Chapter One
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“What a great day,”Cassie said from behind the wheel as she emerged from the underground parking and turned onto the street in downtown Portland.
By a miracle of nature, the rain had held off all day, and the mellow early October afternoon sunshine painted the sides of the high rises a deep gold.The concert had been amazing, and she loved getting to spend time with her stepsister.“I’m really glad you came with me.”
“Me too,” Bristol said next to her in the passenger seat.“And hey, day’s not over yet.”
“I guess not, if you include the two-hour drive back to Crimson Point.Unless you want to stop anywhere before we leave the city?Another homeless camp you’d like to visit maybe?”she teased.
Bristol shot her a dirty look.“Ha-ha.I had my reasons for doing that, and everything turned out in the end, didn’t it?”
Cassie made a non-committal sound.Bristol was too nice, always saw the good in people.The harrowing situation she’d gone through a few weeks ago might have changed her world view slightly, but at her core she was still an eternal optimist.
As a realist, and maybe a jaded one at that, Cassie worried about her.
“What does that grunt mean?”Bristol shifted slightly in her seat to face her with an incredulous expression.“Oh, come on.You can’t seriously still be holding a grudge against TJ at this point.”
Couldn’t she?Cassie still couldn’t believe her big-hearted, gentle stepsister had gone on a crusade to track TJ down across this city all by herself while he’d been living on the streets.
It gave her hives just thinking about it.
Bristol had gone way above and beyond the call of duty to get him a job offer in Crimson Point, which he’d taken.Not long after that, she had inadvertently blown his cover as an undercover DEA agent and wound up with a cartel hitman hunting them.Bristol had been taken hostage and only been plucked from a burning boat offshore during a storm by the Coast Guard in the nick of time.
Hives.
“What’s he got to do to make you forgive him?He literally risked his life to try and save me.”
“I know.”That was his one redeeming quality in Cassie’s books.“He’s growing on me, okay?”She was doing her best to be supportive, had reluctantly accepted that TJ was part of her life now—but only because Bristol was the happiest Cassie had ever seen her.Cassie held a grudge when someone she loved was wronged.
“You make him sound like a fungus or something.”
“Hey, you’re the only sister I’ve ever had, and it’s gonna take me some time to trust him after everything that went down.”Things had moved so fast between him and Bristol.
Chronologically, Cassie might only be older by a few years, but she was a lifetime older in terms of experience.Bristol was too sweet and trusting for her own good, and Cassie didn’t want to see her get her heart broken if TJ turned out to be an asshole.So she would reserve judgment for a little while longer.
Bristol gave a reluctant grin.“I actually kinda love that you’re so hard-core about having my back.”
She shrugged.“Can’t help it.Just the way I’m wired.”Because she knew all too well what it was like when no one had your back.
And what it felt like when someone you trusted drove a knife into it.
“Anyway, how’s the whole roommate situation going?”she asked.
Moving in together was a major step, but TJ had moved into Bristol’s place recently, soon after they’d returned from their trip to Europe.Given their whirlwind relationship, it smacked suspiciously of love-bombing, but Cassie was keeping that red flag concern to herself.For now, anyway.
“Good.He’s been hanging out with Warwick lately.They’re watching a soccer game at our place right now that he recorded.”
“Newcastle, I’m guessing?”Where Warwick was from.
“I think so.Anyway, enough about me.What’s going on with you and Tristan?Any news?”
She blinked.Played dumb.“No.Well, we’ve got that new job coming up next week, so we’ll be working together again.”In a purely professional capacity.Being assigned as bodyguards for the boss’s besties was a big deal, and the job meant a lot to her.
“Ooh, yeah.Becca Sandoza and her stuntman husband, right?”
“Yep.”
