Lois Dyer - Chase's Promise

He moved away to serve guests farther down the bar and Chase tossed back his drink. “So much for Trey having visited the hotel lounge that night.” He gestured at the untouched glass of wine in front of Raine. “Are you going to drink that?”

“What? Oh…no.”

They left the lounge and crossed the elegant lobby to the elevators. Chase pushed the call button and looked down at her. “We’ve barely started,” he said gruffly. “I didn’t expect to get a solid lead tonight.”

“You didn’t?” Surprised, she met his eyes. “But I thought you felt we would learn something at the Bull ’n’ Bash.”

“It was an outside shot. It’s the first place the police would have gone and chances were their search was thorough. The Bull ’n’ Bash is a bar with a regular clientele; if Trey had been there, he would have stood out. The employees or one of the usual customers would probably have remembered him because he wasn’t a regular. They would have told the cops, who in turn would have told you.”

“Then why did we come here?”

“Because I never accept another professional’s version of the facts.”

“Ah.” Raine nodded. “Being thorough and verifying reports is part of the package that results in your 98 percent success rating.”

“You did your homework before you hired me.”

“Of course.” She eyed him. “I was hoping you’d succeeded in finding your quarry 100 percent of the time.”

“Nobody in the business has a 100 percent record.”

“Does anyone have a 99 percent rating?”

“Not anyone I know.”

“So if Trey can be found, you’re the man most likely to find him.” It wasn’t a question. In fact, Raine realized she was stating her own conviction and hope aloud.

He didn’t reply, merely shrugged.

The elevator chimed and the doors whisked open. A group of five men in business suits, intent on their conversation, left the elevator.

Beside her, Raine felt Chase go suddenly still. She stared up at him and was surprised to see cold menace on his features, his gaze focused intently on the group.

She looked at the men, her swift intake of breath a mere whisper as she recognized Harlan Kerrigan.

A distinguished, silver-haired man was the last to exit the elevator. Deep in conversation with Harlan, he walked past them before he stopped abruptly. Recognition lit his features and he grinned broadly.

“Chase.” He spun on his heel. “Good to see you. How’s your dad?”

“He’s well, Senator Harris. Busy as always,” Chase replied, shaking the man’s outstretched hand.

“That’s our John. I keep telling him he needs a vacation now and then. He should take that pretty mother of yours to Mexico and soak up some sun.” He laughed and looked expectantly at Raine.

“Senator, I’d like you to meet Raine Harper. Raine, this is Senator Bill Harris.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Senator.” Raine held out her hand and smiled. Her gaze didn’t stray to Harlan, standing silently just beyond the senator.

“The pleasure’s all mine, Miss Harper.” The senator smiled benignly. “Your name seems familiar…?”

“Raine and her brother own several businesses in Wolf Creek,” Chase told him.

“Ah, yes, of course. My wife and I stayed at the Harper Hotel last summer.”

“I hope you enjoyed your time with us,” Raine replied.

“We did. I was impressed with the friendliness of the staff,” the senator said. “Well, I’d better let you two go.” He looked at Harlan. “I’m holding up a business meeting.”

Harlan managed a polite smile for the senator, however his expression held barely concealed dislike as he swept Chase and Raine with an assessing, cold stare.

Raine’s scalp prickled. She felt an urge to step back out of the line of fire. But the senator merely lifted an eyebrow at Chase, nodded slightly in what appeared to be an acknowledgment of some sort and drew Harlan away.

Chase appeared to dismiss the incident; he pushed the elevator call button again. The doors sprang open immediately and he took Raine’s arm, ushering her inside.

The doors slid shut, cutting off their view of the lobby just as Harlan and the senator disappeared through the archway into the restaurant.

“Well, that was interesting,” Raine said, unable to let the matter drop.

Chase looked directly at her, and she had to steel herself to keep from retreating before the anger in the fierce, bright blue eyes. “What?” he said, the very softness and lack of inflection in his voice a threat.

“You and Harlan Kerrigan.” Raine cocked her head to one side, eyeing him. “You reminded me of two heavyweight boxers being weighed in on ESPN before the big fight. The air practically crackled with hostility. I expected the two of you to take a swing at each other any minute.”

“Boxers?” He seemed taken aback. “What do you know about boxers psyching each other out before a fight?”

“My dad was a boxing fan,” she explained, pleased to have surprised him. “I grew up watching film clips of Smokin’ Joe Frazier and Cassius Clay, before he renamed himself Muhammad Ali. Let’s see, who else? Oh, yes. Mike Tyson. Dad wasn’t a big fan of Tyson, though.”

“I remember watching fights with your dad,” Chase said, a faint smile brightening his somber features. “But I don’t recall you being there.”

“I didn’t start watching boxing with him until after Mike died,” Raine said. She used her brother’s name purposely, intent on reading Chase’s features as he registered her remark.

His face went blank.

The elevator pinged a warning and the doors whisked open.

“This is our floor,” Chase said.

She didn’t miss the fact that he hadn’t responded when she’d brought up Mike. Interesting, she thought. She’d always wondered how Chase felt about Mike’s death. Had he grieved the loss of his best friend? Did he still? Or did he resent and blame Mike for the years he had spent in jail after Mike died?

She was no nearer to the answer now than she’d been fifteen years ago. And she still wanted to know, needed to know if the boy she’d adored as a little girl still existed, deep inside the complicated, dangerous man walking by her side.

C hase didn’t wake Raine during the night. His computer search turned up nothing of interest on Trey Harper—no activity on his credit card or bank accounts and no new information on the whereabouts of his vehicle. Chase sent an e-mail to Ren Colter at the Seattle office of Colter & McCloud Investigations and asked his partner to run national searches for Trey through the usual resources. Finally, at 2:00 a.m., he shut down his laptop and went to bed. Given the nature of his job, he’d developed the ability to fall asleep instantly and wake just as quickly but tonight, thoughts of Raine kept him awake.

He remembered the little girl she’d once been. He was five years older than her and Trey but the much younger twins had followed him and Mike on occasion, wanting to join in their adventures. One hot summer day, Raine had fallen out of a tree house they’d built in Mike’s backyard and broken her arm; afterward, Mr. Harper and his own dad had lectured them at length about looking after her and Trey. When her exasperated mother had caught Raine trying to climb the tree with her arm in a cast, Chase and Mike had dismantled the aerie and built one in the McCloud yard.

It was hard to equate the adult Raine with that little girl. Except for the dark hair and the gray eyes with their thick black lashes, nothing about her was familiar. Those gray eyes held a woman’s secrets, the dark brown hair a sexy, sleek fall that called attention to the delicate shells of her ears and shape of her face. High cheekbones framed the classic line of her small nose and the lush fullness of her mouth. Raine’s very adult, very feminine curves and long legs were nothing like the angular body and coltish limbs of the child that had tagged after her brothers and Chase.