Page 84 of Shattered Secrets

“It looks like they’re allied with Hells Angels.” Bean sipped a fluorescent-green drink. “Which makes sense if they’re running guns and drugs in South Dakota.”

“What about the other siblings and the mom?” Matt asked.

Bean circled her cursor over Tracy’s mug shot. “This is from the mom’s most recent DUI arrest two and a half weeks ago. She’s still in jail. She couldn’t post bond, so she’ll probably be there another month or so. Nothing yet on the other siblings—not even driver’s licenses—but I’m on it.”

Matt stared at the photos onscreen. “I’m wondering if Wilson was possibly trying to protect you. Or at the very least, trying to warn you.”

Scarlet folded her arms over her chest. “Yeah, but from who?”

Matt shook his head and scowled. Seeing the frustration in his eyes, she took his hand in hers.

“That’s the question,” Gavin said. “All right, we’ll keep digging over here.”

“If we pull enough strings, something’s bound to unravel,” Bean added.

“In the meantime, Tash will be swinging by. We’ll update her beforehand. Stay vigilant. And, Scarlet? We’ve got eyes on you and Daisy.”

“Thank you again. Both of you.”

Matt disconnected the video call, and Scarlet released a long sigh. They didn’t have much, but at least they had something. Granted, she didn’t know how it was going to help. Still, it was more than they knew this morning. That had to be positive.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The Fourth of July weekend had come and gone. They’d taken Daisy to watch the fireworks, and the following days had been ridiculously uneventful. Which was good. No one had broken any bones. Or broken into their home in the middle of the night. Or stumbled into the diner all bloody.

In fact, the highlight had been taking Daisy to get her cast removed. Her arm was healing well, and for the next two weeks, she would wear a forearm splint with, of course, a pink-and-purple unicorn cover.

So... things were good. Well, except for the lack of progress on her case with Hudson Security. Which was making her a little bit crazy. No level of uneventfulness could ease Scarlet’s roller coaster of emotions over the potential danger to Daisy.

Tash had come by the house last Saturday to introduce herself. One glance at the woman, and Scarlet had been beyond intimidated. Dressed in black slacks, a light-blue blouse, and a blazer, Tash had looked like she belonged on the cover of some power-CEO magazine. Not to mention she was a legit Gal Gadot doppelganger. Even Daisy had gasped and excitedly talked about how Matty and Xandy were friends with Wonder Woman. And ifall that wasn’t intimidating enough, Tash had a slight accent that Scarlet couldn’t quite peg. Because of course she did.

However, when Tash had met her at the diner early on Monday morning, Scarlet had done a double take. Gone were the sleek, fancy clothes. Instead, the other woman had worn jeans and a sleeveless white top with a wide brown belt and white sneakers. Which had only downgraded her from a power-CEO magazine to Hudson Island’s tourism brochure. The woman was drop-dead gorgeous no matter what clothing she selected.

Mercifully, after five days of Tash’s presence, the PSO had dropped a few notches on Scarlet’s scary-intimidating scale. No one would ever describe Tash as warm and snuggly, but Scarlet had discovered the womanwasnice and friendly, though a bit serious. However, she supposed that was the nature of Tash’s job. She wasn’t getting paid to be Scarlet’s BFF; she was getting paid to protect her.

At first, Scarlet hadn’t believed she needed someone to follow her around during her boring day-to-day life. But now she would happily admit she’d been wrong. Knowing someone was watching out for her helped immensely. Yes, she was still a fidgeting wreck, but she could be a much bigger fidgeting wreck.

As for today’s steadily growing nerves? They had nothing to do with the unknown threat. They were for tomorrow. Matt’s brother and sister-in-law were coming to the house for dinner.

Speaking of.. . Scarlet glanced at her watch, then scanned the playground. No sign of Xander or Tash, but she knew they were there... somewhere. They always hung around until she and Daisy were locked down with Matt for the evening.

Paula had wanted to pick up an extra shift, so Scarlet had taken the afternoon off and used the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Daisy. They’d had milkshakes at the diner, and now she was letting Daisy burn off some of the sugar on theplayground. But they still needed to swing by the store to pick up groceries for tonight’s and tomorrow’s dinners.

“Come on, Daisy. It’s time to go!” Scarlet called out.

Her daughter ran up with Mr. Slothy tucked in the crook of her splinted arm. “Can I go down the slide one more time?”

“No, baby, we have to go to the store. We’re going to meet Matt’s brother and sister-in-law tomorrow, remember?”

“What’s a sister-in-law?" Daisy asked, taking Scarlet’s hand.

“Well, Matt’s brother is Jake, and Jake is married to Carmen,” she explained as they crossed the street to the small grocery store. “So that makes Carmen Matt’s sister-in-law. It’s like she’s Matt’s honorary sister because she’s married to his brother. Make sense?”

Daisy went silent for a moment. “Mama, can I have a sister?”

Scarlet coughed, choking on air. “Uhhh . . . I don’t really think . . .”

Her mind went blank. Usually, she was good at coming up with some sort of BS explanation. But right now? Nope.

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