Chapter Twenty-seven
“I’ll go with you if you want me to.” Bo wrapped his arms around Lucky from behind and planted a kiss on his ear.
Lucky stood at the front door, hand on the doorknob. “I know, but I think I need to do this myself.”
He took Bo’s lack of a reply as agreement. Yes, he needed to do this alone. He’d created the problem, he’d figure out an answer.
With another kiss from Bo, Lucky steeled his resolve and marched out to meet his fate.
The drive across town gave him way too much time to think.
He’d dropped Ty off with his former landlady, a woman Ty barely knew, and left, not really explaining why. Not that he could.
All his life he’d been keeping secrets from his nearest and dearest.
Safer for them that way. Or was it? He’d certainly like to know of any potential threats, but he could only share so much information about his job.
His body ached from getting tossed around in what little remained of Bo’s Durango. Bo might forgive him for the loss of the vehicle one day, after a few million blowjobs and twice as many turns doing dishes.
Getting roughed up in the truck, having a gun pulled on him—again—and having to confront his former lover paled in comparison with what might be waiting ahead.
His nephew’s disapproval.
Lucky pulled up to the curb in front of the duplex he used to call home, him renting one half and Mrs. Griggs living in the other.
He could get out, but then she’d want to introduce him to every single cat by name, and he needed to get Ty home to do homework. After being ditched with a woman who took cat lady to new heights, the kid might not speak to him again.
Mrs. Griggs sat on her porch swing. Instead of her usual bathrobe, she wore a flowery dress. Must be putting on airs because of her guest. The whole time Lucky had lived next door she’d seemingly lived in bathrobes. She waved. Lucky waved back.
Ty sat down the lapful of orange tabby he held, picked up his backpack and the gym bag he’d borrowed from Bo, and slumped down the sidewalk. He opened the car door, threw up his hand to the woman on the porch, and shoved his bags into the back seat.
He still waved when they rounded the corner away from the house. Maybe staying with Mrs. Griggs hadn’t been so bad after all.
Not a word. Not one single word. How mad was the kid?
After a mile of nerve-wracking silence, Lucky ventured, “I’m sorry you had to stay with someone you barely knew.”
Abuse starting in three, two one… Three, two, one…
After a small eternity, Ty spoke up. “She’s not bad. I like all her cats. She told me you got Cat Lucky from her.”
No anger? No accusations? “Yeah, he came over to the house one day and wouldn’t leave.”
Voice whisper-quiet, Ty asked, “Is it true he adopted you after a little girl died?”
Telling his nephew all about the sad parts of his job wasn’t in the cards. Then again, lying wasn’t either. “Yes.” Without quite knowing why, Lucky opened his mouth and out fell the story. “Bo and me were investigating a children’s hospital that brought in shady drugs.” And fell victim to gray market opportunists, but the entire incident might take too much time to tell. “She told me she had a tuxedo cat named Lucky.” If he closed his eyes, he could see the little girl again, her bright smile, her bald head. His heart clenched.
“She died because of those drugs, didn’t she?”
“Yes.” Lucky’s voice came out choked.
“You caught who killed her, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” Even though Lucky’d had to quit the SNB to do so. Or rather, he would have quit if Walter had let him instead of pretending he didn’t get Lucky’s resignation letter.
“I’m glad.” Ty squirmed in his seat, half-turned Lucky’s way.
Lucky stopped at a red light and regarded his nephew. “I couldn’t let the no-account ass—” He bit off the word.
“You can say asshole, you know. Like Mom says, sometimes no other word works.”
“Smart woman.” Ty wasn’t mad at him? Dare Lucky hope?
“Uncle Lucky?”
“Yes?” The light turned green and Lucky refocused his attention on the road.
“Why did you leave me here? I could’ve stayed with you.”
“Sometimes my job gets dangerous. You were better off nowhere near me.” He wouldn’t scare his nephew by mentioning someone tried to kill him. Better for Ty to think him lame than know the truth.
“Mom told me stories about you, I thought they were just stories.”
Lucky glanced from the corner of his eye and caught Ty staring. “What kind of stories?”
“About your job. How you put drug dealers in jail.”
No questions were asked requiring an answer. Lucky remained silent.
“That’s why you didn’t come to Spokane, isn’t it? Because you didn’t want the people mad at you coming after us.”
“In part.” To be honest, sometimes Lucky himself didn’t understand all the reasons he’d stayed away. Mostly because he didn’t deserve his sister’s devotion or his nephews’ attention.
“What’s the other part?”
Lucky sucked in a breath, buying himself time to find the right words. Or rather, words that weren’t totally wrong and pissed Ty off. “Facing the three people who meant the most to me, knowing I’d let them down.” There. He’d said it.
“Bo says you’re a good man.”
“Not near as good as he is.”
“I don’t know. If I needed someone to fix dinner or give me advice, I might pick him.” Ty snickered, then sobered. “But if I need someone to teach me how to kick ass and take names, I’d choose you. Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like leaving my friends behind to move here, but I’ve had a lot of time to think after you dropped me off.”
Really? “I wasn’t gone that long.”
“I’m a fast thinker.” Ty flashed a grin. “Anyway, he told me about some of the things you’ve done, how you’ve put yourself on the line for other people.”
“It’s part of the job.”
Ty snorted. “I’m pretty sure giving Grandpa half your liver isn’t in your job description.”
Oh that. Giving a literal part of himself to save a man who’d disowned him. “I did what I had to.”
“I know. I see that now.”
Lucky got the feeling Ty wasn’t only talking about Grandpa’s new lease on life. “I’m sorry I’ve said or done things that hurt you. I never meant to. I wanted what was best for you.”
“Yeah. It still might take some time to get used to you being back from the dead, and having to make new friends and all, but I’m willing to try getting to know you if you’re willing.”
Oh, dear Lord. Lucky needed something, anything, to stave off the tears he felt welling up in his eyes. “Works for me. But I got to tell you, running around town hunting poofballs ain’t my thing.”
“I got Uncle Bo for that.”
Uncle Bo. Nice. An idea came to Lucky then that could backfire on him. “I’m heading to Spokane this weekend to help your mother move. I’m flying up, driving a moving van back down. Think you might want to take a couple days off school and go with me? Maybe see your friends while we’re up there? Um… providing your grades are good enough you can afford to miss a few classes.”
“Really?” Ty nearly squealed in his excitement. “That’d be awesome.”
“Your mom’s driving the loaded-down car, so you’ll be stuck with me,” Lucky warned.
“I think I’ll survive.”
Lucky pulled his car up to the gate, the stubborn-assed deterrent to residents, but not two-bit lowlife stalkers. The clicker wasn’t working, damn it. He keyed in his code three times before the gate rose and he drove through.
“Uncle Lucky?” Ty asked in a small voice.
“Yes.”
“I’ve been thinking.”
Could be dangerous for a Lucklighter. Look where thinking—or not thinking—had gotten Lucky. “About what?”
“Instead of going to college for engineering, what if I took criminal justice instead?”
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Bo had said.
“What’s your goal? Police work, investigator, forensics?” Please, dear God let him not—Charlotte had mentioned Ty wanting to follow in his footsteps, back before Ty discovered he’d have to give up his friends and school, move here, and started resenting his uncle.
“I want to be like Uncle Bo, and Walter. And you.”
Lucky turned the car off in the driveway. Ty retrieved his things from the back seat and got out of the car.
Lucky didn’t move.
“Aren’t you coming in?”
“You go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute.” Lucky managed to hold the floodgates back until Ty went into the house.
Though his heart filled with the hope of Ty’s forgiveness, he’d do everything in his power to keep the kid away from drug enforcement.
Too many uncertainties.
Then again, life was uncertain.