Falling for the Brother

* * *

HARPER WAS BUSY all morning with a new resident check-in—the young woman’s abuser, her ex-husband, had shown up at her home early that morning in spite of a restraining order, but had only managed to wrench her shoulder out of its socket and leave a few bruises before the cops showed up, called by a friend in the apartment next-door.

Unfortunately, Bella Anderson’s abuser had spotted the police car coming up the street, taken off and was still on the loose. Until he was in custody, the Stand was on high-threat alert—which meant that all entrances and exits, secret though they were, had two guards. Residents were on lockdown inside the grounds, and no visitors were allowed. It also meant that any employees coming or going had to have an armed escort. A desperate abuser might not hesitate to kidnap, hold hostage, hurt or kill an employee in an effort to get to his victim.

While all of this made Harper’s job much more intense, the day went on as usual for the residents and children living there. Except for the residents who’d been scheduled to work in the Stand-owned-and-run businesses on the strip bordering their property, who had the day off. There’d been no visitors scheduled. No residents had appointments outside the Stand that day.

Lila handled getting the secondhand store and computer shop staffed.

And then it was time for lunch.

Time to call Mason and let him know she’d be bringing Brianna to Albina in the morning to see Bruce.

Assuming Bella Anderson’s ex-husband was in custody. The Santa Raquel police expected that to happen within the hour.

Which was why Harper ate lunch before calling Mason. Might as well make sure she’d be going before raising the alarm.

With the imminent phone call on her mind, she ate alone in her office, thinking about Mason. About the fact that the night he’d slept with her, he hadn’t told her his brother had lied about sleeping with Gwen instead of a perp. About the fact that Mason had come looking for her that night, not sent by fate, as she’d always thought, but by Bruce.

She spent a lot of the twenty minutes obsessing about the twenty-four hours after waking in Mason’s bed without a phone call from him.

Interspersed with all the memories were moments of fighting with herself. She wanted him. More that day than ever before. Having him in her home had been a worse mistake than she’d ever imagined. She’d woken up over and over in the night, sweating, her body hot for him.

She was still hot. And wet, too. Just thinking about his shoulders lifting those weights. The touch of his fingers on her arm.

Why hadn’t Bruce ever made her feel that way?

Feeling as though she should tell her ex-husband about her encounters with Mason, feeling disloyal for not doing so, she put off picking up the phone.

When Bella’s ex was in custody she’d call.

Until then, there was no reason to do it.

* * *

IT DIDN’T TAKE much time for Mason to know a hell of a lot more about Gram’s neighbor. Home and eating a ham sandwich on stale bread, he sat at his computer and signed in to the secure network his government clearance gave him.

Elmer Guthrie was seventy-eight years old. Retired career army man. He lived alone in the home he’d purchased a year ago—four doors down from Gram.

A year. Right about the time that Gram and Grace had had their falling-out.

Grace had never mentioned Elmer. Had she known about him? It seemed to Mason that she would’ve said something if there’d been any concern—or even jealousy. Of course, Gram’s oldest friend hadn’t mentioned skydiving, either.

Was it possible that his grandmother had a new beau? One who she was sneaking around to see? One who was abusing her?

He needed to talk to Bruce, to find out what his brother knew about their neighbor. But he couldn’t. Not until he was sure that Bruce hadn’t hurt Gram.

Grace had heard Bruce verbally abuse Gram; he knew that Bruce had hauled her off a ladder and dropped her roughly enough into a chair that Gram had been left breathless—according to Grace.

Who hadn’t told him about Elmer or skydiving.

He had to get the two women together. With a receipt for Gram’s oil change in his pocket, his next step was to hold Gram to her part of the bargain.

Which meant he had to phone Harper to get security clearance for Grace.