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‘I’m your brother’s friend…’

‘Define friend.’

‘Oh, for goodness sake! How many ways are there to define friend? Someone supportive who’s happy to help out when help is needed. Someone who listens and is a shoulder to cry on if a shoulder is ever needed. Most people tend to have a couple of those stashed away somewhere.’

‘So, you’re my brother’s friend. Okay, let’s go with that. As his friend, tell me, has he done much crying on your shoulder recently? That could explain why he’s decided to disappear with no forwarding address? I’m just trying to join some dots here.’

‘If Carlos had anything to say, he would have told you himself,’ Hope said, prevaricating. ‘If he doesn’t want to talk to you, then that’s nothing to do with me. But I’m definitely not Carlos’s partner.’

‘Makes sense,’ Javier murmured. ‘Having met you, you’re not the sort of woman I could picture my brother being romantically involved with.’

‘By which you mean?’ Hope asked coldly.

‘I pictured someone younger and less strident. You’d eat him alive.’

‘Strident? Thanks very much! And just for the record, I’m twenty-eight. I’m not exactly on the cusp of drawing my pension.’

‘How did you meet Carlos? I’m curious.’

‘I…’

Hope paused and stared at Javier as she fumbled for an answer.

How much did Javier know about his brother? She knew there were gaps. She knew, for sure, what he didn’t know, but how much had Carlos told him?

If he’d mistakenly thought that she was Carlos’s girlfriend, then she guessed he knew precious little. The conversation lying ahead of them felt like a minefield. Of course, she didn’t owe his brother anything. She could spill the beans right now and walk away from the whole situation. But she had made a promise to Carlos to keep Javier at bay.

All she needed to do was get rid of the man as quickly as possible.

‘Look, I can’t get through to him either, so I guess he’s switched his phone off,’ she finally chose to divulge with reluctant honesty. ‘He said he was going to take some time out to think about his life.’

‘Why would Carlos have to think about his life?’ Javier demanded. ‘What’s there to think about? He’s destined to join me in running the family business.’

‘That’s something you need to discuss with him.’

‘Which, can I remind you, is currently difficult as I have no idea where he is. Don’t tell me he’ll be in touch in due course. That’s not good enough.’

‘Why not? You just need some patience.’

* * *

Javier flushed darkly at her response and remained silent. Patience? Wait for his brother to get in touch? Wait for him to come to his senses and confide in him? Wait for him to tell him what the hell was going on?

Carlos told him nothing, yet Javier had never shed his role as his brother’s protector. He had inherited a child when he’d still been a kid himself and while he was destined to forever be the caretaker, Carlos seemed to just keep walking away, never looking over his shoulder at the brother who had spent most of his life conditioned to worry about him. In so many respects, with the best will in the world, he felt that he had somehow ended up failing Carlos. He longed for a closeness that had been lost along the way and with so much open water between them now, he no longer knew how to find it.

He certainly wasn’t going to find it with patience. If he hung around waiting for time to go by, who knew what state Carlos would be in if and when he finally decided to make contact?

There were a million ways he could go off the rails. Money was very effective when it came to paying for exactly what you wanted, even if what you wanted could end up killing you.

‘How did you find me?’

Javier harnessed his wandering mind and stared at her.

‘Bank statements,’ he admitted bluntly. ‘There were entries there for things my brother had bought for your…company. I tied you to the name he’d mentioned in his emails.’

‘Workshop. Not company.’

‘Semantics. At any rate, I recognised your name and put two and two together. You never told me how you and Carlos became acquainted.’