Chapter 9

9

Brianna just kept droning. Powell just kept nodding. She was tired. It had been a long day. And she still had so many things she wanted to talk to Cara about.

Namely, Cara's resignation.

Thanks to Powell's brother Alex, and something completely boneheaded her brother had said to Cara before he even really knew her, Cara had resigned, giving her two-week notice from two days ago—citing moral and ethical differences with a partner in B-3.

Alex was going around like a bear with a sore paw. Her father and mother were demanding explanations. Her mother liked Cara. Well, so did Powell. And Alex seriously needed his butt kicked.

"So what are we going to do about them?" Brianna asked impatiently.

"Bicycles?" Powell asked.

"You weren't even paying attention to me, were you?"

Well, Powell hadn't been. And her mother had raised her better than that. "I'm sorry, Bri. I've had a bit of a headache all afternoon, and we had an intern suddenly give notice. And I need that particular intern."

"Well, just hire another one. We have a big problem. They had weird-looking guys walking around all over their street last weekend. With a delivery truck."

Powell checked her watch. Cara would be here soon.

And Powell intended to meet her just inside the doors. Before Cara could check the board to see what tasks the interns had all been assigned for the day.

Cara wasn't her intern, only. Powell had to share her, damn it. And that…was a problem.

She didn't want Cara to quit. Cara was too good to go somewhere else. B-3 was the best firm in the region, probably in the state. Powell's parents and two of her uncles had worked hard to make that happen decades ago. Cara was phenomenal in contract law. She was an asset to the firm, and B-3 would help her really establish herself.

And, well, there were vultures masquerading as lawyers and officers of the court. Powell had encountered them before. Some were even in the rival firm right next door .

Cara was too innocent to even notice when she was in trouble. Powell had made it her mission to keep an eye on the younger woman when she'd realized Cara was Zoey's baby cousin—and just how naive and innocent Cara actually was.

"I have to go, Bri. I have a serious problem with this intern that needs to be dealt with. Before she crosses paths—and apparently swords—with Alex again."

"Did Alex have a fling with another intern again?" Brianna asked, mouth pursed like she'd sucked on a lemon. "He should know better than to play with the hired help that way. Who was it?"

"Brianna, go." Powell started to the door. Just like she had suspected, Brianna followed her. All the way outside the ten-story building that housed the biggest two law firms in their region of Texas on the first four floors and her cousin Houghton's entire corporation on the six floors above. And to the sidewalk in front. Complaining about the Colesons and their ragged-looking guests the entire way.

Powell might have five minutes to shake Brianna. Cara was almost always right on the dot, fifteen minutes before the hour she was supposed to be there. "Brianna, why don't you go home and make me a list of grievances? I'll take them up with the Colesons myself when I get a chance." Like, when never came around. That would be a good place to start.

Powell looked up as an older smaller model SUV pulled into the parking lot. Parked.

And three women climbed out. Damn it.

This was not going to be good. She had been trying to avoid this. And Cara usually drove herself to work.

"Are those… Colesons ? What are they doing here?" Brianna demanded.

"Client privilege, Bri. I am an attorney. You know I can't tell you that." That came in so handy sometimes. Didn't want to talk to someone, "client privilege" was almost magical.

"Well, I am going. I don't want to be anywhere near them."

"Of course not. You might get Coleson cooties." Brianna shot her a look. Powell bit back a snicker. Did Brianna have any clue how stereotypical vapid, mean girl she acted sometimes? "I thought you were leaving?"

"They are between me and my car. How can I leave?" Brianna's insulted pride was just so obvious. How dare the Colesons try to breathe the same air.

"Fine. Why don't you stay here and say hello? It would be the neighborly thing to do. You are the president of the homeowners association."

Cara and the two women with her were talking heatedly about something. Powell studied them for a moment. Cara was the shortest, the smallest. Heather and the niece Powell thought was Eden were both around five nine or ten. All three women were thinner women. Cara strongly favored Heather but was far more delicate looking. There was no denying that those two were related. The other woman, Eden, was wearing scrubs. She was very willowy. She was taller than Heather by maybe an inch or so. Her hair was long and several shades lighter than Cara or Heather's. It waved too. She was obviously a Coleson, but she didn't favor Heather or Cara nearly as much as some of the other Colesons Powell had met.

"Well, which ones are they ? They all look so much alike. It's really freaky. Normal families just don't look like each other, not like that," Brianna said. "They look really weird. All of them."

Weird wasn't the word for the three women. At all.

Brianna looked weirder than the Colesons, although her hair was equally as wavy as Eden's. She was built along the same lines. Her hair was a very similar color—and style—to Eden Coleson's.

In fact, at a distance, Eden Coleson and Brianna could probably be easily mistaken for one another. Powell had to wonder if Brianna had ever noticed that.

She almost pointed it out, but, well, that whole needing-to-behave thing. Powell was going to be a mother. She had to be good, right? Set an example?

That was a lesson Brianna would never learn. " Goodbye, Brianna. I will talk to you later. Right now, I have legal business to take care of."

Anything to move Brianna along.

And Heather did have an intent look on her face right now. As she looked right at Powell. She carried a large manilla envelope, as well.

Brianna took off, stomping past the Colesons. She said something—probably rude—to Cara. Heather bared her teeth. She snapped them right at Brianna.

Brianna scurried away.

Powell snickered. She was almost certain Heather had just growled at Brianna. Or threatened to bite her for real.

"Hello, is something wrong?" Powell asked as Brianna sent her a look of betrayal or something.

"Yes. You can start by telling me where that jackass of an older brother of yours is?" Heather asked almost sweetly. Too sweetly.

Uh-oh.

"Heather is mad," Cara told Powell. Completely unnecessarily.

"At which jackass older brother of mine?" Powell asked. Alex and Mac both had jackass tendencies. "I have two to choose from."

Alex lived right next door to Cara now. Mac? Well, Mac was Mac. It could be either of her brothers, honestly. She'd believe jackass of both.

"You have three brothers." Cara, again.

"Yes, but Brandt is very sweet. He has very few jackass tendencies. I started training him in the womb. Twins can be quite difficult to manage, so I got an early start."

"Tell me about it," Heather said. "My own twin is very untrainable. Now, where is Mr. McKinley M. Barratt, esquire?"

"He's about to be toast," Cara said so seriously.

"Mac has sent us another certified letter. On behalf of…Luc," Eden said quietly. She was a more reserved woman, Powell had noticed before.

But, for a moment there, she really did resemble Brianna. A lot. The way she tilted her head, maybe. Her hairline. Even the eyebrows and her jawline.

And a totally opposite attitude, thankfully.

Powell shook it off. It was just leftover Brianna cooties making Powell hallucinate or something. See a resemblance that just wasn't there.

"I see. Luc is Mac's client exclusively. Well, Mac and my father. I don't know what they are working on," Powell focused on the angriest Coleson in front of her right now. Heather looked beyond exhausted. And it was no wonder, after what had happened. Haldyn had told her some of what had happened with Hope and that Kimball guy.

And why.

Her heart hurt for the hell this woman in front of her had gone through. It never should have happened.

And Mac chose now to stir up things on Luc's behalf? She was going to have to talk to that brother about his timing. The big doofus. Had he missed everything that had been going on in Finley Creek since Haldyn had been shot?

"Harassing us is a good place to start. He's sending one of these every three days now," Heather said. She handed the envelope she held to Powell. "We have to go. Cara, stay inside here until Miguel or Summer gets you, understand? Watch from the window, but do not go outside until they see you too."

"Yes. I don't ever leave once I'm here." Cara looked at Powell, then the envelope Heather had given Powell. "We all signed it, you know. It was unanimous."

"I'll give it to Mac." Powell looked down.

At the letter from B-3, addressed to the Coleson Family, Number Nine Jude Way, Finley Creek.

The envelope that had been decorated with graffiti and around two dozen signatures. Including many childish ones. There was even a cartoon version of Heather's baby drawn on there, with her name in neat, stylized letters underneath. Nearby was a cartoon version of Heather's older girl—and Heather herself. With vampire fangs and a cape. The little girl cartoon wore a matching cape and had fangs. Powell looked closer—the baby had tiny fangs on there too. How hilarious.

Powell's own baby would probably wear a Viking helmet and furs. Considering…

In bold pink marker, over a large cartoon duck with an eyepatch, were the words "Leave us the hell alone, Luc. We do not want your money! Stay away, or we will put a hex on you!"

There was a cartoon version of who looked like Bonnie Coleson in a witch hat next to it. Was the duck supposed to be her familiar?

Someone had drawn hundred dollar bills alongside the margins. Powell just gawked. There was a cartoon version of Hope skateboarding on top of the mountain of bills. "Did all of you decorate this?"

"Of course. We took turns," Heather said. "One Coleson?—"

"All Colesons," the three finished in unison.

"It says it right there," Cara said, pointing to big pale blue letters that Powell was certain was paint. They had definitely taken their time with the large envelope. " Una Colesons, Omnes Colesons."

"There are more…succinct responses to some of Luc's requests inside , " Eden said, fury in her tone. "Like, that asshole is not getting a DNA sample from my son. He just isn't. Make sure your brother knows that, okay? I wanted to deliver this part myself. Tell him, ‘Hell, no. It'll never happen.' For me?"

"I will do just that." Because there was fear in Eden's eyes too. What was Luc—and Mac—up to now?

Oh, her brother really needed to work on his people skills. It was time she found her mother, and they came up with a Dealing-with-Mac plan. Again.

Mac was a constant work in progress.

"And if your brother doesn't get the message, I look forward to giving it to him myself." Heather's face told Powell exactly what that would mean. Powell winced.

She had seen Heather's niece Zoey look just like that before.

The results had not been pretty.

Still, Mac probably deserved it.

When Heather and her older niece were gone, Cara turned toward her. "Heather is really, really mad at Mac right now. She didn't want me to come in at all today. She wanted me to stay home with her and Hope. Since Heather got suspended and everything. But Mom said I have to work my two weeks' notice. Because that is how other people quit jobs and everything. So we voted. But Heather was afraid your brother would try to manipulate me or something. I told her I can take care of myself."

But Heather was probably correct. Mac was a master strategist. He'd see Cara as an "in." No denying that. Well, Powell was trying to convince Cara not to quit. Mac wasn't going to make that difficult. "Just stay with me. Mac is afraid of me. I'll keep him away from you, no matter what."

"I think you were probably a Coleson in another life." Cara just blinked at her. "If I believed in that kind of thing. Can we go inside? I want to get to the conference room and find my assignment today."

"Why the rush?" They usually spent a few minutes chatting when Cara first got there.

"Alex is watching me from the window right now."

"Is he?" Powell turned. Her older brother was in their mother's window. Watching them. Powell barely resisted throwing him a rude gesture. Her mother was right there next to him—Powell had to behave, after all. That example thing. Rude gestures—her mother would still try to ground her if Powell did that.

"He does that a lot, you know. Watches me now."

That was something Powell did not know.

How completely intriguing. All thoughts of Mac and Heather, the cluster that was Zoey and Heather's family, and even thoughts of Brianna were pushed aside.

Powell really thought she needed a road map sometimes.

And her brothers—they needed keepers. They both did. Powell just didn't have the time to keep those two under control any longer.