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The excitement on her face was palpable, and it made me chuckle. I nodded and pointed into the next room, where the bed had been empty so long that the head doctor had given us permission to use it as a temporary sleeping unit.

“Do you want to tell him?” I asked.

“Yes, please,” she said, turning on her heel and heading to the room without further instruction.

I rolled my eyes and headed back to Jesse. Kissing him on his head, I whispered that I would be back soon and headed out. A few moments later, Tamara came out, her face flushed.

“You good?” I asked.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You look like the cat that swallowed a canary,” I said.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Oh God, what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Nothing happened,” she protested. “Nothing. Even though it could have.”

“What in the world are you talking about, Tamara?”

“Did you know that Collin…. sleeps… in the nude?”

I closed my eyes and shook my head tightly once. “I did not know that, nor did I need to know that.”

“Yeah, well, I know that now,” she said, beaming. “I know alllllll about that.”

“Let’s go,” I said, desperate to change the subject. “Mom’s waiting on us, I’m sure.”

“Oh, I’m good to go now,” Tamara said, tagging along. “I’m good for a while.”

As we pulled up to the house, anger flooded my system once more. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Not only had they done what they’d done, and bothered the Millers, the Galloway, and me, but now one of the damn Andersons’ cop cars was in my parents’ driveway.

I slammed the car door shut as I stomped up to the front door, not bothering to ring a bell or knock. Why should I? It was my childhood home. I had every right to just waltz right on in. Tamara came along after me, struggling to keep up with my power walk.

When I opened the door, I wasn’t as surprised as I was blindingly angry. Standing in my mother’s living room were Eugene and Trish Anderson.

“What thehellare you two doing here?” I demanded.

“Now before you get worked up,” Eugene started.

“Before I getworked up?” I shouted, clearly well past that line. “Your brother tried tokillJesse Galloway, and you are standing here telling me not to get worked up?”

“Charlotte, for real, calm down,” Trish said.

My eyes turned to her, and I must have had one hell of an expression, because for the first time I could remember, Trish Anderson took a step back. She had always been the type of girl who prided herself on being able to say and do whatever she wanted because of her brothers. But not even Eugene standingbeside her gave her any indication she was safe when she was within my reach.

“We just dropped by to update you on the case,” Eugene said, trying hard to put on some kind of diplomatic voice.

It was usually Eugene’s job to try to calm things down after his brothers caused a mess. Eugene was the calmer of the three, though in my experience, the more calculating. Smarter than his brothers, he tended to hang out in the background and let Oland and Arnold do most of the fighting.

“Well, don’t you think that’s a bit of a compromised situation there, Eugene?”

“You tell me,” he shot back.