“Explain to me why a sister’s visit to her family home requires four police officers and,” her scathing glance slid over Cal, “whoever he is.” Then her eyes narrowed on Cal and she her memory opened up. “Oh my God. Joe Callahan. Now this is a surprise considering you and that girlfriend of yours would do anything to stay away from cops. Not do ride alongs on Tuesday mornings when real men are working.”

“It’s good she got the business from Mike when they were teenagers ‘cause I’m seein’ she doesn’t get laid very often anymore,” Cal muttered to no one, eyes on Debbie then he addressed her. “Advice. You might wanna see about gettin’ you some. It might improve your disposition.”

Debbie’s face got red.

“Cal, you’re not helping,” Colt murmured.

“Haines got a call from his woman and shot outta the Station like someone yelled fire,” Cal returned. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Colt, shit goes down in this burg and when it does, it tries to drag good women down with it. That happens, it’s all hands on deck.”

Terrific. Cal was throwing down for Dusty.

 “I can say as definite you’re not invited to participate in my family’s business, Mr. Callahan,” Debbie stated snidely.

“Knew your brother, not well, but I knew him and respected him,” Cal returned softly and Debbie’s red face immediately paled. “Doesn’t matter how well I knew him, since he died, lotta talk about him around town. Know he’s got two good kids. Know they now gotta look out for their Mom. And know they do not need this shit. You feel this is truly a good idea and have their best interests at heart, you approach them when their Dad isn’t under fresh dirt. You’re doin’ this because you’re alone, bitter about it and your ex-boyfriend has hooked up with your sister, then you got some soul searchin’ to do, woman, before you mark it so deep it sends you straight to hell.”

And there it was. Violet Callahan and her daughters, Kate and Keira might not have managed to modify Joe Callahan’s wardrobe but the man they made it safe for Cal finally to be didn’t need any further modifications.

It was then Mike decided to get things in hand.

“Debbie,” he called and her eyes came to him. “I don’t know how long you’re in town but how about you go somewhere, cool off and you, Dusty and me sit down and talk tonight. Get some things sorted.”

Her color came back and her eyes grew sharp when she declared, “I’ve already got what I want sorted, Mike, and I don’t need to sit down with you and Dusty to sort it or explain it. I think I’ve made my intentions clear.”

“What we need to talk about isn’t Dusty and me. It’s Rhonda, Finley and Kirby,” Mike explained, seeking patience.

“Right, and Dusty’s woven her golden web around you, singing her angel song, dancing her bullshit dance until you’re deaf and blind to anything but what Dusty wants to manipulate you to believe,” she retorted and Mike lost his way to patience so he decided to shut this down.

“Right, you wanna believe that, you’re clearly gonna hold onto it. So do it.”

“I don’t need your permission, Mike Haines,” she returned.

“Well you have it anyway,” Mike muttered. “Now you mind we end this scene?”

She glared at him then proclaimed, “I’ll be wanting to talk to Rhonda before I go back to DC.”

“No way in hell,” Dusty hissed from behind Mike.

“That’s not happening,” Mike stated.

 “I don’t need your permission for that either,” Debbie snapped.

“Actually, you do,” Dusty replied.

“What are you going to do? Tie her up in the basement and stand guard with one of Darrin’s shotguns?” Debbie threw at Dusty.

“If I have to,” Dusty tossed back meaning all four words literally.

Christ.

“Why do you have to make everything a pain in the ass?” Debbie asked.

“Why do you have to think that everything’s a pain in your ass simply because you aren’t getting your way?” Dusty asked back.

Debbie’s eyes narrowed, her mouth twisted and the look on her face made Mike brace.

“Darrin’s dead, Dusty. You can’t take care of his weak wife and his two boys to crawl up his ass and try to convince him you’re sugar and spice.”

There it was. The straw and the camel’s back broke.

Dusty went flying down the stairs. Mike caught her at the waist and pulled her back to his front, keeping one arm around her waist tight and wrapping his other one around her chest.

“Go,” Mike growled at Debbie.

“You can’t order me away from my own home,” Debbie bit back.

“He just did,” Dusty pointed out. “And by the way, this ceased being your ‘own home’ the minute you brought developers to the front door conniving to sell it.”

Debbie took them in, lip curled, bitterness not even close to being hidden. Then her eyes focused on Mike.

“God, sick,” she whispered. “Did you use me to get to her because you had a thing for her when she was twelve?”

Mike’s body got tight. Dusty strained to get out of his hold.

Colt moved forward declaring, “Think with that you’re done.”

Her eyes sliced to him. “I haven’t even started.”

“Your prerogative but right now, regardless of the legal hold you got on a quarter of this land, your behavior can be construed as intimidation, threats and harassment,” Colt returned. “You want me to start construing it that way to the point I feel as an officer of the law I need to do somethin’ about it, you keep standin’ there diggin’ your hole. You wanna cut your losses now so you can fight another day, you get in your rental and leave them be.”

Debbie held Colt’s eyes then hers moved through the men standing in the front yard of her childhood home and finally they settled on Mike and Dusty. They stayed there while her face worked.

Then, having spewed what venom she had, she turned and walked away.

Motionless, five men and Dusty watched her go.

When her car was halfway down the lane, Mike called to the men, “Give me a minute.”

He got chin jerks and the men drifted away.

He turned Dusty in his arms and tipped his chin down to see her eyes were already on him.

“Where’s Rhonda?” he asked.

“Grocery,” she answered.

“She gets home, you sit on her. No calls. No visits. From anybody,” he ordered.

She stared at him closely for a moment then she nodded.

“Okay. Now where are we with your Dad?”  Her eyes slid away. Shit. “Procrastinating,” he muttered.

“Mike –”

“Call your Dad.”

“Babe –”

He gave her a squeeze. “Call…” He squeezed harder. “Your…” He dipped his face close to hers. “Dad.”

“Oh all right,” she mumbled.

Then he watched something shear through her face, something that was difficult to witness before she dropped her chin and did a face plant in his chest.

“This is about me,” she whispered.

She had it half right.

Mike bent his neck and pressed his cheek to the hair at the side of her head.

“This is about you and me,” she went on.

There she had it.

“I knew it, when she saw us after the funeral, lost it, the way she lost it. I knew it. And I knew it because it was way worse than ever before.” She heaved a sigh. “She always hated me. Now she’s latched onto a reason that’s real and she’s never gonna let it go. And she doesn’t care what collateral damage she creates.”

“That reason isn’t real, Dusty.”

She turned her head slightly and Mike didn’t lift his so her face was less than an inch away. His gut got tight at the pain stark in her eyes.

She wanted to love her sister and she didn’t understand bitterness. She got on with life. Hell, she’d even been molested by Denny Lowe, survived, dealt with it and put it behind her. She did not get Debbie. But she felt the pain of losing a sister every time this shit happened.

“She’s seventeen or she’s forty, Mike, you’re the type of guy a girl does not want to lose. Not even the memory of what had been. We’ve tarnished what she’s held golden for years.”

“If she wasn’t such a bitch, honey, she’d have something more than money to fill that hole I left that she clearly never filled. That’s on her. Do not take any of this shit on you. She was fuckin’ seventeen when I broke it off with her. She holds onto that, onto me, thinkin’ she can lay claim when decades have passed and she doesn’t even live in the same goddamn state, you gotta get that…is…whacked.”

He watched her eyes work then her mouth moved then he got a partial smile before he got a soft, “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” he whispered.

She sighed again.

Then he watched her brows lift and she said, “Your, uh…Violet is married to Joe Callahan?”

“Yeah,” he repeated.

“Didn’t he marry his high school girlfriend and then she –?”

Mike cut her off with another, “Yeah.”

“Whoa,” she breathed. “Shit like that breaks a man.”

“He was broken all right. Vi fixed him.”

“Clearly quite a woman,” she muttered.

“I had a fifteen year lesson to settle for nothin’ less,” Mike muttered back.

Her face grew suddenly soft and something sweet flashed in her eyes.

And the pain was gone.

Mike grinned.

She continued, “Darrin told me Alec Colton and February Owens finally pulled their fingers out.”

“That would be Alec and February Colton who have a son named Jack so, yeah to that too.”

“That’s cool,” she whispered. “Finally.”

She was not wrong about that. Still, he didn’t know the particulars so he couldn’t do the math but he was thinking he waited for Dusty longer than Colt waited to have February.

“Uh, you gonna introduce me to your boys?” she prompted.

“This would require me ending our huddle. And the reason I got a chance to have this huddle fuckin’ sucks but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it now I got it,” he returned and got a grin.

“This is true,” she muttered, her arms around him getting tighter telling him she wanted to let go as much as he did. Which was to say, not at all.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll survive.”

“You call your Dad, minute I leave. Then we need a powwow.”

She nodded.

“I’ll feel the kids out and you’re back for dinner.”

She nodded again then asked, “You like sandwiches for lunch?”

He felt his brows draw together as he answered, “Yeah.”

“How do you feel about eating them in your bed? Walk’s short for me, I’ll meet you there and bring the sandwiches.”

At that, his arms got tighter.

“I’ll be careful with crumbs,” she whispered.

“Sweetheart, by the time I get from the Station to home and then have to get back on the road to get back to work, we’ll have half an hour.”

“I’ll wrap your sandwiches up. You can take them with you.”

Lunchtime quickie.

He could do that. Fuck yes, he could do that.

“Works for me.”

That got him a smile.

Then the smile faded and her eyes, already holding his, locked tight.

“You dropped everything, shot out here to take care of me. That doesn’t say dirty, that says sweet. But it’s your payback so you get to pick.”

Fuck, it was like she wanted to make his dick hard.

“I’ll decide at lunch,” he said and got the smile back.

“If I don’t let you go, they might be moved to call for the jaws of life to pry us apart,” she told him.

He laughed softly before he replied, “Then I best introduce you to my boys.”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

He leaned in and took her mouth. Too short but his lips left hers with the taste of her on them.

It would work in a pinch.

Then he separated from her and walked her across the yard to introduce her to his boys.

And while he did it, Mike Haines experienced something profound. Watching Dusty with her hair in a messy knot, cowboy boots on her feet, a slit in the knee of her jeans and a gorgeous smile on her face, his arm around her, he did it proud.

Audrey was pretty. When he met her, she was funny. When he made her his, he thought he was happy. But even back then, when she stood at his side, he didn’t feel lucky.

Watching Dusty charm his boys with a natural ease that was all her, he felt both.

Proud and lucky.

* * *

Merry at his side, Mike driving the unit on the way back to the Station from the farmhouse, Merry muttered, “McGrath. Not good.”