Page 103 of The Secrets She Keeps

“No harm. I find him very drool-worthy myself.”

“I was watching them all from the window. They didn’t,” Cara said. “And buttheads can’t be very pretty, Hope. They just can’t. It’s against the rules of buttheading. Why is Commander Butthead even here, anyway?”

“Cara!” Her mom said when a preschooler who greatly resembled Hope said butthead next, before running out of the room, yellingCommander Buttheadat the top of her lungs. The remaining three little girls took off after her, yelling aboutCommander Butthead! Commander Butthead!as they went.

Powell had to laugh. She just had to. Those girls looked like the rest of the Colesons—and were just too cute to ignore.

“Cara! Look what you’ve done,” Bonnie chided after the rest of the laughter stopped.

“Sorry, mom. I’m a Coleson. I just don’t know how to behave.” Cara shrugged, completely unrepentant. “Neither do they.”

“That you all don’t, but they are three years old. You are twenty-three. I expect better from you,” Bonnie said as her daughter just blinked at her, then grinned. Bonnie turned to the rest of them. “I’m sorry. But, well, Coleson children just really don’t know how to behave. At any age, apparently.”

“We mostly all just run feral,” Cara said.

Then she was gone, headed out after the little girls. And Powell was left with Cara’s mother. Who had a way of looking at a person that was just as powerful as her daughter’s. “Is Heather really all right? They just sort of rushed me out of there with the guards, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her.”

“She’ll be down in a minute, and you can talk to her. I can stall the gentlemen outside,” Bonnie said.

“I’ll do that, Bonnie,” Zoey said quietly as Samia carried Commander Rodriguez’s baby out of the room to change her. “Let me.”

Then, it was just Powell, Bonnie, Haldyn, and Hope.

As they waited.

Finally, Heather came in, followed by her twin sister and Eden.

“Powell? What are you doing here?” Heather asked.

Powell took one look at the other woman and the damage done to her and lost it. The tears started coming and just wouldn’t stop.

“No, none of that. Just none of that. Or we’ll all start crying, too,” Heather said. Her free arm went around Powell’s shoulders. “We are companion criers in this house. All of us. Total waterworks.” But her face was wet.

And they cried together.

They’d gotten away. That wasfinallystarting to sink in.

70

Daniel studiedthe occupants of the room. They’d finished in the Colesons’ garage and just ended up inside. It smelled like apple pie…and women. Inviting. Beautiful. This was the kind of place a man would never want to leave.

Mason Barratt refused to leave, though he lived just seven or eight blocks away. He apparently didn’t trust the TSP to keep his daughter safe again. He said as much too. Right to Gunnar’s face. He was still beyond angry at what had happened to his daughter.

Daniel winced at that. Not that he blamed Mason for how he felt now—but it hadn’t been Gunnar who had screwed up.

It had been Daniel.

Rafe had checked on Heather—and Hope—and told them to get Heather back to the hospital if the two Colesons who were doctors said to. That he would handle the bill if the TSP wouldn’t. He had glowered at Daniel after he’d said it. That man was almost as frightening as Miguel when he wanted to be.

Heather had thanked her nephew and then told him they didn’t take charity. Rafe had told her it wasn’t charity. It was just the way it was.

Heather had turned stubborn.

Rafe had lost with the declaration that Heather was ten times as stubborn as Zoey. To which Heather had replied, “Just where do you think my niece gets it from? You are being very rude to your auntie Heather, young man, do you need a time-out again?”

She’d won. Rafe had admitted defeat. A miracle in itself.

Which had been bound to happen eventually, just…did it have to be in this situation? Daniel wanted that woman back at the hospital, with a legion of doctors and nurses and security guards to watch over her.

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