or counting cards, not actual murder."

"She found the body this morning. Vega made sure of that. Now she has to play along with his demands while my team figures out how to extract her safely."

"Your team?" Spencer's eyes sharpened with interest. "The Knight Tactical people? All right. You guys are like the Avengers of private military contractors. Minus the spandex and alien invasions." Spencer paused. "Please tell me there's no spandex."

"No spandex," Kenji confirmed, finding himself genuinely amused despite the circumstances. "But right now, they're eighteen hours away and I need to coordinate a response without tipping off Vega's surveillance."

They'd reached the edge of the resort property, where a small parking area offered rental scooters and cars for guests wanting to explore the island. Kenji automatically scanned for surveillance cameras, noting positions and angles.

"Two cameras," Spencer said quietly. "One on the light pole, one built into the rental kiosk. But there's a blind spot by that maintenance van."

Kenji looked at him with new respect. "You really did learn something in Kyoto."

"That, and how to say 'your father will kill me' in six dialects of Japanese." Spencer moved casually toward the blind spot he'd identified. "So what's the play?"

"I need to get to the sat phone in my room," Kenji said, already calculating the risks. "But returning there means potentially exposing myself to surveillance."

"So we create a distraction?" Spencer offered eagerly. "I could set off a fire alarm or?—"

"No." Kenji held up a hand. "Nothing that draws more attention. I'll use the service corridors, stay off the main routes."

Spencer's face fell slightly. "Oh. Right. Stealth. Got it." Then he brightened. "Want me to run interference? I could hang out in the lobby, keep an eye on things, text you if I see any of Vega's security heading your way?"

Kenji weighed the options. Having Spencer as an early warning system wasn't a terrible idea. "Can you be subtle about it?"

"Dude, I'll be so subtle. Like a ninja. A really chatty, trust-fund ninja who happens to be reading a newspaper in the lobby."

Despite everything, Kenji almost smiled. "Fine. But if you see anything suspicious?—"

"Text you immediately. Got it." Spencer was already pulling out his phone. "What's your secret Bat-phone number?"

After Kenji gave him the Sat phone’s number, they made their way back toward the resort.

Kenji forced himself not to look at the tournament venue where Cassidy was trapped at a poker table.

He had to hope Vega meant to use the murder to frighten her.

And leave him the option to frame her later, if it pleased him.

Because if the man wanted her under guard now, all he had to do was snap his fingers.

"So," Spencer said as they walked, clearly trying to process the situation, "when you say your team can help... we're talking extraction? Like, helicopters and smoke grenades and rappelling from buildings?"

"Hopefully something more subtle than that."

"Right. Subtle." Spencer was quiet for a moment. "Is Sophia going to be okay? I mean, I know we just met, but she seems like the kind of person who'd fight back. And people who fight back against men like Vega..."

"We're going to protect them both," Kenji said firmly, as much to convince himself as Spencer.

They split up at the resort entrance—Spencer heading for the lobby with exaggerated casualness, while Kenji slipped around to a service entrance he'd noted during his earlier surveillance.

The encrypted sat phone in his room was his lifeline to Knight Tactical, but getting there without being spotted would require all his training.