Page 11

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Powell had barely even listened to her. And then those stupid Colesons had been there, smirking at her like they were so special and everything. And there had been people, attorneys or something, watching them all. Brianna had seen that stupid Bobby Frier watching from the window next door too. He’d always been beyond creepy.

She’d been angry ever since, and it had just gotten worse when she’d pulled into her drive six hours later and seen Timothy waiting.

With her.

“I don’t want her here!” Brianna looked at the little girl standing there with Timothy, and her blood curdled. The last thing she wanted was Timothy’s little freak daughter in her house. For one thing, the kid was sick, which was completely disgusting. It was obvious; she was sniffling, and her eyes looked all glassy or something.

For another thing, how would Brianna explain a kid in her life out of nowhere?

Timothy had been waiting on her doorstep after she’d left Powell’s office. With her. This kid. Timothy didn’t come to her house very often. He did just show up sometimes, though. When he said he wanted to check on Brianna.

No one even knew she still had anything to do with her mother’s former lover. How would she explain babysitting his freak daughter? Timothy had been in his fifties when the kid was born. Who even did that? And just how he had gotten that kid was kind of weird too. She didn’t even have a mother or anything.

Leena had just sort of hatched out of nowhere.

“I need someone to take care of your sister while I work. And help Trey. He really needs my help right now.”

Of course, he did. Her half brother Trey was stupid. He was probably doing things he shouldn’t.

Jack had told her to stay away from Trey too, even though Trey and Jack were friends sometimes. Brianna didn’t know what Trey actually did, but he paid her money to use some of the businesses she owned because of Banks. It worked out, and she didn’t have to tell Bethany where the money came from at all. It was her money.

“I don’t take care of kids. ” She’d planned to hire a nanny when she finally married and had a baby. The most she was going to do was pop the kid out and be done with it. But this? Not going to happen. “Find someone else.”

“There is no one else unless you want me to go up the road and ask one of the neighbors?” Timothy said, using that voice Brianna absolutely hated. The one that said she was stupid and disappointed him and she just wasn’t as good as the rest of his daughters. “One of the Colesons perhaps?”

Of course. He was as fascinated by those stupid Colesons as just about everyone else in this town. “She can have a room here, but you need to call some sort of agency. Send over a nanny or something. Does she still wear diapers?”

“I’m eight . I’m not a baby,” the little girl said. “I don’t like you, Pee- anna.”

“Well, I don’t like you either.” What a rude little monster.

“You are sisters. You will like each other, whether you want to or not. We are a family; I don’t take that lightly,” Timothy said. He had a bag over his shoulder. He dropped it in Brianna’s foyer. “You, young lady, will do what Brianna tells you to do. Brianna, just keep your sister alive for the next few days. While I deal with your brother. Then I will come get her and take her on a vacation or something. Which, you are welcome to join us if you like. We can do Dad and daughters go to Disney or something.”

Sisters? She knew they technically were. Half anyway. But she didn’t want to be sisters with this kid. Or that other one that Timothy was always complaining about losing. That one was just a baby or something—and Timothy was old enough to be that baby’s great-grandfather. It was kind of gross when she thought about Timothy making that baby.

Brianna studied this kid, trying to see something they shared physically.

Maybe the shape of their eyebrows, a little. This kid had dark curly hair like Timothy’s and dark eyes from somewhere. She had freckles too. She just looked so generic, really. Like every other dumb kid living in this neighborhood or something. “But what am I supposed to do with her this week? I have plans.”

She and Jack were planning to have a really nice dinner tonight. He’d be angry if she canceled. She had intended to seduce him again. She loved being with him. He made her feel special. Cherished.

How was she supposed to do that with a kid hanging around?

“Hire a babysitter. I will pay for it. I just need to be free to meet with my contacts, and I want her in a safe place for that. Away from Trey’s friends. I wish you would stay away from Trey’s friends, too, young lady. They are not good men.” He gave her that look. That all parent-y one that both irritated the hell out of her and made her feel like she actually mattered to him and everything. “You will watch your little sister, Brianna. I need you to. While I get your brother out of trouble.”

She was stuck with the kid, whether she liked it or not. At least for now. “Fine. You win. She can stay. For now. Don’t, like, die and leave me alone with her or anything forever, okay?”

“Don’t worry. That’s not going to happen.”

Her father hugged her. Something Brianna wasn’t really used to, but sometimes she didn’t mind. He was her father—and he wanted her. That was more than her stepfather had ever done.

But why did she get stuck with this kid? It just wasn’t fair.