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“Just landed in Philly. Any updates?”
“Do you always call people at the crack of dawn?”
“Only you. You’re always up.”
“Not when I have a stakeout the night before.”
“Sorry. Didn’t know.”
“It’s fine. Scott beat you to it. Cate is missing.”
“I thought he was watching her.”
“So did I.”
A text came through. He glanced at his phone. A text from Samantha confirming their plans for later. He should cancel, but first he needed to finish this call.
“I’m on it. We’ll find her.”
“Keep me posted. Call the second you hear something. I’m going to head back down there.”
“I’m booked at the Ritz. I’ll see to it that you have a room waiting here when you arrive.”
Samanthasatatatable staring the door to the coffee shop. She’d been waiting more than ten minutes. Gavin had better have a good explanation for his lack of respect for her time. She glanced down at the time on her phone again and took another sip of her caramel latte. At least something about this day had gone right. The barista made a perfect cup of coffee. She picked at the coffee cake muffin she’d added to her order.
After waiting another fifteen minutes, she decided to give Gavin the benefit of the doubt, maybe he’d forgotten they were meeting at the coffee shop and had gone straight to the cabin. She went to the counter and ordered a coffee and a blueberry muffin for him, then drove over to the same place they’d parked the afternoon before. No sign of Gavin’s Range Rover.
She fought the rising irritation. It was fine. She’d handle this stakeout herself. And she’d eat his muffin and drink his coffee while she was at it.
After a few hours of staring through binoculars and only catching a single glimpse of a man on his way out, she packed up and headed home. An hour later her house phone rang. “Hello?”
“Sam. I’m sorry.”
“For what, Gavin? Not answering my text? Leaving me sitting in a coffee shop waiting for someone who had no intention of showing? Or allowing me to spend the day staking out that house alone? Exactly which thing are you sorry about.”
“All of it.” He sighed. “I meant to text. I swear I did. This morning a call came in early before I was even up for the day. My brain is so scattered right now. My sister is missing. I’m in Philadelphia. Grayson and I are trying to find her.”
“Missing? That’s scary. Are you sure she isn’t with friends?”
“I don’t know where she is. Her bodyguard called before dawn to say he couldn’t find her.”
“Shouldn’t he have been with her?”
“It’s complicated. She won’t agree to protection, so he has to keep a low profile. He sleeps when she sleeps, but not on the same premises. When he arrived this morning to follow her to her classes, she was gone.”
“You’re having your sister followed against her will.”
“I know. It sounds bad, but you have to understand the kind of danger a billionaire’s daughter is in every time she steps out of the house.”
“Billionaire? I knew you were a Garrison, but you’re that Garrison as in Garrison Industries?”
“Yes. My father is the CEO of the global investment firm.”
“Ah. I hadn’t realized.”
“If I like a girl, I try not to let her know about my dad right away.”
She let that slide. Now wasn’t the time to ask him what he meant. “What can I do to help you find Cate?”
