Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

me.”
    “Len wouldn’t know easy if it walked up and tied a knot in his pecker,” Archer said, putting a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of his sister-in-law. “Eat. You’re too thin to be carrying that big mutt’s children.”
    “Thin?” she asked, outraged. “Archer, I could barely get into the breakfast nook!”
    “We run to twins, sugar,” he said, smiling at her. It was one of his rare smiles, the kind that made people want to get closer rather than to look for the nearest exit.
    “Who are you calling sugar?” Kyle asked, rubbing Lianne’s belly and eyeing her plate of food at the same time.
    “Not you, fish breath. There’s nothing sweet about you in the morning.” Archer pulled a plate out of the oven and shoved food under Kyle’s nose. “Feed your nerd cells. I need them.”
    “Talk to me.” Kyle picked up the syrup and began pouring generously. “I can listen and eat at the same time.”
    “About two this morning, Len’s widow, Hannah McGarry, called and told me he was dead. Her voice told me a lot more. She’s scared down to the soles of her elegant feet.”
    Something in Archer’s tone made Kyle stop shoveling in food and look at his brother. Elegant feet?
    Archer didn’t notice his brother’s glance. His eyes were narrowed, more gray than green, with not a hint of the blue that sunlight and sky could bring out. He was focused on a past only he could see.
    “She was calling on an open line,” he said, “so I didn’t ask questions and she didn’t offer answers. I told her I’d be in Broome by noon tomorrow.”
    “Broome? In Australia?” Lianne asked.
    Archer nodded.
    “Pearls,” Kyle said instantly.
    Archer nodded again. “Len and I are—were—partners in a pearl-culturing venture. Pearl Cove Farms.”
    “I didn’t know that,” Kyle said.
    Archer didn’t answer. There was a lot about his past that his family didn’t know. He planned on keeping it that way. If he could have wiped some of the memories from his own brain, he would have. But he couldn’t, so he lived with them and did whatever it took to make sure that no one else had to.
    “Normal spelling on Pearl Cove Farms?” Kyle asked, already organizing the computer search in his mind.
    “Yes.”
    “Is it a registered business?”
    “Licensed, taxed to the max, and all but one form duly filed,” Archer said.
    “Which one?”
    “The partnership agreement.”
    “Why?”
    “Len’s choice. I didn’t care. But the partnership will stand up in court, here or there, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
    “What do you want from me?”
    “Everything you can get electronically on Hannah McGarry.”
    Archer slid into the opposite side of the breakfast nook. His knees bumped Kyle’s. Archer was older by four years and a timeless amount of experience, but Kyle was every bit as large physically.
    “What about Len?” Kyle asked. “You want me to go after him while I’m at it?”
    “Sure, get what you can. Pearl Cove, too.”
    “You got me up before dawn to do what any hacker could do?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you aren’t any hacker. You’re my brother and Len’s half brother. You won’t leave any tracks, you’ll keep your mouth shut about what you find, and you won’t be tempted by bribes or blackmail. And if it gets really nasty . . . ” Archer shrugged. Kyle, for all his blond good looks, could fight for his life. And had.
    “Why don’t I like the sound of that last bit?” Lianne asked beneath her breath.
    “Because you know how nasty family fights can be,” Archer said.
    “Family?” Kyle asked.
    “Len,” Archer said curtly. “He’s dead, but whatever snowball he pushed off the mountain is still rolling. And I have a nasty feeling that his widow is standing right in the center of the avalanche chute.”
    “So you’re flying halfway around the world to stand there with her?”
    “I’d do the same for Lianne.”
    Kyle blinked, then sighed. “Sorry. I’m just not used to having another brother, much less a sister-in-law to worry about. You’re right. She’s family.” He gave Lianne a sideways glance. “Will the Tang family give me a rain check on—”
    “No,” Archer said instantly. “You’re staying here.”
    “Wrong. I’m going to Australia. As you pointed out, Len was my brother, too.”
    “You didn’t know him. I did.”
    Lianne’s tilted, cognac eyes went from brother to brother. Though one man was dark and one was light, both were