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“Toby? That’s his name?”
“Yeah.”
“Is he the client?”
“No. He’s my client’s personal assistant. Kellan, you need to talk to me here. What’s going on?” I ask again. Whatever it is, I’ve got a feeling it’s worse than I had imagined. “Why’d you come over in such a rush and practically drag me out of there?”
Kellan doesn’t immediately reply. All I can do is watch him drive, the car shooting through thickening traffic as he gets us out of Hershey and back into North Platte. By the time we reach the mansion, the tension between us has only gotten heavier. As we pull up, I see Luke and Fallon’s cars also parked by the front steps, and I begin to understand. This is some kind of emergency meeting or intervention, and it most definitely has something to do with Charlene. What on God’s green earth did I set into motion when I sent him that text?
“Are you going to talk to me at all?” I ask as he gets out of the car. He rushes over and literally pulls me out of the passenger’s seat. He’s still angry and firm with every gesture, and I feel like a kidwho got caught cheating on a chem test or something. “Kellan!”
“Wait until we get inside,” he replies tersely.
I’m practically flying up the front steps and bursting through the front door with him. Fallon and Luke are waiting for us in the ground-floor study. The looks on their faces cause me to be even more confused and downright scared out of my mind. I remove myself from Kellan’s grip, officially insulted and boiling on the inside.
“Okay, I’m here. What the fuck is going on?” I snap. “I was in the middle of a job. What came over you, Kellan?”
“You need to quit,” Kellan says, hands on his hips.
I give him a confused look. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t work on that house, Avery,” Kellan insists.
“And why the hell not?” I ask. “Do you know my client personally or something?”
And there it is. The horror so clearly imprinted on their faces as they stare at me, utterly bewildered. One second turns into two and then three. And still not a single word from any of them. I take it as an opportunity to confront them since the cat is out of the bag and clawing at my face, metaphorically speaking.
“I saw you with her outside the sheriff’s office,” I tell Kellan. “I had no idea who she was at the time, but when I arrived at my prospective client’s house and she answered the door, I took the job. Since none of you will tell me what’s going on, I figured I could work it out on my own. Because that’s where we are in this relationship obviously—keeping secrets and lying by omission.”
“Avery, you need to quit,” Luke cuts in, his blonde brows furrowed with concern. “This is way more complicated than you think. We’re just trying to keep you safe.”
“Safe from what?” I demand.
“Dammit, Avery, will you just listen to us for once?” Kellan pleads, genuinely exasperated. “You can’t work for that woman. You need to stay away from her.”
“I will ask you again. Why?”
“There’s ancient history that you want no part of whatsoever,” he says.
“What does that even mean?”
Fallon exhales sharply. “Ugly history, Avery. The kind you don’t want to know about. Just stay the fuck away from her. We’ll cover whatever she’s paying you for that job.”
“It’s not your money I need. It’s the truth,” I shoot back.
“Avery, we can’t tell you. Not now,” Luke tries to plead with me. “We’ve never lied to you. We’ve never given you reason not to trust us.”
I shake my head vehemently. “Until now. You’ve obviously been keeping Charlene a secret from me. Is she the reason why all of you have been so on edge lately? Because it certainly looks that way to me.”
“Okay, yes,” Luke finally concedes. “But it’s not for the reason you might be thinking. Please, Avery, just trust us on this. Charlene Maddox is not the kind of woman you want to be involved with in any way. Stay away from her.”
It’s not enough. They’re not giving me enough of an explanation, and my hunger for the truth only grows stronger with every second that goes by. I feel wronged. Blind-sided. Forced to live in a darkness I’m not comfortable with. And it’s not right. We’re supposed to be a team, a family. We’re supposed to be able to tell each other everything, even the hard stuff, the nitty and the gritty we don’t normally tell other people.
“This isn’t fair,” I tell them, tears glazing my eyes. “Why did I have to resort to this kind of tactic to barely get a reaction out of you three? Why did it have to come to this, when you could’ve just told me the truth from the beginning?”
“Because you’ve been through enough already,” Kellan says, shaking his head slowly. “We’re only trying to protect you, Avery, I swear. We’re doing the best we can.”
“Do better,” I snap and walk out of the study.
