“They just took off? From where? Where are they landing?” Tony asked, his dark eyes focused on the man sitting on the other side of the desk.

“Please say the United States,” Claire said, her emerald green eyes also on the man with the information.

It didn’t matter that it was before sunrise or that Tony Rawlings and his wife had been asleep only thirty minutes ago. It didn’t matter that they were sitting in their home office in Iowa with bathrobes over their sleeping clothes.

There was very little the three people in the room didn’t know about one another.

They’d been a family in most senses of the word. They may not have the same last name or the same blood running through their veins, but Phil Roach knew long ago that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect the woman in this room. He loved his wife, body and soul. He also loved Claire Rawlings. Her heart had been stolen before he met her. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be all he could be for her. She was the sister he never had.

Phil had failed her in the past. He’d also killed for her and would again. And with Claire came her husband and their children. Phil had been there the horrible night Nichol came into the world. Of all the things Phil Roach had done, all the things he’d seen...that night was one of the worst of his memories.

That didn’t mean he didn’t love Nichol like a niece. That he didn’t love them all, Nate and Natalie too. He did. He was their uncle, the one who protected and watched over them. That was why these past four months had been so difficult. Natalie wasn’t simply his employers’ daughter. She was his family, too.

“According to the manifest filed in Graz, Austria,” Phil said, “the chartered Gulfstream G650 will eventually land in Burlington, Vermont.”

Tony shook his head. “There’s too much in that fucking sentence. How in the hell did they stay under the radar for this long?”

Phil looked at Tony and then Claire. “Graz, Austria, still doesn’t tell us exactly where they were. The countryside is too open. What matters now is that they’re coming back. The manifest confirms the names. Natalie is flying under her real name.”

“She hasn’t said she’s coming home in the text messages or emails,” Claire said, her hands wrapped around a warm cup of coffee. She wasn’t planning on getting any more sleep, not that she’d had much in the last four months.

“That’s because they don’t want a welcoming party at the airport,” Tony said, “but that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”

Claire and Phil both looked back to Tony, silently questioning his statement.

“What?” he asked.

Leaving her coffee behind, Claire stood and walked a small circle. This was the same office Tony had designed for the two of them years ago—a dual office, with desks for both of them. It was their shared space, nothing like his home office when she’d first met her husband. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she finally said.

“Why the fuck not? Our daughter’s been missing for four months.”

“She’s been communicating,” Phil said.

“It wasn’t her. It was Diane Yates.”

“The text messages were from Diane,” Phil confirmed. “But not the emails. Taylor is on her way to Vermont. She’ll get visual confirmation of the passengers as soon as the plane lands. I’m just concerned...” His voice trailed away as he shared a glance with Claire.

“Tony,” Claire interjected, “we can’t push her away.”

Her husband stood. “Push her away? Of course not. I’m going to push that damn Smithers man away. Smithers...” His head shook.

Once they had the name and confirmed Jonas Dexter Smithers’s identity, it didn’t take long to put the pieces they had gathered together. Yet the picture was still incomplete. There were more pieces to assemble.

“It won’t work. You can’t,” Claire reasoned.

“I damn well can,” his voice boomed. “I can bring our daughter home and ground her to this house if I have to.”

She shook her head. “No, you can’t.”

“She’s an adult,” Phil volunteered.

“Well, she sure as hell hasn’t acted like one.”

Claire sighed as she sat back down, her small frame landing in the plush white leather desk chair. “I’d bet all of our fortune on the fact that she has.”

“Running away to find herself...hiding in the middle of the Alps. That’s not acting like an adult.”

“Tony,” Claire tried to reason, “if the emails are true—even if they weren’t written by her—if they’re true, she’s in love with this man.”

“She’s not in love. She’s lost.”

“That isn’t your decision to make. She’s been with him now for a while. I would say our little girl has been doing adult things.”

Tony shook his head. “I’ll kill him.”

“Phil,” she said, ignoring Tony’s threat, “please ask Taylor to take pictures of the passengers. I want to see my daughter.”

“When are they landing?” Tony asked.

Phil looked down at the tablet in his hand. “The plane just left Graz. A Gulfstream G650 can make good time, and it won’t need to stop for fuel on the way. They should land in Burlington in...” He looked at his watch. “...close to twelve hours. That should get them to their destination by near 5:00 PM our time, 6:00 PM in Vermont.”

“That’s plenty of time,” Tony said. “Claire and I will be dressed and ready to fly in an hour. I’ll call for the plane.”

Claire shook her head. “Please listen. I hope I’m wrong, but all I can base my feelings on is that I’m her mother—”

“And I’m her father.”

“I know what it’s like to be in love with someone whom your family doesn’t like.”

Tony’s brown eyes darkened. “This isn’t the same.”

“Of course not, but no matter how they met—on the plane, during her travels...whatever—the fact remains that if she’s in love with him, her father stealing in and whisking her home won’t stop her feelings. It won’t stop his.”

“If he’s dead, it will.”

“Tony.”

Her husband took a deep breath and sat, leaning back.

Claire continued, “What are we going to do, lock her in her room?”

His eyes shut.

“I’m serious. I love Natalie. I will not lose my daughter again. If she’s back in the States and we can be sure where she is and that she’s safe, we need to wait.”

“I’ve never been a patient man,” Tony said.

Claire’s gaze swept to Phil, seeing the same grin on him as she had growing over her own lips. They both knew Tony’s statement to be true. He was a lot of things but patient wasn’t one of them. “Let’s be sure it’s really her. Let’s be sure she’s at least back in the country.”

“I know it isn’t Diane,” Phil said. “Taylor called her as soon as we got the report. Diane was told to mail all Natalie’s documents to an address in Germany. We tracked the address when she told us. It was an attorney’s office. No one there claims to have a client by the name of Smithers. No one remembers receiving a package and then resending it. Despite the tracking numbers, they all seem to have a severe case of amnesia.”

“Why didn’t I know about that?” Claire asked as Tony sat forward.

“It didn’t mean anything. We were waiting to learn more,” Phil said.

“What else haven’t you told us?” Tony asked.

“Jonas Smithers doesn’t use his first name. He uses his second, Dexter. That’s why the name wasn’t matching with the name mentioned in her emails. The emails were correct—Dexter. He’s a weather-derivatives trader by profession. He also inherited his parents’ fortune when they died. His father, as you know, was very successful in real estate.”

Tony shook his head. “I didn’t know. I lost track of him. I’ve been a little wrapped up in all things Rawlings.”

“The Rawlings Corporation offices in Boulder, Colorado, are housed in a building owned by JS Enterprises.”

“JS is Jonas?”

“Was,” Phil said. “He died two years ago. His wife, second wife, was killed in an automobile accident a few months later. The son seems to be doing very well managing his parents’ portfolio. He doesn’t do it alone; he has a team. But it’s the weather-derivatives where he’s making a name for himself.”

“Weather-derivatives?” Claire asked. “I studied meteorology, and I don’t know what that is.”

“I admit I had to do some research,” Phil said. “Basically, weather is a tradable commodity.”

“How do you trade weather?”

Phil shook his head. “It has to do with qualifying weather in terms of averages, attaching a dollar amount, and packaging it.”

“I don’t understand,” Claire said.

“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Tony added. “The point is that Jonas’s son is wealthy. We can’t buy our daughter back with money.”

“Our daughter isn’t a tradable commodity!”

“I didn’t say she was. I was just speaking from experience. Everything has a price.”

Claire looked at her husband. “Nat didn’t have one. Nat wasn’t in debt or tending bar.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Tony said. “I mean that everyone and everything has a price. Take that painting hanging in the sitting room.”

“The Salvador Dali piece?”

Tony nodded. “What would you be willing to sell it for?”

Claire shook her head. “Nothing. You bought it for me while we were on our anniversary trip. It’s priceless.”

“So the price isn’t monetary. If I offered you Natalie back home with you for that painting, would you trade it?”

“In a heartbeat,” she said.

“See. You have a price.” Tony looked to Phil. “So money isn’t Smithers’s price; we need to find out what is. If you two are so sure that we shouldn’t bring her back home by force, we’ll figure out another way to get her home.”

“Maybe we won’t.”

Tony looked to Claire. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that Natalie is growing up—she’s grown up. So are our other children. Nate’s been living in London for the last year. Nichol is in New York. Natalie isn’t going to live here forever.”

“She’s not staying with him.”

“I want our children to be happy. Don’t you?”

“Of course,” he said.

“Maybe she’s happy with him. She obviously wasn’t happy at Harvard. We just need to understand.”

Tony shook his head. “We need to know what the hell happened. I need to see her.”

Phil nodded. “What about meeting the plane? I still think it’s best to let Taylor get the visual. If Natalie appears well, then perhaps not make contact.”

“I agree,” Claire said, “but if Taylor has any reason to worry—”

“If she does, she’s prepared to step in.”

Tony leaned back. “Where are they going in Vermont? What about his address? Surely he isn’t planning on disappearing into the mountains again.”

“Not technically. We have his address. He lives in the foothills of Mount Mansfield. The estate is large.”

Claire sighed. “Please let us know that she’s safe, first. I want to talk to her. I want to hold her and hug her.”

“We’re a step closer,” Phil said.

Claire looked at the clock in the corner of her computer screen. “Only eleven more hours.”

“It’s going to be a long day,” Tony agreed. “I say we have more coffee.”

Their gaze met as she grinned. “Do you want me to get it?”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I wouldn’t want to put you out.”