Elle nodded, making her blue bunches bob. “Eduardo gave me the laptop you lifted from the shop.” She said Ed’s name with a flirtatious lilt that made Julia smile. “He’d already worked through the Spanish and pointed out places to start searching for our buyer. It makes my job easier. I’m running a search on IP locations right now. Hopefully we’ll get a name on the mummy buyer.” She paused. “That sounds wrong. As in, really wrong.”
“I know.” Julia’s smile widened.
“No way!” Ryan’s voice cut through the room. “I just realised who you are. It didn’t click until I saw you with your gran.”
Julia felt every muscle in her body solidify. The atmosphere in the room was suddenly thicker.
“I think that’s a conversation for another time,” Patricia said in a tone that demanded she was obeyed.
Unfortunately, she was talking to Ryan, and the only thing he would stop for was food.
“You’re Julia Collins,” Ryan said, with no small amount of awe.
“It’s the altitude sickness. Yes, she’s Julia Collins. We work with her,” Elle said slowly.
“And you’re Patricia Matthews.” Ryan pointed at Julia’s gran.
“Seriously,” Elle said to their boss, “he needs help.”
“I should have put it together.” Ryan smacked his forehead. “But you’re nothing like your sister.”
“Ryan.” Joe’s voice was a warning rumble.
Ryan was unaffected. He was far too excited by his revelations. “Do you know who your girlfriend is?”
At any other time, Julia would have freaked out at being called Joe’s girlfriend. Not this time. This time, she couldn’t speak at all. Her throat was solid. There was a reason she kept her past hidden. And she couldn’t open her mouth to tell Ryan not to reveal her secrets. She couldn’t do anything but stand there and wait.
“You’re dating acting royalty, dude,” Ryan told Joe. “Julia’s mum is Libby Collins, as in three-time Oscar winner Libby Collins. Her sister is Belinda Collins. I can’t remember how many Oscars she’s been up for, but I’m pretty sure one of them was just for being hot. Daniel Collins, her young brother, does those superhero movies.” Ryan looked at Julia. “If he needs a coach to help with the action scenes, I’m available. Then there’s her dad; he’s a director. He has an Oscar as well, or is it two?”
“Two.” Patricia looked about ready to rip Ryan’s head off.
Ryan didn’t care. He was beaming widely now. “And Julia. Our Julia was a child star. She had her own TV show and everything. People were always going on about her voice. She was some singing genius or something.” He frowned at Julia. “And then you disappeared. People thought you were dead, and all your family ever said was that show business wasn’t for you and you’re happy doing other stuff.”
Julia waited, prepared for someone to mock her for going from child star to office manager. It didn’t come.
“You about done?” Joe’s voice was pure menace.
“No,” the dense man said, oblivious to the rage emanating from Joe. “Why the big secret, Julia?”
Julia looked around at the astonished faces of the people who were closest to her. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what they were thinking. She’d heard it all before. You were famous? You want to run an office instead of performing? What’s wrong with you? Why couldn’t you cope with fame when everyone else in your family can?
“This is why,” Julia whispered to the silent room.
Joe tugged her hand. “I need medical attention.”
“Five minutes,” Callum called after them. “We need a debrief. In the meantime, I’m going to have a private word with my dumb-as-dirt employee.”
“What’d I do?” Ryan said.
But the damage had already been done. Everyone would think Julia was an even bigger freak than they’d thought she was before Ryan had outed her and her family.
And there was no denying they were right. She was a freak. A freak who was incapable of living a normal life. She cast a glance at Joe. And that included normal relationships too.
“I need to…” She cast around for an excuse for leaving him to sort himself out. “I should show Elle what I’ve pulled up before the meeting starts. You can sort yourself out, can’t you?”
She’d already disentangled her hand from his and was backing away from him.
Joe studied her for a moment. “We’ll get back to this later.” It sounded like a promise. Or a threat.
Julia didn’t care which. Keeping her head down, she skirted the edge of the room back to her bedroom, where she’d left her iPad on the closet floor.
With her iPad in her hand and her messenger bag across her body, she felt more able to face her team. This was who she was. Not the child star everyone remembered, but the full-grown woman who needed her security blankets to make it through the day. She closed her eyes as the memory of the years she’d spent acting washed over her. The times spent emptying her stomach before each performance. The nights spent awake and worrying about the next morning. The fear of going out in public, where there would be cameras shoved in her face. It was a lot for any child to cope with, but for one who was naturally shy, well, it had destroyed what little confidence she did have.
It hadn’t been her parents’ fault. They hadn’t pushed her. She’d wanted so badly to be the same as the rest of the family. And she’d failed spectacularly. But that was then. She wasn’t that person anymore. She would never be that person. She would always be the freak who could barely cope around other people. The freak who was better off alone.
With a deep breath, she went out to face her team, prepared to run and hide if the questions started again. When she came back into the room, everyone was glaring at Ryan and he was rubbing his jaw. But there weren’t any questions about her past.
Chapter 14
It felt all too familiar, meeting in a hotel room, talking about a woman being held hostage, planning a rescue.
“Anybody else got déjà vu?” Elle said, echoing Joe’s thoughts.
“It’s one in the morning.” Callum helped himself to coffee. “I’m knackered. Can we get this show on the road?” He looked over at Joe. “Want to update us?”
Joe turned his attention to Julia, who was curled into a ball in the armchair over at the window. As far away as she could get from everyone else without leaving the room. She was busy scanning notes on her iPad, but Joe suspected it was purely to avoid looking anyone in the eye. She hadn’t looked at him since she’d come back into the room. Thanks to Ryan’s big mouth, they’d taken a step backwards. He should have punched him twice. Joe didn’t give a damn who Julia’s family were. There was something seriously wrong with their relationship if she thought he would.
“Joe?” Callum prompted, clearly losing what little patience he had in reserve.
Joe couldn’t take his eyes off Julia. Every instinct he had, told him he’d stumbled onto her reason for retreating. He knew it, the same way he knew she belonged to him, on a cellular level. She thought they were comparing her to her famous family and finding her short. He’d bet anything she thought they considered her crazy for giving up her talents to work in an office. Couldn’t she see that the talents and skills she used at Benson Security were important too? She was thinking less of herself again, and he wouldn’t have it.
Joe turned to Callum just as he opened his mouth to shout. Joe could tell he was going to yell, because his face had turned red.
“I think Julia should update everyone. She’s the one with the best overview.”
“What?” came a horrified squeak from the corner.
Joe caught Patricia’s eye as he turned back to Julia. Patricia beamed at him, and he knew he was on the right track.
“Jules,” Joe called across the room. “Fill everybody in, will you?”
Part of him hated himself for making her the centre of attention when he knew she loathed it. But she could do this. She was the best person to do this. No detail got past he
r quick brain; no logical reasoning escaped it. The more he thought about it, the more he realised her skills were sorely underutilised, because everyone treated her as the scared rabbit she professed to be. But she was stronger than that. He was sure of it.
“I-I-I…” She looked like she was about to start hyperventilating.
Joe pushed himself off the sofa and sauntered towards her. He held a hand out to her. “You’ve got this,” he said in a low voice, meant only for her.
Wide, panic-stricken eyes met his. Joe let her see his confidence in her. He let her see that he absolutely believed she could do this and do it better than anyone in the room.
Come on, come on… He wasn’t sure if he was praying or trying to communicate with her by telepathy.
“Do you need a data projector?” Elle called across the room. “Because I bought one of those mini laser cube things on the internet, and it’s brilliant. We can connect it to your iPad and project onto the wall. Wait until you see the clarity of the images. And it can get so big. I love it. When I’m working alone in the office, I project my work all over the walls. It feels like I’m actually inside the programming. You’ve got to try it, Julia. It’s super cool.” She was practically bouncing on the spot as she gushed about her new tech.
Joe hid a smile. Bless Elle’s geeky little heart.
“Looks like you’re all set,” he told Julia.
Elle came over with a tiny cube in the palm of her hand. “Gimme your iPad. I’ll set it up. This is going to be brilliant.” She didn’t wait for a reply as she plucked it from Julia’s hand. A second later, her fingers were flying over the screen. “Ry,” she called to the man who was currently eating his way through Bolivia’s food reserves, “how about we call for popcorn?”
“No popcorn,” Callum growled as Elle handed Julia’s iPad back to her. “This isn’t a bloody movie screening; it’s a meeting.”
“In a hotel,” Elle pointed out. “In the middle of the night. In South America. There could be popcorn.”
“Julia,” Callum snapped, but without his usual sting. “Get on with it. I want to go to bed.”
With wide eyes and a look of confusion, Julia put her hand in Joe’s. He could have fist-pumped the air with victory, but he didn’t. He held Julia’s hand as they watched the rest of the team rearrange the furniture to face the wall Elle had picked for Julia’s presentation.
“I don’t have anything prepared,” Julia whispered up at him.
Knowing Julia, even if she’d had a month’s notice, she’d still think she wasn’t prepared. “Use your notes to illustrate what you want to say. If you don’t need to show anything, put a photo of Elle on the wall. It’ll keep her happy.”
She almost smiled at that. Almost, but not quite.
“I’ll get the lights,” Patricia called as she headed for the switch by the door. “We should have popcorn. When we watch anything in Libby’s cinema, we always have popcorn.”
“Your parents have their own cinema?” Ryan’s eyebrows shot right up his head, and Joe swore he’d smack them back down if the next words out his mouth were to invite himself over.
The room went dark, except for one small lamp over by the bedroom door.
“I’ll stand back here and talk.” Julia used the same tone she always used right before she ran.
“Do you need to stand?” Joe asked casually.
“No.” She looked at him nervously.
“I have a better idea.”
She squealed when he picked her up, making Patricia laugh. Joe settled into the opposite end of the sofa from Ryan and shifted Julia until he was comfortable with her in his lap. Then he clamped an arm around her waist to make sure she stayed there.
“I can’t give an update in your lap!” She sounded so horrified that it took everything Joe had not to laugh.
“Start now!” Callum shouted. “I don’t care where you are. Bloody talk.”
Joe cocked an eyebrow at her. “You heard the boss.”
Stunned, but cornered, Julia broke eye contact to stare at her iPad. There was silence in the room, and for a minute, Joe thought she wouldn’t be able to do it. But then she cleared her throat and touched the screen, and a neat list appeared on the wall.
“See?” Elle pointed at the projection. “Isn’t it fantastic?”
Joe nudged Julia, and she frowned at him.
He leaned in to brush his lips against her ear. “Talk, or I kiss you. What would you rather have happen in a room full of people watching you?”
He felt her go tense, and she pursed her lips as she glared at him.
“You know I would,” he told her.
Her eyes went wide. She cleared her throat again and looked down at her iPad. “This is what we know so far,” she said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear.
Joe settled in to listen, feeling inordinately proud of the woman in his lap. Julia Collins may have thought herself a coward. Joe knew she was anything but.
“It all comes back to the missing mummy,” Julia said as Joe stroked her back.
She sat up straight, trying to silently tell him to stop it. She thought she felt him chuckle.
She tapped her iPad. “This is Carlos Esteban. He runs one of the more notorious cartels in Peru. His main business is drugs, but that doesn’t stop him from getting involved in other areas—prostitution, gunrunning, kidnap for ransom. He also runs quite a large legitimate empire, mainly real estate. And he has Alice.” The screen changed to a shot of Patricia and Alice laughing together. “Alice is Gran’s best friend.”
“Hey, that’s Alice Bridges,” Ryan said around a mouthful of food. “She’s a documentary film producer. Do you know anyone who isn’t famous?”
“Me.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Ryan said.
“How do you know this stuff?” Elle said. “Do you spend all your free time watching TV?”
“You lot are just jealous because I figured out Julia’s secret before you. Admit it. I have mad skills.”
Callum leaned over and smacked Ryan on the back of his head. “Son, you need to learn to keep your mouth shut.”
“Son? You’re, what? Twelve years older than me.”
“I’m talking about maturity.”
“Oh, okay, in that case, I can’t argue.” Ryan settled back in his seat.
“Anyway,” Julia said as loudly as her courage would allow, “Gran and Alice were after a mummy, but it was stolen and sold to a middleman, who then sold it on. If we’re to get Alice back, we need the mummy.”
“Who has it now?” Callum said.
“I’m working on finding that out.” Elle pointed at the stolen laptop, which was hooked up to her state-of-the-art machine. “Tracing as we speak.”
“We did find out that the buyer is local,” Ed said from where he was sitting beside Patricia. A little too closely beside her, Julia noticed.
“Which means the mummy is still in Bolivia.” Joe’s arm tightened around Julia as he spoke.
“We hope so.” Julia fought to ignore his touch and concentrate on business. All the while knowing that, at some point, she would have to deal with the trauma of conducting a meeting from Joe’s lap. “All we know for sure is that we have two days to find it and trade it for Alice.”
There was a heavy silence.
“Couldn’t you lot use your ninja skills and break her out without trading the mummy?” Patricia sounded hopeful.
“Not enough people,” Callum said. “Carlos’ compound is fortified and manned by an army. It would be a suicide mission.”
“Why do they want the mummy anyway?” Elle asked.
“It’s wearing a treasure map that leads to Incan gold,” Ed said.
Elle’s eyes lit up in the reflected light from the projection. “That is so cool.”
Callum seemed to groan, but it was so quiet that Julia wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it.
“There’s another complication,” Joe said, and Julia felt his voice vibrate throughout her body. “See
ms Grandma is the only one who can read the map. It’s written in some Incan code.”
“Hey.” Patricia threw a cushion at his head. It hit Julia instead. “I’m not your grandma.”
“Not yet,” Joe mumbled, his hand resting on Julia’s knee.
Not yet. What did that mean? There was only one possible answer, and it sucked the air out of Julia’s lungs.
Danger! Danger! Run! Abort!
“Breathe,” the devil whispered against her ear as he stroked her back. “It was a joke.”
She wasn’t so sure. It didn’t feel like a joke.
“Esteban isn’t going to take the mummy without taking Patricia too.” Callum rubbed his jaw. He did look weary, reminding Julia that the team had travelled halfway around the world to help them. “He doesn’t want a swap. He wants it all.”
“I figured he’s probably tailing us,” Joe said. “That’s what I would do. Follow Patricia to the mummy; take it and the woman. Then off Alice. Everything tied up with a neat bow.”
Julia turned and smacked his chest. “You can’t talk about Alice like that.”
“Sorry, baby.” He captured the hand that had smacked him and pressed a kiss to the palm. Julia sucked in a shaky breath.
The silence in the room was deafening as everyone watched their interaction with fascination. Julia fought the urge to burrow into Joe and hide until the attention focused elsewhere.
“I agree. Esteban has no intention of trading Alice,” Callum said with absolute confidence.
The weight of his words pressed down on Julia’s heart. She looked at her gran and saw her eyes turn glassy with tears.
“They’ll trade her for me,” Patricia said firmly.
“No!” Julia jumped off Joe’s lap. “You can’t do that. It’s a death sentence. As soon as Carlos is finished with you, he’ll kill you.”
“But he won’t do it until he has the treasure. It will give you time to get me out.”
“Come here.” Joe grabbed her wrist and jerked her back into his lap. “No one’s trading Patricia to the psychopath.”
Relentless (Benson's Boys Book 2) Page 11