IT WAS A SHORT RIDE to the juvenile center where they were holding Jesse. Everything felt different this time. Instead of keeping him up front in an interrogation room, they’d started to process him, which meant they intended to charge him. Becca couldn’t get them to let Camille go back, but as Jesse’s attorney, she was allowed to speak with him. She waited in a small windowless room that smelled like stale sweat and fear until they brought him to her. He was already in prison orange, projecting so much swagger it would have been comical if she didn’t understand the severity of the situation.

“I didn’t call you, b...”

She could see the word on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t say it.

“Can you leave me alone with my client, please?” She framed it as a request, but she didn’t have any trouble pushing if she had to.

“You sure?” asked the guard, looking anything but.

Becca was small but she’d grown up with Gabe and Emerson. They’d made sure both she and Amanda could handle themselves if they were ever threatened. She wasn’t about to let the fifteen-year-old kid get in his own way if she could help it. Not with his momma sitting out front, worried sick.

“Positive. I’ll buzz when we’re finished.” She motioned to the button on the wall.

The guard shrugged his shoulders and then left.

“Want to tell me why you’re in here?”

“I don’t have to tell you shit.”

He was a cocky little bastard, but the only thing his bark was going to get him was trouble.

“You do if you want a chance at getting out of here.” Not that she was sure she could do it, but her chances improved if the kid acted like a functioning rational person.

“What makes you think I do?”

Becca did the lawyer equivalent of rolling her eyes, and for the first time the kid’s bravado slipped enough for her to see the hopelessness behind it.

“Come on, Jesse. Tell me what happened. Your mom is worried sick about you.”

“You didn’t bring her here, did you?” He jumped to his feet, looking around as if he expected someone to come through the walls like a bad episode of Stranger Things.

“She’s out front. What’s going on? No one can hear you in here. Tell me the truth, and I’ll try to figure out a way to help.” He’d gone from an arrogant shit to a scared kid before her eyes. Under different circumstances, she’d have pulled him in for a hug and tried to comfort him, but she knew he’d hate it.

“They said they were going to hurt her. If I didn’t do what they told me to and take the cash, they were going to hurt my mom.” His voice broke on the last word and she watched him pull himself back together. “I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t fast enough. I don’t know what’s going to happen now, but I don’t want her anywhere near me. You’ve got to promise me you’ll get her out of here. It will be my fault if anything happens to her.”

She could see his intention, but she could also see the parts of his argument he’d let get taken over by fear.

“I won’t let anything happen to her. I promise. She’s in a building full of cops.”

“And criminals,” he interjected.

“Yes, but she’s on the side with the cops now. You are the one we’re worried about.”

“I don’t need you to worry about me,” he said, bringing back some of the swagger.

“You do if you don’t want to stay in here until you’re eighteen. Listen, if your mom is really in danger, getting locked up isn’t going to change that.” He looked miserable but at least she felt like she might be getting somewhere. “The best way to keep your mom safe is to get the assholes who put you up to this.” His eyes widened at the curse word, but it had the desired effect. It shocked him into paying attention to her. “You already know some guys who are probably pretty good at that. Why didn’t you ask them for help keeping your mom safe?”

“They said if I went to Nate or any of the other guys, things were gonna get ugly.” He was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, and she wondered what he was working through in his head. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“I believe you.” She’d have bet money he was telling the truth. That he’d committed the crime to protect his mother and the guys at Southerland Security. Both impulses were ineffective but completely understandable, and they came from a good place. It wasn’t much, but she had something she could work with.

“I’m going to take care of your mom. I promise. And I’m going to do my best to take care of you, but I can’t get you out of here like last time. They’re going to charge you. Don’t worry.” For a moment, he looked like a scared little kid again. She put her hand up as if she could stop his thoughts. “We’ll figure it out. Are you okay in here for now?”

He nodded, sitting up a little straighter, and she exhaled. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if he’d said no. They didn’t have a lot of options. Yet. She was going to get to work on that.

“Good. I need the names of the guys who put you up to this and any other information you can give me about them.”

“I can’t. They’ll...”

“You can,” she said before he could launch into a list of reasons. “You know I’m smarter than they are, and my brothers and the guys you know are meaner.” She waited for his reluctant nod. “We can handle this.”

––––––––

OF ALL THE things Nate expected from his afternoon, watching Becca and Camille walking into Southerland Security wasn’t one of them. Jesse’s mom looked visibly shaken, and he saw Andrews jump to his feet and hurry across the room to them. He wanted to run to Becca, but he had no idea what kind of reception he’d get.

The last text he had from her had been a single-word response to a picture he sent her of a miniature chameleon and that had been over a day ago. He still had no idea what happened. He’d been falling in love—scratch that...fallen in love. He thought she was too. He’d been ready to come clean with her brothers and do whatever she needed him to do so they’d have a shot at a future together. Instead, it was like she turned her attention away. It felt like having the heater go out in the middle of winter—ironic considering the icy way they started.

But he’d be damned if he’d hide in his own workplace, even if it was her brothers’ business. He crossed the room, steeling his heart with every step. Then he saw the concern etched on her beautiful face, and his resolve disappeared.

“Hey, what’s going on?” He risked laying a hand on her arm and exhaled when she didn’t pull away.

“I need your help.” Becca met his gaze, and he could see the smudges under her eyes, the worry and something else. Something he couldn’t give a name to yet.

“Of course. Anything.” He meant it. He didn’t know where they were going or what they would be to each other, but he wanted the best for her. He’d help her any way he could.

“It’s Jesse,” said Camille, her voice breaking.

Andrews had stepped closer to her, sheltering her with his body without touching her. Nate had a moment to think what a good thing the two of them could be together before he pulled his attention back to the task at hand—finding out what was wrong with Jesse.

“What happened?” he asked, kicking himself for not pushing sooner. He knew something was up with the kid; he should’ve done more.

Camille opened her mouth and closed it again, as if the words were too difficult to say. It was Becca who stepped up to answer his question.

“He was arrested for trying to rob the convenience store on Chestnut. Wait.” Becca held up her hand, stopping him before he could give voice to half the things he was feeling. “He was trying to protect his mother.”

He heard Camille make a small helpless sound and saw Andrews finally break down and touch the woman, resting his hand on her arm, steady as a rock.

“The gang he was previously involved with put him up to it. They convinced him if he didn’t get the money, they would hurt Camille and they told him he couldn’t go to any of you. I think he was trying to protect you guys as well. I know,” she said at their looks of disbelief. “It’s not the smartest thing he’s ever done, but his impulse was good. He was willing to sacrifice himself for the people around him.”

And at least it explained some of the weirdness in his life and gave him a job he actually knew how to perform.

“They’re charging him?” He directed his question to Becca, and she met his gaze, her expression almost pleading. He couldn’t be sure for what.

“Yes. I don’t think there is any way around that this time.”

Camille started to cry softly and Andrews pulled her closer.

Nate was glad she had someone to look out for her. He couldn’t imagine the stress she must be under. He was a little freaked out himself and Jesse wasn’t even his kid. Knowing the boy had been trying to take care of the people around him, even if he’d been misguided in his efforts, made him proud of the kid and irritated with himself for not realizing what was going on.

“Can we go somewhere to talk?” Becca motioned with her head away from where Andrews consoled Camille.

“Of course.” He’d wanted nothing more for days than time alone with Becca. If it had to be over problem solving for the kid, he’d take it. He led Becca down the hall to the conference room they used for client meetings.

“I made a mistake,” she said, as soon as he closed the door behind them.

“How? You couldn’t have known.” He was the one who should have figured out what was going on.

“Not with Jesse. With you. I got arrogant and made assumptions about what you wanted, and I’m sorry.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The day I came here to see you, it was because I wanted to spend time with you. I decided some things are more important than work. But when I got to the main room, Camille was there with you and Jesse. You were laughing and happy. And you looked like a family.”

“Because we’re black, and you’re not.” He felt some of his anger from the first time they met start to creep in. The only thing that stopped it was how miserable Becca looked.

“I know. It was ridiculous and arrogant to assume I knew what you wanted better than you. To assume I knew anything. I did the same thing Jesse did, with about as much finesse. Nate, I’m so sorry.”

He could see the similarities. Despite the arrogance and her flawed logic, he knew her intentions were good.

“You can’t cut me out. If you respect me, you need to respect my choices and trust that I know my own mind. It won’t work if you don’t. You can’t control everything, Becca.”

“I know.” She sniffled and her eyes filled with tears.

Shit. Damn.

What was he supposed to do now? She looked as shocked as he felt as the tears streamed down her cheeks.

“It’s okay, Becca.” He pulled her into his arms because he couldn’t bear to see her cry and he didn’t know what else to do. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out. All of it.” He held her, stroking his hand up and down her back as her body shook.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a few moments. Her eyes were still wet but the tears had stopped falling. “I never cry.”

“I want you to be able to cry with me. I want to be the one who holds you when you need it.” He tipped up her head so she’d look him in the eye. “Even if you don’t want to need it. We can figure this all out together, but only if you don’t shut me out.”

“Okay.” She nodded, blinking furiously against a fresh wave of tears. “Nate, I love you.”

Her words hit him like a burst of sunlight—heat and love and light, melting parts of him that had been cold for a very long time.

“I love you too, Becca.” He covered her mouth with his, tasting the salt of her tears against his lips, feeling the absolute rightness of having Becca in his arms. He could spend the rest of his life learning how to love this woman and still never have enough time.

But first they had to figure out how to take care of Jesse and his mom, because that’s what family did.