She dropped her shoulder bag on the corner of her desk. The bag didn’t quite make it, though, and it slid off the surface to fall silently onto the thick carpeting, its contents spilling at her feet.
“Damn!” The curse slipped from her lips and even now, though she hadn’t lived under her mother’s roof in more than four years, she felt the quiet reproof of her mother’s gaze for dropping her standards so. They might have been poor, but her mother had always expected her to act like a lady.
She scrabbled to put everything back where it belonged—a place for everything and everything in its place; it had been her mantra for longer than she could remember. Her hand hovered over the photo she carried with her everywhere and she straightened with it still in her hand. They’d been so young, so innocent. Victims of circumstance.
Silently she renewed her vow to find her half-sister; Sophie owed it to them both. And she was getting closer. The latest report from the private investigator she’d hired to find her sister had listed a new possibility to explore. Thinking about it had kept her awake half the night, hence her sleeping past her alarm this morning.
A noise from behind her, from the kitchenette that she kept well stocked, sent a prickle of awareness tiptoeing between her shoulder blades.
“Cute kids.”
Zach gave one of his lazy, killer smiles that always managed to send a bolt of longing straight to her gut, as he handed her a coffee. Sophie fought to quell the tremor that threatened to make her hand shake as she accepted the mug. She’d tried to shore up her defenses against her crazy attraction to him, but even after eighteen months she still failed miserably. Working in the same office space with him had been taxing enough, but now working directly for him—well, that was a whole new kettle of fish altogether.
“I’m supposed to be the one bringing you coffee,” she said quietly. “Sorry I’m late.”
“No problem. I was getting myself one. Is that you?” he asked gesturing to the photo in her hand.
It was the kind of snapshot that most kids had taken at some stage in their lives. Siblings, oldest behind, youngest in front. Gap-toothed smiles fixed on their freckled faces, hair pulled back into identical pigtails, bangs straight across their eyebrows. Oldest staring dead ahead, youngest—still baby-faced at age four—with eyes unfocused, distracted by whatever it was that day. Sophie certainly couldn’t recall although she remembered well the sensation of her sister’s bony shoulder beneath her hand, the steady warmth of Susannah’s body standing close to hers, almost leaning into her in that way she did when she wasn’t entirely comfortable with a situation.
“Yes, me and my younger sister.”
“Are you guys close?”
“Not anymore,” she hedged.
Suzie’s father, Sophie’s much-adored stepdad, had died suddenly shortly after that photo had been taken. With their mother struggling to make ends meet, Suzie had gone to live with her father’s sister. Financially independent and also recently widowed, Suzie’s aunt had an open heart and open arms for her brother’s only child. Contact between the two families had been severed almost immediately—deemed to be in the best interests of the girls at the time. It had been more than twenty years since they’d seen each other and Sophie still felt the emptiness inside, even though she’d long since learned how to mask it.
She thumbed the well-worn edge of the photo before tucking the picture back in her bag. She was doing what she could to reestablish contact with her sister. She had to be satisfied with that. She gave herself a mental shake and locked her handbag away in the bottom drawer of her desk. Even though this was downtown Royal, Texas, Sophie didn’t take chances. It wasn’t her way.
Clearly taking the hint that the subject of her sister was closed, Zach turned his attention to work.
“What’s on your agenda today?”
Sophie briefly outlined what she had planned in her other boss’s absence before asking, “Is there something else you need me to work on instead? None of this is urgent right now, especially with Alex still out of the office.”
Out of the office. She gave an inward sigh. Some euphemism for missing. It had been over a month since her boss had simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Each morning she still hoped that she’d come in and find him in his office, his energetic personality filling the room, but each morning she was disappointed. The police were now involved in the hunt for Alex Santiago and his disappearance looked more sinister by the day.
“Any news from Sheriff Battle?” Zach asked.
She shook her head. Sophie had racked her brain trying to think of anything that could have been a clue to why Alex had gone, and where. But nothing had been out of the usual. The guy had disappeared the same way as he’d arrived in Royal, although with a great deal less fanfare. He was the kind of man who made things happen—things didn’t happen to him. Which made his disappearance all the more puzzling. Surely someone had to know something. Someone, somewhere was keeping secrets, and Sophie had a worried feeling it might be Zach.
The muscles around his mouth tightened slightly, his only tell that something was bothering him. If anyone knew anything about Alex, it should have been Zach, as the two men had become firm friends in the time they’d worked together and shared office space. She watched him carefully. Zach Lassiter had a reputation for keeping his cards close to his chest and only letting you know what he thought you should know, when he thought you needed to know it.
The man was locked tighter than the vault at Fort Knox. Goodness only knew he’d remained impervious to the subtle and not-so-subtle questioning from local men and women alike. All anyone knew about him was that just under two years ago he’d arrived here in Royal with his own investment company and a knack for turning high-risk investment opportunities into sure fortunes. When Alex Santiago had arrived a couple of months later and set up his venture capital business, they’d created the perfect successful partnership.
It hadn’t taken a whole lot of research to find out that Zach Lassiter had been married, not when his ex still called him almost every day, although Sophie had been unable to find any photos online that included Anna Lassiter. It also hadn’t taken a lot of poking to discover that Zach’s knack for turning high-risk investment opportunities into gold had started several years ago with an investment firm in Midland.
But the man himself? What made him tick, what drove him? There was nothing. Dark good looks and urbane charm aside, he could be hiding anything beneath that smooth, sophisticated exterior. It was whether that “anything” involved Alex’s disappearance that Sophie wanted to find out.
“What? Have I got something on my face?” Zach asked, reminding Sophie she was staring.
Color flooded her cheeks and she ducked her head. “No, sorry, I was just distracted for a minute.”
The phone on Sophie’s desk chimed discreetly. Zach’s line. He usually took his own calls, but since he was here with her, Sophie reached for the handset.
“Zach Lassiter’s office, this is Sophie speaking.”
“I can’t reach Zach on his phone. Is he there? Put me through to him,” the woman’s querulous voice demanded, belatedly adding, “Please.”
“One moment please, I’ll see if he’s free to take your call.” Recognizing the voice, and putting the woman on hold, Sophie said, “It’s your ex-wife. You’re not answering your cell phone. Do you want to take it?”
“Of course.” He patted the breast pocket of his jacket. “I must have left my cell in the car again.” He fished his keys out of his pocket and handed them to Sophie. “When you have a free moment, could you get it for me?”
“Sure,” she said, taking the keys and trying desperately to ignore