“Rough night?” Uriah grinned the second he saw him looking so disheveled and tired.

Tobias couldn’t help smiling in return, even though he wasn’t happy about being rousted out of bed. “Not what I’d consider rough, no.” He didn’t like the fact that Harper hadn’t been willing to say she’d see him again, but having her over was probably more than he should’ve expected anyway, given the circumstances. Most guys with his kind of background never had the chance to touch a woman like Harper, let alone make love to her several times.

Tobias motioned to a chair. “Want to sit down?”

“No, I’m only going to be a minute.”

“What’s up?”

He took off his cap and twisted it in his large, calloused hands. “Who came over last night?”

“Harper. The girl you met.”

“Does that mean it’s getting serious between you two?”

“Not at all,” he replied.

Uriah scratched the back of his neck. “You’re just like your brother.”

“In what way?”

“Jada used to sneak over here late at night, too.”

“It’s hard to get away with anything these days, what with places like Home Depot selling security systems for only a few hundred bucks,” Tobias joked.

“Unless something’s damaged or missing, I don’t pay much attention to the security feeds. Who you have over, and when, is none of my business. I was just hoping you might be able to tell me what happened to Carl.”

“What happened to Carl?” Tobias repeated.

“He was at the house when I went to bed but was gone this morning. That’s why I checked the security feeds—to see when he left. But the only thing I could make out was a car that didn’t belong to him. It drove in, and a woman hurried to your house. Several hours later, she backed down the drive, and you followed her in your truck before returning after twenty minutes or so.”

Tobias skipped over the part about Harper. “Carl knows you have a security system as well as I do. I’m guessing he purposely parked outside the range of the camera on that side of the house, so you wouldn’t realize he ever left.”

“That’s what I think, too. He was probably planning to be back before now, so that I’d never find out. But that’s part of the reason I’m worried. He’s not back. Why would he let himself get busted?”

Because he doesn’t give a shit. Tobias was tempted to say it, but he bit his tongue and tried to recall if Carl’s vehicle had been parked to one side, near the rows of tangerine trees, when he followed Harper home.