Page 88 of Betrayal of a Billionaire
“Eventually?What does that mean?” Grant asked.
Julia’s head dropped to her chest as she sighed. “It means they’re not sending anyone fast enough.”
“Julia, there’s nothing I can do. I explained the situation to them, but they have other priorities right now.”
“Other priorities?” Grant asked, heat edging the panic out of his voice. “What? Okay, what’s it going to take to get them up there?”
“I don’t know what that means?” Alicia said.
Grant dug into his pocket and pulled out his checkbook. “How much?”
“Whoa, okay, that’s not what this is about,” Alicia said.
“Then what is it about?” he asked as he slammed a fist on the table. “The fact that you can’t stand me? That we’re not from here? That we’re not important to you?”
“Grant…” Julia said as Alicia’s features twisted with annoyance.
“No, Julia, your sister has made it very clear how she feels about me.” Grant rose from his seat. “But this is my daughter’s life–”
“That we have taken very seriously,” Alicia interjected, tension clear in her voice. “But she has only been missing for a few hours, and we have a lot going on right now. Unfortunately for you, your checkbook doesn’t work here.”
“Hey, whoa, easy,” Julia said as she stepped between them.
“Well, I don’t like the implication that we’re looking for a fat check to solve his problem.”
“That’s not…Ally, he’s upset.”
“You’re damn right I am. My daughter is out there in this. She’s…” His voice trailed off as his mind filled with horrible images of Sierra.
“It’s okay,” Julia said to him, wrapping an arm around his waist. “We’ll find her.”
“Not if they’re not looking.”
“I’ll go. I know those trails pretty well,” Julia said. “If search and rescue is going to take a while, I’ll go.”
“I’ll go with you,” Grant said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
“Fine. Ethan and I can go, too, so–”
“I’ll go,” Kyle offered.
“Uh…okay, so that’s three of us…”
“Three? That’s five by my count,” Kyle said as he stepped closer.
“Thank you, doctor. It’s three. You two,” Alicia said as she pointed to him, then Grant, “can’t go alone. You’re novice hikers with no knowledge of those trails and…a bad sense of direction from what I remember.”
”Hey–“ Grant began before pat on his chest by Julia stopped him.
“We donotneed any other lost Harringtons,” Ethan said. “So, that means, Kyle’s with someone, you’re with someone at all times. Julia, me, Ally, we all know this terrain, and we all know how to stay out of trouble. So, that’s three teams.”
“Which isn’t a lot of people to cover the ground we need to cover,” Alicia said, “but we’ll do the best we can…”
A knock sounded at the door, and all eyes turned toward it.
“Dad,” Ethan said. “What’s up?”
“You’ve got a lot of ground to cover and a set of busy rangers, that’s what’s up. So…we’re here to help.”
