Maybe I need to start taking Valium now.”
I decided not to respond.
“Tab, well, with Tab, I screwed up.” She looked back at me. “She’d lost Jason in that car accident right before their wedding. So young, too young to sustain a loss like that. Got hooked up with Shy. Good guy. Good brother. He still had to build a new pitch, he’d played the field so much.”
Before she found her husband, Rush’s sister had lost a fiancé in a car accident?
Man, these people had been through a variety of circles of hell.
And they were still together, tight, loving.
All my mom and dad and brother had to do was accept Diesel for who he was.
And we fell apart.
“I shared my feelings about that, how I thought she might not be making the right decision about Shy after her loss. She let me know. Boy, did she let me know,” Tyra went on.
Hmm . . .
I bet that hadn’t gone so good.
Her gaze moved back to the window.
“Miz Allen,” I murmured.
“This,” she whispered. “I don’t know how, but this is worse.”
I shut up.
“He’s moved you in,” she stated to the window.
“Temporarily, until the danger has passed,” I said swiftly.
Her eyes cut to me and I braced.
“You know, Benito Valenzuela targets vulnerable girls. Gets them hooked on drugs. Takes payment in pussy. Whores them out or does it a different way, filming it.”
“I know,” I told her.
“He did that to your friend?” she asked.
I nodded but said, “She was already gone on drugs when his people got their hooks in her.”
“And you thought it was a good idea to go work for him?”
I shut up again.
She moved from where she’d been standing in front of a couch that was in front of her window to behind her desk.
But she remained standing.
“I have three boys,” she declared.
Three?
I thought Rush said he only had two little brothers.
Oh God.
Their circles of hell.
Did some horrible thing happen to one of her kids, making him not there anymore so Rush wouldn’t talk about him, but a mother would always claim all her kids, even if one was gone?
“And I thought it would be easier,” she continued. “You worry about the girls. You worry about what man they’ll choose. Will he play around on her? Will he take out the garbage? Will he pitch in with the kids? I didn’t think it’d be so much worse, learning I needed to come to terms with letting go of one of my boys.”
Oh.
When she said she had three boys, she included Rush.
That was sweet.
“We’ve only had one date,” I told her.
“You’re living with him.”
“Temporarily.”
“You read the Rock Chick books?”
I really needed to read those books.
Hell, Hank and Eddie were heroes in those books. They each had their own one.
Though, I had been kind of busy risking my life to find a murderer.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Temporary is a non-existent word to certain kinds of men. The kind who find what they want at the same time find themselves in a position they have to protect it.”
Why did that make me super freaking happy?
And super freaking freaked.
“You’re the one,” she declared.
More super freaking happy and just . . .
Well.
Super freaking happy.
“Maybe not,” I replied.
God.
Why was I assuring her I might not be the one?
“Chaos has safe houses. If you weren’t the one, Rush would move you into one of those, and if he was still interested, come visit.”
“Oh,” I mumbled.
“How do you let go of your boy?” she asked abruptly.
“You don’t,” I answered instantly.
She stared at me.
“I mean, he adores you. He talks about you all the time. And his dad. His sister. His little brothers. He loves you guys.”
She said nothing.
Then again, she knew all that so there was nothing to say.
“And I’m out of that thing. The one with Valenzuela,” I assured her. “I was acting crazy. Thinking I was Superwoman. I just missed my friend and I was sad and mad and I’m tight with her parents, so I got it in my head I could do something good to wipe out the bad. But I get it now, that was the wrong thing to do. I just forgot to tell my AD.”
I remembered Rush’s question earlier and explained.
“My assistant director. So I had to call her and Benito had called me because I didn’t show on the set this morning, and I’m usually the first person there. And Rush and me thought it would be good to call him and see how he reacted considering we thought he