Page 50 of See You There

James’s face flushed with anger, and his eyes sparked. “Just because I decided to live my life differently than our father—different from you—don’t think for a second that I am not just as much a Bloom as you are. This might be a revelation for you, brother, but you aren’t always right!”

“Stop!” Cara yelled, surprising them into silence. “I’m not doing this anymore. We are afamily! All of you need to remember that! Declan, James is loyal to our family, and James, you know Declan would do anything to protect us. The two of you just have a different way of going about it.

“Ever since Dad died, we've been falling apart. You are all constantly jabbing at each other. Don’t you see that is exactly what they want?” Her words hung in the room. “The four of us fighting only helps her.” Cara clutched Wes’s hand. “We are a family, and we need to act like it. We have to work together!”

Luke hid a smile over how chastened James looked. Even Declan looked remorseful beneath his stern expression.

“Car-bear’s right,” Luke said, ignoring her death glare at the family nickname. “I agree with James. For now, we need to do this the right way. But…” He turned and met his twin’s eyes. “We may get to a point that—”

“You don’t need to say it.” James’s voice was hard when he interrupted Luke and turned to face Declan on the screen. “I know there isn’t anything Declan wouldn’t do to protect this family, and I feel the same. If it comes to protecting our family, I’ll be there right beside you.”

Cara broke the tense moment by sniffing.

“Are you crying?” Declan looked horrified.

“That was so sweet.” Cara sniffed again as Wes rested his chin on top of her head so she wouldn’t see his grin.

Luke rolled his eyes. “So that’s settled then. For now, we continue trying to track down Vincent Menardi and find out what he knows, and hopefully, the Broughton Township police department will discover who killed Dr. Keller, which should help us with grounds to challenge the will. Until then…” He met each of his siblings’ gazes. “We stay on guard.”

“Thanks a lot. Now Wes will never let me leave the house,” Cara groused.

“Damn right!” Wes confirmed.

Declan spoke before she could argue. “I’ll keep tabs on Chris and Courtney. They are bound to slip up at some point.”

“How’s it going with Lia?” Cara asked James in an abrupt change of subject.

“You should probably ask Luke that?” James smirked. “Oh, and he calls herDahlia.”

Cara frowned. “I thought you handed this off to James? Aren’t you on vacation?”

“He’s supposed to be.” James grabbed a pickle off the tray.

“Iamon vacation. All I’ve done is accompany her to a couple of media events.”

“Really?” Cara drew out the word and exchanged a look with James. “Because you just love the press so much? Totally sounds like a vacation to me.”

“First of all, this wasn’t my idea. James was sick. He couldn’t go to the first one, and I felt like once we’d made a connection, I should be the one who continued on.”

“Connection?” Wes grinned and Cara laughed. Luke glared at his new brother-in-law. “Interesting choice of words.”

Luke fidgeted. “I’m just doing my job.”

“But I thought it was James’s job?” Declan added from the computer.

Seriously? Even Declan is going to give me shit?

Luke reached over and slammed the lid on his brother’s laughter. “Why are you all making a big deal about this?”

“Why are you getting so defensive?” James countered.

“I never had an in-depth conversation with her,” Cara said, “but she always seemed really nice. I could tell there was something more going on in her life than she was letting on. There were even a couple of times I thought she might be afraid of her manager.”

“Victor.” Luke clarified. “That guy is a sleaze bag extraordinaire. Did she ever say anything to you about him?”

Cara shook her head. “No, Skye did most of her makeup, and she didn’t really talk about it.” Cara looked off into space for a second. “It was more of a sense I got. He never left her alone. He was always hovering, directing her where to go.”

“Why would she stay with an agent like that?” Luke could see the same concern reflected in James’s eyes.