Chapter Two
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
As security project contracts went, Amanda Hearst couldn’t imagine a better company to work with than Titan Group, but as clients went, she didn’t know a soul more aggravating than her friend Jared Westin. Though maybe that wasn’t saying a lot.
As a rule, Amanda kept away from people. Of the few she was forced to interact with, she considered an even smaller number as friends. Jared had been a friend since she was an angsty, bleach-blonde, goth-makeup-wearing teenager.
It wasn’t that Amanda couldn’t make friends, but rather, she knew better. Boss Man understood.
When he’d first asked her interest in designing a security system in Abu Dhabi, she hadn’t known it would be for Titan’s new headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.
When he casually mentioned the project would include two armored skyscrapers with SCIF rooms, Amanda salivated and crossed her fingers that he would see her as a security professional and not a family friend he had to protect.
Then, when he agreed to sign a contract that isolated her from all but essential personnel, she let out a loud whoop.
They’d worked together on smaller jobs before using her security parameters.
It hadn’t been easy, but they’d survived without strangling each other.
Once again, the only problem with this project was Jared’s infuriating habit of worrying about her security.
Amanda’s stomach growled. She regretted skipping lunch to run an inspection with Parker Black, the brains behind Titan’s intel and security.
If the late afternoon sun was any indication, she was about to work through dinner.
They’d found a glitchy pass reader and a loose wire outside the second tower’s SCIF room.
Both were easy fixes that should’ve been corrected by now. But, as she approached the flagged pass reader, it only took a glance to see its yellow blinking light. The contractor hadn’t fixed it before he left for the day.
Her stomach growled again as an alert pinged on her tablet. Amanda groaned at the preview of Jared’s email.
We need to talk.
“Oh, fun…” She could tell he was in a mood and could’ve kicked herself for not eating earlier.
There was no telling if Jared would harp on their ongoing disagreements or if he had another brilliant idea like bulletproof skylights.
She made a mental note to keep snacks on hand and tapped out her reply.
Sounds good. Come and find me.
Amanda added a smiley face and then hit send, confident that it would make Boss Man glower.
Now she needed to pick a location that would play to her advantage.
She bypassed the malfunctioning door without swiping the necessary badge and walked to the nearest sky bridge.
It connected the two hotel towers. The first tower’s renovation was nearly complete.
The second tower remained on schedule, though nowhere near ready for business.
She swiped her badge to enter the second tower, then moved through an area of unfinished steel-framed walls.
One day, they’d be impenetrable meeting rooms. But the exterior walls and windows still hadn’t been installed.
It had taken an obscene amount of time to wire Titan’s LIDAR security system.
But Amanda, pleased with their progress, was infatuated with their multiple fields of vision.
It offered a certainty of knowing what was where at all times—precisely her life goal too.
Amanda continued to one of her favorite places to think. Fresh air overtook the omnipresent smell of construction. She stepped through the plastic tarps that hung from steel beams. The thin plastic swayed as the wind drifted off the city, comforting her almost as much as standing near the ledge.
Warning signs and a bright orange mesh barrier marked the perimeter. A mere four millimeters of plastic served as the only barrier between her, the open sky, and the streets below. It was only when she could look down at danger that she felt in control of her life.
Her parents would freak out if they knew how she found peace.
They’d rain a security detail from the heavens, ready to catch her if she fell.
On the opposite side of caution, Amanda’s business partner and best friend, Halle, wouldn’t even suggest a safety precaution.
Halle’s hard-and-fast trust in natural selection reigned supreme.
Jared was somewhere in the middle of the two extremes, depending on his mood and the day’s headaches.
For now, she was alone and in control of her destiny. The city lay before her. Amanda breathed deeply, where she needed to be.
Familiar, heavy footsteps broke her meditation. Amanda turned from the gaping exterior wall and waited for Jared as he slapped plastic tarps out of his way, pursuing the fastest option from point A to point B.
Amanda gave a quick wave when he stormed into view. “You found me.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Amanda. Back the fuck up.”
“I thought Army Rangers were trained to be sneaky and quiet,” she teased. “Or was that too long ago for you to remember?”
He snorted. “If I didn’t want you to know I was here, you still wouldn’t know, Sparkler.”
The corners of her mouth turned down. “Don’t call me that.”
“Then don’t hang that close to the edge of my building.” He cracked his knuckles, then crossed his arms over his chest. “Give me a couple more inches. If you trip and fall, do you know what you’d do to my insurance rates?”
“I’m glad you care about my safety.”
Jared beckoned her closer. “A little more, cupcake.”
“So long as you don’t call me Sparkler.” She moved, then made a show of checking her distance from the fall zone. “I think I’m safe.”
“Thank you.” A muscle ticked in his cheek. “Parker says there’s a problem with—”
“Parker said the word problem?” She lifted her eyebrows. “Or did he say there were two new items on the punch list?”
A stress line deepened across Jared’s forehead. “Same thing.”
“Not really. I’ll show you what’s going on.
” They walked toward a plastic-wrapped pallet.
Jared managed to stay behind and follow without blazing a path through unfinished walls or slapping plastic tarps.
She laid her tablet on the makeshift desk.
“There are two new items on the punch list. One’s taken care of.
” She pointed to an update. “And this one”—she scrolled down—“should’ve been fixed already. But it’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
Jared harrumphed.
“Allergies?” she asked and continued to scroll when he ignored her. “This is the update I’m sending to Parker tonight.”
Jared scrutinized the punch list. “You’re still on schedule.”
“Shocker.” She returned to the top of the list. “Except, not really. You know I get the job done.”
His nostrils flared. “Stay on schedule.”
She gave him a playful salute. “Aye, aye, captain.”
He grumbled. “And don’t fall out of the damn building.”
“I won’t screw up your insurance rates.” She crossed her hand over her heart. “I swear.”
“Not to mention, your father would kill me.”
“Mom, too.” She closed the project and locked the tablet. “If that’s all.”
“How is your mom?” he asked, trying his best at small talk.
She cradled the tablet in the crook of her arm and thought back to her last conversation with her parents as they deplaned at Andrews Air Force Base. “She’s fine. They just got back from an economic summit in Tokyo.”
“Saw that.”
“Mom’s happy with the reception her communicable disease speech had with the press.”
Jared nodded. “And your dad?”
“Busy, as always.” She sighed. Jared wasn’t one to make polite conversation. If he brought up her parents, she wanted to discuss security issues. Double standards infuriated her. After all, he’d contracted her security company. “Question for you, Boss Man.”
“Shoot.”
“How often do you ask your team to be careful near sharp drops?”
His dark eyes narrowed. “You might know if you ever spoke to any of them.”
Well, hell. She should’ve seen that one coming. “I do—”
His hand went up like an NBA player blocking a shot. “Parker and Angela don’t count.”
“Then, never mind.” Amanda gnawed on her lip.
Titan’s IT director and office administrator were the only people she’d communicate with besides Jared.
He’d tried several times to brief her on his Abu Dhabi-based team, but Amanda always invoked her contract, which stipulated her right to privacy.
She didn’t want to know anything personal about anyone.
It was a weakness that she’d never allow again.
His scowl deepened. “There’s something you should—”
“No. There’s not.” If it wasn’t mission-critical, she refused to listen. “I’m stubborn like that.”
He glared. “That’s a nice way to put it.”
Seconds crawled by. This was the worst part of their ongoing disagreement. Jared could call her choices into question without saying a word. He didn’t care that his attempts to broaden her world only unburied her pain. “I have to go.”
“That’s your choice to make,” he said. “A stupid one.”
Damn him. She refused to agree, and without a way to end the conversation, Amanda turned and rushed away.