AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gus shook his head. “Tough family.”
Jacqui was laughing now.
“My uncle was showing her his new .45, and she didn’t realize it was still loaded,” Mac explained in protest. “She shot me in the leg by accident.”
“She alleges,” Gus persisted.
“How old were you?” Theo clasped her hand over her mouth as she waited for him to answer.
“Twelve.”
“Your poor mother!” Theo shook her head. “She must have been devastated,”
“More embarrassed than devastated, I think. I was on crutches for weeks. She told everyone I’d had an accident on my bike.” He smiled wickedly. “I made out like a bandit selling her my silence.”
“Mac is by nature entrepreneurial,” Gus informed her. “It’s the American dream.”
Mac raised his glass. He took a sip before he continued more seriously. “You should speak to the police about the fact that the guy who rammed you followed you home the other day, just in case he turns up again. I’ll see what I can dig up.”
Gus frowned. “If you even think you might have seen him again, Theo, you call me straight away. I’ll tell Jenny to put you through regardless of what I’m doing.”
“You have to go to New York the day after tomorrow,” Jacqui reminded him.
“I can cancel—”
“Don’t be absurd!” Theo said alarmed. “I’m not five years old!”
“You might have been killed today…”
“I’ll be careful, Gus. I’m just going to stay home and write anyway.”
“What if he’s worked out where you live?”
“The locksmith came today and fixed all the windows…and I have Horse.”
Horse raised his head at the mention of his name and then rolled onto his back.
Gus studied his sister, looking for any sign of false bravado. Theo met his gaze fiercely, silently reminding him that she’d grown up, that she was no longer a terrified little girl. Still, he seemed torn.
“Mac and I will both be in town,” Jacqui said placing her hand on Gus’s. “If Spiderman shows up, or Theo has any concerns at all, she can call us. You’ve got to go to New York, Gus. You can’t let old Crane go by himself…he’ll go too far.”
The conversation diverged into tales of John Crane’s ability to offend almost anyone, but clients especially. It was an unusual talent for the partner of a law firm.
“Many clients believe that a rude lawyer is somehow better,” Gus explained. “I expect they think the rest of us are too polite to defend them properly.”
“But we always send someone with the grumpy old jerk,” Jacqui added. “Just to make sure he doesn’t get the entire firm fired. Gus is very good at making it sound like John Crane is joking.”
Gus nodded. “It’s why they asked me to be a partner.”
Theo smiled. “Well, you have to go, then.”
CHAPTER 11
Theo tried her best to disguise the abrasions on her face, but there was only so much she could do. She wanted to keep Gus’s concern to a minimum, and she knew the bruises were a stark and visible reminder of what had happened. It was not that she was entirely blasé about the danger, but that she was aware of how hard her brother had worked for this partnership, how much he had risked buying into it, and how much he loved living in Lawrence. He’d thrown in a career at a slick New York firm to buy out Gerard Purcell, against whom he’d appeared in court once or twice. What Purcell had said to convince Gus to buy his share in a small Kansan firm, Theo had no idea. She wished that she could talk her brother into taking the money he’d negotiated out of the trust for her. But Gus would have none of it.
He’d taken her into the police station before work the day before. Detective Mendes had seemed irritated by the fact that they had not come in immediately, muttering about the ineptitude of the officer on the scene. He intimated that Gus at least should have known better. Gus became noticeably curt with the detective. Theo intervened to send her brother to work while she waited for the police sketch artist, and then worked with her to come up with an image of Spiderman. When she was finished, Mendes had driven her home himself. He’d asked her about her writing, and though Theo knew that this was an unofficial extension of her interrogation, she also had nothing to hide. Except that Veronica Cole had asked her not to say anything about her manuscript. And so Theo was vague about her work, redirecting his questions about the story and finally mumbling some joke about spoilers that, even to her, sounded coy.
Veronica probably hadn’t meant disclosures to the police, but Theo didn’t want to risk it. The attentions of Day Delos and Associates seemed too miraculous, so fragile that any pressure might cause it to disintegrate and disappear.
