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Now, though…

The situation no longer looked quite as bleak.

Javier was a man who was accustomed to doing everything on his own, who never asked for help, but in this instance, he had to concede that a little help might just go a long way.

‘Okay, question one. Where are all these properties of yours?’ Hope said interrupting his thoughts.

‘Scattered across the globe. New York, naturally. My place in Madrid, of course. One in the Caribbean, another in Mexico and one in Hong Kong.’ He frowned.

‘Do you need an abacus to figure out if there are any more to add to the tally?’ Hope said sarcastically. ‘Why does one person need all those properties? You must spread yourself very thin during the course of the year.’

‘It’s going to be a turbulent few days if you argue with me every inch of the way.’

‘I’m not arguing with you. I’m finding out what I’m letting myself in for. If I agree to this plan of yours…’

‘You’ve already agreed.’

‘I’ve done no such thing. I need a few more details from you before I agree to anything, believe it or not. When, exactly, do you anticipate this trip happening?’

‘As soon as possible. Within the next couple of days. How long will it take you to cancel whatever classes you have lined up at that workshop of yours?’

‘I don’t know,’ Hope said sweetly. ‘They’ve paid to attend that workshop of mine. I can’t just tell them that there won’t be any classes because I’m off to find your wayward brother. The Christmas holidays are just around the corner and there’s a lot to fit in before we break up. Or maybe you’d like me to arrange to put Christmas on hold?’

‘It’s up to you to sort your classes out but I want to leave within the next couple of days.’

‘What?’

‘Every second counts if Carlos is in any kind of trouble.’

‘He’s not in trouble. Your imagination’s going into overdrive because you’ve tried to contact him and can’t. He’s just thinking things through.’

‘What things?’ Javier looked at her narrowly. ‘Why do I get the feeling that you know a hell of a lot more than you’re letting on?’

‘Because you’re suspicious by nature?’

‘Carlos has nothing to think through. His future is sorted. It’s more than could be said for ninety-nine percent of people his age who are scrambling around to find a job. He’s on the brink of being a very wealthy young man for the small inconvenience of having to show up and do some work in offices most people would give an arm and a leg to work in.’

* * *

Hope looked at him in silence for a few seconds.

This man was so much more than Carlos had described. From his blinkered conviction that money could buy anything, to his even more blinkered conviction that he knew everything there was to know. That he was the king of the jungle with everyone in his orbit expected to bow to his greater knowledge.

‘You’re staring at me,’ he said. ‘Is it because you find me fascinating?’

‘No,’ Hope said politely. ‘You’re mixing me up with someone else if you think that I’m going to be someone who finds you fascinating.’

She was setting out her stall. She’d seen, in the many conversations she’d had with Carlos over time, just how browbeaten he had been by his brother. She wasn’t going to be hopping on board to toe the line. She would always be on Carlos’s side.

If she had to be in Javier’s company for a week or so, then she would stomach his arrogance in the remote hope that she might get him to soften in his approach to his brother. And, in the unlikely event that Carlos…had found himself in some kind of downward spiral with drugs, then Javier was right to say that it would be a situation better handled by all of them together.

Although that would absolutely not be what Carlos had done.

She shuddered to think of Carlos, overwhelmed and unhappy, being subjected to the sheer, unstoppable force of his brother’s wrath and scathing disappointment.

She could try and get Javier to a place where he would not approach Carlos with the sole aim of bullying him into doing what he wanted him to do, but would instead listen to the narrative waiting to be told.

She looked at Javier now and felt a wave of sympathy for Carlos. Poor guy. Javier Mendoza was the sort of man who could look at a charging rhino and command it to back off.