Page 100 of The Secrets She Keeps

“And yet I get to stay here all safe and cozy and protected with armed guards and servants waiting on me hand and foot while she can’t even have the basics of medical care? Because she’s worried aboutmoney? No way. I don’t think so. If Gunnar Nils Erickson has questions about what happened to us out there, he can damned well askme.And not badger Heather. I am not going to let him.” She looked at her best option for getting there. Her oldest brother just stared right back. “As for Daniel McKellen, I don’t know what is going on with that lunatic, but I am going to find out.”

“Daniel’s problem isHeather,” Jarrod said quietly. Powell looked at him.Everyonelooked at Jarrod. “Something about that woman has him going a little crazy right now. Like off his rocker crazy where Heather is concerned.”

“Just bet he is,” Mac said almost under his breath. Like he was angry now. With Daniel?

Powell was going to figure this out herself.

Powell just had to plan. How to make what she wanted happen. Which meant she needed resources.

Right there. Next to the back wall. The man she wanted. “You, Alexander Kinsey Barratt. You are taking me to the Colesons right now.”

“No, he isn’t.” Of course, Mac would havesomethingto add to that. He was one of the most hardheaded, difficult Barratts on the planet, after all.

“Why not? I am thirty-one, of sound body and mind, and keeping me here against my will constituteskidnapping.Isn’t that right, Detective Foster?”

“Technically, yes,” Jarrod said. “But?—”

“No, buts. Someone is taking me to the Colesons—or I’m going to drive myself. So who will it be?” Powell prepared to dig in. She had been dealing with Barratts her entire life.

She knew how to get what she wanted.

Powell just waited. And waited. And waited.

And waited some more.

In the end, it was her father. And two of her brothers.

And Rafe, who said he was going along to check on Heather. And, well, Haldyn and Jarrod, who said theywere going along to check on Hope and Heather.

And Murdoch and Zoey who had arrived during the middle of Powell’s standoff with her family. Murdoch wanted to go kick Daniel’s butt for his Auntie Heather.

Zoey was going along to protect Daniel and check on her family.

It was a regular party now.

But Powell was determined. She needed to see Heather. She just did. This…this wouldn’t feeloveruntil she knew Heather was going to be okay too. She just needed to see Heather. That was all.

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The little,sweet-faced one who looked like a fairy wasn’tsweetat all. Cashlyn Noelle Coleson was a true dictator, in a five foot five, one-hundred-twenty-pound body. She was a diabolical little monster who could give Napoleon lessons on how to bein charge.

And she would then send any man on the planet running for his sanity. All while fluttering ridiculously long eyelashes in his direction and giving him a beyond-precious smile.

That gorgeous little beast was far more dangerous than Heather Coleson could ever be, hands down.

She had him, Daniel—who she really despised—and Miguel out in the garage, moving boxes from the bottom level of the garage to the attic level of the three-story garage. Sometimes almost arbitrarily moving them.

Why? So that the Colesons could paint the space, hang mirrors, and stain the concrete floor to build Heather adancestudio. As a surprise, after all the hell she had been through. They were very excited about it—and arguing about what colors would best suit their aunt. Colesons liked toarguetoo.

Cashlyn’s baby sister Crispin was her second-in-command, and that girl could try the patience of a saint while having just a simple conversation with her. He suspected that demon worked at it.

Colesons were the most maddening female creatures on the planet.

And they were enjoying taunting Daniel.

Daniel was just taking it.

Probably because he thought he deserved it or something.

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