Proof (Targes Executive Protection Book 1)

Please don’t let this be some fucked-up dream…

That was the first thing to pop into my mind as soon as Cass kissed me after his stunning declaration. I was struggling to breathe but not because he was stealing my breath with his soul-searching kisses. No, I had a whole other reason for not being able to draw enough oxygen into my deprived lungs.

He loves me.

Cass loves me.

Me… this version of me.

I thought for sure I’d fucked everything up with my clumsy words as I’d tried to admit out loud what I’d already known for weeks, especially after the stupid mind games I’d forced Cass into only minutes earlier. Turned out the old adage about the truth setting you free was a real thing. I couldn’t remember even one event in my younger days when I’d told the truth about any of the life-altering events that came with growing up. I’d hidden my sexuality from my father and brother, I’d never once spoken up about alternative career paths I’d wanted to pursue because I’d wanted my father to live his dream of being a police officer through me, and I’d hidden my childhood crush on Cass that had turned into something more as I’d grown into adulthood.

What other things had I missed out on simply because I’d been afraid to speak up for myself and the things I’d wanted?

“Hey,” Cass murmured against my ear as he teased it with his sinfully skilled mouth. I hadn’t even realized in my lust-hazed state that he had given me the precious moments I’d needed to get myself mentally on track. My body was responding in every way to his caresses, but my mind was so busy waffling between self-doubt and disbelief that I couldn’t focus on the pleasure he was bringing me.

In the past, I’d been able to turn my brain off with ease as guys had fucked me or shoved their dicks down my throat, and sexual arousal hadn’t even been an issue since I hadn’t been looking for orgasms. I’d wanted to feel nothing and that was what I’d accomplished, but with Cass, it was all different.

“Hey,” Cass repeated. “Talk to me, JJ,” he continued even as he pulled back enough that he could look me in the eye.

“I’m not ready,” I blurted.

Cass chuckled quietly before he kissed me with one soft, sweet, and very unexpected kiss.

“You’re not mad?” I asked cautiously.

Another featherlight caress brushed over my mouth.

“Mad?” Cass asked in surprise. He put enough space between us that he could focus on my face. “No,” he continued with a shake of his head before he caressed my cheek with his thumb. “I don’t put out on the first date.”

“What?” I nearly choked on the word. “You don’t… you don’t…on the first date?” I sputtered in disbelief.

Cass leaned back in, but he didn’t kiss me again. Instead, he braced himself by putting one arm against the tile wall next to my head. The fingers from his free hand began to toy with mine. After a few seconds, he began to run his fingers up and down my forearm, always reconnecting with my hand in between. Sparks danced beneath my skin.

There was nothing intentionally sexual about the move, but it had to have been the most erotic thing I’d ever felt.

“Don’t tell anyone that because I’ve got my bad-boy image to maintain,” Cass whispered as if we weren’t alone.

It was all I could do not to laugh at his feigned seriousness. Of course, with him still running his calloused fingers up and down my arm, I wasn’t sure if I could even speak.

“I didn’t really know much about dating until I met this incredible young man a couple of years ago. Don’t get me wrong, he was drop-dead gorgeous, but when we went out the first time, it wasn’t his body that I couldn’t get enough of.”

Jealousy immediately sparked to life inside of me. I almost didn’t recognize the sensation since I’d never cared about anyone enough to want to keep them all to myself. “What couldn’t you get enough of?” I forced myself to ask even though I didn’t really want to know the answer.

“I guess it started with how sweet and shy he was. See, he had the kind of job where he had to be confident and smart. It was a physically demanding job but also required him to be able to communicate with all kinds of people, to empathize with them. He only used force when it was absolutely necessary,” Cass said with an easy smile.

He was talking about me… or rather, the me I’d been two years ago. The ugly green monster inside of me relaxed, though it didn’t disappear entirely. I was still envious of that JJ.

“I couldn’t get enough of him—and by that, I mean I could have spent the rest of my life just listening to him talk. Didn’t matter about what. He seemed to like listening to me too. That was new for me,” Cass said softly. He held my gaze for a long time while continuing to run his fingers up and down my arm.

“What happened to him?” I asked. Cass’s fingers chose that exact moment to brush along mine and without even thinking about it, I twined my fingers with his.

“We were forced to spend some time apart but when I saw him again, he was different.”

My stomach fell out and I tried to release his hand, but he refused to let go of my fingers. “Cass,” I whispered because I didn’t want to hear any more. I already hated the person who’d shot me, but the fury inside of me was different now. Not only had the fucker nearly taken my life, but he’d also stolen precious memories I could never get back. Cass’s description of our first date should have been one of those memories; one that I would have treasured for the rest of my life no matter how the relationship would’ve turned out.

“He’s stronger now,” Cass continued. “All the shit he’s been put through… I don’t know how he survived it, but I thank God every day that he did. He’s not as trusting as he used to be, but I think that someday he’ll be ready to give that privilege to someone he really cares about. He’s stubborn too—even more so than when he was a kid. He’s still as smart as a whip even though I don’t think he knows that. He knows now what it means to protect the people you love because he understands how quickly life can be stolen away, so he’s very protective of them. Anyway, he met this guy who’d become cruel and cold and pretty much hated the world. The guy would have probably stayed that way if not for the young man. That young man was so strong that he protected the guy and then, by some miracle, he fell in love with him. The cold, cruel guy couldn’t believe it, but it was true. It’ll probably take him a while to truly accept that he’s worthy of that love, but it will get easier every day when that young man continues to prove that his love is unconditional.”

I had no idea what to say. Did Cass really see me as all those things? Strong, protective, smart?

“So,” Cass continued. “That’s why I don’t put out on the first date or even the second. I’ve had a lot of time to think about things, and my sexual encounters don’t take up even an ounce of space in my brain. I think about things like body language, conversation, nervous habits, smiles, frowns, tears, secret dreams, sacrifices—I learned that those things are so much more powerful than sex and they stay with you long after the encounter ends. This guy I recently met, he called it making love. Not sex, not fucking—making love. That’s what it will be if and when we’re both ready. I already love him but all those things that are just as powerful… those are the things I want first. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic,” he finished on a long sigh as he dramatically put our joined hands over his heart and looked up as if he was gazing at the stars instead of a plain white ceiling.

“Weirdo,” I mocked with a light laugh. I still had my hand over his heart even though he’d released my fingers. I stared at the single place where Cass and I were physically connected. I could feel his heart pounding in his chest. It was proof that he was as scared as I was. “The guy… the one you used to know. He sounds pretty smart. I think you’re right, though. He’s changed a lot since you last saw him, but I think he’s trying to learn how to be who he once was and also accept all the good and bad things that exist in him now. Maybe someday he’ll feel like one man again.”

I lifted my eyes as I moved my hand so I could place it at the base of Cass’s neck and pull him forward. This time, I was the one doing the kissing. The soul-searching ones, the teasing ones, and all the other small but no less important ones in between. “When’s our first date, Cass?” I asked between kisses.

“Now,” he responded hungrily, but he didn’t attempt to take control of the kiss or go any further. “What do you want for dinner? I’ve got one can of chicken noodle and one can of minestrone. I might be able to scrounge up some candles⁠—”

“Not hungry,” I said as I deepened the kiss. Cass responded in equal measure. “Want to get to all the other stuff. That important stuff you learned how to do on your first date. That’s what I want. When does that start?”

“Right now, sweetheart,” Cass said after reluctantly ending our kiss. He took my hand in his and led me out of the bathroom, turning the lights off as we went. Once we reached the bedroom, he flicked on the lights and immediately dimmed them.

“This good?” he asked nervously as he led me to the edge of the bed.

I nodded. I didn’t hesitate in removing my shirt, then my jeans. Cass mirrored my moves. Despite his size and bulk, the man moved with such grace and fluidity that I got hung up on watching him step out of his jeans. Every muscle flexed beneath his skin as he moved. He was sporting a saliva-inducing erection beneath his snug briefs. I was in the same condition, but I didn’t care about my dick at the moment.

When Cass straightened, I tore my eyes from his groin and climbed into the bed. The sheets were cold but soft. The comforter seemed pretty new, but it already smelled like him.

“I just need to get a burner phone so you can tell your brother—” Cass began to say. He was in the process of turning away when I grabbed his wrist.

“I told Sully I wouldn’t be home tonight when I used the burner you gave me earlier. He knows I’m with you,” I said with a sheepish grin. “I didn’t tell him where we were or anything.”

Cass was already climbing into bed as I spoke, so I fell quiet. Nerves had me putting some distance between us.

“Probably best you enjoy my pretty face while I’ve still got it,” Cass said as he pulled the cover over both of us. “It’s going to be hamburger by the time your brother sees me.”

I chuckled and used my next words as an excuse to move closer to him. “I’ll protect you, my love,” I said with a smile, then added, “Sully’s just a big ole teddy bear.” Cass snorted in response and then he shifted closer until our bodies were touching. He didn’t make any kind of move to grab me. His body heat was calling out to me, so I took a risk and laid my head on his chest. Cass’s left arm immediately slipped under my body so he could hold on to my waist. His hold was snug, but he made no effort to put me in a different position.

He let me do that all on my own.

By the time I was done shimmying my body closer and closer to his, my upper body was draped over his chest. His skin was warm and soft but there was no denying the strength of each muscle. “Are you ticklish?” I asked without thought. “Sorry, that was stupid⁠—”

“I don’t know,” Cass responded without hesitation. “I don’t remember anyone ever tickling me before.”

“Not even your grandmother?”

There was enough light in the room that I could see Cass’s facial expression. It shifted a little, but I couldn’t figure out what emotion he was experiencing. “My grandmother wasn’t the most demonstrative of people. She hugged me a couple times but there was always something off about it. I mean, I didn’t really have anything to compare it to when I was a little kid but when your dad would hug me, it was always like a bear hug, even later in life when his body was frailer. I was taller and heavier than him, yet I still felt safe when he hugged me. Like I didn’t need to think about how long I was allowed to embrace him for or if anyone was watching.”

“Have you seen her since—” I stopped abruptly when I realized what I’d been about to say. Reminding Cass of the hell he’d been through in the past two years wasn’t really first date conversation material.

“Yeah. I went to see her earlier this week.”

Cass fell silent. I could feel the tension in his body. His muscles had stiffened and the fingers he’d been running along my spine came to a stop. “I’m sorry, Cass. We don’t need to talk about any of this.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. Believe me, I’ve been wanting to talk to someone about it. No, not someone. You. I wanted to talk to you about it.”

I couldn’t help but press a soft kiss against the skin that covered his pounding heart. Cass began running his fingers down my back again. I wasn’t even sure if he knew he was doing it.

“I think she’s sick,” Cass began. “Some kind of dementia or something. She was so different than I remember her,” he added on a soft whisper.

Despite the very different childhood he’d had compared to mine and Sully’s, it was clear Cass loved his grandmother.

“How so?” I gently prodded.

Cass shook his head briefly. I couldn’t see it, but I felt his chin brushing the top of my head. I shifted my body enough to watch his expressions as he spoke.

“Despite her age and standing in the family, Mother Ashby was always put together. Neat, polished, refined, elegant… she represented a kind of class that no one else in my family seemed to have inherited. Even when I was a little kid, she made sure I represented the family in the same way. She’d always say stuff about me being super important one day. That I’d show the world how powerful the Ashbys really were. I never understood what she meant by that. She’d also tell me I’d take over the Ashby empire when I was old enough. She never mentioned my father, even though he would have still been young enough to keep running the company. It seemed like… it seemed like she had something more planned for me.”

As Cass fell silent again, I thought back to when I’d met him for the first time. I’d never met Chandler Ashby III before or his mother—Cass’s grandmother—but I’d seen stuff about Cass’s father in the news and there had been one incident when a criminal case Chandler Ashby had been involved in had made it to my desk, but I hadn’t even gotten through the first page of the case report before it had been whisked away by my superior.

If Cass’s father had stepped out of line somehow, especially criminally, the press would have jumped on the story. The Ashbys were always involved in some kind of scandal, but it had all been tabloid fodder more than anything. Not one member of the family had ever been charged with anything despite being arrested for DUIs and possession of drugs. The Ashbys had greased a lot of palms when it came to the cops and the petty crimes various Ashbys were always caught up in.

Until Cass. For some reason, there’d been no palm greasing for him. Granted, the crime he’d been accused of had been impossible for the Ashby patriarch, Cass’s own father, to get him off completely, but why hadn’t they provided him with a top-notch lawyer like Asa Hutch?

“Did she shield you from what your family was really like?” I asked. I immediately wanted to take the words back for fear that they’d make Cass angry, but I held my tongue. If I wanted to be his equal partner in whatever kind of relationship we were trying to forge, I needed to be brave enough to speak my mind.

“For the most part, yes. I was homeschooled until I was a freshman in high school. I knew my grandmother had been trying to protect me, but when I got a taste of that freedom, I couldn’t get enough. All the kids treated me like I was some kind of god. So many guys flocked to me, and I pretty much became the captain of the football and basketball teams without even needing to try. A lot of the girls made it clear that they were available for extracurricular activities.

“It wasn’t until I tried to have sex with my first girlfriend that I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t go through with it. She bought my excuse about having pulled a muscle in my last game. I was terrified that the fact that I hadn’t fucked the girl would get back to the guys I hung out with, and they’d start joking about me being a fag and all that bullshit. But no one ever said a word and thankfully, none of it got back to my grandmother. I was on some weird pedestal, and the kids kept me there for some reason.”

“And then one day you showed up skidding into the parking lot of a tiny, shitty park and met a big, cocky asshole just like yourself and that was it,” I said.

Cass looked at me and smiled. “That was it. That car was one of my dad’s favorites. I’d already gotten my own brand-new Porsche, but I decided it would be more fun to take my dad’s Aston Martin for a joyride, even though I didn’t have a license. Looking back, it wasn’t just a stupid act of teenage rebellion. I wanted something to happen once I was caught. I wanted to get arrested or have my dad tear me a new one… anything that would force Chandler Ashby to acknowledge I was his son. I was gone for hours while I played football with you and Sully, so it was dark by the time I got home. No one said a thing. Not about me stealing the car and not about me being gone the entire day without checking in even once.”

“Did your grandmother or father ever find out about us?” I asked. Cass hadn’t spoken much about his family when he’d been around our small, blue-collar family.

“No. My father was married to wife number three by then, and they spent a lot of time traveling overseas. They’d left behind my half-sister, Allison, when she was around fourteen, I think. Allison was the daughter of my father’s second wife. When they divorced, he ended up gaining full custody of Allison, which made no sense because he didn’t really want her.”

“Did your grandmother raise her too?”

“No,” Cass said with a shake of his head. “I honestly don’t know who took care of her. I just knew it wasn’t her mother because she’d been out of the picture since she’d lost custody. Allison died when she was nineteen… drug overdose. I came back for the funeral but none of the Ashbys attended. Not a single one besides me. My father and his third wife were too busy vacationing in Tahiti or something to be bothered with something like watching his only daughter being laid to rest.”

“So it was just you there?”

Cass shook his head again. “Her mother was there. She’d divorced my father when I was five, so I never really knew her. When I introduced myself, she slapped me and told me that my family had killed her daughter. When I told her that Allison had been my sister, her mother apologized right away and then just fell apart. No one else attended the funeral, not even any friends, so her mother and I listened to the priest and watched her casket being lowered into the ground. After that, we just sat there on a bench near Allison’s grave and watched the workers cover the hole with dirt. The last thing Allison’s mother said to me was that I was lucky I’d made it out and warned me not to go back… to never let them suck me back into their world. Then she was gone, and I never saw her again.”

“She was warning you not to go home,” I said in understanding. “Have you spoken to your dad at all?”

I’d been bracing my head on my bent arm so I could see Cass’s face as he spoke. My heart did a little jump when he turned onto his side so he was facing me. The move allowed me to see him without needing to hold my head up. I lowered it back down to the pillow. As much as I would have liked to scoot closer to him, I knew if I did, it would make it that much harder to control the needs of our bodies.

“Not really. I didn’t even know he was my father until I was four and one of the maids who’d been cleaning me up after I’d snuck into the kitchen to scarf down some chocolate cake pointed him out and told me he was my daddy. Whenever I tried to talk to him, he’d say he had an important phone call to make or that he was late for a meeting.

“My grandmother used to have these monthly family dinners, but they were a sham. My father and grandfather never attended, so Mother Ashby was in charge. No one ever said a word, so I figured that’s what family dinners were. After I met you guys, I knew their silence hadn’t been out of respect for my grandmother. They’d feared her. The little kids would usually be excused right after dessert, so my cousins and I would play games in the house. One of my cousins once told me my grandmother was grounding our parents.”

“So she was the head of the family when your father and grandfather weren’t there,” I suggested.

“Yes and no. After the kids were sent out of the room, the dinner turned into an interrogation. She wanted to know what stupid shit each family member had done that could potentially stain the Ashby name. Then she’d fix it. I wasn’t sure how, but I’d outright seen my cousins and other family members engage in criminal acts like DUIs and drug possession, but nothing ever happened to them. No charges, no jail time. Just fodder for the tabloids.

“Before my grandfather died, I spent a lot of time with him, and I’d begun to think of him as my dad. I didn’t know my grandfather wore a mask like everyone in the family, so it was harder to accept the stuff Mother Ashby told me after his death. I couldn’t really make sense of it because he seemed different than everyone else. We spent nearly every weekend at the cabin…”

“The one you took me to,” I offered.

Cass nodded. I’d already heard the tone of his voice shift. He’d seemed disassociated when he’d talked about his father, but the mention of his grandfather held more emotion.

“Grandad taught me all about the forest and how to use the sun to tell what time of day it was. I learned about the different landmarks that would always lead me back to the cabin if I got lost, how to make a fire, and even trap a small animal if I needed to eat. Thank God I never had to do that,” Cass said with a chuckle. His smile quickly disappeared, leaving only sadness behind. “Those were some of the best times in my life,” he murmured.

I couldn’t help but shift closer to him and cup his cheek. He pressed into my hand for several long beats before straightening then coldly said, “Turned out it was all just another Ashby lie.”

“What—?” was all I got out before Cass continued on his own.

“After my grandfather died, my grandmother told me the truth about him and my father. They were both experts at coming off as good, fair-minded men, but they’d treated her like shit. Berating her, telling her to remember her place in the family, not letting her pursue any of her own dreams. She was expected to represent the perfect wife and mother of a family whose name was plastered on buildings all over the world. She’d become a prisoner within her own life. My grandfather and father had treated her like she was nothing but an employee. Actually, they treated her worse than their employees.”

Cass paused and took in a few deep breaths. It was clear that he loved his grandmother and was blaming himself for not having been able to protect her from her own husband and son.

“Mother Ashby said Grandad would go after her mostly at night when he got home from work or wherever the hell he’d been. They had separate bedrooms but no matter what time it was, he walked right into her bedroom and started screaming at her, even when she was already asleep. He pointed out every mistake or flaw in her behavior and appearance. My dad did the same thing when it was his turn to take over the Ashby empire. Both men cheated on their wives and ignored their children. The kids born outside of those marriages were ignored and their mothers were usually given a small amount of cash to disappear and start a new life. They had to sign a nondisclosure agreement to get the money. There were rumors that some of… some of the relationships weren’t consensual.”

I swallowed hard at Cass’s last words. They chilled me to the bone. If the rumors were true, his father and grandfather had committed felonies that came along with lengthy prison sentences. What if the police report involving Cass’s father had been related to nonconsensual sex? It would make sense that I’d been relieved of the file within minutes of it landing on my desk.

“Your grandmother protected you from all of it,” I offered after I managed to collect myself from the chilling idea that I had in fact been the target of the shooting merely because I’d seen only a few lines of a report. I mentally shook my head because it made no sense. If I’d been the target, then why shoot me in the presence of an Ashby?

“Yeah,” Cass murmured. “I was so fucking naive. All those things she’d been teaching me about manners and appearance had been to prepare me for when I was in the hot seat. Even though I was next in line to take over the business, my father was going to make sure I knew my place, just like his father had taught him.”

I reached out to stroke Cass’s cheek as we continued to face each other. When he seemed a little more relaxed, I returned to my original question. “You said she seemed sick when you last saw her?”

Cass nodded. “She was wearing a nightgown that she never would have been caught dead in during daylight hours, much less around the house for all the staff to see. Her hair was loosely braided and messy, and she was covered in dirt because she’d been working in the garden. Renly, that’s her personal butler, had told her of my arrival but when she saw me, she’d forgotten that Renly had told her I was there. She… she hugged me. Mother Ashby… um, my grandmother, she never hugged anyone, even me. Not real hugs, anyway. Even when I was really little and tried to hug her, she told me that hugging wasn’t proper because it was a sign of weakness. But that day, she hugged me, and she was crying because she was so happy to see me.” He paused for a moment.

“I’ve never seen her cry before,” Cass mused. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Anyway, when I talked to her, I realized she’d changed mentally. She still recognized me, but she thought I was home because I’d finished my last tour.”

“Wait,” I interjected. “Are you saying she didn’t know you’d been in prison?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” Cass said as if he were hearing the words being spoken aloud for the first time. “Some kind of dementia. That was what Renly told me. She’s been sick for several years.”

“So that’s why she didn’t come to your trial or try and bail you out.” I was in complete shock, but my heart hurt for Cass. He’d spent two years believing the person who’d raised him, the woman who’d loved him as if he’d been her own child, hadn’t come to help him because she’d chosen not to.

“Renly told me that as soon as my father found out she was sick, he ordered her staff to keep her in her wing of the house and to not let anyone from the outside or even the family to see her. She’s been locked away for four years,” Cass explained. I could hear the despair and guilt in both his words and the way he held his body. I knew what he was going to say next, but it wouldn’t matter if I tried to stop him from speaking the words because they’d fall on deaf ears. He was never going to forgive himself.

“If I’d only come home as soon as I was discharged,” he said. “I’d been planning to, but I wanted to see your family first. Then you and I started…” Cass let his words fall off and dropped his eyes.

I didn’t encourage him to continue, nor did I tell him to stop. He had to make the decision for himself whether he wanted to confront his guilt or compartmentalize it like he’d done with so many of his other emotions. When it came time for him to start opening those boxes, I’d be there every step of the way. I hadn’t compartmentalized my own emotions; I’d chosen to outrun them, to attempt to numb myself from them. It seemed neither approach had done either of us any good.

I dropped my arm so I could join our hands. Cass instantly opened his fingers so I could link them with mine.

“If I’d just gone to see her, I could have done something. I could have stopped my father from leaving her trapped in her lonely little world with only a garden full of roses to keep her company.”

“Cass,” I breathed softly. “I know you don’t want to hear the words, but I want you to try and hear them a different way, okay? I know that doesn’t make sense but just listen, okay?”

Cass automatically nodded, though I wasn’t sure if he was really paying attention or if he was still caught up in thoughts of how he believed he’d failed his grandmother.

“After I left the cabin, Sully found me, and we had a long talk. He didn’t want to tell me the truth about the shooting, but he knew he couldn’t keep it from me anymore. As he was telling me about… about that night, I realized what he was saying didn’t make sense. When I did put together the pieces and understood I was the shooter’s original target and the other shootings were just a cover to throw off the police, I wanted to die then and there.”

Cass jerked his eyes back to mine. “What?” he asked, his voice heavy and angry. “You weren’t responsible for what happened that night. You didn’t kill those three people. There was no way you could have known—” He stopped abruptly when he said the words. The same words I wanted him to hear, but for the guilt he carried. He was silent for a long time before he murmured, “I guess that’s something you can never really get rid of, no matter how many times someone tells you it’s okay to let it go.”

“No, you can’t,” I agreed. “Have you confronted your father about his treatment of your grandmother?”

He shook his head. “I can’t walk into his office making accusations without proof to back them up. Renly told me my father has power of attorney, so he controls everything that happens to my grandmother. He’s in charge of her money, the staff, her health… all of it. Renly was there when my grandmother signed her rights away. She wasn’t competent enough to know what she was signing, but Renly couldn’t intervene because he was afraid if he did, he’d be fired, and my grandmother would be placed in a nursing home. Renly has been working for my grandparents since he was in his late twenties, so he’s always been loyal to them, especially my grandmother. For some reason, my grandfather didn’t leave a will behind and none of the family’s lawyers admitted to drawing one up for him, but Renly swears he saw my grandfather meeting with an estate attorney. Unfortunately, he can’t remember the attorney’s name,” Cass scoffed.

I released his hand but only so I could run my fingers over the tops of his and along his palm in the hopes of soothing him. Cass had done something similar in the shower when I’d started to panic. He wasn’t panicking, but I could feel him withdrawing from both the conversation and me. He kept our hands joined but shifted onto his back so he could stare at the ceiling.

“Cass,” I began awkwardly because I really didn’t want to ask my next question, but I knew it had to be addressed. “Your father, do you think…” My words got caught in my throat. He was in a vulnerable state and any further talk of his family could wait.

It didn’t matter because Cass was the one to finish my question by saying, “Do I think he’s the one who had you shot and me framed for the murders?”