Page 90 of The Secrets She Keeps

Joy’s look told them what the callers meant. Gunnar wasn’t stupid. Some people would say or believe anything if they had anonymity behind them. Or could hide behind the damned internet.

“We just have to name the price. And you know we take payment plans, right? Let’s talk about that SOB who tried to lure Cara into his car last month at the law library at FCU,” Joy continued. “Can you imagine how that made Cara’s mother feel? Or Crispin, who can barely step foot at FCU right now?”

“Remember the dude back at Thanksgiving who caught Eddie in the parking lot and told her he’d make babies with her the old-fashioned way, no turkey baster needed?” Hope asked. Gunnar looked at her, hoping she was being sarcastic. He suspected she wasn’t. “And could get started right away? Like right then, actually.”

“Hard to forget him. Dr. Lake punched him and chased him off. After he told the guy to get his hands off Eddie.” Joy looked at the men in the room and shrugged. “If you don’t believe us, I’m sure Anthony is around here somewhere. He and Eden filed a report with the TSP. You can confirm. We could also probablyask the women who want to know where the babies are kept so they can justbuy a genius baby?”

Hope looked at Gunnar. “Some man called and offered to buy Heather’s baby for his infertile wife, by the way. But only at half price since the baby has a vagina and not a penis. I’m sure you can imagine what my sister told him.”

“Two days later, a man followed her home. Try putting that together. Do you know how much that terrified Heather, even with her gun? She had the girls and Iagan in the car with her,” Joy added.

“Someone knewHeather was the one of us with a young baby, agirl,and knewexactlywhere to find Heather and when,” Hope said, ignoring Daniel’s curse. “She’d only been living in Finley Creektwo weeks.”

“We have had people threaten to come and take one of oursuper-geniusbabies six times now. To save them from us since we have no business playing God.Thismonth alone. Try taking your kids to the park with that in mind,” Joy said, rubbing a chill from her arms.

“What the hell?” Mac said. “Why didn’t any of you tell us? Or report it to the TSP?”

“HeatherisTSP, remember?” Joy asked, giving him a look like Mac was a total idiot. “You do know what happened the last time Heather reported something to the TSP, I assume? She got four years of being stalked,beaten, threatened, and raped out of it—then her baby sister takes a bullet because of that same man. Real big incentive for Heather to report a damned thing, right?”

Gunnar barely kept from flinching, and Mac went as pale as a damned ghost. Daniel cursed. The Colesons didn’t pull any punches, that was for sure.

“I didn’t…realize,” Mac said in a strangled tone. “I’m sorry.”

“Guess you don’t read theGarlic, do you?” Joy said.

“No. I don’t.”

“That is a point in your favor, actually. They did a really big spread on all of Heather’s life events these past four years while you all were in Wyoming, complete with copies of her initial police reports. That’s what Heather flew home to this week. At least they blacked out her name. Mostly. You could just make out the s-o-n at the end in some of the photos.” She looked at Daniel. “Weren’t those in evidence? Confidential or something? Yeah, great security you have there at Castle TSP. Don’t get me wrong. My husband was TSP—but the people he worked with in Houston, they were the kind of TSP who’d earned their respect. Like Mig. But here in Finley Creek? No way.”

“And who else would even care? Nephie-poo Lukie?” Hope asked, more sarcasm in her words than Gunnar would have ever thought the gremlin was capable of. “That’s rich. Almost as rich as he is. Who would we have reported it to, anyway? McKellen here, who so obviously would even care?”

“We all know how hedeals with threats toward Heather, don’t we?” Joy did sarcastic very, very well too. “Have time to deal with those threats now, Daniel, dear? Of course, you do—there’s a rich Barratt of Finley Creek involved this time, after all.”

“It’s not like that,” Daniel started.

Joy held up a hand, and he stopped. “We are not fools. Remember that.”

“Maybe Murdoch; possibly, actually, since he’s a decent kind of guy. I know! The former head of the Assault division—the guy who put a bullet in my chest!”

“I suppose we could ask the guy who called and wanted to know if fifteen-year-oldMaris was available yet. If not, he’d just take her older sister or Crispin or Cashie or Cara instead. Although hereallywanted Hope the most, guys. Since she is just so damned cute in those little hats and pigtails she wears all the time. Especially when she smiles like she does. He wasafraid there was a waiting list for Hope,” Joy said, shrugging and flicking her hand at one of the pigtails in her baby sister’s hair.

“He’d really like one of us young-uns,” Hope almost snarled. “So he can train us up real right. He told Maris’s motherall about it. Marcia got physically ill from it and has had nightmares about someone taking one of her girls for weeks now. Especially Megan, who goes to FCU too. Norm won’t let Maris out of his sight, just in case—great way for an extremely timid teenage girl to go through high school, isn’t it?”

“Let’s not even get started on the things some of these callers have been saying to Heather—even on her work line,” Joy said. “Can you imagine what guys think when they seeHeatheronline or in that damnedGarlic? And it’s speculated that we were breeding stock? I bet you an entire year’s salary that Zoeyisn’t getting the same kind of phone calls Heather is right now. And at a distance of fifty feet, can you boyseven tell the difference between Zoey and Heather physically? Honestly?”

Well, no. Gunnar still had to look twice when Zoey and Heather were near each other at first. If their hair was down. If it was braided, it would take him a moment. He got her point. And it sickened him. Utterly sickened him.

“I’ll tell them what the difference is!” Hope raised one hand. “Zoey has a billionaire with his own private army to protecther.We have…Heather. And Norm. And sometimes, when she’s really feeling PMS-y and rabid, our little Megan Marianne. How’s the shin, Butthead?”

“Luc could have done something to help protec—” Mac started.

Joy laughed at that. There wasn’t any humor in her tone. “Sure he would have. He’d like nothing more than if we Colesons just went away and disappeared forever. Tying our name to his is the last thing Davis Lucas wants, Mac. We are well aware of that.”

“Dude, you really do live in a rich guy bubble world, don’t you? Wake up, Hottie Mackie McBarratt, wake up. Join thereal peopleworld of Finley Creek,” Hope said, jumping up and glaring right at Mac. He just stared down at her, his shock on his face for all to see. “There are real freaks out there. Even the great gates of Hughes Heights don’t keep creeps out. I think we learned that yesterday, right? We’ve taken down every social media account we had, every online way some of us earn extra money—or all of Summer’s money, actually. We pulled Heather’s Frankie out of daycare and the preschool that has an on-staff speech therapist, and Joy’s two youngest too.”

“They’re practically little preschool-aged prisoners.” Joy’s pain was hard to miss. Hadn’t that woman lost enough? “What kind of life is that forthem?”

“We never go anywhere alone now, even before good old Kimball got me. You really think one little barbecue at the great Barratt Ranch—complete with free publicity for Lucas Tech and Barratt-Handley when Lukie was in town—does a damned thing forus?” Hope asked. He suspected she had a real point.

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