“Why not?”
“Because … he just shouldn’t. Julian is not family.”
Marjory was tough to deal with on a normal day. She was playing defense of late. Not because Julian was Galen’s half-brother; that wasn’t her fault. Her husband had the wandering eye. She’d known about it, and that’s what Galen was especially bitter about.
“Marjory, you can’t keep Galen and Julian apart.” I was matter of fact, no give to my tone. “I’m not saying that they’ll be the best of friends, but I do think they’ll be in each other’s lives. You need to be all right with that.”
“Who says I’m not?” Marjory drew herself up ramrod straight in her chair. “I’m fine.”
“You have a face that expresses every emotion,” I countered. “Don’t feel bad. I’m the same way. Galen jokes that there was a reason they never gave me a speaking role in my elementary school plays. I can’t act. I can only be me.”
Marjory looked me up and down. “That sounds … pretty on brand for you. Did you also get in trouble for talking constantly in school?”
“Yup.”
She smirked. “I’m not surprised. Galen wasn’t much of a talker when left to his own devices. When he got with Booker and the others, he got into the occasional speck of trouble.”
“I can see that.”
She met my even gaze, more thoughtful than manipulative for a change. “I’m afraid for Galen,” she announced. “I don’t trust Julian. His father wasn’t trustworthy?—”
“You mean your husband?”
She ignored the dig. “His mother definitely wasn’t trustworthy,” she continued.
“Because she slept with your husband?”
Marjory’s gaze was as dark as they come. “I’m looking after my son,” she insisted.
“He’s a man. You need to let him make his own decisions.”
She sighed. “It’s not easy. I had specific plans for him.”
“That’s why he does his own thing. He gets his stubbornness from you.”
It wasn’t a compliment and yet Marjory smiled. Then she turned to business. “Are you all right being cut out of the hunt for Wesley?”
I shook my head. “Not remotely. They won’t find him.”
“You think you have to go through the door again,” Marjory guessed. Now she was frowning for a different reason.
I nodded. There was no point in lying. “I don’t see another way out of this. We have to be smart this time though.”
“Smart how?”
I shrugged. “Research.”
“Well, let me know if I can help.”
“Thank you.” I stood.
“Collette Crawley is your first appointment this morning,” she announced.
That name meant nothing to me.
“She believes that her neighbor has nuclear weapons in his basement and she wants you to smite him,” Marjory explained.
“Nuclear weapons?”
