Part 58 (1/2)

Perfect.

h.e.l.ler looked back down at the photo then again at Brock.

”You have good-looking sons,” he remarked.

Brock didn't thank him for telling him something he knew.

Instead, he informed him, ”They love her.”

”Hard not to love Tess,” he whispered.

That was the d.a.m.ned truth.

Then he asked the last question he always asked before Brock left.

”Can I keep these?”

And Brock gave him the answer he always gave.

”Yeah.”

He nodded.

Brock nodded back.

He opened the door and Brock went through it, turning as Donald h.e.l.ler murmured, ”Until next time.”

Brock jerked up his chin and walked to his truck.

Brock crouched in the wet gra.s.s. They'd had a relatively warm winter, a couple of snows, nothing that really stuck and when it did it didn't stay for too long. Tess loved it.

The boys hated it.

Brock didn't care either way.

He shoved his hand into his inside overcoat pocket and pulled out the photo, another copy of the one that fascinated Donald h.e.l.ler. A photo that, blown up, was framed and sitting pride of place on the shelves in their family's living room.

Then he reached out and set it at the base of the grave stone.

”Shoulda been there, Dad,” he whispered to the gleaming marble.

The marble had no reply.

”s.h.i.+t,” he heard Mitch Lawson say and his head came up to look across their desks to his partner. If someone told Brock two years ago that he'd be partnered with Mitch Lawson, he would have laughed or, possibly, growled.

Lawson was involved in the situation with Hawk Delgado and his now-wife Gwen.

Lawson had a thing for Gwen then, he had another thing going now, a much better thing, a thing that had been a pain in his a.s.s to win but, then again, most things worth winning were worth a pain in the a.s.s to win them. But back then, Lawson had also not been happy with the plays Brock made that put him into contact with Hawk and Gwen Delgado.

But, like many cops, Mitch heard that Brock's woman was in the hands of a sick, dangerous man bent on revenge and, like many cops, he'd dropped everything to hunt for her.

Sharp as a tack, something that was good to have in a partner, Mitch contacted Delgado, a man who had more money and more resources but less strictures than the DPD, and they searched together. It was intel that Brock had handed over that took them to her. Burkett wasn't stupid, it was not where Brock had found him years ago after what he did to Bree, but it was information he found when he was hunting him. A house kept in the family but for some reason unused, Bree's great aunt's house, Burkett's mother's house, where he grew up.

Luck or good instinct, it didn't matter which, sent Delgado and Lawson there first when the information Brock gave started making the rounds. This meant they got to her quick. This meant she'd only been in the hands of a madman for less than an hour before she was safe.

After it was done, Lawson told him Tess had taken care of the situation herself before they arrived. Although Burkett was old, this surprised Brock but not as much as it alarmed him.

This was because Burkett was armed and very willing to use his weapon and he'd demonstrated this to Tess. Still, somehow she did it and outside of getting clocked on the jaw, which caused her a few days pain and brought up some swelling and minor bruising, she miraculously did it without getting hurt.

In other words, that day, Brock Lucas learned the power of prayer and he still didn't utilize it often but that didn't mean G.o.d didn't hear from him more than He used to.

These days, though, sweet days, his messages were a lot different.

And Tess had told him Delgado and Lawson had been gentle with her. Tess told him that within minutes of their arrival she felt safe and, more importantly, within minutes of their arrival they got word to him that she was safe.

That last part was what had done it for her. When he made it to her fifteen minutes later, she was more worried about his state of mind than herself. When he arrived, she'd been in tears in Delgado's arms, Hawk had turned her into Brock's and it didn't take long before she pulled herself together and turned her attention to him. She'd witnessed three men get shot, two of them shot dead but this didn't faze her, not at all. She slept like a baby in his arms that night, all through, and he knew this because he didn't sleep a f.u.c.king wink. And they'd gone to Aruba as planned and she'd enjoyed the f.u.c.k out of that vacation, his boys did too.

After he watched her closely for days and ascertained she wasn't burying anything, she was actually all right, putting it behind her, moving on, Brock enjoyed it too.

And this was because, he realized, she felt safe. s.h.i.+t happened, she survived and even though it wasn't him who made her safe, men he'd connected with did it for him, not to mention she did her part. To Tess, this incident was a blip and the next morning she was up and making breakfast for his sons like she did every morning, drinking coffee, being a smarta.s.s to him and making his sons laugh.

But Delgado and Lawson got to her, they made her feel safe and they were gentle with her.

Therefore, he owed them too.

And he had no problem being Lawson's partner. Mitch was younger than Brock but smart, diligent, a good cop who had since become a good friend and not just because they were partners.

Now he was looking beyond Brock like he'd just learned the world was going to end.

Brock looked over his shoulder and saw what Mitch saw.

f.u.c.king great.

On his f.u.c.king birthday no less.

Olivia.

”Slim,” she muttered when she came to a stop by his desk, her eyes s.h.i.+fting to Mitch then back to Brock.

”Olivia, for f.u.c.k's sake, it's my birthday.”

”Yes, well, for some of us, this isn't a special day. For some of us, this day is just like any other day.”

He made no reply. Just sat back, looked up at her and waited for her to be done.

In the last year, Olivia had made short work of getting her talons in another man.

Therefore, obviously, she'd stopped being saccharine sweet and gone back to her true self, in other words, a complete b.i.t.c.h.