Page 98 of The Secrets She Keeps

“The TSP is footing her entire bill,” Daniel said almost testily.

“Sure they are,” Hope said. “Dude, would you like to seemypile of bills they are supposedly footing? I have never seen that many zeros on my bills before. Not so wicked fun. Even my college education cost half what that heart surgery did. Bang, bang, now Hazel Hope is in debt up to her eyeballs! Good thing I’m not any taller. I think they charged by the inch.”

“What?” Daniel asked. “You’re still getting billedfor what happened that night?”

“Yep. Sure am. First one arrived three days after I was shot. I wasn’t even homeyet.”

“Well, the TSP should be paying yours, as well,” Daniel told Hope. “Get me copies of everything you’ve received so far, and I’ll find out why they’re not being covered, Hope.”

“Sure you will. Why are you all here again? Well, Miggy…I kind of expected, actually. He shows up like hives around here lately. But you two? Let me guess, more questions? She just now got comfortable enough to sleep, guys, thanks to the pain meds. You are going to have to wait until she wakes up. Here’s a hint: we are not waking her up for you. We just aren’t. Find something else to do while you wait. I have a few suggestions. For you, Butthead, not Gunnar. We’re keeping him. WelikeGunnar;he’sbeen voted onto Coleson Island.”

Several of her pack agreed.

“Well, we do have some yard work we need done,” Cashlyn said, tapping her little chin and eyeing them in a way that had Gunnar feeling a sudden streak of apprehension. “The three of them certainly lookfitenough to get the job done, ladies. Then there is that entire project we are doing in the carriage house. They could definitely dothat.”

“You know, Cashie,” Samia said, taking Miguel’s baby from Hope when Hope shifted baby Emilia and grimaced. “We really can’t just put every stray guy that comes wandering around us to work doing physical labor. I don’t think that’s something normal people actuallydo? Eventually, the guys involved might just start to protest.”

“Who said anything about us being normal?” Cashlyn asked, sounding so utterly serious. “Do we even want to be normal, for that matter? I thought we voted on that too?Normaldoes seem to stifle our Coleson creativity.”

“We voted on that one a long time ago,” Crispin said. She looked at Gunnar. “It was rather unanimous. We aren’t normal. Except, well, Aunt Heather thinkssheis the most normal one of us all.”

“Besides,” Summer said. “Why can’t we put them to work? There has always been such an abundance of free male labor just showing up at our house—we had to do something with them.”

“They just cluttered up everywhere if we didn’t. Or piled up, getting in our way when we were busy doing things. There were always just so many of them,” Hope added like she was completely serious. Well, Gunnar could almost believe it.

“True. Very, very true. And Mom does love her efficiency,” Cashlyn said, pushing open the front entry to their home. “We did learn from the best. Gentlemen, if you would join us inside? Quietly, of course. Heather—and probably the baby—are sleeping in the family room. It was as far as Heather could make it, I believe. Raine, Jago, and our sweet little Emilia, there are cookies in the kitchen just waiting on you. But we have to be really, really quiet, okay?”

“With the cramberries?” Miguel’s son asked. “Like lastest time?”

“Exactly like last time,” Hope told him as he hugged her quickly. “Summer made them special, in case you came over to see us. She made more granola with cranberries and blueberries too. And yogurt, for bedtime snacks. We’ll put granola on top again too.”

“I liked the ‘nola in the ‘gurt. It was crunchy. We here to take care of Aunt Heather now. The bad guys gotted her this time, Mama Koala.” And there was fear in the little boy’s eyes that had no business being there. “Like they did my daddy and you.”

Sometimes Gunnar hated this job completely. The cost was just too much. A four-year-old should never know that bad guys werereal.Should not be afraid.

He just shouldn’t.

“Yeah, bud, I know. But Aunt Heather is really tricky and really smart and really sneaky, and she got away too. She is safe now, taking a nap on the couch so we’re all going to be really quiet. She just has a few bruises and stuff. She’ll be okay, I promise,” Hope told him.

“No stitcheses?”

“A few. But not as many as me,” Hope said, brushing her hand over his hair. Miguel was standing there, staring at thegremlinlike she was his every walking fantasy right now. Gunnar watched her wrap her hand around Jago’s and lead him inside, Miguel following her like a damned oversized puppy.

Gunnar and Daniel trailed in his wake.

Gunnar barely avoided tripping over a rogue Coleson duck wandering around their side yard on his way.

Coleson Island—well, it was probably the leastnormalplace in Hughes Heights, completely.

67

Powell was a woman on a mission.None of this locking her away at Houghton’s and just waiting for everyone else to find the answers. Maybe she wasn’t a big tough cop like the rest of them, but she had the right to know what was behind what had happened to her.

Now that she was a bit more back in her right mind, she hadquestions.

Gunnar Erickson had the answers. Powell just had to find her man first.

“Heather checked herself out of the hospital AMA a few hours ago,” the man in the middle of the dining room said. Rafe, Zoey’s brother, was obviously irritated. But…he was often irritated. Powell didn’t care. She wanted to know about Heather.

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