Page 82 of Hard Limits

By dawn, Alexa had pulled yet another miracle out of the bag. Brax owed a whole lot of favours to people he’d never even met, but he’d worry about that later, and he’d gladly pay up. Dawson had arrived from Canada, and Ari had driven through the night from Santa Cruz.

Instead of leaving from LAX, they’d be flying out of San Bernardino International, a former military base that catered mainly to cargo operations, private aviation, and the United States Forest Service. Alexa had promised a plane would be waiting, plus a guy who knew how to ask questions in Portuguese and could spare a week to help, but no more.

Project AVA would be swimming in money after this.

And Brax had his girl back, but Indi was different. Not in a bad way, just different. Relieved that her secret was out but scared in case her friend had come to harm. Was Brax upset about the lies? He couldn’t pretend to be happy that she hadn’t trusted him sooner, but he understood her reasons. Information was trickling in from Alexa now, bits and pieces of Indi’s former life.

The shocker came just after six a.m.

“Did she mention the arrest warrant?” Alexa asked.

Brax had headed to the kitchen to grab some food for the trip—who knew what Alexa’s plane would come with?—and he nearly dropped his mug of coffee.

“What arrest warrant?”

“Indali Vadera is wanted for theft.”

“Theft? What did she steal?”

“Allegedly steal. A thirty-thousand-dollar Rolex belonging to her father. You want a copy of the report? It says she snatched the watch out of his safe.”

Brax closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Indi had promised no lies. A lie by omission went against the spirit of the agreement. He glanced toward the doorway that led to the bedrooms. She’d tossed and turned for the short time they’d spent in bed together, then drifted off just before they were due to wake up.

“Email me the report.”

He headed for his private office beside the gym. Actually, “gym” was too grand a word for it—the room contained a treadmill, a stationary bike, and a rowing machine, plus a set of free weights. If he wanted a more comprehensive workout, he went down to the first floor and used the club facilities.

The report pinged up on his laptop screen, and he scanned the details.

“That motherfucker,” he muttered.

“You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Look at the name of the officer who signed the report.”

“Damn. Her own brother?”

“She said he’d be watching for her to reappear.” And an arrest warrant would ensure that if she was pulled over for something as innocuous as a traffic violation, he’d be notified. “It’s dated at the end of June last year. According to Indi’s résumé, she was already in California by that point. I can’t see her returning home to Springfield to steal a watch and then flying back here again.”

“People lie on their résumés all the time.”

“So I’ll have to check it out.”

“Do you need to delay the trip to Portugal?”

Another glance toward the bedroom. “No. But we’ll have to be careful—do they check for arrest warrants at the airport?”

“Yes and no. TSA won’t check if she’s flying domestically, but CBP has access to the FBI’s NCIC database, so they might pick it up.”

“Stealing a watch isn’t a federal crime, is it?”

“No, the Feds just run the database. Some agencies enter every outstanding warrant in it, even for traffic fines, while others don’t bother. I could delete the entry for Indali, but if the brother’s monitoring things closely, he might notice, and that’s an inconvenience we don’t need.”

“So are you saying she shouldn’t travel abroad?”

“No, I’m saying that by the time you’re done with this whole shebang, you’ll owe so many favours that you’ll wish you were still married to Carissa. Are you sure this woman is worth it?”

“Yes.”

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