AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once we’re all gathered together, Cameron begins the interrogation. “Where are we? Thought we were having dinner? If I got a babysitter for you to get us tangled up in something—”
Cole’s jaw is tight, his shoulders down and back like he’s expecting trouble when he interrupts to answer, “We are. At my place. Here.”
I plaster myself to Cole’s side supportively, knowing that those few words equate to a neon welcome sign into his entire life, and he wraps his arm around me, grateful for the support to get to this point. It takes a single heartbeat for what he’s said to sink in, and then they look around with renewed interest.
“You live above the offices?” Cameron surmises, sounding much less cranky now.
“Yeah, my office. My home. My building,” Cole says without an ounce of pride, simply stating facts.
Kyle’s response is first and loudest, his shock echoing against the surrounding concrete. “You own the whole fucking building?”
Cameron’s eyes narrow, scanning Cole’s face for any sign of a lie. Carter looks around, and I can almost see him doing math in his head like that meme with the lady superimposed by geometric shapes and formulas. Luna said Carter sometimes does property investments with her brother, so he’d know what a building this size, in this location, would cost. Chance smiles easily, though I’m not sure if that has anything to do with Cole or his newlywed bliss. Kayla... doesn’t seem surprised.
“About damn time,” she rumbles with an eye roll.
“What?” Cole looks at her in shock.
“Janey’s friend isn’t the only one with a certification in FBI-ing,” she explains with a heavy amount of ‘duh’ on the words. “I figured if she could find you, I could find you.” She turns to me, her blue eyes dancing with curiosity, and inquires, “How long did it take your friend?” But she immediately holds up a hand, stopping me from answering. “Actually, better yet, don’t tell me. I don’t want to be pissed if it took me longer. I’m a little competitive after living with these guys my whole life.” She jerks her head toward her brothers, who seem well aware of her cutthroat streak.
I laugh and say, “C. Harrington, seriously? Not like he was hiding it well, but there were a lot of listings to go through.” Kayla looks at me like ‘don’t I know it?’ and we share a smile.
Cole gawks at me, suddenly realizing that we never discussed the details of how I found him. He looks proud and... turned on by the lengths I went to in tracking him down.
“I’ll be fixing that LLC name, apparently,” Cole says flatly, but his lip quirks. He’s not mad at all, not even that I found a loophole in his top-secret operation.
“I’ve got a guy who can help with that if you want,” Chance offers. “He’s a club alumnus who specializes in corporate law now. He’s done podcasts with Evan and me, talks to the guys about setting goals, and gives me a friends and family discount.” Rather than a brag of ‘knowing someone’ to make himself sound important, Chance sounds like a proud parent who witnessed their kid go from Troublemaker to Rockstar Adult.
Cole nods in appreciation. “You wanna see around or what?”
Of course, everyone does.
Cole walks us to a door, puts in a code, and ushers us into the stairwell. We follow him up one flight, waiting as he does another code to enter the office level.
“You’ve got this place locked up tighter than my ass the last time I went to jail,” Kyle jokes.
Chance chokes down a laugh, and I think I hear him murmur to Samantha, “Don’t knock it till you try it.”
At the same time, Cameron rolls his eyes. “You haven’t been to jail.” He sounds certain of that.
Ignoring them all, Cole says, “Paranoia partnered with a need for discretion.” He doesn’t explain further until we enter his office area. Seeing it again, through everyone else’s eyes this time, I look around, noting the sterile, modern, anonymous feeling. “This is the home base of BS Consulting. That’s me. I do private investigations for a select clientele.”
“Youarea hitman, fuck yeah!” Kyle announces loudly. And with shockingly little alarm. “Anybody we’d know? And what’s the going rate? I’ve got a bit saved up and a few folks I wouldn’t mind 86ing from the face of the Earth.” He draws a line across his neck with his thumb and then lets his head fall to the side, his eyes closed and tongue sticking out.
Of all the brothers, I’m figuring him out the most easily. He uses humor and sharp sarcasm to lighten things up anytime something important is going on, never letting anyone or anything get too heavy. I wonder if he’s ever serious, though.
Cole glares at him with raised brows. “Haven’t been one before. Thinking of branching out now, though. Wanna be my practice dummy?”
Kyle busts out into laughter, not expecting Cole’s answering wry joke. Because he is kidding. Mostly.
“What do you investigate?” Cameron questions. He looks thoughtful, like he’s considering this new information logically and rationally, turning it over in his mind to see how it affects them all.
“Whatever I choose to. Clients come to me, tell me what they want, and I decide if it’s worth my time and interest.” Cole’s process is considerably more in-depth than what he’s making it sound like. I’ve seen him researching for hours while we sit on the couch in the evenings, and he’s gone on stakeouts twice in the last week. Locally, thankfully, and he did tell me where he was going and when he’d be back. I still worried, of course, and nearly attacked him when he walked through the door, both with kisses and a full, rambling report of how much I missed him.
“What’s worth your time and interest?” Cameron asks, digging for more. I thought he was being a bossy older brother before, but I can hear the undercurrent of worry in his voice. Not for himself or the family but for Cole. He wants to make sure his brother is safe.
“Corporate espionage, high-profit divorce, child custody, stuff like that. I’m not loaning my talents out to enemy countries or anything.” Cole’s answer is glib, but he nods at Cameron, saying without saying that he hears him and he’s careful.
Cole leads us back into the stairwell and up to his living space. “Home, sweet home,” he says without a smile. This is hard for him. I know it is. He’s spent his whole life thinking his family didn’t care about him, so finding out that they care a lot has set his world view on tilt, reframing a lifetime of feeling left-out and forgotten into something more like self-isolation.
