“What’s going on?” he asks the room. “And don’t lie and say nothing. When my fiancée gets involved, I know it’s something.”
“I’m not involved,” Lilac immediately says.
“You’re not trying to distract me?”
She purses her lips but she doesn’t speak. She hates to lie. In fact, she won’t unless you ask her to in advance.
“It’s fine, Lilac. I don’t want you to be in trouble.” I let her off the hook.
Beckett’s going to find out about the whole Archer Cedar debacle at some point. It might as well be now when I can control his response.
“I’m not in trouble. I’m never in trouble. I’m a model citizen, a model employee, a model fiancée,” Lilac claims.
Beckett chuckles. “Now, I know the lot of you are hiding something.”
Elizabeth raises her hand. “Can I tell, please?”
I roll my eyes at her. She’s way too excited about this.
“Cassandra has a boyfriend,” she blurts out.
“Bessie,” River chides from beside her.
“What? She does.”
I don’t, but I keep my mouth shut. I don’t have boyfriends. Boyfriends can lead to feelings and emotions and eventually to love, and I don’t do love.
“Aren’t you supposed to be united with your sisters against the world?” River asks.
“Sisters above misters only applies to the outside world. Within the family, it’s a free for all. You have two brothers. You should know this.”
“He knows,” Phoenix says. Which is appropriate since he’s River’s little brother.
The other brother is Lyric, the Chief of Police in Winter Falls. He’s married to Aspen who is Lilac’s oldest sister. We’re just one big happy complicated and confusing family. And everyone’s in love. Gag.
“Can we cut the bullshit now?” Beckett growls. “Who is this man? Why haven’t I met him? Where is he?”
I cross my arms over my chest and stare at him. Since he’s four inches taller than me, he’s not intimidated. Dang it.
He sighs. “At least tell me he’s not in prison for carjacking.”
I huff. One time. One time I hooked up with a guy from a bar. How was I to know the car he was driving was stolen? Does Beckett expect me to ask a guy for his license and registration before hooking up?
“Or absent without leave from the Army,” he continues.
Also, not my fault. He was a sexy guy in a uniform. How was I to know he didn’t have permission to leave the base? Although, I figured it out pretty quick when the military police knocked on the hotel room door.
“Or in the country illegally.”
I roll my eyes. “His tourist visa was expired. Big deal.”
It was a big deal when ICE showed up. Those people don’t mess around.
“Do I need to get the bail money ready?”
I throw daggers out of my eyes at him. “You have never bailed me out.”
Elizabeth raises her hand. “I have.”