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Cooper Howard slept with a loaded gun on his nightstand, most people in his line of work did. A lot of people in this crummy neighborhood did, whether they were in his line of work or not. He could afford to leave. Cooper had earned enough over the years to move to a nicer place, but he liked it here. He knew the rules here and how to abide by them or twist them to work for him. Like a lone cowboy wandering in a wasteland.
But Lucy stood out like a sore thumb in her designer clothes standing in his doorway, people would rob her first and ask questions later with no idea who her father was. She'd been crying. It was obvious to see by the red eyes and ruined makeup. Out of all the people and places she could go he had no idea why she chose to come here to him.
“Can I come in?” Lucy asked, biting her bottom lip. She shouldn't be here. She should be safely back at that swanky apartment her dad brought her or one of his casinos or out with friends. Anywhere but here.
“I guess you better,” Cooper sighed, rubbing his face and stepping back to let her through the door. No good ever came from sticking his nose in the MacLean family or their associates' business. But then he couldn't leave her standing there all night. “Take a seat somewhere. I am going to put some coffee on, you reek like you've taken a bath in whisky.”
“I only had three drinks.” Lucy was lying and they both knew it. One thing he'd learnt in his failed marriage to Barb that when a woman was drunk it's better to nod and agree until she has sobered up. “Maybe four.”
Lucy told him the whole sorry tale. How she had always known that her dad's business wasn't always legal. But it was only now she knew how much it really wasn't. How she'd found out he had her mom killed. Cooper had that rumor too. How Rose had run off with her lesbian lover taking Lucy and Norm with her.
In Hank MacLean business that type of thing cannot go unpunished, his pride wounded, he spent months tracking her down, took his kids back and had Rose killed.
“I just didn't know where else to go and you always seemed nice. Well actually you have always seemed like a bit of an asshole but you are the only person I thought wouldn't go telling my dad I know what he did,” Lucy shrugged, wiping tears from her with her sleeve. He liked that she saw him for who he was and didn't pretend otherwise.
“I won't, mainly because I never liked your daddy.” Cooper doesn't see the point in pretending that he did. “You stay here tonight, in my bed. I'll take the sofa then in the morning when you have a clear head I'll help you figure out what you want to do.”
“Thank you.”