“You can go back. I’m going to stay and wait for Becca and Angela to return. I’ll call you when they show.” Cara spun in place and walked back into the cabana.
“That’s ridiculous. We’ll go back together and figure out another way to track them down. I’ve already got my FBI partner, Howard, trying to find a way to track their movements.” Howard had started to gather both of their sisters’ phone and credit card records. Maybe he’d found a lead.
Cara started digging through her suitcase and pulled out some clothes. “Becca’s visions are never wrong.” Cara clutched the clothes to her chest. “If she said she’ll be back Sunday, then she will. I know you don’t believe in her or me, and that’s fine, but I believe in her, so I’m staying. I hope Howard and you enjoy your search, and I really do wish you luck.”
She might as well have just asked him to believe in the tooth fairy. At least that would have been more believable. Cara headed toward the bathroom.
The room turned cool from the ice in her voice. Coop crossed his arms over his chest. “Why should I believe your sister?”
His question stopped her in her tracks. She slowly turned around and pegged him with her glare. She was getting pissed. Had no one ever questioned her judgment before? He’d seen that look a dozen times before. He knew what was coming next, and he braced for her words.
“Listen, I don’t care what you believe. You came to me for help. Not the other way around. Our sisters are in danger, and I’m not stranding them to fend for themselves. If Becca said she’ll be back, then she’ll be back. I trust her visions, and I trust her. That’s more than I can say about you.”
“I’m not my brother, princess. So you can lose the bitchiness.”
“Yeah, and I’m not your princess. I have a name, so use it.”
“And come Sunday, when she doesn’t show? We’ll have wasted a week when we could have been searching for them.”
“It’s my week to waste. No one is keeping you here, Coop.” Cara’s lips pinched together as fire flickered in her eyes. He was one argument away from having to sleep in one of the patio chairs. He’d slept in worse.
Cara closed the bathroom door, and within minutes, he could hear the water running as she took a shower. It was going to be one hell of a long week.
Cara expectedCoop to be long gone when she finished her shower, but she wasn’t that lucky. She’d taken her time washing away the stress from the day, only to emerge fresh and clean to find Coop sitting outside under the moonlight, drinking a beer with the phone pressed to his ear. The smell of tomatoes drifted on the air, teasing her nose as she tossed her clothes back in her suitcase. Her stomach grumbled.
“Something smells good.”
“Howard, I’ll call you back. Keep searching.”
Cara held her grin in check. It appeared Mr. FBI was having about as much luck as Coop and her. Becca was staying off the government radar? Maybe those conspiracy books she read had come in handy. Thank goodness, Cara hadn’t given herSilence of the Lambs.
“I figured you’d be hungry, so I ordered us room service.”
Ten minutes ago, she would have argued he was an insensitive jerk. Now he was offering her food. Had there been dessert, she might have apologized too. Cara slid into one of the chairs opposite him and lifted the cover from her plate to find a huge portion of lasagna with breadsticks.
“Italian is my favorite.” And it showed on her thighs.
His lips twitched as he reached for the bottle of wine and poured her a glass. “Consider it my apology for being an ass.”
“Trying to get me drunk, Coop?”
“Nope, just trying to help you relax.”
She took a bite and moaned in satisfaction as a mixture of flavors burst in her mouth. With every savory bite, the tension in her shoulders dwindled a little more. As the herbs and garlic mellowed her, she tried to see Coop in a new light. Aguy who ordered her favorite meal couldn’t be all bad, right?
“You’re very…” he started to say.
“Hard-headed?” she asked.
“Loyal,” he corrected. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
Her brow rose, but she bit her tongue against starting another argument. Did he think she wouldn’t be? “You did the same for your sister. It must have been hard to come ask for my help since you’re a skeptic. Becca must have seen in a vision that you’d try.”
He took a sip of his beer, his gaze shuttered, guarded, as if he wasn’t sure how much to divulge. His food lay forgotten as he leaned back in his chair and tilted his head, as if studying her for the first time. Heat crept up into her cheeks, this time not from her temper but the way he watched her as she continued to eat. “I deal in facts. I believe in what I can see. What I can explain. Everything has a logical explanation; it has to in my line of work.”
She’d heard his words a thousand times before. It was one of the main reasons Cara and her sisters didn’t get involved in the cases unless requested by the authorities. They didn’t understand, unless they wanted to, unless they needed too. His lack of acceptance bothered hermore than it should, a feeling she wasn’t ready to analyze just yet.
“Okay.” Cara swallowed around her bite of bread. “Explain the gut feelings you get when trying to solve a case. Explain how it is that I knew they came to the island. Explain how Adam was floating in the air. Just because you can’t see the things I can, it doesn’t make them any less true.”
