Not until the police had called with the terrible news of her murder and Kate had gone to the morgue.
How she’d wound up half drunk at the Sagebrush Saloon still wasn’t completely clear. She’d just been desperate to get the image of Chrissy’s battered and bludgeoned body out of her head, and for a while in the backseat with Jason, it had actually worked.
It was impossible to think of anything but those big hands on her breasts and the thick ridge beneath the fly of his jeans. God, she had never known that kind of want before.
The elevator dinged its arrival on the third floor of the building, and Kate shoved the memory away.
There was a small reception area in the front of the office. Her assistant, Laura Delgado, an attractive Latina woman in her twenties with long straight black hair clipped back at her nape, sat behind a computer, clicking away on the keyboard. Kate waved and kept walking.
Beyond the reception area were three private offices and a conference room. None were large, but the dark blue-and-gray motif was sleek and sophisticated and gave the impression of success—imperative in the consulting business where an analyst’s job was to give advice on how to make more money.
Kate closed her office door, took a seat behind her glass-and-chrome desk, turned on her computer and started scouring the internet. It didn’t take long to come up with a list of security firms that handled private investigation. The firms were star-rated by reviews.
An hour later, she had narrowed her choices down to three. At the top of the list with the highest reviews was a company called Maximum Security, owned by an investigator named Chase Garrett. Kate knew who he was. Chase and his two brothers were megarich, the co-owners of Garrett Resources, a Texas-based oil and gas company.
The middle brother, Reese, ran the business while Chase and Brandon had chosen careers in law enforcement. The Garretts were Dallas elite, and were frequently featured in local news articles. Kate jotted down the address of Maximum Security, as well as two alternate choices. Might as well start with the best and work her way down.
Kate grabbed her purse and headed out the door.
It had been one helluva week, Jase thought. He’d spent the last few days in Houston, trying to locate Rosa Diaz or her brother, Paulo. Trying to hunt down Randy Harding.
The closest he got was finding the garage where Paulo Diaz worked, Ray’s Auto Body. Apparently Paulo didn’t like Harding any better than anyone else, so Jase didn’t have to press too hard to get information.
“The no goodpendajoleft town three days ago. He knocked the crap out of my sister, but she still went with him.” Paulo spit on the ground outside the metal shop door. He was a little guy, black hair and a few tattoos, probably a lot tougher than he looked. “Women.I do not understand them.”
“Neither do I, Paulo, and we probably never will. Does Rosa know what happened to the last woman Harding lived with? She know that after she left him, Randy broke into her house, beat her and ended up strangling her to death? Does Rosa know he’s wanted on murder charges?”
“She says he did not do it. She says Randy ended things with the woman after he met Rosa. She says he only hits her because he is jealous. It means he loves her.”
“Yeah, right. You got any idea where they went?” When Paulo didn’t answer right away, Jase held up a hundred-dollar bill. One thing he’d learned—money talked and bullshit walked.
“If I knew, I would tell you,” Paulo said. “You would not need to pay me.”
“I guess I don’t have to tell you not to let your sister know I’m hunting him.”
“I won’t tell her. Rosa is a fool when it comes to Harding.”
“Sooner or later, I’ll find him. I just hope for Rosa’s sake, it’s sooner.”
That was two days ago. Now he was back in Dallas, digging into Randy’s past, looking for something he might have missed. He needed to figure out where Harding was now that he’d left Houston and taken Rosa with him.
He looked up as the glass front door opened. The Max, the guys called it, a single-story brick building on Blackburn Street, was a great place to work. The décor was masculine, kind of Western, like the Sagebrush Saloon only nicer, with a tufted dark red leather sofa and chairs in the waiting area, oak desks, and antique farming tools on the walls.
The woman who had just walked in was sophisticated and modern from the sleek blond knot twisted at the nape of her neck, to the burgundy skirt-suit she was wearing with gold jewelry. He couldn’t see her face, but she was tall and curvy. Even the business clothes couldn’t hide her spectacular figure.
“I’d like to see Chase Garrett,” she said to the receptionist. “I’m hoping he’s here.”
“Do you have an appointment?” Mindy Stewart, a petite brunette, flashed her trademark smile.
“I’m afraid I don’t.” That voice...like whiskey and cream and sexy as hell.
“May I have your name?”
“Kathryn Gallagher.”
She turned a little and Jase came out of his seat.Just Katehadn’t been at the Sagebrush Saloon Friday night, but she had just walked into The Max. He hadn’t pursued her. Instead, she had come to him.
The bad news was she was looking for another man.
