Page 45 of The Secrets She Keeps

No real surprise. No man hadeverreally wanted to fight for Brianna. They just didn’t. Even Jack. He’d punched Joey after he’d found the two of them fooling around together that night, but that was all. Then he had looked at her and…laughed. Promised he’d punish her later and everything. Joey was dead now. He’d been killed by that Kimball guy. Brianna still didn’tknow how she felt about that. “Come on, brat. I’ll take you to the park. But if you tell anyone that I am your older sister and not…” Brianna thought for a moment. “I am your godmother, okay? That’s what we’ll tell people. You are Leena…what is your last name again?”

Leena told her. It wasn’t Timothy’s last name, so that was good. Brianna didn’t know why itwasn’tTimothy’s, but, that worked, right? “Okay, I am your godmother, you are Leena whatever. Your mom is my friend from years ago. You are staying with me over spring break because…”

“She’s on her honeymoon with a really hot guy and you got stuck with her brat kid?” She grinned at Brianna.

Brianna couldn’t help herself. She laughed. The kid could be kind of funny, even if she was really little. “Something like that. You have one hour to play while I sit there and pretend to actually like you.”

“Thank you! Thank you, thank you!”

The kid threw her arms around Brianna’s waist and hugged her. Brianna surprised herself when she hugged Leena right back.

Maybe having a little sister wasn’t that bad, after all.

30

Powell stared.She couldn’t help herself. That wasn’t Eden Coleson and one of the Coleson kids like Powell had first thought.

That was Brianna.

Brianna Claireson was with a child. A little girl, no more than seven or eight or so. The little girl looked like a very tiny version of Cara from a distance. Powell looked closer, to make certain it wasn’t a rogue Coleson youngling about to get eaten by Brianna—Cara had two cousins that were identical twin girls around that same age. Powell was almost certain of it.

That little girlcouldbe one of them, maybe.

Those two little Coleson girls looked like Hope, with almost black hair that it curled like the girls’ mother’s. This little girl’s hair was the same shade and curly, but…she didn’t think that was a Coleson. Maybe?

One of those kids wouldn’t be with Brianna. Ever. But why was there a real, live kid with Brianna in the first place? That was insane.

“Spying on the neighbors is weird,” a voice said behind her. “You have voyeuristic tendencies, Pow-Pow?”

“I am almost certain she was watching me and Cara out the office window today,” Alex added. Powell turned slightly. There they were. Tweedledee and Tweedledumb. Two of her darling big brothers. They’d been waiting for these two boobs to show up, so that they could eat. Meat loaf. Powell was suddenly very, very hungry here. “When Cara came by to talk to Adaya for some reason.”

Adaya was the paralegal at B-3 Cara had worked with the most. Powell had noticed Cara in the lobby and had stopped to talk to her. She hadn’t known Cara was back from Wyoming yet. She was determined—she was getting Cara back to B-3 somehow.Fast.

Even if she had to lock Alex outside every day while Cara was there to make it happen. She’d just tell the custodial crew to order Alex to clean up his own drool off the window each night before he left.

“You shouldn’t have been trying to do what you were trying to do with one of our interns,” Mac told him bluntly. “Definitely not on B-3 property.”

Well, hell. PowellwantedAlex to do what he was trying to do with Cara. How else was Powell supposed to get cousins for her baby to play with? She wanted Coleson babies as her nieces and nephews. Mac wasn’t going to ever make that happen with Heather—he couldn’t get it up for her, as Powell had heard very recently—so Powell’s only hope was through Alex and Cara.

Unless…Mac and another of the Colesons, maybe?

Powell was not ruling that out just yet.

Someonewas bound to take Mac off Powell’s hands eventually, right?

It would have to be a woman with nerves of steel. And a really high tolerance level. She wondered if some of the other Colesons fit that bill.

“I want to do a lot more with that particular intern. She just doesn’t seem to realize that,” Alex said, shrugging. But he had a shrewd look in his eyes. He was definitely plotting something. For Cara. “And technically, she isn’t one of our interns any longer. She quit.”

“Because ofyou,dumbass,” Mac pointed out. Entirely unnecessarily. They allknewwhy Cara had quit. Still, Mac liked to point things out unnecessarily. He’d been doing it Powell’s whole life, after all. “You are lucky she didn’t sue you.”

Alex was definitely plotting something. He was so sneaky, that one.

“Maybe she just doesn’t want to come right out and say you are a total frog?” Powell said it just because he was her big brother, and he deserved it. And she wanted to make sure he wasn’t just pursuing Cara because Cara wasn’t falling for his lines as fast as he’d expected. Seeing Cara as a challenge or something.

Although, part of the reason Powell wanted Cara back at the firm was for Alex. He hadn’t been the same since Cara had resigned. He had seemedhappyin Wyoming with Cara. That was all Powell really wanted for the frog who was her brother.

“Hardly. But…I am taking it very slowly. I have noticed something about my beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful, but terrifying gaggle of befanged neighbors,” Alex said. “It is a bit puzzling, actually.”

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