“What?” Score barked, his head snapping around so he could set a glare on Beeks. “You place your bets on the morality of a McDade, you’re gonna lose, old man.”
“That what this is?” Beeks asked. “Sport? Thought you’d corrupt the innocent—”
“I am not innocent,” she said, striding further into the space to stop by the dining table. “And I am not a child. I knew what this was, what he was before I—”
“You think you know,” Beeks said. “You don’t have a damn clue, Shyla.”
“Watch how you speak to her,” Score growled.
But Beeks didn’t shrink, his disapproval was written all over his face. “Does she know?”
With no other “she” present, Shyla couldn’t mistake that the question referred to her.
“Does she know what?” Shyla asked.
She didn’t start to get suspicious until no one spoke. Fish’s silence was especially telling. Usually, he had something to say about everything. Even if he didn’t know anything about the specific topic at hand, he always found a way to pivot to something that he did know about.
Since he’d seen her in Score’s bed, she hadn’t heard him say a single word. Was it just shock or was he concerned about the same thing as Beeks?
“I’ll take that as a no,” Beeks said. “Never mind.”
“No, not never mind,” she said, grabbing for the back of the nearest chair. “What don’t I know?”
“She doesn’t need to know,” Score said, plain and straightforward in his sentiment.
Except he’d been the one to champion honesty. He wanted to know her. Everything about her. Yet, apparently, he had something going on, some secret, that she wasn’t a part of.
The way Beeks had brought it up proved it wasn’t anything positive like a party or a gift. Everyone would expect her to be ignorant to something like that. There were too many frowns and glares being tossed around for her to be optimistic about the secret.
Giving up on Beeks revealing the truth, Shyla fixed her attention on Fish. Score wouldn’t break, and he wouldn’t even feel bad about it. His meeting in the cemetery took on new significance. Whatever he was hiding might be business related. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t affect their home life. It was seeping in already.
“Fish,” she said. “What are they talking about?”
Both Score and Beeks looked at the younger man. Shyla didn’t break her focus either. Fish’s frown loosened to something nearing panic. “I… Shyla, I…”
“You keep your mouth shut,” Score said. “I’m handling it.”
“Handling it?” Beeks asked. “You have to end this or Burl will learn about it. If I had to put money on it, I’d say he already knows.”
“Doesn’t matter now.”
“No, it doesn’t matter now, but it will… It will and you know it.”
Score didn’t respond. Not with words. He turned his back on all of them to cross to the terrace door. He didn’t go out, he just stood there looking toward the ocean.
“I am not afraid of Burl McDade,” she said.
Beeks smiled and Fish made a sound like a disbelieving laugh.
“You are in so much danger you can’t even comprehend it,” Beeks said. “Fall in love with this McDade and I promise you another one will kill you. Maybe not today, but eventually. They’ll do it themselves or order someone else to do it. Burl is strangely specific about his boys, about the rules they have to follow and the punishments they face if they step out of line.”
“What about Biz, huh?” she asked, figuring if they were talking about it then they should damn well talk the truth. “What about what he did? He put Phoenix in prison!”
Either raising her voice or using his first name surprised Beeks and Fish, maybe both. As Fish stepped back, Beeks grew stronger.
“That’s not what we’re talking about here.”
“No, because no one ever does! He gets away with sending his own brother to death row and everyone’s just supposed to be okay with that.”
“Lamb—”
“No!” she argued with the man at the window who hadn’t even bothered to turn around. For all his strength, it frustrated the hell out of her that he wouldn’t fight for himself. “It’s not right! They come in here and judge us, judge you, but no one ever takes Biz to task! No one demands he answer for what he did! Burl McDade couldn’t even—”
“Enough,” Score roared, spinning around to glare at them all. “No one talks shit about the McDades when I’m around.” She blinked like his scowl actually slapped her when he turned it on her. “I warned you.”
Warned her? The last time he’d told her to be careful of talking about the McDades in any negative way, specifically his father, they’d been alone. They weren’t alone at that moment, but she’d believed his trust in Beeks at least was absolute. If the apartment wasn’t a safe place for her to talk, if Beeks and Fish weren’t trustworthy, hell, if her own lover wasn’t confident about keeping her confidence, she didn’t know what any of them were doing.
“You told me no one would hurt me. That you would take care of me. You meant no one except your own family; that you’d only take care of me until they asked you to sacrifice me.”
“I told you to trust me, Shyla. That’s what you’re going to do.”
She retreated a step. “Is it?”
Continuing backwards, she turned to go down the hall and into the laundry room. Grabbing a pair of her cutoffs from the pile of laundry waiting to be put away, she pulled them on and tied Score’s shirt around her middle. Her hair ties were lying all over the place; she was grateful
