Games of the Heart (74 page)

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.”

Mike grinned.

Merry grinned back.

“Better call Dusty and get her ass in the kitchen. She’s got a lotta cake bakin’ to do,” Merry remarked.

“Yeah,” Mike agreed.

“And I know someone, get you a fuckuva deal on one helluva bottle of Scotch for Devin.”

“Make the call, man,” Mike ordered.

Merry nodded and reached out to his cell on his desk.

Mike did the same with his. He went to his contacts, found Dusty and hit go.

Then he told her the news.

The he held his phone away from his ear as she shouted with joy.

That was when he smiled.

* * * * *

That Friday night…

“We’ll be back around ten, Dad,” Reesee called from the hall she and Fin were heading down.

Mike’s head was leaned back over the couch so he could watch them go. They were heading to a movie. Mike had lifted the ban but Fin hadn’t gone for it for a week. Now he was going for it.

“Have a good time,” he called back, saw Dusty appear in the doorway to the kitchen where she was still baking cakes and he saw her grin at the couple.

They grinned back then they were out the door.

It was then Mike watched Dusty wander down the hall.

No and his band were at some kid’s house setting up to play a gig they were each getting paid twenty dollars to play for a party. His curfew was midnight. It was their first paying gig and they were beside themselves even though they were playing for hours for pretty much nothing.

This meant Mike had three and a half hours alone in his house with his woman and his dog.

This was not lost on Dusty and he knew this when she hit the living room, rounded the couch, came direct to him and deposited her ass in his lap.

Her arms circled his shoulders. His arms circled her waist and his eyes dropped to her mouth.

“Please tell me you’re done bakin’ cakes,” he muttered.

“Got one more to go,” she told him and his eyes moved to hers. “But I’ll do it in the morning.”

Damn right she would.

She tipped her head to the side. “You get time off next week?”

The next week was the kids’ spring break.

“Half day Wednesday then Thursday and Friday.”

She scrunched her nose. It was something but since the kids went to Audrey’s the next Friday night, it wasn’t much. Audrey was supposed to have them Monday through Wednesday afternoon but she’d made a deal with them since she couldn’t get much time off work. She’d been able to get Tuesday off to do something with them so they were spending the night Monday and coming home Wednesday morning. But they were back with her on the weekend and she had something planned.

“We’ll figure out somethin’ to do that they’ll like,” Mike assured her.

“Next year, No’s last year, we should plan something fun. Florida or Mexico or something,” Dusty suggested. “Give Audrey a head’s up now and maybe trade something out with her so we can have that time.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Mike murmured and she grinned then pressed closer.

“I think it would take about seven elephants to drag Fin and Rees back to the house so I also think you’re pretty safe to get right on something else right about now,” she whispered her invitation.

Mike smiled. Then he accepted her invitation, taking her to her back on the couch and he got right on that.

* * * * *

Late Friday night…

Mike’s eyes opened as did his senses.

Still.

Quiet.

Nothing.

Nevertheless, carefully, seeing as every time he’d done it before he’d woken Dusty, he slid away from her at the same time pointing at Layla. Her head had come up from Dusty’s ankle but she saw Mike’s hand, knew his command and she stayed where she was.