She nodded. “Yes. She’s five years younger than I am. It should have made us close, but we never were. We never had that sibling relationship for some reason. I think we were just far enough apart that we didn’t spend much time together.”
“You wouldn’t have been in the same schools. Mike and I were obviously always in the same class.”
“Yes, we just missed each other, though I don’t know if it would have mattered. We’re quite different personality-wise and in what we want out of life,” she said. “It was like we lived in the same house but completely different lives. And then we didn’t live in the same house at all. After university I lived in France for a long time, and it was a demanding job. At least that’s what I told myself. My parents divorced while I was in my teens, and my father got remarried very quickly. His new wife didn’t want to have anything to do with us, so he didn’t. I haven’t seen my father in ten years. When I moved back to London I spent a bit of time with my mum, but I found I couldn’t take the comparisons to my sister’s perfect life.”
“I doubt it’s perfect.”
“It looks that way on social media, and that’s all that matters to my mum and sister.” She was quiet for a moment. “I’m surprised you’re not on social media more often.”
“I can’t stand it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a page to keep up with people I was friendly with in high school and college, but I almost never post. Half the time I don’t have Internet access. I don’t think anyone wants to see pics of me sweaty and covered in grease. That’s pretty much my existence when I’m on a rig.” He realized he wasn’t even doing the speed limit, which here was seventy-five. He was trying to drag out their time together. It wasn’t fair to her since they had to be up and on a plane in the morning, and she would likely stay up doing her prep work. He forced himself to ramp up the speed.
Nina snorted, an oddly sweet sound. “Sure. The Internet would hate pictures of your sweaty muscles. Everyone would be disgusted. I bet we could make a calendar of you on oil rigs and it would sell like crazy.”
“Then I could give the profits to green causes and make my dad insane.” He wouldn’t mind as long as she was his photographer.
“You really are exploring sustainable energy?”
“Absolutely,” he replied, though he needed to be completely honest with her. He wasn’t some vegan, spare-the-earth type. He had practical reasons for what he was doing. “I’m working with the king of Loa Mali. Don’t think I’m doing it to save the earth or anything, though. I’m doing it because if I don’t someone else will, and they’ll be the ones making money off it. Though a cleaner earth wouldn’t be so bad. I like clean air as much as the next guy. Maybe more since I grew up with so much of it.”
She relaxed back. “I liked your family quite a bit. They’re oddly down to earth for a group of billionaires.”
“That’s my mom and dad. I think it’s because the ranch has always been so important. The ranch is how the Malones originally made our money, so even though it isn’t important to us financially now, it is the bedrock of who we are. And if it means anything, they liked you, too. My mother in particular, and she’s the one who can be hard to convince.” He stared out at the twin lights illuminating the road in front of him. This was a lonely two-lane road that led to the wider highway. He glanced in the rearview out of habit. There wasn’t a moon to illuminate the fields around him, but he would have sworn he could see a shadow behind him, just on the edge of the light from the back of the truck.
Was someone following them? He felt every muscle tense. Something was about to happen. Something wasn’t right.
“What’s going on?” Nina had sat right back up and she was looking his way now, a concerned expression on her face.
“I don’t know.” He looked in the rearview mirror, trying to catch that glimpse again. Something lurked right outside his vision. He was almost sure of it. “I’m probably being paranoid.”
He didn’t think so, but he didn’t trust his own instincts when it came to this. He’d spent the whole evening thinking someone was watching him. He’d sat at dinner and talked to people he’d known for years, wondering the whole time if he or she was the one intent on betraying the company.
Nina turned in her seat. “You think someone’s following us?”
He didn’t want to scare her. Damn it. Maybe his brother was right about a few things. She needed to know what he’d seen. Or not seen. “I thought I caught sight of a shadow. I don’t know. It’s really dark, and this kind of darkness can play tricks on a person.”
They were far enough from the ranch that there was zero light that didn’t come from his headlights or the stars above them. The Malones owned all this land and it wasn’t developed. He could remember all the times he and his brother and their friends would camp out and stare up at the stars.
It was a new moon, and now all he could see were shadows.
“I don’t see anything,” Nina said, looking in her passenger-side mirror. “No. There it is. JT, I need you to stay calm.”
That was the moment he felt the whole truck jolt forward as something hit them hard from behind. It took everything he had to go against
