“Why is that?” she asked.
“Because it’s something I can’t get away from. Other people aren’t handicapped by that same set of standards.”
She knew he was referring, once again, to his brother and her sister having an illicit affair. “The only thing I can say is that, together, they saw something that they really wanted.”
“Yeah, most people break up first or at least tell you what’s going on. You don’t have to find out the hard way, after the fact.”
She winced at that because he had found out in the worst possible way. Personally, when they had come out of a bedroom, obviously having just had sex. “I’m sorry about that,” she murmured.
“It’s not your fault,” he said. “Honestly I’d like to think that I’ve gotten over it, but apparently I’m still bitter.”
“You think?” she said and laughed. “I think that you just haven’t replaced her yet, and that’s the problem.”
“I would never replace her,” he said. “I don’t replace something that’s broken or bad. Instead I find something way better.”
She looked at him with surprise and then shrugged. “I can see that’s how you would look at it, and I’m sorry my sister failed in that department.”
“Whatever,” he said. “Enough of that.” They were outside her sister’s hotel room now. “Did you ask the hotel to get in early on?”
“I did and was refused. I’m sure it was searched and all, but I never heard anything about it.”
He nodded. “Give me just a second.”
When she stepped back, she whispered, “Are you trying to break in?” Turning, she looked toward the elevator. “What if somebody sees you?” Turning back, he was already inside. She made a startled sound and stepped forward. “How did you do that so fast?”
“It’s what I do,” he said gently.
She nodded. “I get that, but—”
“No buts,” he said, as he gestured for her to come inside. She walked in behind him, and he closed the door.
“It doesn’t look like it’s been disturbed,” she said.
“I presume the police know about this because Jonas contacted me about it too. They should have put a lock on the room, so nobody could get in.”
“Nobody other than you, you mean?”
“Well, yeah,” he said, without making any excuses for it.
She always liked that about him. He knew where he was going, what he was doing, and how he would get there. Her sister, who had always been a follower, just seemed to be dragged along in his wake. Astra always wondered what the odd pairing was between them, but, as they had been together for well over a year, and then he’d actually proposed, she’d been stunned when her sister had said yes, but again she was a follower. The only time she had really broken that habit was when she’d had the affair with Gregg. And that had been enough to make Astra sit up and take note of Gregg because that was so uncharacteristic for her sister. Astra realized it must have taken a lot for Amy to do something so unusual like that.
Anytime somebody’s behavior went off the wall, it was important to find out what the catalyst was. In this case, Astra had put it down to being something her sister really wanted. A baby, which brought up all kinds of other stuff. But, in Astra’s world, it was all good because of all the things that Astra had wanted in her life, one had always been Garret.
When she’d first met him, she’d been struck by the love bug. And it never disappeared. When Amy and Garret had broken up, Astra had been ecstatic, yet sympathetic, and had just bided her time. To think that it could possibly be the right time now was amazing, and yet the fact that he was still so angry and hurt made Astra very aware of just how much damage her sister’s actions had done.
Somehow Astra had to get him to see that it really wasn’t just about her sister and her actions as much as it was a broken trust with her and his brother. Working in cybersecurity had afforded Astra the opportunity to learn in some detail why people betrayed each other. It usually boiled down to some fairly common basic elements, but they were always most painful for the person who never saw it coming.
That’s what this was, all over again. Garret was always very strict about honor and justice and believing in each other and loyalty. That’s why he made such a great team player because he trusted the rest of his team, and he always had everybody’s back. Yet the type of work he did was also very much a loner’s game, but, when he needed help, he had people to call on, and that’s what she presumed he was up to right now. Because, if ever they needed help, it was to get these two people back again.
The fact that her sister was pregnant had Astra twisted up inside. She didn’t want anything to happen to her family. It was just the two of them left in this world, and to think that her sister was embarking on that journey perhaps alone, in such difficult times, was something Astra didn’t want to think about. She could only hope that this would all come to a good ending. The only way to do that was to give Garret as much help as she could.
As she walked around her sister’s hotel room, she said, “It’s almost like she was hardly here.”
“It’s a hotel room,” he murmured. “How much do people actually put their stamp on it?”
“My sister is messy, if you recall,” she said. “Everything here has been neatly packed up. As if she was barely here, or she never had a chance to unpack, or she was already packing to leave.”
He turned to look at her and said, “How do you know that she didn’t actually just pack up and leave?”
“I don’t know that,” she said. “I
