Sexual Expression (Contemporary Cowboys 2)

Kane reentered the kitchen and stood there with his hands on his hips. Dressed in a long-sleeve flannel shirt, dark denim jeans, and well worn leather boots, he looked like a cowboy who had kicked a few asses and taken several names along the way. Still, his hands were clean and Coco could guess the reason why—he had friends in the right places.

The room was quiet. Drina was sobbing softly and perhaps they’d already given her a few reasons to cry. Maybe they’d told her about the Blazier family business or perhaps they’d discussed the crimes for which they would soon be tried. Whatever they’d told her, whatever they’d shared, she’d evidently paid close enough attention to be clearly confused or worse—scared. Coco knew a little something about that.

A tape recorder was placed in the center of the dining room table. The date, time, and place were given in a professional manner. The senior agent in charge said, “We’re with Coco Leanne Baldini, age twenty-seven. She’s approximately five foot six and one hundred and twenty pounds. She has long dark black hair and blue eyes.”

And the questioning began. It was long, grueling, and endless. They asked about her past with Brandon, the people she’d met, and where she’d seen Geraldine Blazier conducting business. They asked if Coco was aware of the drug trafficking that had been the source of the Blazier income for more than twenty-two years. Had she seen pot plants? Did she realize that at one time over thirty-two acres of Blazier property had been dedicated to marijuana crops? Did she realize pot was illegal in the state of Tennessee? Had she ever suspected the Blaziers of running drugs or manufacturing methamphetamines? Did she know if any of the Blazier brothers had a pill problem or a drug connection based out of Florida? What connections did Geraldine have to Juan Jahno and did she know if he had fathered any of her sons?

Then the first shoe dropped, the one that could ultimately destroy the family she loved, the men she adored.

“Ms. Baldini, what business involvement does your father have with the Blazier family?”

“What?” She felt as if she were sideways in the road, in the middle of an ice storm. No matter which way she turned, she couldn’t get straightened out, the weathered path made it impossible to gain any significant ground. “My…my father?” She shook her head. “The Blazier family members don’t know my father.”

Even Kane looked lost. After they pressed her for information she clearly didn’t have, the other shoe dropped. “Ms. Baldini, have you ever seen guns or ammunition at the Blazier home?”

“Only the ones Geraldine kept by her bedside.”

The older detective leaned back and crossed his arms. He appeared more interested now than he’d been before.

“Can you describe those guns?”

Drina slammed her fist on the table. “This is ridiculous! Do you know who you’re talking to? We may be Alberto Baldini’s daughters but we don’t even own a gun! Outside of a water pistol, we’ve never even shot guns!”

“But that isn’t true. Is it, Coco?” If the aging agent thought he could lower his voice, look at her with compassion and she’d just crumble, he’d pegged the wrong woman in the wrong family.

“Do I need an attorney?” she asked Kane.

“I’m beginning to think so,” Kane replied, glaring at the man he seemed to know best, the one he’d first greeted when the men had arrived.

Coco tried to steal a quick peek at Jax Jackson. She and Jax hadn’t always agreed on everything but he was a good man, an honest man. She studied him for a minute and he gave a very discreet nod, as if he approved of her answeri

ng the question.

“I’ve shot a gun before at the Blaziers,” Coco said. “Geraldine feared her enemies were closing in. I know where you’re going with all this. You want me to roll over on her boys. You want me to tell you some magnificent story about drug thugs and arms dealers, but the truth is, Geraldine ran the business. She ran the business with an iron fist and the only son who knew anything about this business is now in the grave next to her.”

“You expect us to believe that?”

“I don’t care what you believe.” She grabbed her sweater from the coat tree right inside the back door. “I told you the painful truth. I told you a truth I can’t even believe I was rotten enough to tell. I betrayed a woman who was like a mother to me and her son who was like a brother.” The resentment she felt welled inside her like a time bomb waiting to explode. “Now, agents, if you’ll excuse me. I need to go check on the Blaziers and find out if one of them will come over here and stand guard with Kane tonight. Obviously, you have your wires crossed up.

“And to think I actually believed you were here to find out what happened last night and perhaps—well, I don’t know—maybe even wanted to provide some assurance or—gasp—how about protection?” She stared down the bridge of her nose at the man who had intercepted her text messages. “Please know I plan to text my friends again. I’ll let them know what I told you and while I’m at it I’ll also casually mention that I believe you are doing absolutely nothing to keep me and my sisters safe!”

Chapter Sixteen

Things went from bad to worse.

Coco burst inside the crowded kitchen and all heads turned her way. She scanned the familiar faces and group of strangers, searching for Brandon or Kurt, desperate to find them. Turning up empty handed, she focused on the spot where Liam usually sat before turning to Dallas who was seated at the head of the table, expressionless.

“Dallas, where are Brandon, Kurt, and Liam?”

The slight wrinkles around his eyes twitched and he bowed his head at which time he mouthed, “Go.”

It was then when she noticed the obvious—Dante, Dallas, Mason, and Hales were listless, still, and unusually quiet. They hadn’t greeted her as they normally might or ribbed her about her relationship which would’ve then been a topic worthy of conversation if they had been on their game.

But that was the whole problem here. No one was on their game, especially her.

A man in a silk suit stood up and extended his hand. “Ms. Baldini, I presume?”

She took his hand only because it was thrust within inches of her own. She watched then as the Blazier brothers winced as if the idea of Coco shaking the man’s hand made them physically ill. “Can I see some credentials?”