“Bien sûr.Absolutely. I will call you back.” The phone went dead, and Chase walked back to the bunk to collect his gear. When he finished, he went to speak to Lupete, who was up on the flybridge, checking equipment.
Chase climbed the ladder to join him, let him know they wouldn’t be needing the boat any longer and paid him the balance of what he owed. His phone buzzed as he walked back into the salon. St. Ange had made the arrangements and would pick them up in twenty minutes for the trip to the Curaçao airport.
As the call ended, he looked up to see Harper walking into the salon, gripping her canvas bag. Harper seemed to gravitate toward bright colors. Another indicator she wasn’t as cool as her persona seemed to suggest.
“Looks like you’re ready,” he said. “St. Ange is coming to take us to the airport. We’ll make a stop in Aruba to collect the rest of our gear and check out of the hotel. I’ve got some arrangements to make before he gets here.”
Harper looked up at him, her features strained. “Do you really think there’s a chance they’re still alive?”
A slim one, maybe. But there was always a chance. “Knox Winston is worth a lot of money. Whatever my feelings about him, I don’t think he’d hesitate to pay his son’s ransom, no matter how much it was. If people found out, it might affect his reputation and he wouldn’t want that.”
Harper frowned at the remark.
Clearly Knox’s daughter had no idea the man he really was, a reminder to Chase to keep his distance.
“I know you and Michael both received substantial inheritances from your mother,” he continued. “So I assume Michael’s worth plenty of money on his own.”
“He’s also a very successful businessman,” Harper added.
“Money’s everything down there. Your brother’s smart. He’ll try to work that angle. So yes, I think there’s a good chance they’re still alive.”
Some of the tension seeped out of her shoulders. “I know you don’t want me to go, but thank you for taking me with you.”
Chase felt a pang in his chest. It was followed by a trickle of irritation. “The last thing I want is for you to thank me for putting your life in danger. Now, check your bag and finish getting ready to go.”
Harper sat in the seat behind Chase in the chartered Piper Twin Comanche that St. Ange had arranged for their flight to Colombia.
Before the pilot took off, Chase had done a thorough inspection of the aircraft to be sure it was in satisfactory condition. Apparently, he was a pilot himself, Harper had learned, the owner of a twin-engine Baron he and his brothers flew down to their Hill Country ranch.
As she’d waited on the tarmac for the plane to be loaded, Harper had phoned Christy Riggs. She’d told Christy that Pia and Michael had sailed from Curaçao, and that she and Chase were still looking for them. Christy was going to update Pia’s worried parents, who would undoubtedly phone the Aruba police, but Chase had cautioned Harper not to mention their trip to Colombia.
Chase, she had learned, was a very cautious man.
The engine hummed as the plane winged over the open sea where miles of ocean glittered in the sun below them. Harper found her tired muscles relaxing, her head nodding, her eyelids drooping. She hadn’t slept much last night.
When she had, she’d dreamed about Michael, little things she remembered from when they were kids. Michael teaching her to play blackjack, which their mother disapproved of, staying home on the weekend to help with her homework.
Five years older, he had always been protective, had often taken the blame for things she had done. He had paid the price with their father, who had never approved of Michael’s more sensitive nature. He wanted a son tough enough to take over his business empire. Michael’s gentle disposition was more like their mother’s.
Their mother’s suicide had hit him hard, perhaps the initial push toward drugs and alcohol. After recovering from his addiction, Michael had become a stronger man, one who dealt with adversity instead of becoming a victim of its whims. He would fight to live, she believed. And he would do his best to protect the young woman who was with him.
Her last thought before she drifted into sleep was that if Michael could be strong, so could she.
It wasn’t much later that the wheels touching down on the runway jolted her awake. Dutch was waiting when the plane rolled up to the executive terminal for their brief stop in Aruba to pick up their gear. At Chase’s instruction, the big Dutchman had gone to the hotel earlier that morning, packed their bags and checked them out of the suite.
Harper didn’t like to think of a stranger rummaging through the silk thong panties and push-up bras in the dresser drawers, but it was faster than doing it themselves, wasting time when there was no time to waste.
In less than thirty minutes, they were back in the air, the engines humming as the plane soared over the turquoise sea toward Santa Marta, three hundred miles away. The pilot, a thin man with course black hair, seemed to be competent, and Chase could fly the plane if he had to.
Chase.Harper could still remember the way he had held her when she had cried that morning. When she was younger, she’d had an unwanted crush on Chase Garrett for years. Before her move back to Dallas, she had stupidly believed she had outgrown her infatuation, only to discover it had actually gotten worse.
Maybe when this was over and Michael was safe, she would act on the desire for him she worked so hard to ignore. Maybe she would seduce him, prey on the hunger she had begun to recognize in his eyes. Maybe she could satisfy her ridiculous fascination and put an end to the hopeless attraction she felt for him.
The idea was tempting, particularly after she had seen him nearly naked that morning, looking spectacularly good in nothing but a pair of small white briefs. She flushed to remember that he had been aroused, and wondered if it was possible she had been the cause. It was something to think about instead of her constant fear for her brother.
As the engines droned on and her body relaxed once more into sleep, she thought that her idea of seducing him might actually work. As soon as they found Michael, she might even work up the courage to try it.
Chapter Twelve
