With anyone else, he would have expected them to freak out over seeing a dead body, but I’d seen several over the last few months. He knew something else was going on.
How was I going to explain this? I needed Jed, but my phone was upstairs and currently dead.
Joe grabbed my upper arms and bent at the knees to stare into my face. “Neely Kate, honey, I need you to tell me what you know.”
Tears burned my eyes. If I told him, it would be the beginning of the end.
“Neely Kate!” Rose shouted from the living room.
“In here!” I called out. “In the kitchen.”
Seconds later she burst into the room, her wild eyes moving from Joe to quickly scanning me. “Are you okay?”
I hugged myself, realizing I’d begun to shake. “Yeah.”
“You don’t look okay. Joe said Kate broke out and your phone was dead.” She put a hand on her chest. “I was terrified.”
I quickly gave her a hug. “I’m fine. I forgot to plug my phone in.”
“Why do you look so scared?” she asked, then shook her head. “Not that finding out Kate is on the loose isn’t terrifying in its own right.”
I gave her a grim smile. Part of me didn’t want to tell her about the body in our basement. She was going out of town with Skeeter later today, and there was no way she’d leave me knowing Kate was playing a dangerous game. The other part of me didn’t want to tell her because I’d have to confess all. And I still wasn’t ready.
Damn Kate.
Joe wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Kate’s a loose cannon. That’s terrifying enough. Sorry to have bothered you so early.”
I barely stopped myself from turning to look at him in shock.
She gave him a hesitant glance. Joe would ordinarily ask where she’d been, so she was obviously on pins and needles, waiting for his prying. “No bother. I’m glad you called. But now that I know Neely Kate is safe, I’ll head upstairs and take a shower.”
She gave me a look that suggested she could easily be talked out of it, but I nodded, eager to get Joe alone so I could find out why he didn’t tell her about our discovery. “I’ll start a pot of coffee. It’ll be ready when you come down.”
Muffy followed her, and as soon as she was out of earshot, I looked up at him with wide eyes. “Why didn’t you tell her?”
“Let’s get that pot of coffee started. I suspect we’re gonna need it.”
I stared at him in shock as he walked over to the cabinets and started opening doors. “Where are the coffee grounds?”
“Uh… in the fridge.” I walked over and opened the refrigerator door, removing the coffee from the door shelf.
Joe filled the pot with water, then poured it into the machine.
“Filter?” he asked as though this was Sunday morning brunch.
I opened a cabinet he hadn’t gotten to and handed him one.
“You feelin’ like one or two cups today?”
I blinked. What in Sam Hill was going on? “Two.”
He nodded. “That’s what I thought.” Then he scooped grounds into the filter, poured in the water, then started it brewing.
“Joe…”
“Have a seat, Neely Kate.” It was an order.
I sat in a kitchen chair at the head of the table, clutching my hands on the table and feeling like I was going to throw up.
He sat down next to me. “I know Kate has somethin’ on you. It will make things easier if you tell me what it is right off the bat. You have to know it’s all gonna come out.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Don’t you need to call somebody?”
“Not yet. How often do you check that room down there?”
“Uh… maybe once a week.”
“So who’s to say we would have checked it right away?”
“Why wait?” I asked, gripping my hands together so tightly I could feel my nails digging into my skin.
“Because I need to know how much trouble you’re in and what I can do to protect you before we officially find that body.”
“What?” I couldn’t have been more shocked if he’d told me he was the king of France.
“What did you do in Ardmore?”
Now I really felt like I was going to be sick.
“How much does Rose know?”
I sucked in a breath, then pushed it out. “Barely anything.”
“Who’s been helping you? I know you haven’t been seeing our sister alone.”
I looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “It depends on who’s askin’. Joe my brother or Chief Deputy Simmons.”
He held out his hands. “Do you see me wearing a badge or a uniform?”
“That doesn’t mean squat, and you know it. You’re always on duty, twenty-four seven. I think it’s best you just handle this like any other case.”
“Then I’ll take a leave of absence.”
“Why?” I asked him, bewildered.
“To prove that I love you and that I’m here for you no matter what. I’ll quit my damn job if I have to, to prove that I have your back.”
“But it’s your job, Joe.”
“Exactly. It’s my job. You’re my sister. Family trumps work.”
A burning lump filled my throat and tears fell down my cheeks. “Why? You hardly know me. We only found out we were siblings a few months ago.”
“I knew you pretty well before we found out,” he said with a mischievous grin. “I knew you were hardheaded and stubborn.” He turned serious. “And I know that when we’re together we feel like family more than I’ve ever felt it with anyone else, even Kate.” He paused. “I need you just as much as you need me, Neely Kate. And I’m not letting Kate destroy you—destroy us—because I suspect that’s her real goal. But I need to know everything that you’re hidin’.”
I bit my lower lip as I mulled over his words. Could I really trust him?
He leaned over and covered my hand with his large one. “I swear to you on my babies’ graves that I won’t use anything I find out to hurt you. I’ll quit if necessary.”
I shook my head. “I can’t let you do that, Joe.”
“You can’t do this on your own.”
Relief washed through me. I’d been so scared he was going to dump me at the first sign of trouble, but here he was, insisting he was sticking with me. I glanced out the back windows. “I’m not own my own. I have help.”
“It’s not Kermit the Hermit, is it?” he asked in dismay.
Kermit was the private investigator Rose and I were working with to get enough hours to take the PI exam. But Kermit was as lazy as they come. Any case we worked for him, we handled completely on our own. “Heavens, no. I aim to stay out of jail, not get a one-way, first-class ticket into one.”
“Then how do I know the person you’re relying on is resourceful enough to actually help?”
I pushed out a sigh. “Trust me. He is.”
Joe chewed on my answer for a few moments. “He?”
“I think the coffee’s done.” I hopped up and grabbed two mugs and filled one to give to Joe, then partially filled mine to leave room to doctor it up.
“Is this he your mysterious boyfriend?”
I didn’t answer as I put his mug in front of him.
“Neely Kate.”
Joe was genuinely concerned, and I owed him something. I grabbed the creamer, then sat in my chair and held his gaze. “He helped me in Ardmore. He’s very resourceful and has options you don’t.”
His eyes hardened. “So he’s a criminal. Did you get mixed up with him while you and Rose have been traipsing around playing Nancy Drew in the Fenton County crime world?”
He wasn’t too far off.
“Need I remind you that Mason Deveraux is back with a vengeance?” he asked in a hard tone. “He’s gonna throw the book at anyone who so much as breathes the wrong way.”
“I know, Joe,” I said with a sigh. “I know.”
“So who’s helping you?”
I shook my head. “I can’t tell you, but I promise you that he’s working hard to make sure I’m safe.”
“He’s actively lookin’ into this?”
I nodded. “He’s on it, I swear. It’s better this way. Otherwise, you might get caught up in something awkward.”
“I don’t even know what he’s helpin’ you with. Is someone tryin’ to pin something on you?”
My heart was racing, making me breathless. “I did something, Joe, something I thought was buried in the past. My boyfriend thought it was buried too. But then something happened yesterday to make us realize it wasn’t as gone as we’d hoped it would be.”