Page 45 of Texas Scandal

“I’m just glad I wasn’t too far. I got to her pretty fast,” he said by way of explanation.

Melody’s mom had remarried and then divorced. Although she enjoyed living alone, her mother had never acquired a taste for solitary life. Melody wouldn’t be surprised if the woman wasn’t already scouting her next husband despite the divorce being less than a year old.

“You guys don’t have to protect me from everything,” Melody said. “I would have liked to have known sooner.”

“You’re my little sis,” Coop said, pulling emotional strings that took her back to their childhood. “I’m always going to look out for a Cantor.”

The warm and fuzzy feeling Melody had experienced faded when her brother added the last bit. Because the look in his eyes said he was dead serious.

“Could I ask a question, if it’s not too much trouble?” Tiernan interrupted. He squeezed her hand slightly. She took the gesture to mean she should trust him.

Coop didn’t look thrilled. Then again, her brother hadn’t been real excited to see either one of them since he opened the front door to find them standing there. “Depends on what it is.”

Her brother’s response caught her off guard. He’d been in defensive mode the whole conversation. The visit she’d hoped would answer some of her questions, and hopefully clear her brother, had backfired.

“I’ll take that to mean I can go forward,” Tiernan said. “Have you been home all morning?”

Chapter Eighteen

“Yes. I’m about to leave, though,” Coop said. Tiernan knew he was lying.

“We don’t want to hold you up,” Tiernan said, tugging at Melody’s hand. They’d gotten all they were going to from her brother. There would be no confessions coming from this guy. He was too busy covering his tracks. His attitude was as prickly as a startled porcupine. He was guilty as sin for something, but Tiernan didn’t want to condemn the man without proof.

Melody followed Tiernan’s lead, walking outside beside him.

“Take care of yourself, Coop,” she said to her brother. “You look tired, like you haven’t slept in days.”

“I’ll be fine,” Coop said. The man was a brick wall when it came to having any tender feelings toward his family. Despite their differences, Tiernan never once doubted any one of his family members would have his back with one phone call. It shouldn’t be a rare quality among siblings, but he was beginning to realize just how much it was. He was also starting to think he needed to head home, if only to reconnect with his brothers and sisters. Looking back now, he was embarrassed at how much he’d neglected his relationship with his mother and grandmother. Duncan Hayes should never have been granted that power—power they’d all handed over to the man who’d seemed larger than life when they were kids.

“I mean it,” Melody said to her brother. She let go of Tiernan’s hand before walking toward Coop and hugging him. “Let me know if you need help with anything.”

“Have you been to see Dad?” Coop asked after the brief hug that he’d returned more out of a sense of obligation than anything else, based on the man’s expression.

“No,” she admitted. “We’ve talked on the phone, though. He told me not to come.”

“Probably doesn’t want his children to see him locked behind bars like some kind of animal,” Coop said with disdain.

“People have to suffer the consequences of their actions, Coop,” Melody said with compassion.

Her brother bristled. “Only when they do something wrong. Our father is innocent.” The insistence with which he spoke those words came across more like trying to wish something into reality as opposed to believing it to be true. It reeked of desperation that caused Tiernan to have doubts. Some folks believed if they said something over and over again, it would eventually become the truth. That sounded like the case here.

“I know you want to believe that, Coop,” Melody said. “So do I. But the evidence says otherwise.” She stared at her brother for a long moment. “Do you have a good attorney?”

“The same one Dad has, but I won’t need him,” Coop said with more defensiveness in his tone.

“You should get a lawyer separate from the company and definitely different than Dad’s,” she said. “I’m no expert on the law, but it seems like a good idea to have someone who can differentiate your case from our dad’s.”

Coop’s gaze narrowed and his lips thinned. His sister was looking out for him but his response to her was to be angry. Granted, the man didn’t appear to want to hear anything that might be considered contrary to his own opinion. Tiernan had stared down bulls with less of a stubborn streak. Coop had decided he was right and had no plans to alter his opinions despite a mountain of evidence pointing toward his father’s guilt.

“I’m fine,” Coop said with impatience. He was like a teapot just shy of boiling over.

“Of course you are,” Melody soothed. She was trying to bring a sense of calm to a situation that had gone south from the minute Coop laid eyes on them.

“I’ve already thought through it all,” Coop continued. He might be listening, but the man wasn’t truly hearing a word coming out of Melody’s mouth. His brain was already clicking ahead to whatever defense he might need to mount next. “Hey, sis, I appreciate your concern.”

The about-face caught Melody off guard, based on her expression and lack of an immediate response. Coop was good at manipulation. Was he capable of murder?

Sizing him up, Coop was sturdy enough to carry an eighteen-year-old. Melody mentioned something about her brother having been a college athlete, so there was that. He appeared to keep up some kind of workout, based on his general muscle tone. He was decently tall—over six feet tall. He’d proven willing to go to great lengths to protect the family name. His loyalty to their father didn’t come across as sincere. It was more like self-preservation. Prescott would have investigators dig into the Cantor family business records to make sure Coop didn’t have any involvement in the crimes. Based on Tiernan’s understanding, the family had their hands in a few pies. Some of the revenue was from legitimate sources. The illegal income came from their father.Allegedillegal income.

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