Thin Skinned

by Margo Bond Collins

  “Well,” I said slowly. “I guess if I could have anything I wanted out of this mess, I would want...” I paused to think for a long moment, lining up everything as carefully as I might a wish to a genie from a bottle. Somehow, I knew I needed to be that specific. “I would want to go home, and I would want to take Baby Paige with me. I would want her parents to go to rehab, and to agree to hand over custody of Paige to Lori’s sister until they got clean and proved they could stay that way. They could have supervised visitation until then.”

  I thought about what else I should add. “Oh. And I would want to leave the diamonds with you.”

  “What of Phil? His assistant? Those who threatened you?”

  I huffed out a sigh, then shook my head and watched my hands twisting in my lap. “I can’t. That’s not...not my jurisdiction.”

  I glanced up at Antonio to find him watching me curiously. “You don’t wish to punish them?”

  “No. I was a surprise to them. I’m probably lucky they didn’t shoot me. I just don’t want them in my life any longer. Or in Baby Paige’s. I guess I wouldn’t want them in a position to hurt more children’s parents.”

  Antonio tapped his fingers on the wooden arms of the broad cushioned chair he sat on. “You, Lindi, are something of a wonder.” He nodded as if coming to a decision. “We shall arrange for it to be so.”

  Chapter 14

  I don’t even want to discuss what I had to do to be able to give the diamonds back.

  But other than that, it was all simple. Easy. Straightforward. Almost frighteningly so.

  I don’t know what Antonio promised the Beaumonts—or threatened them with—but they gave up their only child with an alacrity that startled me.

  And only Lori came home on the plane with me. Apparently, Hale had a better offer than mine and was willing to sign over his parental rights permanently in order to take it.

  But Lori really did love her child—and I hoped that, away from Hale, she would be able to get straight.

  At the plane before we departed, Antonio offered to give me several of the diamonds.

  “No, thanks.” I shuddered.

  His laugh was genuine. “Perhaps another form of reparation for your unfortunate day?”

  I shook my head and gestured at Lori and Paige. “If this works out, it will be payment enough.” I glanced around, seeing only a few of his men and the pilot standing nearby. “Where are Phil and Ron?”

  Antonio’s nostrils flared. “They are learning some essential lessons for working with me.”

  Panic flared in my chest. “Don’t hurt them on my account. Please.”

  “I will not. I will make sure their lessons are not physically painful.”

  I wasn’t sure that was enough reassurance, but I suspected it was all I would get.

  Antonio reached out one hand to my cheek. “It has been a true pleasure meeting you, mi serpiente.”

  I started to board the plane, then stopped and looked back at him. “Tell me: whose abuela was she?”

  He shook his head. “I do not know. But perhaps once upon a time, her family knew yours?”

  I blinked thoughtfully, then turned to make my way onto the plane, still puzzled by more than I cared to admit.

  The flight home was much less eventful than the one there.

  It took less than three hours to get back. Lori still watched me warily during the flight, but she seemed much calmer. I wondered if Antonio’s people had given her something to calm her down.

  I tried not to worry too much about it. She was headed to rehab, after all.

  When we landed—at a different airstrip than the one we’d left from—a freaking limo was waiting for us. I used the phone inside to call Courtney and tell her that she wouldn’t have to go to court.

  She cried when I told her Paige would be coming home with her that evening.

  I called my bosses to let them know, too.

  And then, when everyone had congratulated me on a successful conclusion to my first case, I began fretting about ethics again.

  I SHOWED UP AT WORK the next day as if nothing all that unusual had happened.

  The first thing I noticed when I walked into my office was that the sofa the Beaumonts had peed on had been removed. I wasn’t sad about it, to be honest.

  The second thing I realized was that there was a stack of money placed neatly in the center of my desk, on top of a small stack of papers.

  I approached it slowly, as warily as if it were the snake and I was a mere human about to get bitten. I couldn’t tell by sight alone if it was the same money that had been hidden away inside Abuela. It certainly wasn’t all of it, even if it was the same money.

  I stared at it for a long time without touching it. Finally, I slid the papers out from underneath the pile and flipped through them. It was the paperwork I needed from the Beaumonts, signed and notarized.

  Antonio Lobo worked fast. And efficiently.

  I went back to staring at the money.

  It was drug money. That made it blood money.

  I couldn’t keep it, that was for sure.

  What the hell was I going to do with it?

  I glanced over at the empty wall where the pee-sofa had been. The answer came to me suddenly.

  I pulled the number from the file and dialed. Voicemail picked it up.

  “Hi, Courtney. It’s Lindi Parker. I need to make an appointment to see you for just a couple of minutes. I’ve got some things to finalize with you. Give me a call when you get this.”

  The money would go a long way toward making Baby Paige’s life even better. I didn’t know if Lori would manage to get herself straight. But whether she did or not, I wanted Paige to have the best head start she could possibly get.

  Before I handed the money over, though, I was going to replace that sofa. I picked up the stack of bills to peel a few hundreds off the top, and something heavy fell out of the paper band wrapped around them, clunking to the desk.

  It was the pendant, the gold metal gleaming slightly in the light filtering in through the blinds. I turned the money over to look at the bottom, and discovered a note tucked inside the band, too.

  I opened it and read the lines within.

  Mi Serpiente,

  I send this to you in hopes that it will help you remember that you are also a goddess.

  ~Antonio Lobo

  I ran my thumb over the words couple of times, wondering if I would ever see Antonio again, before I folded the paper and put it, the pendant, and—after I pulled enough out to replace the couch—the money.

  I shut the drawer and started to turn toward my computer to turn it on. But then, on second thought, I reached back into the drawer and pulled the pendant out. With a wry grin, I slipped it on over my head.

  I slipped it into my shirt and sat down to start trying to write a report about my first case at Sams & Sams & Associates.

  I WAS STILL TRYING to write up my report an hour and a half later when a knock came at the door.

  “Come in,” I said absently.

  A large man with green eyes and a disconcerting stare came in. “Ms. Parker?”

  “Yes. Can I help you?”

  “I’m Detective Daniel Moreland. I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions.”

  My heart pounded, but I nodded. “Sure.”

  “I understand you met with Hale Beaumont yesterday?”

  I paused, gathering my facial expression and making it as serpentine and opaque as I could. “I did. His wife, too.”

  “Was there anything interesting about that meeting?”

  I shrugged. “Well, they agreed to give up custody of their child while they got clean.”

  He snorted.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s just that Hale Beaumont was picked up this morning on a raid with some known drug-smugglers. Let’s just say he wasn’t trying to get clean.”

  Oh. And I would just bet those smugglers were Phil and Ron. I didn’t know why it had been stu
pid for Phil to bring me to Antonio, but he was definitely paying for it.

  I fought the urge to reach up and grab my pendant. I was glad it was tucked into my shirt. “That’s not surprising, Detective,” I said. “I didn’t get the sense Hale was thrilled with our plan.”

  “And yet he agreed to it?”

  “He did.”

  “He’s not really the agreeing type.”

  I laughed. “No, he’s not.”

  “Any idea why he agreed?”

  I shook my head. “I can’t claim to have any idea what goes on in the head of someone like that.” Especially when they’re under pressure from someone like Antonio Lobo.

  “Hm. Did you get the signatures you needed from the Beaumonts yesterday?”

  I glanced at the paperwork still sitting in the center of my desk. “I did.”

  “Good. That’ll make your life—and the baby’s—easier.”

  I all but breathed a sigh of relief when Detective Moreland turned to leave. But then he turned back, and fear jumped up into my throat again.

  “You know,” Detective Moreland said, and I held my breath, “we’re working on a new grant for a community initiative program. If we can get it worked out, it would provide for a counselor from the Child Advocacy and Protection Center—the CAP-C—to work with children present at a potentially traumatic crime scene.”

  I allowed myself to breathe again. “Yes?”

  “Yeah.” He glanced through those knowing eyes of his out the window. Then he bent his head toward the ground and scratched the back of his neck with one hand before casting his gaze up at me from behind his dark, cop sunglasses. “I do believe you would make an excellent addition to that team.”

  Would I? I wondered after the detective had given me his contact information and left. Or would I simply do whatever was expedient to get my way?

  Was I a bad counselor? Or a good one?

  I didn’t know.

  I stared at the form I had to fill out to complete my report. It was still blank, because I didn’t know what, exactly, to say.

  Then I went back to reading the code of ethics online.

  So do I really have any ethical dilemmas?

  I considered everything I’d done as I arranged to ensure the court’s decision was in Baby Paige’s best interests.

  I’d broken confidentiality—by all rights, no one was even supposed to know who my clients were. But Antonio wasn’t going to tell anyone. And really, I hadn’t announced it—the Beaumonts had.

  On the plane, at least.

  Anyway, there was no legal record of anything. And nothing that had happened had to be reported, at least as the Texas Code of Counselor Ethics was concerned. The parents couldn’t kidnap Paige, because they had been her legal guardians at the time. I hadn’t seen any illegal activity. So there was, technically, nothing to report.

  That’s not to say I hadn’t done anything wrong—according to my own sense of morality, anyway.

  I’d threatened people. I was certain that I had allowed a drug lord to threaten and bribe people on my behalf. I’d come within inches of demanding a corpse be desecrated. And I was certainly about to lie in a report about how I’d gotten the Beaumonts’ signatures. None of that was okay, by any stretch of the imagination.

  But Paige was going to be okay. Better than okay, even, now that she had her aunt and her aunt had the money to care for her.

  I skimmed a little farther down the list of prohibited actions in the ethical code.

  Oh. Right.

  At least I didn’t show anyone my anus.

  I shook my head at myself and began writing.

  THE END

  Continue the Shifter Shield series with another Lindi Parker book, Under Her Skin.

  www.margobondcollins.net/the-shifter-shield-series/

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  About the Author

  USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling author Margo Bond Collins is a former college English professor who, tired of explaining the difference between “hanged” and “hung,” turned to writing romance novels instead. (Sometimes her heroines kill monsters, too.) The Lindi Parker Shifter Shield series is one of her most popular to date and includes both the continuing story of Lindi’s adventures as a member of the Shield and a brand-new, forthcoming prequel series. Keep an eye out for Thick Skinned, the second prequel novella!

  Read More from Margo Bond Collins

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