Love by Association

Chantel had done what her mother asked. She’d settled with “everything” and had gone home.

“How do I do that?” Julie’s pleading words broke Chantel away from the painful memories. “He took my power. And then, by signing that agreement, I gave him the rest of it.”

Now wasn’t the time to tell Julie that no legal agreement that took away a victim’s rights to defend herself in a court of law would be binding in court. Colin would know that. It could only keep them from speaking to anyone other than an attorney, the court or other legal officer pursuant to the case.

It was Colin and Julie who’d given up on pressing charges. They still had that right. They just didn’t have any evidence, any grounds against which they could file charges. Any hope of getting past a grand jury, let alone to court.

Colin would be well aware of all of that, too.

“I want to try to trap him into getting caught.” Chantel knew a second of real fear when she heard herself say the words out loud. “I’m confident I can do it. But I’d need some help. And the most important part is, no one can know, including your brother. If you think you can’t do it, or can’t do it without telling him, I need you to be honest with me and I’ll let the whole thing drop.”

She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. But she also wasn’t going to have Julie blowing her out of the water before she’d had her chance. She wasn’t going to let Julie shoot herself in the foot again.

But there was the minor problem of needing help...

Shaking her head, Julie said, “I don’t understand.”

Of course not. How could she? “I’ve said as much as I’m going to until I know whether or not you can keep this to yourself. I don’t want to come between you and Colin—ever. And if your loyalty needs to be with him, I understand.”

“What about your loyalty? He really cares about you, and I thought...”

Whoa. This whole conversation had just taken a very wrong turn. “I do care about him!” Chantel said, infusing more truth than she wanted to know existed into the response. “More than I’ve ever...cared about...any man before in my life.” The absolute truth.

More than she cared about Max.

She couldn’t go there right then.

“But sometimes a woman just has to do things for herself,” she said now, words coming to her that were completely unplanned. She tried to get back on track. “You know your brother, Julie. He’s a protector. A doer. Like you said last night, he’s made his whole life about keeping you safe.”

“And now you, too.”

“I think it’s too early yet for that, but you seem pretty certain.” Which was good; it would work in her favor.

And could it be true? Was she more than just a passing fling for him, in spite of the fact that she’d told him she’d be gone soon?

For a split second her heart soared.

“If Colin knew I was planning anything that involves David Smyth, he’d do everything he could to stop me,” she said now.

She had to know if she had Julie’s trust. For her. And then to get her to let her help with Leslie, too. Julie had admitted the night before that she knew Leslie had been hurt. A little bit more, and she’d have Julie telling her who’d hurt Leslie. If she could help Julie believe that something good could come of breaking her friend’s trust.

“He says that the only thing we can count on is that money can buy anything,” Julie said softly. “The Smyths have more of it than we do.”

“My plan...if it fails, will mean no one is the wiser. They won’t even know we tried. If I succeed, we’ll have him dead to rights in front of everyone. I just need a chance to try, and I’ll need a little help behind the scenes to make it happen.”

It was a damned good plan.

“I’d love a chance to show you—and show me, too—that money and brute force don’t always win. That sometimes right wins. That there is justice. And that even though we’re women, we can be as powerful as anyone else.”

Another Jill throwback, one they’d based their lives on.

Until Jill had gone overboard and thought she could take care of everyone else, too.

Growing cold, Chantel sat there. Was she Jill? Thinking she had all the power and could save everyone?

Jill had tackled a known drug perp who’d been holding a loaded gun.

Was Chantel’s plan as reckless?

No. And Jill hadn’t been reckless. She’d saved her partner’s life. It was the oath they’d taken—to protect at all cost.

And Chantel would do the same.

“What’s your plan?”

Once again Julie’s words saved her from the craziness—the unwanted memories—that were invading her brain.