Chase's Promise

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.

Chapter Four

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.