In Too Deep

Chapter 4

A typical Harland family get-together, the peace lasted ten minutes after they arrived in her mother's kitchen.

Piper sat beside Shaye, who gave their brother the stink-eye across the kitchen table. Ben refused to contribute to the stilted conversation and continued to mainline his breakfast. West, seated next to him, hadn't glanced up since Glenna placed his plate in front of him.

Rearranging a cluster of grilled button mushrooms, Piper tried to pretend she was totally relaxed being in her old home. Other than a new coat of paint, everything had remained the same. Glenna's vast array of copper bottomed pots and pans hung from a ceiling rack, and fruit filled a carved kauri bowl on the island counter. Her mother flitted around like a hummingbird, refilling coffee cups and sneaking Ben and West extra sausages and slabs of buttered toast.

If she squinted, she could return to a time when her father sat at the head of the table, thumping his fist for emphasis, making them all jump as the crockery rattled. West and Ben would be outfitted in their rugby gear ready for their Saturday morning game, Shaye bent over one of her mother's recipe books or catching up on homework.

But those days had gone.

Her father was dead, her sister an independent twenty-four-year-old woman, and her brother and West no longer Piper's best friends.

Piper sipped her orange juice, the cool, familiar sweetness soothing on her tongue. "So, Ben. Tell me what happened and what we're up against."

Ben's fork stopped halfway to his mouth and he glanced over to West, looking for back-up. West carried on eating.

"I haven't been meeting my payments for nearly four months. Since October, when Jules and Curt took off," Ben said.

"The dive guides you mentioned last night?"

Her brother nodded. "I could've coped with one of them leaving, but not both. Gavin Reynolds didn't hesitate to take advantage of the situation by poaching my customers."

"Gav's a dickhead." Shaye sliced her knife across the remaining sausage on her plate with enough venom to cause sympathetic winces from both men.

Piper cut her sister a sidelong glance. Out of all the Harlands, Shaye was the most easy-going. She had a temper—holy crap, she had a temper—but you very rarely saw evidence of it and her usual sunny nature meant the locals loved her. What had Gav Reynolds done to warrant such a reaction?

"Agreed," Ben said. "He's always been a dickhead. But now the dickhead is a businessman who's never forgiven me for being blessed with the looks and charm he missed out on."

Shaye snorted. "More likely because you beat the crap out of him in high school."

"He had it coming."

Piper set her knife and fork down. Enough tiptoeing around. "You're four months behind in payments. Exactly how much do you owe the bank?"

It wasn't West's movement that caught her eye; it was the absolute absence of movement. He didn't look at her brother, just examined his plate with a neutral expression frozen in place.

Ben's knife squeaked on china as he sawed at a bacon rasher. Finally he looked up. "Thirty grand."

Piper's belly went into free fall and her hand jerked, knocking her fork off the table. Thirty grand? Ben owed thirty thousand dollars? "Are you screwing with me?"

Ben's silent gaze flipped her the bird.

"Piper, please." Her mother glided past to sit at the table head. The chair at the opposite end remained empty, a constant reminder of Michael Harland's absence.