Her head tipped to the side, her eyes got soft and she gave him another cautious smile.

Then she said, “Take care of yourself, Mike.”

Mike unfolded from the chair on a nod and, “The same to you, Audrey.”

She nodded back.

Mike lifted his hand and flicked two fingers at her, turned and walked out of Mimi’s.

Then he walked down the street, around the side of the Station to the back parking lot and got in his SUV to drive home. Dusty was cooking for his kids and the Riveras.

He made the drive deciding he’d tell Reesee and No about what their Mom had done. They’d been waiting a long time to have one who gave a shit. Now they had her, they should know.

He just hoped like fuck this lasted. But even if it didn’t and this was the only gesture she was able to pull off, they should have it.

And they would.

* * *

Saturday afternoon…


Mike and Dusty had just got back from the airport, following the Riveras in their rental there in order to wring the last seconds out of their visit by waving them off through security.

Now they were walking with Layla across the field, Dusty to hit her wheel, Mike to talk with Fin.

Dusty was in a quiet mood and Mike read this correctly as the fact that she was going to miss her friends. She’d started bonding with Cheryl, Vi, Rocky, Feb and their crew but it would take years to build anything with them like she had with Jerra and, because of her years with Jerra, it would never be the same. Still, Mike knew all of them were good women, if some of them totally fucking nuts. What she’d eventually build would be good.

He knew her mood had to do with the Riveras leaving and not anything else because the rest was sorting itself out. He’d told her what they had on McGrath and Debbie and she knew their plans for getting them to back off. He’d also explained what happened with Audrey. And Rhonda had told Della she would prefer it if she was the one who grocery shopped for the boys, made dinner at night and cleaned the house. She’d also taken over feeding and watering Dusty’s horses in the mornings. She had yet to help out with the pottery but she was finally stepping up, paying attention to her home and family.

So the light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t a train. A week, two, Rhonda kept her shit and they were able to immobilize Debbie and McGrath, life would just be life.

He was looking forward to it.

They stopped in the vast area between the farm and the house, she turned and looked up at him.

“This is me,” she said softly, jerking her head toward the barn and Mike got close, lifted his hand and cupped her jaw.

“Summer, the kids off school, we’ll go down to Texas.”

She pressed her jaw into his hand and whispered, “Thanks, gorgeous.”

He dropped his head, touched his mouth to hers then lifted it and ordered gently, “Get to work.”

She gave him a grin, he dropped his hand then she moved toward the barn. Layla stood there looking indecisive and Mike lifted a hand and pointed at Dusty’s departing figure so Layla turned and trotted after Mike’s woman.

He moved to the house. Dusty had texted Fin and he’d told her he was in from the fields to eat lunch. She asked him to stay because Mike wanted a word. When Mike walked in the backdoor, he saw Fin at the sink downing a Coke, waiting for him.

Fin dropped his hand, his eyes on Mike and muttered, “Yo, Mr. Haines. Everything cool?”

Mike noted his eyes were alert but his posture relaxed. Rees and No were with their mother that weekend which was one of the few times that every available minute Fin had was not with Mike’s daughter. Still, he had no doubt they communicated profusely during these times as they did any other time they were forced to be apart. So Mike knew that Fin probably knew more about the state of his daughter at that very moment than Mike did.

“Yeah, everything’s cool. Just need a few words with you,” Mike told him, advancing but stopping four feet away and leaning a hip against the counter. He rested a hand in the counter, locked eyes with Fin and asked quietly, “All going okay with your Mom?”

Fin nodded. “We woke her shit…uh, I mean, seems the other night we woke her up.”

Mike let the swearing pass and nodded back, muttering, “Good.” Then he went on, “You should know, been workin’ with some of my boys at the Station as well as a few other friends who are kickin’ in. Seems we may have some leverage on your Aunt Debbie and Bernie McGrath. Things will get hot the next week or two but what we got, it’s lookin’ good the rest of that will cool down.”

As he spoke, Fin’s alert gaze got heated as well as intense but he simply jerked his chin up when Mike finished and murmured, “Thanks for that, Mr. Haines. Don’t know if I can –”

“Nothin’ for you to do. Dusty’s my woman which means she’s in the family so you’re in the family. Family steps up for family so if you’re shufflin’ markers you owe in your head, stop. This is life, Fin. You take, later there’ll be a time you give. It’s just the way it is. Let it go.”

Fin held his eyes then he jerked his chin up again.

Mike drew in breath.

Was he going to fucking do this?

He looked at the boy who was mostly a man in front of him, flashes going through his head of him studying with Mike’s girl, smiling at Mike’s girl, holding her hand, opening the car door for her, leading her into Swank’s with his hand light on the small of her back.

Fuck, he was going to fucking do this.

“I know you know that I’ve got a rule about Rees not car dating until she’s sixteen,” Mike stated.

That peaked Fin’s interest as well as made his body shift in a way that appeared uncomfortable.

But Fin sucked it up and responded, “Yeah. I know. It’s cool. Things are good as they are.”

“I’m lifting that rule.”

Mike watched Fin’s body go solid.

He wanted it, time alone with Mike’s daughter.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Mike pulled in another breath and, low, he said, “I’m doin’ this because I’ve been watchin’ you with her and I trust you. You’ve given indication you care about her. You’ve stepped up for her. You protected her. You kept your shit in the situation with those kids and caused no more trouble, makin’ a mature decision which is another way of protectin’ her rather than putting her further out there. I’m doin’ this because I know you won’t screw me if I do. And by that, I mean, my daughter is fifteen. It is not lost on me you have some experience. So I’m gonna lay it out for you, Fin. She cares about you, she trusts you but she’s too damned young to go there with you. Not now. Not in two months. Not in ten. Not even after that. I’m lettin’ you both have this because I know you won’t disrespect her and, in doin’ so, disrespect me. And if I find that I’m wrong about that, there’s nothin’ I’ll be able to do to change it. But I’ll be really fuckin’ disappointed.”

When he was finished, Mike was shocked as shit to see that Finley Holliday wasn’t grateful. He wasn’t embarrassed. He wasn’t uncomfortable.

He was pissed way the fuck off.

“We’re talkin’ about Reesee,” he growled and Mike held his eyes.

“Yeah, Fin,” Mike agreed.

“You’re a cop. You’re a Dad. You’re a guy. You know,” Fins stated, his voice still low, harsh, pissed.

“Fin –”

“You’ve seen me with her and you know you do not have to say that shit to me,” Fin ground out.

Jesus.

“I’m her father. It’s my job to be thorough,” Mike returned.

“Well, you been thorough,” Fin shot back. “So I’ll tell you it means somethin’ to me you trust me with her because you can. You know my Dad. You’re with my aunt. You know the Hollidays so you get me. There are all the other girls then there’s Reesee and bein’ her Dad and all, you know that too.”

Mike fought back his lips twitching and he replied, “Yeah, I know all that.”

“Right,” Fin grunted then asked, “What’s her curfew?”

Mike kept fighting his lips twitching and answered, “Nine on weekdays. Ten weekends but if you got a late movie or something, you let me know.”

Fin nodded.

Then he asked, “We done?”

“Yeah.”

Fin jerked up his chin and moved past Mike to the backdoor.

Mike stopped him by calling his name. Hand on the knob, Fin’s neck twisted and his eyes hit Mike.

“I knew your Dad and you two were tight so I figure you already know this. But I’m gonna say it anyway. The man you’ve become is a man other men will want to know. He would be proud, Fin.”

Fin stared in his eyes and quietly replied, “He already was. You’re right, he told me. A lot. And that’s why I am what you say I am.”

Jesus, this kid was sharp.

“Right,” Mike muttered.

“But,” Fin went on, “you’re a decent guy, a great Dad so you should also know that means somethin’ comin’ from you.”

And Jesus, this kid felt deep and had the balls to express it.

“Right,” Mike repeated on a mutter.

“Right,” Fin muttered back then kept muttering his, “later,” and he was gone.

Mike gave him a minute to disappear and then he followed, going out the door and heading to the barn.

Dusty had music on low, her ass on her stool and was slapping a wad of clay on her wheel but her eyes were on him. Layla jogged up to him and butted him with her nose.

When he got close she asked, “How’d that go?”

He had also told her why he wanted to talk to her nephew.

He stopped, bent and gave his dog a head rub.

“Better than I expected,” he answered. “A lot better.”

She grinned up at him and declared, “I love my nephew.”

Mike grinned back.

Then he told her, “Goin’ to the gym.”

She nodded. He bent and gave her a quick kiss. Then he twisted and gave his dog a rubdown.

Then he ordered, “Stay.”

Layla didn’t stay. She trotted off deeper into the barn, nose to the ground, discovering.

Mike’s gaze slid through Dusty, she grinned at him again, he again grinned back then he walked out of the barn, across the field, into his house and up the stairs to change for the gym.

* * *

The next Friday afternoon…


“Fuck you, Mike.”

This was Debbie’s charming greeting.

Mike leaned back in his desk chair and guessed, “I take it you had your sit down with Mr. Glover.”

“Fuck…you,” she replied.

“You droppin’ the suit?” he asked.

No answer.

“Debbie,” he prompted.

“Yes,” she hissed.

“We gonna have any further problems with you?”

“Uh…sorry, Mike, that farm is not worth getting disbarred.”

“Good to know,” Mike returned. “Somethin’ else, that shit is not goin’ away. It’ll stay buried but you fuck with Dusty, Rhonda, those boys, any of that family or that farm in any way you can, it sees the light of day and you face disbarment and jail time. This is not a threat, Debbie. You need to take me seriously because I’m being very serious.”

“I hear you,” she snapped.

“And, time goes by, you see that shit you pulled for the shit it was, you give it even more time. You scored some wounds that run deep. Not one single soul who shares your blood whose feet hit Indiana dirt wanna hear from you anytime soon. You give them that, no matter how much you want salvation.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath for that,” she retorted.

He didn’t think so.

“We done?” she bit out.

They fucking were, thank God.

“Yep,” he answered.

She disconnected.

Mike hit a button on his phone and dropped it on his desk, his eyes going across it to Merry who was also on the phone.

“Yep,” Merry said into his phone. “Yep,” he repeated. “Got it,” he went on. “When’s this goin’ down?” He paused to listen. “Yep.” He said again, nodding to a person he couldn’t see. “Thanks for the info. Right. Thanks again. Later.”

He put his phone in the cradle and his eyes went to Mike.

“Seems our afternoon load just lightened, brother,” he announced.

They were heading out to visit with McGrath so Mike’s brows went up.

“How’s that?”

“Well, Fire and Building Safety have deemed a shopping center in Danville, a restaurant in Avon and a whole fucking housing development outside of Pittsboro unfit for use. Owners and occupiers are being notified. There’s a building inspector who’s bein’ picked up by IMPD for questioning for bribery and corruption. Danville PD and Hendrick’s County Sheriff’s Department both have obtained warrants for Bernard McGrath’s arrest. I think he’s gonna be too busy to have a chat with us.”