Only a Millionaire (The Sinclairs #6.5)(24)

I ran a hand through my hair and tried to take a deep breath. “It isn’t really a big deal, but there’s something more happening here.”

“Why do you think that?”

I quickly explained what had happened to Brooke, and why she was here. I told my sister about our agreement to date and get to know each other. It wasn’t like Tessa didn’t already know how I felt about Brooke. We’d been all over town during the last nine or ten days together.

Tessa nodded as I finished. “You’re crazy about her,” she stated. “But that goes both ways. She cares about you, too.”

“But she never planned on leaving, Tessa. I know she didn’t. We had plans for the next few days.”

“Maybe something happened in California. She has a lot of family there, Liam.”

Was one of her family members sick? I supposed it was a possibility. “Did she look upset?” I asked.

Tessa frowned, her eyebrows drawing together as she considered the question. “Not upset exactly,” she mused. “She acted more shocked than upset. Like she was going through the motions like a zombie. I don’t think her head was quite right. She was pretty vague, like she didn’t quite understand why she was leaving herself.”

“I can bet that Evan knows why,” I said angrily. “No doubt he convinced her to go. What time did she leave?”

“She worked the day shift, and then she went home. She seemed happy until she stopped back in with Evan to leave you the message that she’d be back. She’s been gone for hours.”

I’d known that. Brooke had traded with one of my part-time employees to get on the morning shift so she could be done before I got home.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed her number. I got her message machine.

“Fuck!” I cursed. “Why in the hell didn’t she call me?”

“She said she couldn’t reach you.”

I shoved the phone back in my pocket and tried to get a grip for my sister’s sake. “Go on home,” I said in a calmer voice. “I’ll take care of this later.”

“Do you think she’s okay?” Tessa asked.

My sister’s expression was stricken with concern.

Hell, I had to reel in my anger. Tessa hadn’t known what Brooke had been through, nor had she been aware that I was about to make my relationship permanent with Brooke if she’d have me. “I’m sure she’s fine,” I reassured Tessa, knowing that Brooke probably wasn’t fine at all. “Go ahead and cut out. Thanks for covering the place for me.”

Something had happened. Brooke wasn’t a flighty woman. There was no way she just made an impulsive decision to go. Something had caused her to make that decision.

“Are you sure?” she asked hesitantly.

“Go,” I repeated in as tranquil a voice as I could manage.

My sister threw herself into my arms and hugged me as she said, “Call me. I want to know what happened to her.”

I hugged her back. “I’ll call you later.”

As soon as Tessa was gone, I planned on confronting Evan to see what in the hell he’d said to Brooke to make her go flying back to California.

I watched Tessa get safely to her vehicle before I jumped into my own.



A half hour later, I found myself getting no satisfaction from Evan for the second time in the last several months. I’d left last time with no answers. I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it again.

“I don’t get it,” I rasped. “What things did she have to work out with her family?”

Evan was sitting on the couch in his living room, too far away for me to take a swing from my chair across from him. But I could leap over the coffee table between us pretty easily, and I contemplated just how much time it would take me to get there.

He’d been annoyingly closemouthed about Brooke leaving.

“I don’t know if I should tell you about that. It’s her private life.”

“She hasn’t even called me,” I bellowed. “I haven’t had a single fucking word from her. This morning, we had plans for the next several days, and tonight she’s gone? What in the hell happened, Evan? You were there with her. You must know something.”

Previously, I’d liked and respected Evan Sinclair. Right now, not so much. He was stubbornly refusing to give me any information about Brooke or what he’d said to make her go.

“Actually, I know a lot,” he said calmly. “I’m just not at liberty to tell you unless I know it’s going to help her. She needs some time, Liam. She plans on returning to Amesport. She left most of her stuff here.”

“I can’t give her time, because I’m worried as fuck,” I answered tersely.

“Ah, you know about her history,” he surmised.

“I know,” I said irritably. “And I’ve been half out of my mind since the day she told me that she nearly died at the hands of some asshole who had no respect for human life.”

I’d held myself together for Brooke, but I’d wanted to puke my guts out after she’d told me the truth, and I was still feeling protective about her safety. I had no doubt that feeling was never going away.

If the police hadn’t pulled in at exactly the time they had, if they had been even a few seconds later, Brooke would have died.