“Howard, get your ass over here,” I mutter. He sighs, irritated with the situation, but follows me. We step into the room and realize it’s some kind of music room with a grand piano and a lot of seating. Jesus, our upbringings were so different. I mean, I always knew it, but this is the house she grew up in. Our house wasn’t even a tenth of this size.
“Fillmore, you have something you want to talk to me about?”
I blink and realize I was sinking into that old thought. Part of the reason I never took a chance with Nancy was because of our different backgrounds. I know it’s stupid, but our poor upbringing tends to color my view of everything, no matter how much I fight it.
“Yeah, sorry. Okay, Nancy has been having a few problems.”
“What does that mean?”
“Someone slashed her tires.”
“Is that why you moved in with her?”
For someone who doesn’t live here, he sure does know a lot about what is going on here.
“Yes.”
He frowns. “You’re faking a relationship?”
“No, that part is true.”
He studies me for a second. “I take it Estella doesn’t know?”
I make a face. “Yeah, the LOLs found out.”
“But no one told me?” He growls the question. “This family. First, I’m going to have to yell at Nancy.”
“You will not yell at Nancy,” I ground out.
He blinks. “Did you tell me that I can’t yell at my cousin?”
“I will make sure you regret it.” It’s over the top, but I can’t help it. A growl vibrates in my chest and, Jesus, I really don’t know where this possessive streak is coming from.
There is a long beat of silence, heavy with tension, but then, he smiles at me.
“Well, I guess I don’t need to worry about you hurting her. I want to put some more security on the house.”
I relax. “Okay. Although, I’m staying there since my house has been rented out this year.”
“Still. It will help catch whoever is doing this. Where was her car?”
“Wyatt’s.”
He nods. “Nothing at her house?”
“No, there was. The same night as the tire thing, some guy loosened her porch light.”
He studies me. “You have any idea who could have been doing this?”
“Well, your grandmother seems to think that Reggie Andrews would be a good fit for Nancy.”
“That monster?”
“You know about him?”
He nods. “He’s always been a bully and when the rumors about the assaults started making the rounds, I knew they had to be true.”
“That’s my first guess, but Josh said he had an alibi.”
He shakes his head, his eyes scanning the room. “He would never do it himself. He would hire someone.”
“Exactly.”
“Dammit, that means I have to stay another day. I wanted to go home.”
“To California.”
“Sure.”
I chuckle. “You’re alright, Howard.”
“Right back at you. Just remember that I will fuck up your life if you hurt Nancy.”
“Agreed. I would definitely deserve it.”
I sip at my beer, watching him as he sets down the punch. “I’ve always worried about her being a target. She seems to think it’s no big deal, but she’s just not a cohost of a home improvement show. She’s the star of the Howard family and people hate us. Rightly so, but they really don’t like us. She would be a big target.”
I nod. “I know. I hate that until recently, Nancy wouldn’t take security seriously.”
“Comes from growing up in this family. Right when you are old enough to go out in the world on your own, you get a security detail. It didn’t matter to me because college life isn’t that much fun at thirteen. But for Nancy, I know it couldn’t have been easy to deal with. I hate that it took something like this to make her take it seriously.”
“I feel your pain. But together we can make sure she’s safe.”
No one is going to hurt Nancy, not without going through me first.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nancy
I watch my grandmother settle in the chair behind the massive mahogany desk. I’m sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, the right one. The one I sat in countless times. I spent a lot of my childhood and most of my teenage years here. Well, after I got kicked out of boarding school. My childhood had been marked by an unstable home life. Don’t get any warm fuzzies about my grandmother. She didn’t do it out of the goodness of her cold heart. She did it because she knew my parents were unfit. Their inability to control me would result in more embarrassing situations. Once I made it impossible for my mother to enter me into pageants, she lost interest in me. My father had never been all that interested. So, Estella took over.
“Do you want to explain yourself?”
Ugh, how many times have I heard her say that? So, so many. I lost count that first year I lived with her.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
And I don’t. Usually I do. I knew every time I got pulled in here when I was a teen, and it usually involved something with Syd.
“This carrying on with Travis Fillmore.”
Oh, of course.
“Carrying on? Are you talking about all the sex?”
She spares me a withering glance. You might think she’s a prude, but she isn’t. One of the few things she did right by me was my sex education. This is Texas, so when I was in high school, it was lacking. Estella sat both Syd and me down and told us exactly how to protect ourselves and how to have responsible sex. It was awkward for both Syd and me, but I have to say it is one of the best things she could have done for me at that age. I never understood the idea that if you don’t teach kids how to protect themselves, they just won’t have sex. They will.
“I have no idea why you’re wasting time on a man like that.”
Anger is swift and vicious. She can put me down and question all of my other life’s choices, but I will not let her talk about Travis like that. We might have our issues, but he is a good man. “Don’t talk about him that way. Just because he doesn’t come from money doesn’t mean he’s any less than us.”
“I don’t mean that; although, I would say that one would worry about his tendency to substance abuse because of his parents, but no, what I mean is that you are no longer doing the show together.”
How does she know? The truth is, we have avoided the subject. Well, not really avoided it. We’ve been having so much sex, we haven’t been thinking about those kinds of things.
“How did you hear about that?”
Another withering look. If the military could bottle up that look and use it on people, it would be a good weapon. It works on most people. Not me.
“I have my ways.”
“You mean you have your spies.”
Her hand tightens on the top of the cane, her knuckles going white for a split second. It is the only sign that I’ve annoyed her.
“He’s just not right for you.”
I don’t get it. Again, I can say a lot of things about my grandmother. Estella Howard is one of the most autocratic women in the world. People cower in her presence, including my father. All of her kids actually. Jon and I are the only family members who don’t give a crap about her money or power. But then, we are the only two that have nothing to do with the family business. Jon has more patents than Alexander Graham Bell stole from inventors. I think some of his inventions and applications have been used by the military. We are also the only ones who don’t need our trust funds.