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Did every one of them have Zoey eyes?
She’d probably have five-point-eight tall, skinny, dark-haired, Zoey-eyed kids someday. No doubt about that.
“So what are you doing hanging around here? Watching my sister?”
“I’m Major Crimes now. Well, in two weeks, anyway. My nieces were right next to yours when they were attacked. My niece and Keller are the bestest friends in the whole wide world.” Murdoch pointed to where Marnie was hugging Zoey’s niece now. “One guy tripped over my younger niece, trying to get to yours. She’s one of our best witnesses. She’s seven and despises broccoli, but will eat cauliflower and will tell you all about why. I am taking this…very, very personally, you know. For many, many reasons.”
“I see. What else is personal?” The guy jiggled the little boy. The kid smiled at Murdoch. With Zoey’s smile. “You’re wearing a neon sign every time you look at her. Thought you’d like to know.”
“Well, your sister is wearing blinders.” Murdoch would admit it—he liked the guy’s straight way of talking. No sense pulling bullshit. Life was too short for bullshit. He’d learned that long ago. “I’m not the permanent kind of guy. Definitely not the kind of guy for the fancy life you have. That she has now. And that’s what she deserves. But if there was ever a woman who could change my mind it would be that one.”
“And the money plays no part in it.”
“What money? Yours? Hell, no. If anything, that damned money you throw around just causes her more problems. No offense. She’s still dealing with that, you know. She gets who she is by being a cop. At least, she did. Until that damned shooting. It hurts her that she’s not going to be one much longer. Makes her feel a bit disconnected and confused. Adrift. And she doesn’t feel like she fits in your world. Not yet, anyway.”
“What would that mean for you? Everyone knows you’re not exactly happy to be partners. You have the entire region to yourself, so I’ve heard.”
“Yeah, so I can spend the rest of my career chasing diabolical cats and giving speeding tickets, while your sister’s heart was destroyed. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m transferring out, anyway. To be here. In Finley Creek, anyway. Near her, if she needs me. And you aren’t to tell her I said that at all, or I’ll kick your da—” The kid was still looking at him. Blinking. Waiting, just like Zoey. Yikes, this family was a bit freaky in how they resembled each other. Someone tugged on his shirt. He looked down—at his little baby niece Mari Lynn, all of almost three years old. With his own eyes and smile, and his brother Cam’s cowlick right there. He swung her up and cuddled her close. “Darn rear-end, to put it in kid-friendly terms.”
“Noted. And welcome aboard.” He held out his free hand. “I like you, Murdoch Lake. Much more than I like your brother. His shirts are so loud they give me headaches. But Payton thinks of him as a pet, so we let him keep coming around. We do like his wife and kid, though. Kimber is Patrick’s bestest friend ever, too. Keep my little sister safe and I’ll forever be in your debt.”
Murdoch shook. Maybe he liked billy bubby a bit after all. “Deal.”
Zoey came over to him fifteen minutes later. “Pen’s going home with the Barratts and Paige’s family. They want me to go with them.”
“You should.” He’d had one plan in mind from the moment Marlie had given him her little crayon drawing of the bad guys’ van.
Drive up and down every road in his damned region until he found it. Crude and unsophisticated cop technology, but sometimes a man had to go old school to get things done.
“I’m going back.” She tossed her head, just a little. The way she did when she was plotting something she hadn’t bothered to share. He knew this woman, after all. “To Garrity. I have some things I need to do in the house there—and I need to be in court on the Rawlins case from eighteen months ago at nine a.m. I am not letting that man walk on a technicality. Once I know Pen is going to be safe.”
He'd planned to bunk on Anthony’s couch before, but…there was no way she was going back to Garrity without him. He had to be in court in the afternoon for that same damned case. In the meantime, he’d keep an eye on her. No denying that. “I’ll follow you. And when we get there, you and I…we’ll go for a drive. And I’ll tell you all about how much you mean to me. You’re going to be crying tears of joy.”
Her big dark eyes met his. “Will I now?”
She knew exactly what he was talking about on that drive. No woman on the planet understood him like this one did.
48
Pen wantedZoey to go with her, but she was an adult now. She wasn’t going to be a big baby. Pen was an adult now. She could handle this like an adult. Zoey had that look in her eyes again. It kind of scared Pen when Zoey looked just like that.
Pen just sat right where she was, holding Dalton on her lap while he slept and drooled down her shoulder, and watching her family around her. The air-conditioning was so cold in here. She wished she had a sweatshirt, but she’d had blood on her shirt. She’d had to give it to the police.
In case it washis, the guy who had attacked Sydney.
She thought it was Sydney’s.
She didn’t want to sit there holding her nephew covered in her best friend’s blood for their entire families to see. She bit back the nausea as she imagined that blood. What it could have meant.
She just sat there, watching.
Watching Zoey mostly.
Zoey and Murdoch, anyway.
Her sister had that worried look in her eyes. She usually only had it when Pen was involved. Seeing her afraid and worried always made Pen feel a little sick inside. And scared.
The world wasn’t a safe place at all. Anything could happen at any time. No one was truly safe anywhere.
