He eyed me doubtfully. “You’re supposed to stay off that ankle for a while. It’s really swollen, and it needs to heal. If you try doing too much, too soon, you could make it worse. I left the ibuprofen here on the table so you could take another dose before you go to bed. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you. You have to take it easy until the swelling goes down and your ankle is on the mend.”

  My heart squeezed inside my chest as I remembered how thoughtful he’d been all evening.

  Once he’d gotten me into his Range Rover, he’d taken me directly to the hospital while I called Chase to let him know I was okay.

  Cooper had waited patiently, like he had nothing better to do, while they’d done an X-ray and the doctor had done her evaluation in the Emergency Room.

  He’d fed me.

  He’d arranged to get my vehicle back home for me.

  He’d brought me home.

  He’d insisted on piggybacking me up to my high-rise condo and settling me on the couch so I’d be comfortable to eat.

  How many guys who weren’t interested in getting laid or in any kind of relationship were that damn thoughtful?

  “Thank you for everything,” I said softly as I crumpled up my empty wrappers, leaned forward and tossed them into the bag on the table between us. “You hardly know me, but you gave up your entire Friday night to help me.”

  “It’s not like I had exciting plans,” he said drily.

  “What did you have planned?” I asked curiously, wondering what a guy like Cooper did on a Friday night.

  Maybe he wasn’t into committed relationships with women, but a guy who looked like him definitely got laid on a regular basis, right?

  Not only was he drop-dead gorgeous, but a wealthy billionaire, too. Cooper co-owned the biggest mining operation in the world with his two older brothers.

  “I’d just gotten home from the office when Chase called me,” he answered. “I was planning on taking a few of the dogs we have at the training center for a run, and then grabbing some dinner.”

  “What training center?” I questioned.

  I was stunned as he explained that he and his brother Jax funded a training center for assistance dogs that helped veterans with PTSD and other issues.

  I was even more surprised when he told me that he and his brother not only paid for the running of the facility, but participated personally in the training when they could as well.

  “We adopt the dogs from shelters when we can,” he said. “Jax has two of those shelter dogs that he just couldn’t part with, but I’ve managed to not get quite that attached.”

  I studied his body language and the guarded look in his beautiful eyes.

  I was willing to bet that there were plenty of times when Cooper had gotten attached.

  He just didn’t want anyone to know it.

  Any man who was kind and patient enough to work with animals had definitely developed an affinity with those shelter dogs.

  I just couldn’t figure out exactly why Cooper didn’t want to admit it.

  What was it with this guy and his aversion to relationships of any kind?

  There was an inherent goodness and humanity inside of Cooper. I could see it. I could sense it. Hell, if I needed proof then he’d proved it by coming to rescue me without a single complaint, but for some reason, it seemed like he was determined to hide it beneath cynicism and doubt most of the time.

  When I’d thanked him, he’d blown me off—like giving up his evening was next to nothing.

  It wasn’t.

  Cooper Montgomery was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men on the planet. Giving up his precious free time was…really something.

  I smiled at him. “Then I did take you away from some important canine friends.”

  “Chase was concerned,” Cooper replied.

  I rolled my eyes. “Both of my brothers think that worrying about me is their job, even though I’m thirty-two years old now.”

  “Most older brothers feel that way. I have a younger sister. I know exactly how they feel,” he informed me. “And I’m not quite sure they don’t have a reason to worry. You have a pretty long list of past injuries in your medical history for someone your age.”

  I was stunned into silence for a moment.

  Since Cooper had refused to leave my side at the hospital, he’d been privy to my conversations with the doctor. Since I had nothing to hide, I’d told him it was fine for him to stay.

  Now, I wasn’t quite so sure that had been such a great idea since he’d obviously paid close attention to what was going on.

  I swallowed a mouthful of my strawberry shake before I replied. “Most of them were from the same incident that happened a year ago. My injuries were pretty extensive. I’m honestly not that accident prone.”

  “What happened?” he asked huskily.

  “Long story,” I confessed.

  It was a painful episode in my life that I hadn’t willingly shared with anyone except my brothers and my best friend…until now.

  He lifted a brow. “It’s early. I have time.”

  I wanted to remind him that he’d just mentioned leaving a few minutes ago, but I didn’t. Granted, I didn’t like talking about what had happened, but Cooper had helped me out so much today. “Before I came back home to San Diego a year ago and got my contract gig here translating for the FBI, I worked for the United Nations as a translator,” I explained. “I was lucky enough to get hired there right after I earned my foreign language degrees and I loved my job there.”

  “I doubt it was luck,” Cooper argued. “You were probably able to translate all six of their national languages.”

  I shook my head. “Only four. I wasn’t completely competent at Chinese and Russian at the time, but I am now.”

  He let go of a laugh that sounded a little rusty before he said, “Okay, so you were slacking on your Chinese and Russian. Go on.”

  I sighed. “My last assignment was in Peru, and once I’d finished that job in Lima, I asked my boss for some time off so I could take a cruise down the Amazon and do a backpacking trip into the rainforest while I was still in the country. Because I did him plenty of favors, he agreed.”

  “So you obviously liked to take advantage of the travel part of your job,” he commented.

  I smiled back at him. “I loved seeing and exploring new places, and the Amazon Rainforest was one of those places I’d been dying to visit since I was a kid. You have no idea how excited I was to finally be there. I had a friend who hooked me up with a riverboat cruise that was leaving from Iquitos. My plan was to rendezvous with the boat in Nauta because I couldn’t quite make the initial launch in Iquitos. After that, I was going to catch a weeklong hike in the rainforest. Everything went fine in the beginning. I flew from Lima to Iquitos, and then got a taxi from Iquitos to Nauta.”

  I knew I was rushing through the whole explanation, so I took a deep breath that forced me to slow down.

  It had been a while since I’d told this entire story, and it brought back some pretty bad memories.

  You can do this, Torie.

  Even though a future relationship with him would never be a possibility because Cooper wasn’t interested in me that way, after tonight, I really wanted to be his friend.

  Maybe he didn’t want a girlfriend, but I had a feeling that his choices about not wanting any new friends were more about being let down in the past than any actual lack of interest in a friendship.

  I hadn’t even begun to explore exactly what made this fascinating man tick, but God, I really wanted to know…

  “So you got your cruise down the Amazon?” he asked. “Was it worth the rush to get there?”

  I shook my head. “Before I could board my riverboat, I was kidnapped by two Amazon pirates, forced into their small boat, and taken down the river in a far different way than I had planned.”

  My heart sank as I saw his dumbfounded expression. “Wait,” he said huskily. “Are you trying to tell me that you were kidnapped in the Amazon jungle? That you were a captive?”

  I nodded slowly. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”

  Cooper

  “Why in the fuck didn’t you tell me that you were worried about Torie being alone and vulnerable in that park because it’s only been a year since she was kidnapped and nearly killed?” I asked Chase irritably as I pulled a bottle of beer from my fridge. “Hell, you didn’t even tell me that she was kidnapped. Or that she worked for the United Nations. Or that she went through one of the worst experiences a person could be forced to suffer.”

  “I haven’t even had my first cup of coffee yet, Coop. Christ! Give me a minute,” Chase answered, his voice sounding like he was only half awake. “Her kidnapping wasn’t the only reason I was concerned, although I was worried she might be scared, and she just wasn’t telling me that.”

  Okay, so it was still early morning in Paris, but I’d wanted answers the second I’d gotten home from Torie’s condo. He was damn lucky I hadn’t called him right that second. I’d gone out for a run and then cleaned up before I picked up my phone because it would have been really early in Paris if I’d called when I’d gotten home from Torie’s place.

  I hadn’t asked Torie nearly as many questions as I would have liked.

  It was obvious that she’d told very few people about her experience, and I hadn’t wanted her to relive all of those painful memories all over again.

  I could hear what sounded like Chase rummaging through the kitchen cupboard to get a mug before he said, “I’m surprised that she told you anything about it. She doesn’t readily talk about it, even to me and Wyatt. And if she did tell you, why didn’t you ask her your questions instead of waking me up so damn early?”

  “She did tell me, and I’m sure she would have answered my questions, but she didn’t seem all that comfortable talking about it. I thought it might be better to get the details from you,” I replied, my jaw twitching with tension. “I had no idea that she joined Last Hope because she knew what it was like to actually be a hostage.”

  “Fuck! It’s exactly something that Torie would do. One thing about her kidnapping that I can’t forget is that we had no idea she was even missing,” Chase shared, his voice full of remorse. “The bastards grabbed her before the riverboat staff knew she’d made it to Nauta in time to join the tour. Everyone there just assumed she’d missed the boat, and Wyatt and I thought she’d made it there on time. We didn’t miss her because we had no idea that she wasn’t on her tour. I think Wyatt and I got too accustomed to those periods when Torie was exploring out of cell phone range when she was hiking around the globe. She always told us where she’d be when she was traveling or hiking. So we didn’t really worry unless she didn’t call us when she was supposed to call. We always had a date and time that she was due back.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Chase,” I assured him because he couldn’t hide the anguish in his voice.

  “Yeah,” he answered curtly. “Try believing that when you see your little sister broken and barely alive after she’s been kidnapped, starved, and beaten to within an inch of her life.”

  Hell, I did have a little sister, and there was nothing more I could say to him. I’d feel the same way had that happened to Riley.

  I chugged down half my beer before I replied. “She said they ended up leaving her for dead in the rainforest once they found out she was a high-profile American, and that she worked for the United Nations.”

  “Torie played it damn smart,” Chase said gutturally. “She waited until she knew what their intentions were before she said anything. And once she spoke, she pretended like she could only speak broken Spanish. So they never guarded their words when they were speaking. They were idiots and inexperienced, so they easily bought that she wasn’t fluent in Spanish. She was an American. Their initial plan was to highjack the riverboat once it left Nauta, but they figured taking a lone female and asking for ransom was easier. In the end, they never implemented either plan because they decided keeping Torie and asking for ransom would probably get them captured. They beat her throughout the entire ordeal, but before they left her, they made sure she’d die in that jungle. Or so they thought. She didn’t die, and she managed to crawl her way back to the river. If she hadn’t been seen and rescued by some indigenous fisherman on the bank of the river, she would have died. She was damn close when they found her. I have no idea where she found the strength to get to that riverbank. These assholes may not have been experienced pirates, but they were sick fuckers, Coop. They obviously got a lot of pleasure out of hurting Torie.”

  “Tell me the bastards are dead or in prison,” I requested hoarsely, my entire body tense.

  “They were apprehended pretty quickly because of the info Torie caught when they didn’t know she was listening. Neither one of them will ever see the light of day again, which is the only thing that kept Wyatt and I from finding them and killing them ourselves,” Chase answered grimly. “We went to get her and bring her back to the States as soon as we were notified. She was in really bad shape, Coop. She had to spend some time in Lima being stabilized before we could even bring her home.”

  “I heard a list of her injuries and broken bones when the doctor was taking her medical history at the hospital. Jesus, Chase! I’m not sure how in the hell she survived that many injuries and fractures.”

  “She’s tough. I think sheer stubbornness kept her alive because she didn’t want those assholes to win. Her physical injuries healed, but Torie hasn’t been the same since it happened. I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but she lost that spark of joy she always carried along with her. She was a free-spirit, and being able to travel and hike various locations around the world meant everything to her. Her new condo in San Diego might have great views of the harbor from a distance, but I guess you have to know Torie. She’s more the type to want to reach out and touch that water sometimes. It was actually kind of a big deal that she was even at the park yesterday. As far as I know, it was the first time she’s ventured out to start hiking again. I hate that she hurt her ankle, but I’m relieved that she’s getting outside and into something she loves again.”

  “It sounds like she was a pro,” I told him.

  “She was,” he admitted. “There’s not many hiking challenges she hasn’t taken on over the years.”

  “It hasn’t been that long, Chase. I’m sure she just needs some…time. I know she was a physical mess after all this happened. Was she…?” I hesitated. Hell, I wasn’t even sure how to ask Chase this question. Maybe I shouldn’t have even mentioned it.

  “Was she raped? It’s one of the first questions we ask our female captives, right?” Chase asked. “She swears she wasn’t. Torie said she managed to tell them in faked broken Spanish that she had a sexually transmitted disease that would make their balls shrivel up and fall off if they touched her.”

  “Fuck!” I cursed. I might have laughed my ass off if I wasn’t so pissed off about what Torie had been through.

  “I don’t think her trauma was any lighter because they didn’t sexually assault her,” Chase mused. “They were so damn twisted that I’m still surprised she isn’t bitter toward every man on the planet. Maybe all this was why I was hoping you and Torie could be friends. She could use a hiking buddy to try to get her out more. Her best friend is out of the country most of the time, and the rest of her friends in California have scattered over the years. She grew up in San Diego just like we did, but she didn’t live there after high school. She went away to college, and then Torie worked out of New York when she was translating for the United Nations. She left her friends in New York behind, so it hasn’t been easy for her to readjust to living here in San Diego again after what happened.”

  “I would have never known she’d been through any of this if she hadn’t told me,” I muttered as I raked a frustrated hand through my hair. “She seems pretty extraordinary just the way she is now.”

  “She is, but her true personality was a little bit different. More outgoing. More fearless, ” Chase said. “Hell, she used to scare the shit out of me and Wyatt at times because she was always so damn gutsy. Her tenacity was probably the only thing that got her through that whole kidnapping ordeal. She was able to withstand two weeks as a badly abused hostage, and then she took a final brutal beating that probably should have killed her, but it didn’t. After that, she crawled back to the river knowing that was likely the only way anyone would find her. Christ! She laid there for thirty-six hours on that riverbank getting eaten up by bugs until she was finally rescued. I’m not sure how many people could have survived that experience, much less bounced back the way Torie has. She might not be back to the old Torie, but her recovery is pretty damn miraculous. I get why she wants to help out at Last Hope. I think she really wants to assist other victims because she knows what it feels like to be that damn helpless. That’s just the kind of person my sister is, Cooper. She has a lot more of my mom’s kindness in her than Wyatt and I do.”

  I knew Chase’s mother had passed away years ago, but he and Wyatt had obviously adored her.

  Their father had died about four years ago, leaving his two sons to take over the Durand Industries empire. I’d lost track of how many luxury brands were under that umbrella, but the scope of their wealth was massive.

  Because their father had been a Frenchman before he’d married an American citizen, they had a second headquarters in France, and some of their businesses were based in the City Of Light. So, there were times, like now, when they were out of the United States for a while to take care of business in Paris.

  “Torie never really wanted to be part of Durand Industries?” I asked.

  “Oh, hell no,” Chase replied with a hint of amusement in his voice. “She swears that even though she’s gifted in languages, business isn’t her thing. She’s actually full of shit. She manages her own very significant wealth just fine. It’s not that she wasn’t capable. The interest just wasn’t there for her.”

  Sounds familiar.