“Fine. I’m going to bring Maddox in here. Maybe he can talk some sense into you.” Harper opened the door to find Jason sitting in a chair where he had spent the night in case there was more trouble. He rose as the door swung open.
“I need your help, Jason,” she said. “This bullheaded idiot is trying to get out of bed.”
Maddox just grunted. “This isn’t his first rodeo. He knows what his body can take.”
Maddox walked into the room as Chase finished disconnecting himself. “I gather you’re feeling better,” Jason said.
“Thanks for watching out for her. I need to get her somewhere safe till we can figure this out.”
“The ranch?” Maddox asked calmly, as if Chase hadn’t been shot two times last night.
“My condo for starters.” He tipped his head toward the locker next to the bathroom. “Hand me my clothes.”
“Dammit, Chase! Be reasonable.”
Chase looked up at Maddox and grinned. “She’s worried about me.”
“Yeah, I figured that out last night.” Maddox turned toward the door. “You don’t have any clothes. They cut off your pants last night. Since you’d dressed commando, that’s all you had on. I’ll find you some scrubs.”
Harper looked up at the ceiling. “Madmen. You’re both insane.”
Maddox unclipped his pistol from his belt beneath his T-shirt and handed it to Chase. “Kimber .40 cal. My backup piece. The cops took our weapons into evidence. The office isn’t far. You can pick up something there before we head out.”
Maddox disappeared into the hall, and the door swished closed behind him.
“All right,” Harper said, both frustrated and resigned. “Obviously you have some kind of plan. I need to know what’s going on.”
The door swung open before Chase had time to answer, and a man with jet-black hair and ice-blue eyes walked in. He was even taller than Chase, and in an opposite, dark-versus-light sort of way, just as good-looking, with model-perfect features and a powerful, athletic build.
Harper knew who he was. She had seen Reese Garrett at a couple of fund-raisers, but Chase and Reese had been raised by different parents, so Harper had never met him.
Reese set a worried hand on his brother’s uninjured shoulder. “I heard what happened. How are you doing?”
“I’m alive. That’s always good.”
Reese’s mouth edged up but he didn’t actually smile. He was worried and he didn’t try to hide it. It was nice to see the affection the Garrett brothers felt for each other.
“I figured Maddox would call you and Bran,” Chase said. “Harper, this is my brother Reese. Reese, meet Harper Winston.”
Reese’s features darkened, his eyes turning a cool, distant blue and pinning her where she stood. Clearly he felt the same animosity toward her father that Chase and Brandon felt.
She flushed to think what she must look like, with her hair a mess and dressed in ugly green scrubs. She forced herself not to step back at the hard look on his too-handsome face.
“She isn’t her father,” Chase warned, a note in his voice that had Reese’s gaze swinging back in his direction. A look passed between them, but Harper had no idea what it meant.
“Nice to meet you,” Reese said to her.
“You, too.”
Reese frowned as he realized Chase was about to leave. “They’re releasing you?”
“I’m leaving. There are things I need to do.”
“Maddox filled me in on the fire and the shoot-out last night. You two need to be somewhere safe.”
“I’m trying to work that out. My condo has round-the-clock security, and my unit has a top-of-the-line alarm system. Men died last night. Some got away, others didn’t. Whoever these guys are, they’re going to need time to regroup, figure a new strategy before they come after Harper again.”
“You don’t think they’re going to quit,” Reese said, not a question.
