“I don’t know what you think of me,” she continued, “but I’m not that naive young girl you knew all those years ago. There are ways I may be able to help. I’m going, Chase—with or without you.”
The words hung in the air, and she silently prayed he would agree. She needed his help, and both of them knew it. She prayed his past affection for Michael would be enough to sway him.
She swallowed, felt the sting of tears. “Please, Chase...” She couldn’t believe she was pleading, but she was desperate. “There isn’t anyone else I trust. I need your help.”
His jaw clenched. He swore a soft curse. “Fine, I’ll help you find him. With any luck he’s just back to his old tricks. He’s hooked up with some girl and both of them are binge drinking—or worse.”
Harper stood up from her chair. “You’re wrong. He isn’t like that anymore. And if you can’t at least give him the benefit of the doubt, then I don’t need you.” She stormed toward the door, but Chase was out of his chair and moving, blocking her escape.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair. I haven’t seen your brother in years. The Caribbean can be a dangerous place. If something’s happened to him, we’ll figure it out and we’ll find him. Okay?”
She swallowed and nodded, relief pouring through her. “Okay.”
“You said he was in Aruba when you last heard from him.”
“That’s right. He had just sailed into the marina in Oranjestad. That was five days ago. When I didn’t hear from him, I called the harbormaster to see if the boat was still there, but the slip he’d been using was empty. He had some fancy GPS tracking system on his sat phone, but I have no idea how it works.”
She dug into her purse, pulled out two first-class airline tickets. “The flight to Oranjestad leaves at seven ten in the morning.”
Chase’s dark blond eyebrows went up. “You were that sure I’d agree?”
“I wasn’t sure at all. But I was hoping and praying you would.”
Amusement touched his lips, then it was gone. “International flight. We’ll need to be at the airport early. I’ll pick you up at four thirty. What’s your address?”
When she rattled off a number on Armstrong Avenue, he seemed surprised. It was a nice neighborhood but not overly expensive. She didn’t take money from her father. She had a substantial inheritance from her mother, but she rarely used it, preferring to make her own way in the world, as she had done since she’d graduated from college.
She had only recently moved back to Dallas, following a decision to relocate Elemental Chic’s company headquarters. There were opportunities here that she and her business partner, Shana Davis, wanted to explore.
The company’s success was far more important to her than living in a fancy condo she rarely spent time in. Instead she owned a modest town house that suited her just fine.
Chase walked her back to the reception area.
“Thank you for doing this,” she said.
“Michael was once my best friend.”
She nodded. “He still talks about you, you know. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Chase pulled open the door. “Let’s hope you hear from your brother before it’s time to leave, and we won’t have to worry about going.”
But Harper believed soul-deep that if she didn’t find Michael before it was too late, he wouldn’t be coming back at all.
Chapter Four
Chase watched the willowy blonde walk out of his office to her car. With her sleek pale blond hair, delicate features and perfect complexion, she wasn’t just pretty, she was lovely in the extreme. He clamped down on a thread of sexual heat as she disappeared from view.
It surprised him. He remembered hearing talk at the country club before she moved to Houston. Rumor had it Harper Winston was an ice queen. Her ex-boyfriend had made jokes about taking a dead fish to bed. Aside from being slightly irritated on her behalf as a former friend of her brother’s, he hadn’t paid much attention.
Seeing her today, he wondered. The woman who had come into his office to help her brother was passionately determined, willing to put herself in danger to find the brother she obviously loved.
He couldn’t help but admire her. And it made him doubt what her ex and the country-club crowd had said. All that fire had come from somewhere deep inside. Maybe it just took the right man to stir the flames.
The thought didn’t sit well. The pull of attraction he had felt last night had only grown stronger today, reminding him of the first time he had seen her all those years ago.
She’d just turned sixteen that day. He’d let Michael drag him to her birthday party, both of them twenty-one, just graduated from Yale. He’d thought Harper looked like an angel.
Unfortunately, an angel who was his best friend’s sister, way too young and completely out of his reach.
