The Conspiracy Page 2

  Tammy wrapped her arms around herself and shivered as if she were freezing, though the room was overly warm. “Thank you for helping me.”

  He nodded, glad he had found her.

  But, of course, it wasn’t that easy. Only a few minutes had passed before heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs. The door flew open, and Martinez walked into the room. The bed was still made and Tammy wasn’t naked, which pretty much told the story.

  “I figured you were a cop.”

  “I’m not a cop. I bought the whole night. I didn’t figure there was any need to hurry. And I’d appreciate a little privacy. For the money I paid, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

  “Bullshit. Give me your wallet.”

  “Not gonna happen,” Chase said, shaking his head. “We made a deal. You got paid. I get the girl.”

  Martinez laughed and lunged forward like a pit bull entering the ring. He wasn’t laughing when Chase’s boot shot up and landed hard between his legs, lifting him clear off the floor.

  Gasping and howling, Martinez dropped to his knees, fell over and rolled on the dirty brown carpet, clutching his balls and groaning, his face a weird bluish red.

  Chase grabbed Tammy’s hand and tugged her toward the door. They raced down the dimly lit hall and tore down the stairs at breakneck speed. Unfortunately, when they reached the landing, what looked like half the bar waited for them at the bottom of the stairs. In this part of town, the bad guys had a habit of sticking together.

  Chase jerked the little .380 out of the holster behind his back, and fired two shots into the ceiling, choosing a spot he hoped wouldn’t kill someone on the second floor. Plaster rained down and the crowd scattered, giving them a clear path to the door. Gun in hand, Chase pulled Tammy out the door onto the sidewalk.

  “This way!” he shouted, keeping his gun aimed toward the front door as he headed for his truck. Police sirens wailed in the distance. Red and blue lights flashed and patrol cars roared around the corner, sliding to a stop in front of the bar. Car doors flew open and uniformed officers poured out, guns drawn.

  Chase leaned down and set his pistol on the sidewalk in front of him, lifted his hands in the air. “Over here!” Officers spotted him, turned and ran in his direction.

  “I’m Chase Garrett,” he said. “I’m a private detective. I’m the one who called you.”

  A big redheaded cop used his foot to move the pistol a little farther down the sidewalk. “You’re Garrett?”

  “That’s right. The girl’s Tammy Bennett.”

  The officer patted him down in search of other weapons, which for once he didn’t have.

  “He saved me,” Tammy said, tears running down her cheeks. “Please... I’m sorry I ran away. I just want to go home.”

  A female officer hurried over. “It’s okay, honey. We’ve already called your parents. Everything’s going to be okay.” The woman took Tammy’s arm and led her away. The two of them talked for a moment, then the officer opened the back door of a patrol car and settled the girl inside.

  Chase followed them, leaned down and handed Tammy a business card. “Next time you think about running away, you call me, okay?”

  She studied the card and looked up at him. “Thank you.” She wiped tears from her cheeks. “I’ll never forget what you did.”

  The red-haired cop returned. O’Kelley his name tag read. “We’re going to need a statement.”

  “No problem.”

  O’Kelley’s gaze moved off toward the bar. “The guy in there? That’s Ray Martinez. He’s one tough hombre. You made a bad enemy with that one.”

  “With any luck he’s on his way to jail for a good long while. But thanks for the warning.”

  It didn’t take long for Chase to give his version of events, and he was finally able to head on home. It was a long day, but a good one. He just hoped Tammy and her parents could find their way back to each other.

  Chapter Three

  She hadn’t thought she would be this nervous. But as an ominous fall wind whipped her pale hair and dark clouds threatened rain, Harper’s mouth felt dry and her palms were sweating. Crossing the sidewalk, she paused to take a deep breath, then pushed through the glass front door into the single-story brick building that housed the offices of Maximum Security.

  For her meeting with Chase, she had dressed with care in a navy blue cotton pencil skirt, a crisp print blouse, tucked in and belted, and high-heeled navy pumps. Simple, classic pieces, moderately priced, from the latest Elemental Chic collection.

  “May I help you?” A perky little receptionist, pretty and dark haired, with big blue eyes behind round tortoiseshell glasses, sat at the front desk.

  “I’m Harper Winston. We spoke on the phone yesterday. You made an appointment for me with Chase Garrett.”

  “Yes, I remember. Chase saw it when he checked his calendar this morning. I’ll let him know you’re here.” She buzzed him and announced Harper’s arrival. Harper had no idea what sort of greeting she would receive.

  The petite brunette smiled. “You can go on back. His office is just through that door.”

  Harper crossed the room, paused for a moment to steady herself and pulled open the door. She walked into an airy corner office furnished with a big oak desk, a brown leather sofa and photos on the walls of the Hill Country ranch Chase owned with his brothers, Reese and Brandon.

  Seated behind the desk, Chase rose, walked around and took the hand she extended in greeting. “Hello, Harper. It’s been a while.”

  “Hello, Chase.” She managed to come up with a smile. “Actually, I saw you last night at the gala.”

  His mouth curved. He’d always had the sexiest smile. She wished she hadn’t remembered.

  “Now that you mention it, I saw you there, too.”

  She withdrew her hand, ignoring the little tingle that raced up her arm. “You must have left early. I saw the article about your daring rescue in the newspaper this morning. You found that missing girl, Tammy Bennett.”

  He shrugged as if it meant nothing. “I followed a lead. I got lucky.”

  “You did a good thing.”

  “At least she’s back home. It’s going to take some time for her to heal after what happened. I hope it works out for her.” He walked back behind his desk. “Why don’t you sit down and tell me why you’re here?”

  She took a seat on the opposite side of the desk in one of two dark brown leather chairs, and Chase sat back down.

  “Can I have Mindy get you something? Coffee? Soft drink?”

  “No, I’m fine.” Her nerves returned. He had always had that effect on her. She crossed her legs. Chase’s whiskey-brown eyes followed the movement of her skirt hem, his gaze sliding over her bare thighs. She tugged the skirt down, surprised he had noticed.

  “What can I do for you, Harper?”

  She steeled herself. She had to convince him. Her brother’s life could very well depend on it.

  “I need your help, Chase. Mikey’s missing. I’m afraid something terrible has happened to him.”

  “Missing? Are you sure? How long has he been gone?”

  “Today’s the fifth day. Almost a week without a word.”

  “As I recall, it wasn’t unlike Michael to disappear for several weeks at a time. He always turned up sooner or later.”

  “He isn’t the same man he used to be. Michael doesn’t do drugs anymore. He hasn’t for nearly five years. He turned his life around, moved to Houston and started his own tech company. He was doing really well before he disappeared.”

  “What happened?”

  “Remember how he loved to sail?”

  “I remember. We went out on your dad’s yacht a few times when we were in college.”

  “Michael always loved the ocean. Last year he bought a forty-two-foot Beneteau. This year, he took a month off to sail the Caribbean.”

  “That’s where he was the last time you heard from him?”

  “That’s right. He would email or text every day or two, letting me know where he was and where he was going. He had a satellite phone and internet on the boat.” Her chest was beginning to ache. She was so worried about him.

  “Everything was fine. He was having a wonderful time. Then five days ago, I stopped hearing from him. No emails, no texts. Nothing. I’ve called his cell phone over and over, but the calls go straight to voice mail.” She swallowed past the lump that was forming in her throat. “I know he’s in trouble. I can feel it.”

  “You could be wrong, Harper.”

  She pulled herself back under control. “I’m not wrong. I know my brother. After he moved to Houston, we got really close. We made a deal before he left. I was worried about him going on a trip like that by himself. He promised he would get in touch every few days so I wouldn’t worry. He would never go this long without letting me know he was okay.”

  “You think he could have had some kind of trouble at sea? Some problem with the boat?”

  “No. He is a fantastic sailor. I think it’s something else. But I called the authorities in Aruba and reported him missing. I called the US Coast Guard and asked them to look for the boat. Apparently, they weren’t able to make radio contact, but they said sometimes that happens.”

  “What about the hospitals? Maybe he was in a car accident onshore or something.”

  “I called everywhere. Even the morgue.” A chill swept through her at the memory of the dreaded phone call she had forced herself to make.

  Chase shifted forward in his chair. “Aruba? That’s where he was the last time you heard from him?”

  “That’s right. So far no one’s found any sign of the boat or my brother.”

  His dark gaze never wavered. “So you’re here because you want me to find him.”

  Not exactly, but close. “I want you to go with me. I’m leaving for Aruba in the morning. I won’t be back till I know for sure Michael is safe.”

  Chase eyed her with speculation, then leaned back in his chair, giving himself some time, she figured.

  He didn’t want anything to do with the Winstons. He’d never approved of her father’s business tactics. And he believed Knox Winston’s emotional abuse had been the cause of Michael’s addiction.

  Chase had done his best to help her brother, but it hadn’t been enough. Not back then. But Michael had finally found the courage to defeat his addiction. Harper prayed Chase would be willing to help him again.

  “All right, I’ll go after him,” Chase finally agreed. “But I go alone, Harper. I’m a private investigator. That’s what I do for a living. I’ll find Michael for you. There’s no reason for you to get involved.”

  She shook her head. “I knew that’s what you’d say, and I understand your feelings. But I won’t sit here and do nothing. Not when I know Michael is in trouble.” She had only one brother. Her mother was dead. She and her father rarely spoke. She couldn’t lose Michael, too.

  “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.

  Over the years he and Michael had gone their separate ways, Chase ending up in law enforcement, a lifelong passion, Michael sliding deeper and deeper into drugs and alcohol—thanks to his no-good father.

  Knox Winston was a gangster in expensively tailored business clothes. His ruthless, shady dealings had made him obscenely rich, but at a tremendous cost. His wife had committed suicide. His son had overdosed more than once.

  How the man had escaped prosecution for so many years was something Chase could not comprehend.

  After his friendship with Michael had ended, Chase had stayed away from the family and until this morning, had every intention of keeping it that way. Now a pair of big blue eyes clouded with worry and memories of a man he had once loved like a brother were dragging him back into the fold.

  Chase silently cursed. Grabbing his navy blazer off the back of the chair, he shrugged it on over his jeans and shirt and walked out into the open area the guys called the bull pen.

  Nine oak desks arranged in rows of three were occupied by the independent contractors who worked at Maximum Security. Antique farming tools decorated the walls, along with framed photos of the ranch Chase owned with his brothers.

  Across the room, Jason Hawkins Maddox, a bail enforcement agent and one of his best friends, was heading out the door. They called him Hawk because he swooped down on his prey like a raptor and always came back with his man.

  At a desk a few feet away, Dante Romero and Lissa Blayne, both PIs, were arguing over a case, not unusual for the pair who did everything in their power to ignore the attraction between them. Chase shook his head and kept walking, making his way to the reception desk.

  “Mindy, I need you to cancel my appointments for the next three days. I may be gone longer. If I am, I’ll call and let you know.”

  “I’ll take care of it, boss.” Mindy was a temp who had been working at The Max less than three weeks, replacing a longtime employee who had retired to spend time with her grandkids.