“You got it, Doc.” The kid grabbed the backpack and slung it on. There was nothing in his attire that said he was anything but a college kid going to class.
Gavin shut the door and Horn put the gun away. “Who was that that you just handed all our evidence over to?” Horn asked angrily.
“He’s my cousin’s private courier. He’s a college student in town, and between classes he delivers the most sensitive and private materials for him,” Gavin explained.
Horn looked like he was going to explode. “Some lawyer or whatnot has nothing to do with a criminal case that could help convict some powerful people of murder,” Horn said between clenched teeth.
“My cousin isn’t a lawyer. He’s a businessman,” Gavin said absently as he pulled a chair closer to Harper and took her hand in his.
“A businessman?” Horn snapped.
Dare needed to stop this before his boss stepped in it. “His cousin is Ryker Faulkner. If he trusts this kid, so do I.”
Horn blinked, but he didn’t like not being top dog in the room and right now Gavin held most of the cards. “And you sent it to the hospital? A hospital where Dr. Vella has contacts? You’re going to blow my whole case!”
This time it was Gavin who was speaking between clenched teeth. “I sent it to a private lab not affiliated to the hospital in anyway. Further, I put it under a fake name.”
Horn and Gavin were locked in a stare-down, but Dare wasn’t involved. He didn’t need to be. He only needed Harper to wake up.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Dare asked quietly.
Gavin whipped his head toward Dare. Anger flared in his eyes, but then it faded. “You look miserable. You must actually care for her.”
“Of course I do,” Dare whispered as he stroked her hair.
Horn walked over to join them. Apparently Dare’s misery took the fight out of everyone. “I need to get back. Keep me updated. I’m sorry your sister got involved. And I’m sorry she’s hurting right now. I appreciate all you’ve done. I know you did it for her, but you also did me a solid.”
Horn held out his hand and Gavin shook it.
“How long do you think it’ll be before she wakes up?” Dare asked in the silence of the room.
“A couple hours. Luckily, she began to vomit within twenty minutes of ingestion. I hope that means a smaller amount was actually circulated in her system. I treated her with bicarbonate and Fomepizole to reduce the potential organ damage from the methanol poisoning. I’m pumping her full of fluids so if she doesn’t wake in the next six hours, I’ll have to try hemodialysis but I can’t do that until I have the information from the lab. She would have had to consume quite a bit of methanol to need it done. She should be in a hospital if it comes to that.”
Dare nodded. He understood. “I think the resort doctor is in on this somehow. Either he’s behind it all and assaults the women when brought unconscious to him, or something else. At a bare minimum, he has knowledge about the poisoning and isn’t reporting it. He actively works to keep the victims at the hotel and out of the hospital. The doctor works for Isabella Crowne,” Dare began to explain. “She manages the resort. Her father is a very rich and powerful resort owner in Colombia—resorts that the ATF has been trying to shut down for an abundance of methanol poisoning cases. And those are just from Americans who lived through the attacks and reported them once back on American soil.”
“There could be a huge number of unknown victims,” Gavin said, letting out a long breath. “Okay. I’ll keep her out of the hospital, but if she gets worse I’ll have Ryker fly her to Atlanta or Charlotte.”
Dare nodded and together they sat in silence. He didn’t know how much time had passed until he realized his apartment was dark. Gavin stood and turned on some lights.
“Too bright.”
Dare about jumped off the couch as Harper spoke suddenly. Gavin was by her side in an instant as Dare looked down at her pale face and wondered if he’d just imagined it. He reached behind him and turned off the lamp and prayed she was actually awake.
“Thank you,” Harper said as she opened her beautiful green eyes. Dare felt like crying. Instead he kissed her forehead and pulled her tightly against his chest in a desperately thankful hug. “What’s the big deal? I’m fine.” Harper mumbled against his chest.
“You are not fine,” Gavin told his sister firmly as he began to examine her.
“I feel fine. So, I’m fine. I knew Dare would find me. Was I on the beach? Why does my hip hurt? Is it dark out?”
“You’ve been unconscious for more than four hours, love,” Dare said quietly as Gavin took her blood pressure.
“Four hours?” Harper didn’t believe it.
“How much alcohol did you have?” Gavin asked as he rummaged around his medical bag.
“I’d had some at the tasting. Enough for a buzz, but I was drinking Arnold Palmers when I was poisoned.”
Dare’s surprised expression met Gavin’s confused one.
“I thought this was illegal alcohol poisoning,” Gavin said, his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what she was poisoned with.
“The illegal part is methanol. They gave her methanol in a nonalcoholic drink. It has to be someone at the resort poisoning the guests, but she’d just had a meeting with the distributor. Could they have been suspicious?” Dare asked her.
Harper shrugged and then groaned at the IV in her arm. “You know I hate these things,” she complained to her brother.
“It stays in until the bag is empty. Now answer your boyfriend’s question.”
Dare gave Gavin a small grateful smile before Harper answered. “I don’t think so. It was all strictly business. I ordered an Arnold Palmer at the pool bar from Brody. I was thirsty and drank it all quickly before heading toward the beach. A new man dressed as a waiter stopped me and handed me a Styrofoam cup and told me Brody had sent it. I asked what it was and he told me an Arnold Palmer. I took a small sip and it was sweet, but so are Arnold Palmers.”
“What about the waiter?” Dare hoped her description matched one of the men he saw so they could make a sketch.
“Early twenties,” Harper said, staring off as if imagining him. “Shaggy brown hair as if he was in a boy band. Maybe a couple inches taller than I am. Lean.”
Gavin looked to Dare who nodded. “I saw him too. He had someone helping him. Your hip is sore because they were dragging you to one of the villas that’s off the main path. I yelled at them from across the parking lot and they dropped you to run.”
“What do you do now?” Gavin asked.
“I need to find a way into the everyday life of the resort.”
“Well, I can tell you what I need to do now. I’m starving.” Harper complained.
Gavin’s phone rang and he stepped away to answer it. Dare brushed her hair back as Harper wrinkled her nose. “You stink.”
“Sorry, love, it’s not me.”
Harper groaned and looked up at the IV. “Shower, then food.”
“Deal. Are you sure you feel okay? I’m man enough to admit that scared the crap out of me.”
He saw Harper thinking for a moment, her shield going down and suddenly his warrior looked vulnerable. It only lasted a second, though. “No, but I knew you would find me.”
“I’ll always find you, Harper. Always.”
Gavin cleared his throat. “That was the lab. Some of the tests have been run. Trace alcohol and methanol were found in her system. The levels are enough to black you out but not enough to kill you. With the treatment I’ve already given you, you should have no lasting damage.”
Harper held out her hand for her brother. “Thank you, Gavin. You’re the best big brother anyone could have.”
Gavin seemed surprised and then kissed Harper on the forehead. “Now I know how scared you really were. I’ll take you home with me as soon as the IV is finished. Ellery and I will be happy to have you stay with us until Dare’s case is complete.”
“No!” Both Dare and Harper sai
d at the same time.
Dare backed off and let Harper speak first. “I don’t want to put you two in danger.”
“I’m not leaving you all alone, Harp,” Gavin said in a big-brother voice.
“She won’t be alone. Harper can stay with me.” Dare laced his fingers with Harper who smiled up at him.
“I’m safe with Dare.”
“Not in all ways,” Gavin muttered as Harper moved to stand up. “Where are you going?”
“You’re a doctor. You know what all these IVs do,” Harper said as she grabbed the IV bag from where Gavin had hung it on a lamp.
As soon as the bathroom door closed, Dare turned to Gavin. “I swear I will keep her safe.”
“Can you swear you won’t break her heart?” Gavin paused and waited for Dare to say something. “I didn’t think so. Which is exactly why you are a danger to Harper.”
“I feel ridiculous talking to you about this,” Dare hissed in a whisper as he looked over at the bathroom door.
Gavin’s lips thinned and he rolled his eyes. “I’m a small town doctor. I’ve pulled fishing lures from behinds, given sex ed talks to students, and even had a very delicate situation with a skinny dipper and a snapping turtle. There is nothing you can say that will shock me.”
Dare took a deep breath and really looked at Gavin. It was clear he loved his sister. It was also clear he wasn’t going to leave here without an answer. “Fine.” Dare took a deep breath, lowered his voice, leaned forward and said, “I’m falling for your sister. I can’t stop thinking about her and it scares the crap out of me.”
Dare leapt back as the punch came out of nowhere and grazed his jaw. “What the hell was that for?”
“Sorry,” Gavin said, looking as shocked at Dare did. “It was a brother’s protective instinct. I will say this: you’d be the luckiest son of a bitch to ever live if you gained her trust, respect, and love. There is no one more loyal, more kind and loving, than my sister. She might put on a brave face and she can throw a better punch than me, but she’s been hurt before. Used before. So I promise you this. You do that and I’ll make you wish you were never born.”
“You’ll beat me up?” Dare asked, somewhat impressed by Gavin. He hadn’t taken the doctor as a violent man, yet he’d already thrown a punch at Dare. He had to respect that because Dare would do the same in Gavin’s position.
Gavin gave a slow, menacing smile and shook his head. “Nah. I won’t beat you up. I’ll call Aunt Marcy.”
Dare shivered. “That’s cruel. I think I might like you, Gavin. Now, tell me about the asshole who used my Harper. What’s his name? Where does he live?”
Gavin’s smile softened and Dare saw his whole body relax. “Dare, I might like you too.”
The bathroom door opened and Dare was instantly at Harper’s side. He looked up and saw Gavin on her other side. She was pale, but her face was washed and she had a slight smile on her lips. “I can’t wait for a shower. I feel so gross.”
Gavin and Dare got her back onto the couch and hung the IV bag. “I saw a little shop a block away. I’ll go get you a toothbrush and mouthwash before I head out.”
Dare looked up with surprise as Harper looked disbelievingly at her brother. “You’re leaving me here? Alone?”
“Not alone. Dare will be here to take care of you. I’ll be right back.”
The room was quiet until the front door closed and then Harper speared him with a look. “What the heck happened when I was in the bathroom?”
“We bonded,” Dare said with a shoulder shrug.
Harper rolled her eyes and rested her head on the pillow. Dare picked up her legs and placed them over his lap. “I don’t care what you did as long as I don’t have to move much tonight and Gavin won’t be hovering.”
“It won’t be Gavin hovering. It’ll be me.”
Harper’s eyes closed as a faint smile lifted her lips. “I don’t mind you hovering. I feel safe when you’re near.”
A second later her breathing slowed and Dare knew she was asleep. He didn’t move until Gavin returned with a bag of personal items. He examined her one more time and switched the IV bag. “Don’t tell her I put a new one on.”
“What do you want me to do?” Dare asked in a whisper.
“Once that bag is empty, give her these pills. I got broth for you to give her if she gets hungry. Then just let her rest. Can you really take out an IV?”
Dare nodded. He’d done it before. When you lived on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, you had to learn pretty extensive first aid.
“When the bag is empty, take out the IV. Text me every hour, and I want to see her tomorrow. We’ll talk in the morning to arrange it.”
Gavin turned to leave but Dare stopped him. “Thanks, Gavin.”
“She’s my sister. I’d do anything for her.”
Dare shook his head. “Not just that. Thanks for the talk.”
Gavin looked him over, and Dare felt as if he were a little kid in front of the principal. “I trust you. Keep her safe, Dare.”
“I will.”
16
Harper woke up in a flash. She was trying to figure out what had woken her up when she sat up so quickly she almost banged her head against something. That something turned out to be Dare’s head.
“Easy,” he said gently. “You’re safe.”
“I know I am. I’m with you. What are you doing?”
“You’ve been sleeping for the past three hours. I thought you’d want me to take out the IV. You kept trying to scratch at it in your sleep.”
Harper looked down at her arm. Dare had the tape off and was holding onto the IV. “Yes! Take that thing out. I don’t care what Gavin says. It always feels like the needle is scraping the inside of my vein.”
Harper gave a sigh of relief when the needle was pulled free. “Take these. Doctor’s orders.” Dare handed her a cup of water and some medicine.
Harper swallowed the medicine and then looked around. “I half expected Gavin to be here. That must have been some kind of male bonding.”
“He brought you some things,” Dare said, handing her the bag.
Harper opened it and about cried when she saw the toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, and her favorite shampoo. There was even deodorant. She had the best big brother ever.
“What I’d give for a shower and some soup!” Harper remembered the vague smell of vomit from the short time she’d been awake before. Now that she was clear-headed and most of the drug was probably out of her system, she could not only smell it, but her teeth were definitely fuzzy and she felt dirty. Not just physically—emotionally.
“What is it?” Dare asked, sensing the slightest change in her.
Harper tried to laugh it off. “How do you do that?”
Dare smirked at her and she laughed again. “I guess I’m really in tune to your body.”
“Well, this body is dirty and now that I’m free from the IV, I’m going to get cleaned up.”
“Harper.” He was not going to let her get away without explaining herself. What was it about him that let him see everything about her, and what was it that made her want to confess her most intimate thoughts to him?
“I feel dirty . . . emotionally.” Harper really didn’t know a better way to explain it and she hated to admit that what she felt was a weakness.
Dare stood up and took her hand in his. She was about to ask what he was doing when he began to lead her toward his bedroom with her little brown bag of personal items in his other hand. Harper looked around his room. It was very masculine in the fact that it was painted with darker colors and there was little decoration. A TV sat on a dresser and a chair was in the corner of the room near the bed. Pants were tossed over the chair, but the room wasn’t in disorder. In fact, it was more organized than her room.
He didn’t stop in his room, though. He opened a door and flipped on a light. Like most apartments downtown, his was in a converted old house. However, the owners had modernized it. The old tile and wood flo
ors were still in the apartment, but gone were the old fixtures. A large walk-in shower with glass sides took up the back wall and, mercifully, it had a large tile bench in it.
“Here, I’ll warm up the shower while you brush your teeth. You need to know something, though.” Dare handed her the toothbrush and toothpaste before setting her shampoo and conditioner in the shower on the bench. “They did not touch you except by the arms to drag you. I know why you don’t feel good. It’s the fact that you had no control over your body or the situation and that’s scary. You were so brave, Harper. The text with your location wasn’t just brave. It was brilliant. And you fought. There was skin under your nails that was collected for evidence. Now, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Dare turned and walked back to the shower to turn it on.
Harper took the moment to look in the mirror. Ouch. It wasn’t pretty. But Dare didn’t make her feel bad. Instead, he made her feel powerful. He understood exactly what she was feeling and knew what to say to bring back her confidence. She didn’t like feeling that her life was out of her control. She didn’t like thinking about the “what ifs,” but Dare was right. She’d fought and, in the end, won by surviving.
Harper wet her toothbrush and began to brush her teeth before looking up in the mirror again. In the reflection on the far side of the mirror she saw Dare pulling off his shirt and she forgot to keep brushing her teeth. The toothbrush fell out of her mouth and she had to scramble to catch it. Her face was red and when she looked back up in the mirror, she found Dare looking at her.
Harper wasn’t a virginal girl seeing a naked man for the first time. She’d seen plenty of men without their shirts on. Before Granger’s accident caused him to cover up, she’d been swimming with him too many times to count. He was a little older than she was but had been friends with her cousins. There was no one hotter than Granger. Well, until now. She’d certainly never had a reaction to Granger like she was having looking at Dare.
There was a smattering of dark hair on his chest that just seemed to highlight his sculpted pecs. His shoulders were wide and muscular. And then his abs . . . there were six of them clearly showing. Instead of being overly lean, he was trim.
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