His heart was racing over the ice cold threat against his mother, against any person, and it was all that was needed for the two officers to stand up, flash their badges and pull their guns.

  The table of muscle two over started to stand and he knew that though he, Zane and Trace were just witnesses to this to make it final in his eyes, if they had to pull their guns to help, they’d be doing it and pay the consequences for their actions later.

  There was no need. More officers came in and secured the bust. Many congratulating the undercover detectives.

  They’d been told last night this guy had been on their watch list for human trafficking and the sale of drugs. They were hoping to flip or use him to get someone higher at the time. It’s like it all but fell into their laps to clean up one tiny section of the streets.

  Luke hated that he had to be a part of it personally but was thrilled he was able to help. It was more rewarding to know he helped not just his mother but also many other women at this point.

  “Well,” Trace said thirty minutes later when all the action finally settled down. They didn’t leave until the officers did to not draw attention to themselves. “That was fun. Now I’d like to get something to eat since we are here in Queens. I’ve got a list of food Violet wants. It’s on the way out of here.”

  Zane laughed. “I’m hungry.”

  “Sure,” Luke said. “My treat for the company today. Which I didn’t need.”

  “Sure, you did,” Zane said. “Whether you wanted to admit it or not.”

  No reason to argue anymore. He’d be lying to deny it felt good to not be alone for once.

  “Aren’t you guys nervous?” Heather asked Violet and Lily. Both were in the greenhouse with her and she knew they came to keep her company and her mind off of the fact that their men were armed and going to meet the man that put Luke’s mother in the hospital.

  “No,” Lily said. “I trust Zane completely. He knows what he’s doing.”

  “I trust Trace too,” Violet said. “But I can say I don’t know him as well as Lily does Zane. I mean I don’t think anything is going to happen. They are just watching to make sure it goes down, but the fact they are there is scary enough.”

  “That does make me feel better Luke isn’t alone,” she said. “I hope he wasn’t upset over that. He didn’t talk to me much about it.”

  “You two can trust us and them.”

  “I know,” she said. “It’s just Luke is so afraid of being judged.”

  “We’ve all had things in our past,” Lily said. “You know that with me. I’m not judging anyone.”

  “Neither am I,” Violet said. “This is free zone to me. Once we leave here, it won’t be talked about again.”

  “I appreciate it,” Heather said. She was shocked that Luke had decided to do this, but she was happy he was. Maybe he could move on at this point. Hopefully.

  “Is he going to see his mother?” Lily asked.

  “No,” she said. “He was adamant that wasn’t happening. He made arrangements for her to get help with her addiction. All she has to do is show up when she’s released, give her name, and she’ll be taken in and given the help she needs.”

  Heather wasn’t surprised to hear Luke was going to front that bill. He probably figured this was his one effort and if his mother didn’t take it, then she wasn’t going to change.

  He’d told her last night he expected his mother wouldn’t. Her spot would be held for one month. After that, she was on her own. He wasn’t paying for it.

  “Did he talk to her?” Violet asked. “To tell her?”

  “No,” she said. “He texted Windy the address for the guy to meet them last night. Then he added that information for Windy to inform Luke’s mother.”

  “What’s her name?” Lily asked.

  She frowned. “You know, I didn’t ask. I’m not sure why.”

  “Because you are going off of Luke’s vibes and she doesn’t merit a name in his eyes,” Violet said.

  “I think you’re right. I can tell even saying that it’s his mother bothers him.”

  All three of their phones went off at once and they reached for them. Heather breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Oh yum,” Violet said. “My hero.”

  Heather was just reading the text from Luke saying it was all done and they were on the way home. She looked at Violet’s phone with a picture of an arrangement of bags of food in the backseat with Trace.

  “Let me see,” Lily said. “Zane just said he’d see me soon and loved me.”

  “Lucky you,” Heather said. “But Violet is getting lots of food. You’re going to be eating that for days.”

  She wasn’t going to be jealous that Luke didn’t say he loved her. He’d only said it for the first time yesterday. No reason she’d think he’d do it more than once or by text either.

  “That’s the point,” Violet said.

  “You guys can go now,” she said. “I do appreciate you keeping me company though.”

  Lily and Violet looked at each other. “If you’re sure.”

  She gave them both a hug. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  When they left, she went back to her office and burst into tears. She didn’t think she was that emotional of a person and she was pretty good when Luke went to work, knowing he was in potential danger.

  But this was something different. This was the dark and dirty part of life she never knew anything about other than what she saw on TV.

  She supposed now she could understand more of why Luke and her brothers weren’t sure they could find a woman to deal with or understand their careers.

  She got her fears and emotions out though. Luke said he’d come see her when they were back. He had to bring Zane home anyway.

  Over two hours later, she turned when the door to her office opened. Luke was standing there. There wasn’t a smile on his face. Nothing.

  She wanted to run and give him a hug that he was home safe. Instead, she walked over and held his face in her hands, looking into his eyes. “I’m proud of you.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because the easy thing would have been to ignore it all. Shut it out. Walk away.”

  “Like I’ve been doing for years,” he said.

  “Which isn’t easy on an emotional level and I know it. But it took a lot more to do this today. You could have handed it off and been done with it but didn’t. You wanted to see it through. To do this for your mother.”

  “I didn’t do it for her,” he said.

  Heather nodded and gave him a kiss. “You did it for you. I know. You were selfish like I’ve been. Sometimes we’ve got to do what we need for our future happiness even if it’s the hardest thing in the world to do.”

  “We do,” he said quietly.

  She gave him a kiss and a hug. He held on tighter than he ever had before.

  She knew she needed to lighten the mood for both of them. It’d be for the best.

  “I saw all the goodies that Trace brought back for Violet. Did you bring me back anything?” he asked.

  “I thought I’d give it to you tonight when we’re done working,” he said.

  “Well, that too,” she said, smiling. “Are you going to work now?”

  “I figured I’d put a few hours in while you were here.”

  “I’d like that,” she said.

  He gave her one more kiss and walked out. She figured he was going to get his tools and she went back to work feeling much lighter in her heart than she had been that morning.

  She was surprised when he came back in a few minutes later and set a bag on her desk. “Double stuffed brownies that Trace said are worth the drive there and back for these alone.”

  She grabbed the bag and opened it. “There are four in there. Oh my God and they are huge.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “For you and Daisy. I figured you might need them to work off some of the stress of the past twenty-four hours.”

  She shouldn’t have been shocked that he knew she was stressed. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re going to be Daisy’s hero now too.”

  “Got to keep your family happy.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “You do. Bet you bought all those goodies today. Even all of Trace’s for Violet.”

  His face flushed before he walked out.

  He was a work in progress, but he was her work in progress.

  37

  Lightness To Him

  A month later, Heather and Luke were at his place. He’d gotten out of work earlier this morning and now was done with his shift for a few days, then going back on days.

  She missed him and he’d asked her to come to dinner and maybe spend the night. She’d said sure.

  “It smells good in here,” she said. She walked in the door and knew dinner was cooking. “I might get used to this. Coming home to a nice home-cooked meal.”

  “I thought you got that from Daisy,” he said, grinning and coming over to give her a kiss.

  There was a lightness to him in the past few weeks that she couldn’t explain.

  They didn’t say they loved each other often. She didn’t think she’d be one of those people who did it daily or after every call. It didn’t mean as much to her if you said it as frequently as you said hi or bye to someone.

  But less than a week ago the month was up that Luke’s mother could have checked into the rehab facility. She’d been afraid to ask him if there were any updates. There was part of her that knew it wasn’t her business and the other part that had to be there for him.

  When that date hit, she didn’t have to ask, he brought it up, telling her he appreciated that she hadn’t said a word yet. But the time passed and his mother never checked in. That he’d hired Trace’s father, who was a PI, to look into his mother to see if she was discharged and still in town.

  The answer to both of those things was yes and it seemed as if his mother went back to the life she’d always had.

  Heather felt for him hearing that until he looked at her and said, “I can wipe it from my mind now. I guess I didn’t realize that until you convinced me to at least try. I’ve got no guilt for her decisions. I didn’t tell you, but when the date passed, I reached out to Windy. I didn’t know if she still had the number or not, I didn’t get a response, but it felt like enough closure for me to do it.”

  “What did you say?” she asked, stunned she was just hearing this now.

  “I told her to tell my mother to lose my number. She was dead to me as I was to her. If I could just change my number I would and I might.”

  “It’s not easy to do that in your line of work to just get rid of your number so easily. Especially if people in your past military career need to reach you.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “But I’ll do it if I have to. I think it’s done with my mother. It should be. She knows I mean business. The fact I had her john arrested and she had to find another source of income or someone to take her on probably pissed her off enough to write me off.”

  She pushed those thoughts from another day away.

  “I do get dinner from Daisy sometimes,” she said. “Daisy tends to get one or two days off during the week if she has to work on the weekends. When she is working and I’m home, I’ll cook for her.”

  “So she is getting less now that you are spending time with me?” he asked.

  “She’s good with it,” she said. “I mean we’ve talked. It’s not like anything is changing other than I’m not around much. She does go out and do things with people. She makes friends easily. Don’t say anything, but I think she might have gone on a few dates recently.”

  “I thought you two talked about everything,” he said as he continued to cook. He opened the oven and she saw a dish in there that looked to have pasta with sauce on it.

  “We do,” she said. “Or did. Which is why I’m not positive. I don’t know. We don’t see each other as much since she is working more with Rose having had the baby last week. And Rose was out of work for a week or two before.”

  “Thomas Colin,” he said. “Right? Zane told me he got a nephew and was thrilled Ryder would have a cousin close to his age.”

  “Yes. They are going to call him Colin though. They’ve already got Tom and Thomas, so this will be less confusing for sure. I think it’s nice to name your child after yourself, but it’s good to give them their own identity too.”

  “There is no one in my family I’d want to honor by doing that to my kid,” he said.

  He grabbed cheese from the fridge and then opened the bag, pulled the oven door and started to sprinkle it on top of the pasta.

  “Use the whole bag,” she said. “Don’t be stingy.”

  He laughed and dumped the whole bag on. “What about you?” he asked. “Anyone you’d want to honor? I know you were close with your grandmother.”

  “I was. I’d love to honor her that way with a middle name. Her name was Jane. That’s a nice middle name that goes with a lot. But I’m a long way off of thinking of baby names. Don’t worry about that.”

  “I’m not worried,” he said.

  “My mother keeps saying she wants grandkids. Or she did until she found out I was in a relationship.” She started to laugh. “Now she never says a word.”

  Just one more thing that would keep her here and not moving back home in her mother’s small mind. It didn’t matter how many times she told her mother she had no intention of moving back home anyway.

  “Sorry about that,” he said.

  She laughed even harder. “Don’t be. I should be thanking you. It’s not you and you know it. Don’t ever think that. You know my brothers like you.”

  Gavin and Noah almost always asked about Luke when she talked to them. It surprised her but pleased her at the same time.

  Her father was good with it all too.

  Just her mother that was stubborn.

  Heather moved to the cabinet and got down the dishes to put on the island while he pulled the dinner out and set it down with all the cheese ooey gooey and melty.

  “Can you grab me a water with yours?” he asked.

  “I sure can,” she said, bringing two of them out of the fridge and then sitting down to eat with him. “Do you find this homey like me?”

  “I suppose,” he said, grinning. “As you know, you’re the first and only person I’ve had this with.”

  “And I like it,” she said. “But again, don’t feel like I’m putting pressure on you for more.”

  “I can handle pressure well,” he said.

  “I know that,” she said. They ate their dinner and cleaned up. She was just getting ready to grab his hand and pull him into his bedroom when his phone rang.

  “Shit,” he said.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Work. Hang on. Remington,” he said when he answered. “Yeah. Where? I’m not that far out. I’ll be there in less than twenty minutes.”

  “You need to go in?” she asked. “I didn’t know you were on call?”

  “I took the last few weeks of the month from someone,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. They are calling all...umm.”

  “Snipers,” she said. “They are calling in all snipers for this? What’s going on? Can you say?”

  He was rushing to his room and she was on his heels. His clothes were coming off and his uniform on. He hit the safe that he had there and put in a code, then pulled out a briefcase. She knew that was his sniper rifle. She’d seen enough TV shows to know.

  “Yes, snipers,” he said. “Obviously.” There was more tactical gear he was grabbing in the closet she hadn’t seen before. She didn’t like this at all.

  “I’ll wait for you,” she said.

  “No,” he said. “I’m sorry. It could be a long night. Go home and get some sleep. I’ll be in touch when I can.” He kissed her and started walking toward the door. She grabbed her purse with her keys and jacket and followed him out, him locking the door and them both pulling away.

  She still had no idea what was going on or where he was going.

  Normally she didn’t get bothered too much when he was at work. But this...yeah, this was different.

  “What are you doing home?” Daisy asked when she walked in.

  She looked at Daisy and noticed she was dressed more than if she’d been sitting around the house. “Did you work late?” she asked. “I thought you got out at five?”

  “Yeah,” Daisy said. “I got held up working with a few customers.”

  Since she couldn’t recall what Daisy had on when she went to work, there wasn’t much she could say. The black pants and nice sweater could have been something she’d wear.

  And since she was a little stressed over watching Luke leave the house in full gear as if he was going to war, she couldn’t focus on much more.

  “Oh,” she said. “Luke just got called into work.”

  “Why do you look so white over it?” Daisy asked.

  “Because they called him in as a sniper,” Heather said. “And he had to gear up and just watching that was like something out of a movie. I think seeing it in person is different than not knowing. If that makes sense.”

  “It does,” Daisy said. “You probably ate, right? Did you have your coffee?”

  “No,” she said. “I didn’t.”

  “Then let me make us our coffee and we’ll wait together. Did he say what was going on?”

  “I’ll make the coffee while you change,” she said. “Thank you for being here for me. And you didn’t eat if you just got home. I’ll get snacks.”

  “I’ll always be there for you,” Daisy said.

  Daisy walked to her room and came out a few minutes later in sweats.

  Heather had both cups of coffee made by then and on the island. “I’m looking for some cookies or chips. I need something while I try to figure out what is going on.”

  “I just looked on Facebook,” Daisy said. “There was a breaking news thing about something going on at the casino.”

 

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