Page 75 of Just Between Us

Sylvie smiled, and I softened, letting a little bit of the tension dissolve from my neck and shoulders.

“Look, I’ve got somewhere I need to be.” JP glanced at his watch again. “What was so important we had to have a family meeting?” He did air quotes around the wordsfamily meeting, and his sisters collectively rolled their eyes.

“It’s about Mom.” Royal’s sudden intensity made JP’s spine straighten, and unease rolled through the room.

Abel shook his head. “The private investigator hasn’t come up with anything new. He’s chasing down every lead, but he’s been up front about the fact that they’re drying up pretty quickly.”

I studied Royal’s face and recognized the indecision gnawing at him. I wanted to cross the room, tuck myself at his side, and provide him a bit of strength. Instead, I clamped my hands in front of me and waited.

“I remembered something ... from a long time ago.” Royal’s eyes were trained on the hardwood floor in front of him. The air in the room grew thick and quiet. Tense breaths were the only sound as he relayed his experience with Bug’s phone call and the violent scene he’d stepped into. His hand moved beside his head as he tried to explain. “It was like the memory hit me out of nowhere. I don’t really know how, but I’d been there before. Isawhim putting his hands on Mom. Ifelthow scared of him she was, and it definitely didn’t seem like it was the firsttime something like that had happened. She saw me and silently pleaded for me to leave. But she wasn’t surprised, she was ... I don’t know.”

MJ’s shoulders shook as quiet tears streamed down her face. Whip put his arm around his sister’s back but stayed silent. My nose stung as emotion swelled in my chest.

Abel’s thick, deep voice broke the silence. “I never saw anything like that. If I had known he was hurting her I might have ...”

“You were only what? Eleven? And he was careful to keep his violent streak locked away where no one could see it,” Sylvie said, and the siblings nodded in agreement and support.

“He never intended for me to see what I did,” Royal concurred. “That much I do know.”

From the corner of my eye, I watched JP’s hand flex. His face was flat but fiercely angry. Sylvie’s arms were wrapped around her middle, and she looked at Royal.

Each of them was quiet and sullen as they processed the information and what it all might mean—each broken in their own way by their mother’s absence.

“There has to be a way to find her.” MJ’s soft, splintered voice nearly drove me to tears.

“She’s gone.” The harsh finality of JP’s tone was gutting. “If we want to do right by her, there’s only one way to do it—we take everything he’s built and burn it to the ground.”

Hope that my boss wasn’t a total heartless prick sparked to life. JP loved the career he had built, but he seemed willing to sacrifice all he’d worked toward for his family.

I took a tentative step forward. Bug’s notebook hung in my fingertips at my side. “And that’s why I’m here.” My smile wobbled, but I forged ahead. “JP already had me looking into King Equities to see if there was anything unscrupulous going on. So far, everything I have found has beenjustthis side ofethical.” I held up the notebook and lifted my shoulder. “But this might connect a few more dots and show me otherwise.”

Royal cut in and explained how Bug had reacted to Russell’s outburst and how she’d given him the notebook in secret. The group passed it between them, each flipping through the pages and reading a line or two. When it made its way back to me, I tucked it under my arm.

“So what do we do now?” MJ asked, wiping away her silent tears.

Fire blazed in Sylvie’s eyes. “We do what he’s been doing foryears. We manipulate the narrative. We make him think he’s safe and pull the rug out from under him.” Sylvie turned to Whip. “Do you still have that box of Mom’s stuff?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

A wicked grin spread across her face. “Good. We’re going to need it.”

When the King siblings united,they were a dangerous force to be reckoned with. From the outside, it would appear that summer in Outtatowner was rolling along like it had any other season.

Only this time the Kings were plotting.

My role in all of it was to continue sifting through the notebook to see whether any entries aligned with business transactions that appeared off. It was tedious, and I often felt like I was putting pieces of a puzzle together but didn’t know what the final image was supposed to look like.

With my coffee in hand, I marched toward the office. Every day I recognized more faces in town, and it was no longer jarring to see soft smiles and friendly waves as I made my way to work.There was an odd comfort in the simple happiness that a small coastal town in summertime brought to people.

On the street corner, Bootsy was leaning against the traffic pole, waiting to cross. I stepped up next to him. “Morning!” I chirped before taking a sip of my coffee.

“Is it?” His face was in an unusual scowl, and I took a step back.

My lips twisted. Normally Bootsy was among the friendliest of faces in Outtatowner. I saw him nearly every single day on my short walk to work, and he was always first with a greeting and a story. I had to be mindful of the time, because he had an uncanny knack for sucking you into some fanciful tale about the history of his small town and its quirky residents. The names alone were enough to make your head spin.

In an attempt to lighten the mood, I breathed in a lungful of warm coastal air and sighed. “I think you were right—there’s something about the air here that pulls people in. You’ll have to finish your story about the mysterious Sirens of Trawler’s Cove sometime.”

Bootsy’s eyes narrowed as they swooped down my front. Behind his hazy stare, there was a faint lack of recognition.

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