Which complicated Hank’s life, but he wasn’t just going to stop being Ty’s friend. The mutual respect they’d developed for each other in the military had solidified into friendship now that Hank was out of the military and fraternization rules were no longer an issue. Ty was the one who’d invited him to Cold Ridge in the first place. Otherwise, Hank thought, he wouldn’t have been there last November to meet the Winter sisters.

But he knew he had to be patient. Although Antonia didn’t say so in as many words—she didn’t have to—she felt she was being disloyal to her sister by falling for one of Carine’s ex-fiancé’s military pals.

Hank gritted his teeth. He’d trust Tyler North with his life, but there were days he wouldn’t mind tracking his friend down wherever he was—on a training mission, deployed to some remote battlefield—and knocking the shit out of him. Had he ever intended to marry Carine?

Five minutes, Hank thought. Five minutes he’d wasted dithering over his situation. He couldn’t change reality. Carine Winter was living in Cambridge. She insisted she hated Tyler North. And Antonia was on her sister’s side. Unconditionally.

And Hank now had less than fifty-five minutes to get her younger sister to give him the information he wanted.

He kicked open his car door and climbed out onto the busy, narrow street of multifamily houses. He’d been in combat. He’d ditched helicopters. He’d endured the media onslaught that came with being a candidate for the senate. Damn it, he could handle the Winter sisters.

Carine almost didn’t let him in.

Hank frowned at her through the grimy front door window. “Carine—I’m worried about Antonia. I just want to talk to you.”

It wasn’t true—he wanted to pump her for information. But with obvious misgiving, Carine pulled the door open about a foot. She was two inches taller than her sister, her auburn hair a couple of tones darker, but she and Antonia had the same blue eyes. “She’s not here.”

“I know that. May I come in?”

“I’m kind of busy—”

“Carine. Please.”

She sighed, and he could see that her heart wasn’t into being rude to him. It wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as pitching Tyler off a cliff, which, last Hank had heard, was what she’d threatened to do the next time she saw him. But Ty hadn’t surfaced in Cold Ridge in months, and Carine, too, had stayed away. Hank could see it worried Antonia, but Carine’s state of mind was, by unspoken agreement, a forbidden topic.

She opened the door the rest of the way and pretended to peer out onto the street. “What, no entourage?”

“I came alone.”