“Do you have a photo of your sister?”
I pull out the pictures I printed off her social media profile and give them to Cora. She glances at them and her eyebrows flinch. It’s the only reaction she’s had since we sat down. Marie doesn’t look like me. Her father was black or half black. Who knows? But her features and coloring are nothing like mine. She’s big-boned. I’m petite. Her skin is dark. Mine is freckly and pale. Her black hair is in dreadlocks in some of the photos and straightened in others. I lighten my bone-straight hair to a pale blond and wear it short, cropped over my ears. It’s nothing like how I used to wear it before. Back then I would’ve looked more like Cora’s sister than Marie’s.
Beau hasn’t looked away from me for a second, not even to check out Marie’s pictures. He hasn’t asked a single question even though I can see in his eyes that he has about a million of them. I don’t have any for him. Not a single one. I feel like I already know too much about him and yet not enough. It doesn’t matter, anyway. I have a single goal here, and it has nothing to do with the man sitting across from me. My sister is all I have left of whatever family I might have had, and I’m terrified for her. I spent time in that group home and I know what she might have fallen into if she left it.
But I can’t tell Cora and Beau anything about that.
“Please help me find her.” I know I sound desperate. I am.
“We’ll do our best.”
I start at the sound of Beau’s voice. Cora seems equally startled as she swings her gaze away from me to her brother. This time the smile reaches all the way to his lips and my own mouth tilts up at the corners in response. He’s on my side. I’ve never had anyone take up for me. No one in any of the foster or group homes. Not even my own mother. I’m caught by the look in his eyes and what he communicates silently. He wants to champion my cause.
Cora’s head swivels back and forth between Beau and me. I wonder what she sees when she looks at us. Can she feel the pull? Does she understand what’s being said without words? Can she feel my barely suppressed panic? Does she know what that look on her brother’s face means? Because I don’t. I don’t understand what’s happening here, except that it scares the shit out of me. And Beau too. His eyebrows draw together and he suddenly looks away. I slide my chair back from the table and stand, needing some distance.
I pull the strap of my bag over my shoulder. “Thank you.”
Cora gets to her feet too, but it takes a moment for Beau to react. I head for the front door with Cora on my heels. I can’t get out of there fast enough.
“Your form and the retainer,” Cora reminds me.
“Oh, right.” Pausing in the open doorway, I dig out a cashier’s check and the client form they wanted me to fill out and hand them over.
“We’ll be in touch,” Cora says, accepting them.
“I look forward to hearing from you.” I don’t wait for her response and leave, walking to my car as quickly as possible.
Sliding behind the wheel, I glance up at the closed door of the agency. What have I done? I can’t do this. I should go in and get my check back, find a different PI agency to help me. I wanted the best, and Nash Security and Investigation was supposed to be the best. Anyone else I hire would just be second string. It would take time to find another agency. Time is the one thing I don’t have. Marie will be eighteen in a few months. I thought I could find her by myself, but I couldn’t do that without giving away who I really am. I can’t ever reveal that.
I think of Marie and where she might be right now. I lied when I told Cora that I was worried for her. I’m terrified. Thinking of her and imagining what she might be going through, I realize that I can put up with the strangeness between Beau and me if I have to. I can handle just about anything for my sister. If I can’t work around him, then I’ll just have to find a way to work with him. For Marie. I’d do anything to keep what happened to me from happening to her.
Anything.
Chapter 3
Beau
Cora comes back into the conference room and closes the door quietly behind her. I’m standing exactly where I was standing when Vera freaked out and left. I stare at the stack of papers and photos Vera left behind without really seeing them. If I thought my life was complicated before, it just got a shit-ton more complex.
“You want to tell me what’s going on with you?” Cora asks.
“No.”