Page 108 of Family Affair

Chapter 24

Cade drove as fast as he could without blatantly violating posted speed limit, which wasn’t fast enough. Sure, some of his urgency to get to Coco stemmed from the troubling info he had learned from Detective Willis, but not all.

He was dying to see her again. This was really why he was driving like a bat out of hell. To see her.

You could’ve called her on the phone,an annoying reasonable voice in his head supplied, sounding suspiciously like Detective Willis.

He sent the voice a mental middle finger and sped up in the direction of the run-down neighborhood Coco insisted was very safe.

Her naïveté scared him at times. He had no idea how she lasted that long without being robbed blind or worse. Her mother was no better, laughing off his advice about getting a security system for the house. Said the only strangers to ever wander into their neighborhood were friends of the residents, and she wasn’t scared of kids. Them “kids” he had noticed hanging out by their neighborhood convenience store had all the right markings of drug dealers and sexual offenders. Hell, he would be on alert if he lived here.

And both Coco and Lucy’s belief in theirdogas a means of defense against intruders went beyond laughable. Jesus.

Coco needed safety, security, protection, whether she recognized the need or not. And he was… none of those things. He was actually the opposite, what with the mess that was rapidly developing in the aftermath of Ward’s death.

Damn his eyes, Ward had started a chain reaction that spiraled out of control. The little box of secrets that he, his mother, and Ward had been guarding like some mythical spirits of lynx had cracked.

Now Ward was dead. The Pollock drawing absconded as if it had a will of its own. The old forgery accusations along with the murder case of Stevie Stark got a new lease on life. And here he was, along for the ride. Talk about being up a shit creek without a paddle.

But that was him. He had long ago signed up for a starring role in this shit show, and though he no longer wrote the script, he knew the tropes.

But Coco didn’t belong to his world where violence and lies were the name of the game. She shouldn't be involved. She had no business answering questions from Smirnoff and Willis, being subjected to Ross’s stalking, suffering scrutiny at work because of her innocent connection to him and his motherfucking family.

He parked and slammed the truck door closed as he exited. Taking the three porch steps at once, he rang the doorbell.

From inside the house Chap, the protector, gave two half-assed yaps. A muffled female voice said something, the light steps approached, and the door was flung open.

He just about stomped his foot in frustration. “Did you at least look in the peephole?”

Coco smiled at him serenely, in that special manner of hers that he found both aloof and enticing. “Are we in a grouchy mood tonight? And good evening to you, by the way, glad you came.”

“Answer the damn question.”

“I don’t need to look to know it’s you.” With that, she turned and went into the house, leaving the door open for him to follow. Snapping his mouth shut, he walked in and locked the door.

Lucy was sitting on the couch with a glass of wine. “Cade! You’re just in time for a celebration.” She tilted a glass in his direction. “Please join us. Do you drink wine?”

“What are we celebratin’?”

“Nothing,” Coco said sharply and gave her mother a be-quiet look. “No reason to celebrate anything.” She took a hefty drink from her own glass.

“Coco got fired today,” Lucy supplied.

His brows rose and he looked at her, silently prompting her to explain.

She spread her arm wide. “What? It happens to people, you know.”

Sure it did. And many deserved it. Yet looking at her, he couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to get rid of such an individual. His polite, obedient Coco, knowledgeable and smart – and fired?

“What did you do?”

“Oh, this and that. Frictions with co-workers. Insubordination. Poor time management.”

He barked a laugh. “No, seriously.”

“I’m serious. It’s all in the papers.” She took another sip of her wine and her face grew sullen.

“It was a lowly job that paid peanuts,” Lucy explained with great enthusiasm. “Way beneath her abilities. Her boss is a prime time kook. She should file a harassment suit against him.”