Page 21 of The Risk

“Trust me, I know that.” Genny grimaced after she said it. Chantal knew what the younger woman was thinking. Genny had absolutely no confidence as a woman whatsoever, thanks to an ex-boyfriend who’d done a number on her.

“Not that there is anything wrong with you, Gen. Far from it. It’s just… he likes the no-strings kind of women.” Who was she supposed to be loyal to here—the best friend she loved and knew better than anyone else on the planet, or the brother who was a bit of an ass with women at times?

“I know. That’s part of the problem. I’ve been with a man like that before, remember?”

Chantal did. And she despised that man for how he had hurt Genny. Actually telling her he’d only been with her because he couldn’t "get" one of her sisters. Genny had already felt less than her sisters for some reason. That blow had done some serious damage that Chantal and Aubrey were trying to repair.

Chantal adored her older brother, but Chad was thirty-six years old. Closer to thirty-seven. He hadn’t ever gotten seriousabout a decent woman, and she didn’t see him doing so anytime soon.

The last woman she wanted with her brother was one of her best friends. She didn’t want Genny hurt that way.

Genny was made for a decent man, for a man who adored her, and treated her like the unbelievably special woman she was. Chantal didn’t think Chad was actually capable of that. He was a wonderful man—no doubt about that. But when it came to romance… no.

She didn’t think he would be good for Genny at all.

Maybe.

Well, unless he was serious, anyway. Then it could be a whole new ballgame, really.

“Do you want me to say something to him?”

“No way. First, I can handle your brother by myself. I think. Second, he would just take it as a challenge. He’s enjoying the hunt, I just know it. I just need a place to regroup. To restrategize.”

Well, that would work out best for Chantal, too. She wasn’t about to tell Genny that Genny’s own brother was being far more problematic than she wanted to think about.

Something was so different about Gene now; of course, she didn’t trust it was real. It was some sort of reaction—an overreaction—to what had happened to them out there. That was all that really made sense.

She wasn’t ready to delve into anything else right now. She just wasn’t. She had her own issues to work through after almost dying.

It felt like it had that day she’d passed out, when she’d been with Aubrey and Genny in Finley Creek. She’d told her parents she’d stayed over at Aubrey’s to help her friend paint her living room—she’d actually stayed overnight in the hospital. With Aubrey and Genny by her side. They had taken her to the closestemergency room in Finley Creek. And they’d run tests. Found the answers about why Chantal had felt so tired the few weeks before. They’d found it. And then she’d had to figure out what came next.

She was still finding her way. Making the right changes necessary. With Aubrey and Genny’s help, she had figured things out and was doing great now. Well, until being abducted, anyway.

And now her family knew. Her mom was going to hover again. Worse than she ever had before. It was what her mom did when she was afraid.

The last thing Chantal needed to deal with was… Gene.

But that man had been about to kiss her. Chantal wasn’t exactly naive where men were concerned, after all. She knew when a man was about to kiss her.

She’d just never imaginedGenewould, though.

And that required some restrategizing of her own.

Just what had that man thought he had been doing?

18

Rob was sweating.No denying that. He’d stopped by Mamaw’s Place tonight simply because the rest of the team was there and he wanted to listen to what was going on. Acardi looked fucking exhausted.

The younger man, a big bruiser who looked more at home in a boxing ring somewhere, was heading up a lot of the investigation into what had happened to Coleson, Erickson, and McKellen. Their division was already seriously shorthanded after so many in Major Crimes were injured in whatever had happened with Coleson’s estranged brother-in-law and everything.

Rumor had it something had even happened up in Wyoming that tied into it. Perps from Texas were killed up there or something. Rob wasn’tprivilegedenough to get in on those kinds of details. It was just one big clusterfuck.

It never ended—drugs. There was always something: meth, heroin, fentanyl, OPJ. There was always something, and if the stupid idiots couldn’t get illegal shit, they did things like prescriptions they stole or huffed paint or glue. It had been going on for longer than he had been alive, that was for sure. Peoplewho tried to clean it up were stupid. It wasn’t ever going away. It just got worse and worse. The only difference was the people hurt by it changed. The ones left behind.

Candy would have been forty today had she lived. Forty. Hell, where had the time gone? She’d been twenty-five when Charlie Fields had let everything first go to shit for her. She hadn’t had any better luck since that day. Now her boys were almost men. Screw-ups, both of them. Just as fucked up as their mother.

The cycle was going to repeat itself, no matter what Rob did to fix it. He’d tried to help those boys for years. To help his sister. But she’d been in and out of the prison system since that day. Since Charlie Fields.