“I’m sorry for you, Harper. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now. But your father chose the life he’s been living. He sold his soul years ago in exchange for money and power. Now it’s time for him to pay. Justice has a way of catching up with a person. Knox Winston is no exception.”
Harper rose from the sofa. “If you’ll excuse me, I need some time to myself. I need to think things through, figure things out and decide what I’m going to do. I’ll be in the guest room I should have slept in last night.”
So much for their relationship. Clearly in Harper’s opinion he was the bad guy. In a way, he was. Even so, he didn’t regret it. Knox Winston belonged in jail.
As Harper walked away, Chase rose from the sofa. “Whatever you’re thinking of doing, Harper, remember that someone just tried to kidnap you. After hearing the charges against your father, you must realize what’s happening to you and Michael is very likely connected to Knox Winston’s criminal activities.”
Her pretty lips trembled, and Chase felt a stab of guilt. He refused to back down. Keeping Harper safe meant she had to accept the truth.
She gripped the back of the sofa and released a shuddering breath. “I don’t know what to do, how to handle this. What should I do, Chase? How do I make this go away?”
Chase walked toward her. He wasn’t sure what would happen when he reached for her, but instead of pulling away, she went into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder.
Chase drew her closer. “We’ll figure it out, baby. You aren’t alone in this. You aren’t going to get rid of me until you’re safe.” She wasn’t getting rid of him at all if he had his way.
“Okay?” he asked, inhaling the scent of her sweet-smelling hair. A long moment passed before he felt her nod of agreement. “Good. Why don’t you lie down for a while? You still haven’t caught up on your sleep.”
She swallowed and eased away. “I have work to do. Shana brought my laptop from the office. I’ll set it up in the guest room.”
“All right. I’ve got things to do myself.” Like figure out how the hell he was going to track the men who had attacked them. He needed a lead, something to help him connect the dots. Heath Ford had said one of the shooters was in the hospital. Maybe he was awake by now. Maybe he could tell them something.
Harper’s footsteps receded on the hardwood floors as she walked down the hall.
Dammit, he’d been hoping to talk to Knox Winston. Now Winston was in jail.
He used his iPhone to call Detective Ford for an update on the shooter in the hospital. “I need something, Heath. Anything you come up with might help.”
“Guy’s awake,” Heath said. “Name’s Rico Gonzales. MS-13 gangbanger. He’s in rough shape. Caught a bullet in the lung. So far he isn’t talking. Seems more afraid of the guy he works for than going to jail.”
“He didn’t give you any idea who that might be?”
“Like I said. He isn’t talking.”
“Keep me posted, will you?”
“You know I will,” Heath said.
Frustrated, Chase ended the call. His shoulder was throbbing so he stretched out on the sofa to rest for a while. He must have fallen asleep. When he awoke, Maddox had the noon news on TV.
“Check it out,” Jase said, turning up the volume.
Chase sat up and focused on the broadcast. As Zach Tanner had predicted, Knox Winston’s arrest was the lead story of the day.
Harper had been working in the guest bedroom all morning. She’d started by calling her insurance company to file a claim on her town house. She had no idea how long it would take to settle the claim or where she’d end up living until things got back to normal, but she had even bigger problems right now.
Preferring to immerse herself in work rather than think about the trouble surrounding her, she opened her laptop and started going over some of the new designs Shana had sent via email. She gave her friend some feedback, then took a look at invoices that hadn’t been paid.
Her stomach growled. She’d only had a bagel all day, eaten at noon as she’d watched the news on her laptop. As Agent Tanner predicted, it gave all the lurid details of her father’s arrest.
Afterward, she was so depressed she crawled into bed, pulled a pillow over her head and slept for a couple of hours. When she awoke, she pushed her worry aside and worked for a while.
It was six o’clock now. She was hungry, and she couldn’t hide out in the bedroom any longer. And she was fairly sure if she didn’t come out soon, Chase would come in and get her.
She was making her way to the door when her cell phone began to ring. She pulled it out of her jeans pocket but didn’t recognize the caller ID.
“Ms. Winston?” An older man, she thought, the voice slightly familiar.
“This is Harper Winston.”
