“As if I didn't think you were gonna do that anyway.”
“Why would I have reason to do it anyway?”
“Because you're gonna try to find out how many women lovers I've had,” Max told him, looking smug. “Because it's really bugging you to think that I might like girls instead of boys.”
“Okay,” Caroline and Zander spoke at the same time.
“Let's go to the rehab center,” Zander suggested before his cousin could get into some very unprofessional hot water with a journalist. “Caroline, and now Max, can tell you everything they know about the animals and Brantley Anderson and anyone else. And Caroline can see the lion cub.”
“Oh, me too!” Max said enthusiastically, her frown instantly morphing into a big grin as she linked arms with Caroline and started for the front door, dismissing Spencer without even another glance.
Max insisted that Caroline ride with her to the rehab center, but they followed Zander and Spencer in Zander's truck.
“Well, they’re something,” Spencer commented after a couple blocks of silence.
Zander shot him a grin. “Yup.”
“You know, there might not be much I can do.”
Zander squeezed the steering wheel. He did know that. “I really need you to do whatever you can, man.”
“Of course. But without concrete—”
“I know,” Zander cut him off. “Just be really confident. Convince her that you’ve got this covered.”
“Which her?”
“Caroline. Though, fuck, you’ll have to convince them both now. And Caroline would probably be easier.”
Spencer didn’t answer but Zander could practically sense him thinking, No shit.
They bumped along the dirt road toward the wildlife rehabilitation facility for several yards before Spencer asked. “So, what's up with you and Caroline?”
Zander understood that this wasn’t just gossip or Spencer giving him shit. Spencer actually needed to know if his cousin was personally involved with a witness in an investigation he was about to start.
“I need her to leave. And she's not going to until she knows for sure this is being handled. She wants these animals safe. And, I mean, hell, so do I. But I know it can take some time. If you can just convince her that it's all good, that she can just turn it all over to you and go home, that would be great.”
“Seems like you really like her, though,” Spencer said.
“I do. That's exactly why she needs to leave.”
Spencer nodded. “I'll tell her whatever you want.”
One thing Zander really appreciated about Spencer and the rest of the guys he worked with on these down-low ops was that they all understood not getting emotions wrapped up in what they did. And none of them were into deep conversations unless one of them wanted to talk something out.
“Not asking you to lie, man,” Zander said. “Just use some of your natural confidence and charm.”
Spencer grinned. “Can do. But I’m cool with lying if needed.”
Zander looked over at him.
Spencer shrugged. “Hey, I'm not a priest. Or her husband. I’m fine with lying if it keeps her safe. If it also keeps you happy, even better. No struggle with my conscience. Safe and happy is what we do, right?”
Zander nodded. Safe and happy was absolutely what they did.
They pulled up at the rehab center and he watched as the girls parked next to them.
Safe and happy was what he wanted for Caroline. In fact, in the span of six days that had become his number one priority.
And safe had to come before happy.
12
“I've never dated a guy with long hair and tattoos before.”
Max grinned at her. “But those are the ones you always think are hot, whether they're celebrities or guys we met in college. Besides, if anyone needs a little bad boy in her life, it's you.”
Caroline laughed. “Zander’s a cop.”
“Yeah, but he has a definite bad boy air about him, don't you think? Bet he has some stories in his past. Oooh, I bet it has something to do with why he became a cop.” Max actually seemed genuinely curious.
Which was common for her. Caroline always chalked that up to her journalistic instincts. Max was curious about everything. Particularly people. And they didn't have to be good people. She didn’t like bad people, but she was always curious about what made them tick.
“I don't really know. You are so sweet to talk me out of liking him so much.”
Max looked at her. “Wait, why would I do that?”
“Because I can't be with him. I can't…” Caroline sighed.
“What? Have a normal life? With a good, normal guy?” Max sighed. “I know we both take this thing we do with your family and their friends seriously, but you can't do that forever. If you’ve met a great guy, maybe you need to think about what that means. What your future looks like. I mean, you finally walked away from your family at the wedding. And I’m so proud of you. Maybe you just need to make that stick now.”
Caroline shook her head. “How do I make that stick? What am I going to do? I panicked. I should've thought it through. I have no job, nowhere to live. I just showed up on Zander's doorstep. Yeah, he likes me. But he's planning on me leaving town as soon as possible. He's certainly not talking about anything long-term. And even if he was, that would be crazy.”
“So what? You’re going to go home and actually marry Brantley? Come on, Caroline. That would be crazy. No. Leaving was the right thing to do. And now you're away from them and now you can find a new path.”
“What about you? This affects you too. I've been feeding you all this information all these years. You're the one who encouraged me to start doing that.”
Max nodded. “I know. And I've had a lot of guilt and second thoughts about that. Frankly, it's been fun. And I think we've done some good work. But we both knew that wasn't going to last forever.”
Caroline wasn’t so sure she’d known that. She hadn’t thought about it anyway. Which was naïve, she realized now. “I suppose I was waiting for my dad to have some big epiphany or something,” she said. “Something that would indicate we had accomplished something. That I’d…made a difference.”
Suddenly her chest felt tight. Had she made a difference? Really? Some bad people had paid some fines, and a few had spent some time in jail. Not everyone had gotten away with all the bad things. But her father was still conducting his business with these people. Every time one of them got caught, by her and Max or someone else, she became aware of two more doing ugly, illegal things.
“Ugh,” Max groaned. “I've hated some of the positions you had to be in and I knew you wouldn’t stop until your dad changed and I didn’t think he’d ever really change. And I've had inklings that it was getting more dangerous. And when you suddenly told me that you were going to get Brantley to propose to you and you were going to say yes, I realized we’d gotten in too deep. We can't keep playing these games, Caroline. I love getting this information and breaking these big stories, but I can’t keep putting you in these positions and there are other ways for me to get information. I'll have to develop new sources.”