Page 79 of Hard Limits

“Stop apologising.”

“Sorry. Uh, crap. Anyhow, nobody but me thinks there’s anything wrong. Her parents might be getting worried that she hasn’t checked in, but obviously I can’t call them, and they think she’s in LA in any case.”

Ah, fuck. “Her father called me on Tuesday. You were at lunch, and with everything that happened, I forgot to tell you. I said you—she—was fine.”

“See? That’s exactly my point—nobody’s looking for her.” Indi blew out a breath, but at least she didn’t seem upset by the misunderstanding. “The police said she went to the beach with a French guy, and she’s probably having a great time and simply forgot to call, but they don’t know Meera. Something’s happened.”

“And so what’s your plan? You’re just going to go over there and start asking questions?”

“Well, yes?”

Brax felt like hitting his head on the steering wheel. In many ways, Indi was so incredibly smart, but she could also be painfully naive. He couldn’t yet be sure whether her fears were well-founded or not, but he did know one thing—the two of them were in this together.

“If some harm has befallen Meera, and you poke around and stir up a hornets’ nest with your questions, how do you know that whatever happened to her won’t also happen to you?”

The long silence told Brax she hadn’t considered that possibility.

“I guess I don’t,” she said finally. “But that’s a chance I’ll have to take, isn’t it? I can’t sit in LA and do nothing.”

Add “brave” to her list of attributes. And “foolish.” Perhaps “pigheaded” too.

“Do you even speak Portuguese?”

“No, but I have three different translation apps.”

“And does anyone know where you’re going?”

“My friend Celeste. She lives in Paris, and I’m going to check in with her every day.”

Brax sighed, and when the light turned green, he made an illegal U-turn, ignoring the furious honks that followed. Indi didn’t much like that move either.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?”

“We’re going home.”

“No! You promised you’d take me to the airport.” She unclipped her seat belt. What was she planning to do? Jump out of a moving vehicle? “I’m going to miss my flight.”

“Yes, you absolutely are.”

“You know what? That tattoo on your ass is one hundred percent correct. It should be on your forehead.”

“It would be an interesting talking point at parties, don’t you think?”

A grocery store came up on the right, and Brax pulled into the parking lot, keeping a wary eye on Mee— Indi in case she tried to make a run for it. He was still trying to get used to the new name.

“How confident are you that your family will try something stupid?”

“Confident enough that I moved three thousand miles away and assumed a new identity.”

Okay, in hindsight, that had been a stupid question. Brax opened his wallet and slid out a credit card.

“When did you book the flight?”

“Right before I left my apartment.”

She hadn’t tried to escape, but her voice had turned sullen. Sulky. The pout was actually quite cute.

“Book another flight—now, this second. Not to Portugal. To South America, maybe. Or the Caribbean. And in two hours, book another flight. The same two hours after that. Rinse and repeat.”

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