Tess’s machine gurgled and sputtered the signal that it was done and she turned to grab the mug of hot coffee. “I’m going to drink this and pretend that you’re not here.”
Mia sidled up beside her, chuckling as she nudged Tess to the side to start her own brew. “You love me and we both know it.” Her sister nudged her again and leaned down to peek up at Tess. “Seriously though, are you okay? I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
Tess huffed out a sound that was part sigh and part laugh. “Define okay.”
Mia frowned, tossing the cheese wrapper into the trash with a dunk shot that would have made their dad proud. Clearly, hours spent in the driveway shooting hoops had paid off. “Tess, I love you and I respect your dedication to the cause but you have got to let this vendetta go. Franklin Thornton is untouchable and always will be. He got away with it. End of story.”
“No, that is not the end of the story,” Tess fumed, sloshing coffee out of her mug when she picked it up with a little too much force.
“No, you’re right. It’s not the end of the story because the actual ending will read, ‘Daughter ruins her life just like her father. Franklin Thornton wins twice.’” Mia emphasized her harsh words with a flourish of her hands in the air like she was highlighting a movie marquee. “Let it go, Tess. Get laid. Read a book. Go to a movie. Get a fucking life.”
She didn’t need the caffeine because her sister’s words woke her up like an injection of epinephrine straight to the heart. Where fatigue and lethargy had weighed her down just moments before, she was now fueled by anger and a betrayal that cut to the quick.
“Fuck you, Mia.” Tess squared off with her sister, her voice bouncing off the hardwood floors and cabinets. “If I don’t have a life it’s because I’m doing this for you and for Dad.”
“Bullshit, Tess. I didn’t ask you to do this and Dad has been dead for years and he doesn’t care anymore. If you want to do something for me, then stop all this avenging angel crap and let me have some peace instead of carrying around all this guilt for everything you’ve done for me. If you can’t let yourself off the hook, then get it off my back. Please.”
Whoa. Tess blinked hard, trying to clear the roaring in her head and the hot tears stinging her eyes and blurring her vision. Mia’s words pierced her deeply and Tess reached for her coffee, taking a too-hot sip to fill the heavy silence that polluted the air between them. It wasn’t easy to hear that her efforts weren’t recognized for what they were, that her sister didn’t see the value in making the past right.
Mia had been so little—she didn’t always remember just how bad it had been after Franklin Thornton had cheated their father and sent him spiraling into depression and self-destruction. But Tess remembered it all because she had been the one who had stepped in and shielded Mia from the worst of it. In a way, Tess had made it possible for Mia to not understand how she couldn’t just let this go.
Tess wouldn’t tell Mia that she’d met the man today, that he was as awful up close and personal as he was on paper and the internet. She wouldn’t tell her because it wouldn’t change anything for her sister. This was a conversation that they’d had in some form or other a million times before and she wasn’t going to change her path so it was best to let it drop.
Tess cleared her throat, testing her voice a little before she changed the subject. “I wasn’t working on the Thornton case, anyway. Adam Redhawk hired me to help him find someone.”
“I thought you wrapped that case up,” Mia said and Tess let out a grateful breath that she was going to let their fight over their dad and Franklin Thornton go.
“I did. This is a new one.”
“That guy sure does lose a lot of people,” Mia mused, her eyebrow raised in self-congratulatory amusement at her very bad joke.
“It’s not that kind of case. Nobody is actually missing.” Tess considered how much she could talk about and not violate her confidentiality agreement. “It’s like a bunch of background checks on steroids.”
“And he doesn’t have anyone at that huge company he owns who could possibly do that for him? Not. At. All?” Mia shook her head on beat with her words, her grin wide and a little bit lascivious.
“Mia,” Tess said, amused warning coating her response. She knew exactly where this was going and if it was possible, she wanted to talk about this topic even less than she wanted to argue over their father.
“Tess.” Mia hopped up on the counter and kicked out to poke Tess with a purple sparkle–painted toe. “I saw you and Adam Redhawk together and let’s just say that they can see the sparks zipping between you two from the space station. I felt like I needed to get you guys a room with a horizontal surface as soon as possible or risk the entire building going up in flames.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tess shuffled over to the dishwasher, opening it to see if the load was clean and needed to be put away. She peered into the dim interior and found only a couple of plates and mugs on the racks; a clear reminder that she was a single woman living alone. She shut the door with a thud and desperately looked around the tidy space for anything that could distract her sister or at least give Tess a refuge from the turn this conversation was taking. She spied a stack of catalogs strewn across the coffee table in the family room that needed her immediate attention.
“The house is spotless, you neat freak. Stop avoiding the discussion,” Mia yelled at her back from the kitchen.
“This isn’t a discussion, it is you letting your imagination run on that little squirrel wheel in your head. Adam Redhawk and I have a professional relationship only. He had a job that needed discretion and I had done good work for him already and so he asked me to stay on. As a small business owner, I’m not going to turn down a good job.”
Behind her she heard Mia jump down from the counter and she could feel the distance closing between them. Images of unsuspecting gazelles being stalked by cheetahs on the Nature Channel crossed her mind and Tess knew exactly who was the gazelle in this situation. She turned and faced her tenacious younger sister and decided to put this to rest once and for all.
Maybe she’d believe it herself this time.
“Mia, Adan Redhawk is a good guy...”
“And smokin’ hot.”
“Mia, please focus.”
“I did focus. I focused on those pictures of him in the L.A. Style weekly the last time he competed in a triathlon. I focused on his six-pack and I focused on his biceps and I focused on his bounce-a-quarter-off-it ass. Believe me. I was f-o-c-u-s-e-d.”
Mia grinned as she sat on the arm of the sofa, grabbing Tess by the arm and dragging them both down onto the seat in a tumble of cushions, arms and legs. It brought back memories of the many nights they’d cuddled up like this together on shabbier furniture, heads bent together as they shared secrets. Tess missed those days when things had been simpler and her crush on a boy had been something she could indulge in. Before sex was a weapon and trust was a fiction.