Secrets of His Own

“Not necessarily. Depends on where I happened to be at the time.” He studied her for a moment. “You seem pretty worried about your friend. Was she expecting you?”

“No. I didn’t have any way to let her know that I was coming.”

“Then maybe she went back to the mainland for a few days.”

“That’s what Mr. Cochburn said.” Carrie wrapped her arms around her middle. “But I just can’t help feeling that something is wrong.”

His gray-blue eyes watched her intently. “Are you suggesting she met with foul play?”

The blunt query took Carrie aback even though she’d been dancing around the same question in her own mind for days. She’d had a premonition that Tia was in trouble ever since she’d received that strange phone call in the middle of the night. No, before that even. The uneasiness had started when Tia had fled her own wedding.

Up until that point Carrie hadn’t wanted to give credence to her doubts about Trey Hollinger, but when she thought back to the way his temper had exploded after learning he’d been left at the altar, she was hard-pressed to believe he hadn’t played some role in Tia’s running away.

His anger had been over the top that day, and Carrie suspected that if she’d been alone with him, his rage might even have escalated into violence. She hated to admit it, but he’d frightened her. And she didn’t frighten easily these days. Or at least, she rarely let herself succumb to her fears.

She couldn’t help wondering if Tia had witnessed that side of Trey, too. Had she glimpsed something in her handsome fiancé that had scared her so badly she hadn’t dared face him on their wedding day? Had she been running from Trey when she came out here?

Was she still running from him?

Carrie had a vision of Tia’s battered body lying in the bushes somewhere. Or underwater, her wrists and ankles tied to weights.

After everything she’d been through to come to that fate…

A fist of fear closed around Carrie’s heart. For one split second, she thought she might actually be sick.

“Are you okay?”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I’m just worried about Tia. Mr. Cochburn thought that she might have gotten a ride back to the mainland with Carlos Lazario. Have you seen him today?”

“No, but Carlos couldn’t have taken her back. His boat has a broken fuel pump. He’s waiting on a part from the mainland.”

“I…see.” Until that moment, Carrie hadn’t realized how desperately she’d been hoping for a logical explanation for Tia’s absence. Now the last door had been slammed in her face, and she didn’t know what to do.

“Has it ever occurred to you that your friend might not want to be found?” Nick Draco asked quietly.

Carrie glanced up. “Why would you say that?”

He shrugged. “People usually come to a place like this for one of two reasons. They’re either running away or they’re hiding from something.”

Or someone.

Carrie wanted to ask which category he fit into, but she held her tongue.

“Maybe she knew you’d come here looking for her so she left.”

“She couldn’t have known I was coming. I didn’t tell anyone.” Too late, Carrie realized her mistake. She was miles from civilization and she’d just admitted to a stranger that no one knew where she was. She’d said nothing of her plans to anyone at the magazine and her parents were in Europe for a month. And her friends…Carrie hated to admit it, but they probably wouldn’t miss her, either. They were accustomed to her sometimes eccentric behavior.