Page 10 of Family Jewels

“It’s nothing solid, but my gut says there’s something to it. Enough that I’m going to go down there to check it out myself.”

“Can you do that?”

“Not officially, but I can take a couple of days off and go ask some questions.”

My stomach twisted and my voice cracked. “Joe . . . you just got back to work.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But it’s Neely Kate. I owe her.”

“No, Joe. You don’toweher anything.”

A surprising fierceness filled his eyes. “I owe her this and so much more.” He paused and took a deep breath. “You didn’t see her, Rose. You didn’t see how broken Neely Kate looked after my shitty sister got done telling her that her mother hadn’t wanted her . . . that she wished she’d never been born. I swore to God I’d never let her feel unwanted like that again.”

I gasped. “You two went to see Kate at the psych ward?” His sister had been hospitalized back in February, after she’d orchestrated the showdown that had ended in the death of her father, J.R. Simmons, among other casualties. Life had embittered and twisted her, and I didn’t like the idea of her being anywhere near Neely Kate.

His mouth sagged. “Neely Kate didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

He turned to face the courthouse and scrubbed his hand over his face before turning back to me. “I thought she told you everything.”

I paused. “We each have our secrets, I guess.” More so than I liked. Especially since I’d sworn to myself I was done with secrets. Mostly.

He gave a hurried glance toward the coffee shop door, then said, “She asked me to take her to see Kate in Little Rock. She wanted to know how Kate had figured out that our father was her father too. Kate told us, but being Kate, she made sure to hurt Neely Kate in the process. Neely Kate held it together until we got back in the car, and then she just lost it.” He swallowed. “She’s been through hell, Rose. Her own mother . . . the abuse . . .”

I hid my shock. Neely Kate had told me her mother had literally dumped her as a preteen on her grandmother’s doorstep, but she’d told me nothing about her life with her mother. I was surprised and a little hurt that Joe seemed to know more than I did.

“I can’t let people continue to hurt her,” Joe said. “So if she wants that asshole out of her life, I’m going to help her make it happen. I plan to serve Ronnie the divorce papers myself. And maybe deliver my own personal message along with them.”

Tears swelled in my eyes, and I wrapped my arms around his stiff shoulders. I pulled him into a hug, holding my coffee cup out so I didn’t drench his back. “Iknewyou’d be good for her. Thank you.”

He leaned back and smiled. “No. Thankyoufor convincing me to pull my head out of my ass and talk to her.”

“I know you’re trying to make up for hurting her, Joe, but honestly, she just wantsyou.”

He nodded, then glanced around before turning back to me. “Are you still in communication with Malcolm?”

His question about bowled me over. “Uh . . . maybe.”

He gave me a look that told me my acting skills were subpar. “I hate to leave Fenton County right now, but my lead has suggested Ronnie’s about to skip out of New Orleans. I need to catch him before he disappears again.”

“What’s going on here that has you concerned?” I asked, but common sense told me it had something to do with James.

“There are some rumblings in the criminal underworld. Rumor has it that someone new is making a power play for Malcolm’s position.” He tilted his head as he studied me, his face becoming a blank slate. “But from the look on your face, you already knew that.”

“I’m not sure I should confess to anything.”

Anger filled his eyes. “Are youquestioningpeople for him again?”

I shook my head. “No. He won’t let me near his life.”

Joe looked shocked, and I couldn’t decide if it was because I hadn’t gotten offended by his question, that James was trying to protect me, or that I was admitting my involvement. Maybe all three. “Stay away from Skeeter Malcolm, Rose. If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could end up as collateral damage.”

I watched him closely. Six months ago, he would have barked this as a direct order, expecting me to blindly follow. But now, it seemed like a request—one friend pleading with the other to use her common sense. “Thanks,” I said. “But you really don’t have anything to worry about. I haven’t seen him in weeks, and we never meet up near his business.”

He nodded and started to say something, but the door to the coffee shop burst open, and Neely Kate stomped out with her coffee cup, which was encased in a pink knit coffee-cup sleeve. “I can’t believe this place!”

It occurred to me she’d been in there an unnaturally long time. “What took so long?”