“What are you doing here so early?” Thomas glanced down at the watch on his wrist and back at me.

I shrugged off his comment. “I thought I’d get here early. We’ve been too busy for me to waste any more time lying in bed.”

He walked in and closed the door. “Now I know something is up. What’s wrong?” he asked as he sat down in the chair across the desk from me.

“It’s Fran.”

His eyes widened. “Is she okay?”

“Your aunt is fine. She just doesn’t want Morgan finding Ray. She wants me to handle it.”

“Fuck,” Thomas hissed and dragged his hands through his hair. “He’s already tracking him down. What are we supposed to do about it?”

I tapped my pencil against my calendar and thought about her shaking her fine ass in my face. “I promised her I would try to get to him first. Can you help a brother out?”

Thomas leaned back and crossed his arms. “I have Sam working with him on it, but I can reassign him and put you with Morgan. It’ll be up to you to get to Ray first.”

“That’ll work.” It would at least give me some control over the situation. Once we found him, I could find a way to sidetrack Morgan and get my hands on Ray before anyone else.

“I’ll talk to Sam as soon as he gets here, and you can tell Morgan that you’re working with him. He’s really pissed at you.”

“I know, but he’s going to have to get the fuck over it.”

Thomas nodded and laughed. “I’m sure he will. Just give him some time.”

“Thomas, it’s been weeks, and he’s still up my ass. I really like Fran, hell, I think I even love her.”

It was the first time I’d said those words out loud, and I even shocked myself more than Thomas, even given the look of disbelief on his face. “I’m happy for you, man. Don’t let my mother know, or she’ll start planning your wedding.”

I held my hands up and grimaced. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” I did love Fran, but marriage was a huge step. I hadn’t thought about saying “I do” since Jackie passed.

“You know how my family is. If Maria hears love, she’ll have a deposit down on a hall faster that you can blink.”

“Well, fuck.”

“Just don’t be surprised,” he said as he made his way to the door. “You’d be my uncle then and Morgan’s stepdad. This could be some good shit.”

“Shit,” I groaned and covered my face when he walked out the door. I could hear him whistling as he walked down the hallway, and all I could do was shake my head.

Unable to sit still after Thomas planted that seed, I headed to Morgan’s office to look through his files on Ray. I wanted to get a jump-start before he arrived.

I opened the first folder marked Ray’s Record and almost fell off the chair. The man had a rap sheet longer than mine. It read like a timeline of America’s Most Wanted. Everything from petty theft, assault, and larceny filled the lines. The man had been busy since walking out on Fran and Morgan.

The second folder was marked FBI Ray. Inside were reports on Ray’s activities while he was under surveillance by the FBI about five years ago. They thought he was involved in organized crime in Chicago and kept eyes on him at all times. After a year of coming up empty, they pulled the team from him and dropped their investigation.

Even with my bullshit, I don’t think the FBI had a file on me. That was usually only reserved for the lowest of the low or those whose crimes that were on the federal level.

Ray wasn’t a good man. I knew that from Fran, but as I sat in Morgan’s office reading the multiple folders filled with crime after crime and every sordid detail, I knew he was worse than I imagined. Fran was right not to want Morgan to get involved with him, and I’d do everything in my power to make sure it didn’t happen.

“What are you doing?” Morgan asked from the doorway.

I didn’t bother to look up. “Just doing some reading.”

“In my office?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to take the files back to mine. I figured I’d wait here for you and catch up.”

“Catch up?”

I finally looked at him and closed the manila folder in my hand. “Thomas had to reassign Sam, so I’m your new partner.”

His nostrils flared. “You’re my new partner?”

“Glad to know you can still hear,” I grumbled and readied myself for a fight.

“Old man, I can do this on my own.”

“Kid,” I said in response to his dig about my age and made my way around the desk. “I know you could do it on your own, but with someone like Ray, you could use some backup. I wouldn’t let anyone in this office go after him alone, and neither would you. So put aside your pride and hate for a little while, and let’s find him together.”

“Fine,” he said a little too quickly.

I tilted my head, moving my ear closer because I was sure I’d heard him wrong. “Fine?”

“You deaf now too?” He smirked.

He pushed past me. “Little fucker.”

“I talked to my mom already today,” he said as he sat down and pulled his chair up to the desk.

“Yeah?” I asked and took a seat across from him.

This could be good or bad. I wasn’t going to pretend I hadn’t been with her. I didn’t know what Fran said to him, though, and I didn’t want to start the day with a lie after he already had an issue with me being in his office.

“She said you spent the night.” I couldn’t read his facial expression, so I sat there and waited for him to say more. “She seems…” His voice trailed off.

“Happy,” I said, finishing the statement for him.

“Well, yeah.” He scratched his head and pursed his lips. “I don’t remember the last time I really saw her happy. But for some reason, when she’s with you, she’s glowing.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell the kid I banged her brains out to the point that she had so many endorphins running through her system, happy was the only way she could feel. “I really like her, Morgan. I know I went about it all wrong, and I should’ve talked to you first, but—”

He held his hand up and stopped me. “You didn’t have to ask permission. She’s my mother and I love her dearly, but I can’t control her and whom she falls in love with.”

My head jerked backward. Who was this man sitting across from me? Morgan would never just give in so easily.

“Plus, she hasn’t been up my ass like she usually is since you entered the picture. My phone only rings once a day instead of five. It’s a win for both of us.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So you’re okay with me dating her?”

“I guess, as long as you don’t hurt her.”

“You’ve met her, right? I think I’ll need protection from Fran if I fuck it up, not the other way around.”

“If you fuck up, you’ll have more to worry about than just me. You’ll have an entire family coming after you.”

“Ah, this puts me at ease—nothing like threatening a man to keep him happy in a relationship. You know… Your mom could break my heart first.”

“Anything’s possible.”

We stared at each other for a minute, silently wondering what this meant for us as friends before I spoke first.

“I’ve always respected you, Morgan. You’re a good kid with a solid head on your shoulders. You’re a family man and a good son. I don’t want this to change our friendship. I promise to be good to your mother for as long as she’ll have me.”

“Bear, you’ve been through more shit with my family and every guy in this office. We’ve always been able to depend on you and always know you have our backs. I know in my heart you’ll never do anything to hurt us or our families. I know you’ll be good to my mom. If you aren’t, she’ll let it be known.”

I nodded and started to laugh. “Are we done professing our love to each other? We do have work to do, and I’m a little uncomfortable with all these kind words we’re throwing at each other.”

“I’m over it.” He shrugged and opened the folder that I had been reading when he walked in. “So what do you think of my father?”

“He’s a real piece of shit.”

There was no nice way to say it. Based on everything I’d read and the way Fran acted, he wasn’t a nice guy. How she ended up with him and stayed for so long was beyond me.

“He always has been.”

“How did Fran stay with him for so long?”

He leaned back, placing his fingers together in an arch in front of him. “He’s not a good man. She claims it was because times were different, but I think my mom was always scared to leave him.”

My grip tightened on my leg. It was the only thing I could do to keep myself in my seat. “Did he hit her?”

He grimaced. “No. He’d just become a different person when he drank. He’d say the meanest shit to her and I always worried he’d eventually hit her. I stepped in between them once when he grabbed her by the arms, and I knocked him out. That was the end of him ever laying a hand on her.”

Every muscle in my body tensed. “Goddamn it. You two shouldn’t have had to deal with a fucker like that.”

His arms relaxed on the armrests, and his hands curled around with a tight grip. “I told him the night before I graduated that if he didn’t leave of his own accord, I’d remove him from the house myself. I wasn’t going to leave her there with him.”

“You’re the reason he left your mom?” My mouth hung open.

He nodded with a smug smile. “Yep. Mom doesn’t know, though, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell her, Bear.”

“Lips are sealed.”

“I gave him twenty-four hours to clear out before I had my uncle Santino deal with him.”

“Santino?” I’d never heard the name uttered from any of the Gallos. “Is he on your father’s side?”

“No, he’s the black sheep on my mother’s side. She has two brothers—Santino and Salvatore. But Santino was the only one still in Chicago, and I knew he wouldn’t have a problem handling Ray for me.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never heard him mentioned.” Not even City had mentioned the name, and I’d known him for over ten years.

“Well, you’d have to meet him to understand. He’s not like my uncle Sal. Santino just got out of prison recently too.”

“Sounds like an interesting character.”

“He’s different, but I knew he’d have no problem kicking my father’s ass and making sure he never went back to see my mother again.”

Morgan surprised me with his confession. All these years had passed, but he’d never told his mother the real reason Ray had left. She’d gone through so much heartache when it happened. Not only did her husband leave, even if he was a piece of shit, but her son joined the military. She went from a full house to silence in a hurry, just like I did.

“Your mom is worried you’re going to get wrapped up in your father’s bullshit. She wanted me to help you find him.”

Morgan laughed. “I found him about eight years ago. An old friend emailed me to tell me Ray was sniffing around the neighborhood. So when I came home on leave, I made sure to find him. I wanted to make sure he stayed the fuck away from Mom. He got the message.”

I hadn’t realized my muscles were still rigid as I hung on his every word, learning something new about him and Fran that I hadn’t known before. “Do you think he had something to do with Johnny?”

He rubbed his forehead and winced. “I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s a total piece of shit and will find any way to get his hands on some money.”

I mashed my hands together, squeezing them as tightly as I wanted to squeeze the man’s neck. “Then we’d better find him before something else happens. It’s time to make Ray go away forever.”

“You takin’ him out?”

“That’s too simple. We’ll figure it out once we have confirmation that he’s involved.”

“I’m going to make some phone calls. I have a few friends in Chicago, and maybe you should call Santino too.”

He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and turned it over in his hand. “I don’t know if Ma or Uncle Sal will be so happy about it, but he’d know if Ray was back in town.”

“This isn’t about making people happy, it’s about getting to the bottom of this entire mess.”

“I want to hand him over to the cops when we find him, Bear. It’s the right thing to do. They have the letter from Johnny, and we have the evidence from his office.”

“Sure,” I said, but I planned on getting a few punches in first.

“We’ll kick his ass, of course, but let the cops deal with the rest.” He smirked.

I laughed. “I thought you went soft on me for a second.”

“I’m happy my mom has you by her side, man. Seriously.”

Although I didn’t need his blessing, it meant more to me than he probably knew. “Thanks, kid. I appreciate that,” I told him as I stood and made my way to the door.

“Now get back to work. We have an asshole to catch.”

I nodded and walked into the hallway. There was more than one asshole at stake in this mission. I wasn’t about to come up empty this time. But I knew I wouldn’t make Fran pay up on our deal. It wasn’t something to be bartered for, but something to be earned and given in trust. Morgan had every right to find his father and deal with him as he saw fit. I didn’t have the right to take that away and neither did Fran.