Falling for the Brother

Finally. A legitimate reason for the call he’d been yearning to make all morning. And an excuse to head back to Santa Raquel, too.

* * *

HARPER WAS SITTING in the surveillance room, watching cameras with Tasha while the officer assigned to that duty was at lunch, when her phone rang. One look at the screen and, heart pounding, she motioned to Tasha that she had to step out and took the call as she headed onto the grounds.

Being cooped up in her office wasn’t an option at the moment. She needed air. Space.

He must’ve found out that she’d agreed to come to town. Had Bruce talked up the visit and he’d heard about it at the station?

Feeling guilty she started right in, “I don’t know if I can make it or not. I need confirmation of an arrest here, and was waiting to call you until I’m sure what’s going on.”

She should’ve called him. She’d known the second she’d seen his name pop up. He was conducting a legitimate investigation. She’d agreed to cooperate. Hiding Bruce’s phone call made her look guilty.

She was a cop. She knew how things worked.

She also loved the sound of Mason’s voice. Even when it was saying, “What are you talking about? You know this is Mason, right?”

“Of course I know it’s you.” Her heart thundered inappropriately in her chest—that, not the phone call, was what made her feel disloyal to her ex.

“Mind explaining, then, what it is you don’t know if you can make? Did I sleepwalk through a phone conversation in which we made some sort of plan?”

His tone sounded…teasing. Her entire being flooded with desire.

“No… I thought…never mind. Bruce called me this morning. He wants to see Brianna and now that he’s trapped up there on a job all week, wants me to bring her up tomorrow for a picnic lunch on the beach.”

“And you told him you would.” Not even a hint of teasing now.

“I did. Yes.” She was the head of security, a licensed cop, doing her job. “He has a legal right to see her. I determined that it was best to keep him away from Santa Raquel and Miriam.”

“What arrest is pending?”

She told him what she could about Bella. Just the basics of having a new resident with an active abuser threat. “Police expect to have him in custody this afternoon.”

“And you can’t leave until that happens.”

“Right.”

He didn’t sound angry…not exactly.

“Then you were going to call and tell me you’d talked to Bruce?”

He had doubts. She could hear it in his voice.

“I swear to you.” She had no doubts herself where that was concerned. “I wouldn’t have seen Bruce without letting you know first.” Yet, as she heard herself say the words, she felt that prick of guilt again.

Bruce was the man to whom she’d been married. They were raising a child together. That alone denoted a sense of…loyalty.

Ganging up on him with the lover who’d thrilled her more in one night than Bruce ever had was just wrong. Had to be wrong. And that was before factoring in their brotherhood.

His silence bothered her. “Wait…if you didn’t know about the pending visitation, why were you calling?”

“It’s kind of a moot point at the moment,” he said. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Was he upset with her? Did he care that she hadn’t called him right away? Put him first?

Why should he care about her or who she put first in her life?

What was wrong with her that she was still craving Mason’s regard? She had been since the day she’d met him, more than six years before. That family dinner, when Bruce had introduced her to his FBI brother, had been a day she’d never forgotten.

And never remembered without a load of guilt piling up on her.

She’d loved Bruce. But Mason… His presence had overpowered her. It wasn’t love or anything relationships were built on. It couldn’t have been. She’d just met him. And truly did love Bruce. But that day, and the days that followed, the dreams she’d had—both daydreams and when she was asleep at night…

“Miriam agreed to meet Grace…” She tuned in as he started to explain himself. “I was calling to arrange for security clearance for Grace in the family visiting room.”