Chase coughed. “No.” Another cough. “They don’t.” He smiled as he sat down beside Evie. “But we take it. Our techs can work all sorts of magic.” He moved his hand around in a little swirl. “By the way, I’m Chase. We spoke a few times on the phone.”
“Right. Chase.” Harrison huffed out a rough breath. “Wait, back up, are you telling me that you’re breaking the law?”
Chase nodded and, at the same time, he replied, “Absolutely not.”
Harrison opened his mouth. Closed it. Then sat down—rather heavily—in a nearby chair. One that, of course, was a perfect mate to the couch.
For a moment, no one spoke.
“We need to get Evie to a secure location.” Harrison peered at the floor as he seemed to consider options. “Maybe she should fly away.” He looked up at her. “You know, I have that place down in Florida. You liked the beaches there, right, Evie?”
She had liked the beaches, but… “You want me to go and hide?”
His lips thinned. “Hiding seems far better than being taken by these bastards.”
Giving up her life didn’t seem like the best plan to her. “How do we know these kidnappers are the same ones who came after me before?”
Harrison tugged on his left earlobe.
She straightened. Uh, oh.
“I think we should just assume they are the same,” he mumbled. “I mean, statistically, the odds of you attracting two different sets of kidnappers just aren’t—”
“Stop.”
He swallowed. Tugged on his ear again.
“First, I didn’t attract the kidnappers. Not like I shined a bat symbol at them or something and invited them over to grab me.”
Chase snorted.
“No, no, of course,” Harrison rushed to say. “I didn’t mean—”
“You’re tugging on your left ear. That means you’re holding back on me.”
His shoulders slumped. “I got an email. That’s why I went to Wilde in the first place. I turned it over to them, thinking they could track the sender. Hoping we could stop this mess before it went too far.”
Goosebumps rose on her skin. “You didn’t tell me anything about an email.” Her head turned so she could look back at Cole. “Did you know about an email?”
“No. My boss didn’t mention it to me.” A pause. “Very unlike Eric.”
Her attention flew back to Harrison. “What did the email say?”
Harrison winced. “I mean, does it really matter? It was enough to put me on alert. Enough for me to think it was the same guys and to go and get the help that we needed to—”
“Tell her what it said,” Cole ordered.
Chase nodded. “Yeah, stop dicking around.”
“It, um…said…” Harrison’s gaze went back to the floor. “This time, we’ll send her back to you in pieces if you don’t pay us what your father owed.”
She almost jumped off the couch. “Your father? What does Quint have to do with any of this?”
“I don’t know. I swear, I don’t!” He did jump from his chair. “I’m not letting someone cut you into pieces. I’m not!”
“Damn straight, that’s not happening,” Cole added grimly.
Her breath sawed in and out. “No one could trace the email?” Someone wants to cut me into pieces?
“Eric Wilde’s team tried, but they didn’t turn up anything we could really use.”
Eric Wilde. Yes, that name was definitely familiar. More familiar than she could show. Eric owned the huge security and protection firm. Wilde.
Harrison raked a hand through his hair. “That’s when I knew you had to get protection. I told Eric that only Cole would do, and I got Cole to take the case so that—”
“Stop.” Her heart slammed into her chest. Hard. “Go back.”
His hand had frozen, mid-grab on his hair.
“Only Cole would do?” Evie repeated. She was trying not to think too much about the whole cut her into pieces part. If she thought about that, she’d freak the hell out. But now these other words from her step-brother made her think… “You forced Cole to take this job?”
How humiliating. Oh, God. Cole hadn’t wanted to come back. He’d done it because Harrison had forced him to take the job. Her step-brother had made her ex come back to protect her. And here she’d thought that the day couldn’t get any worse.
“Don’t look at me like that, Evie. I needed someone you trusted,” Harrison blurted. “You don’t let people get close to you. I mean, you act like you do, but we both know you put up a wall.” He pointed toward Cole. “Except you didn’t do it with him. Your life is on the line. I couldn’t leave your safety in just anyone’s hands.”
She could feel her face burning. He’d paid her ex to watch her. Wonderful.
“I want to talk to Evie,” Cole announced. His voice was low and hard and menacing. “Alone.”
Harrison’s mouth opened.
“Alone. We need to clear the air about a few things before anything else happens. This is a non-negotiable point. That means, Harrison, I want you and Chase to get your asses out of this room. Now.”
Chase rose. Headed toward Harrison and clapped him on the shoulder. “How about you take me on a quick tour of your place? Just so you know, I prefer tours that begin in areas that house alcohol. So if you’ve got some old whiskey, start me there.”
Harrison frowned at him. “But…you’re working.”
Another clap on the shoulder. “Didn’t say I was drinking. Said that was where I wanted to start the tour.” He peered over at Cole. “Let me know when the private chat time is done.”
Harrison and Chase filed out, but her step-brother didn’t look happy.
Not like she was thrilled with the situation, either.
She could also not just keep sitting on the couch like everything was all casual and easy. Evie surged to her feet. “I’m sorry.” She hurried toward the floor to ceiling windows. Stared out at the city but didn’t see a thing. “If Harrison had told me that he was going to you, I would have stopped him. I would have told Harrison that he should never have forced you back to me.” Jeez. That humiliation cut deep.
“That what you think happened? Your step-brother made me come back to you?”
There was something in his voice…A bitterness. No, more than that. Anger?
She turned toward him. “Isn’t that what happened?”
Chapter Three
Or…hell, no, I wasn’t forced back. When you’re in danger, nothing can keep me away from you. I’m kinda obsessed that way. Let’s all deal with it.
“Didn’t my brother make you come back?”
He knew that he had to tread very, very damn carefully. Because just from those few minutes of conversation that had involved jackass Harrison White, Cole had realized that the man had been keeping secrets from Evie. Cole wasn’t just thinking about the fact that Harrison hadn’t told Evie that he’d gone to Wilde in order to hire Cole.
No…he was thinking about…
About the time I came back to New York. Told Harrison I wanted his sister.