day. They were destined to be either very good friends or something more than that, and she was enjoying the exploration. She took a half step back to study his face, leaving her hands in his. “We’re awful different, Luke. You do realize that, don’t you? How our lives have evolved. You’re going to be working in the same job, the same town, until the day you retire, I predict. There might be a different house or two over the years, but the town and the job and the friends and the family are pretty much constants for as long as the eye can see into your future.”
“All of which are good things, I think, and they would be for you as well. You need to see the lay of the land and stay with something that is stable for a while. Besides, a new job and new town aren’t necessarily better even if it’s more pay; new sometimes simply means more shallow. I want to hang out with the guys I went to grade school with. I know them and they know me. There isn’t a need to be anything but who I am around them. There is power in that fact. And when you get to my age those kinds of friends are worth staying with.”
“I envy you that. I’ve got Tracey and Marie and good friends from the military days spread around the globe. Beyond Sam and a few friends from high school, there aren’t deep roots here.”
“So we’ll see if that can change in the future. I’ve got plenty of friends to share,” he suggested, smiling. “What do you have to lose, Amy? I like you, and I’m safe, relatively. The rest is going to take care of itself.”
“I’m old enough to take the plunge and close my eyes for the outcome to arrive.” She knew the night was opening doors to a possible new future, and she found herself wanting to walk down that road with him. “So where do you want to go next weekend? I’ve a yen to see some snow.”
“Snow we can stay right here and watch fall, if you believe the weatherman. I thought we’d take in some holiday lights and maybe a movie. We could do some early Christmas-gift shopping.”
“A guy offering to go shopping… I’m remembering this, Luke. Just you and me, there’s no need to take along security?”
“That’s a call for the night before.”
“Then yes, tentatively. Assuming Tracey and Marie haven’t had a major hiccup in their lives I need to stay and worry about instead.”
Luke laughed. “Deal, then. How long have we been hiding?”
“Long enough someone besides Caroline has realized we’re gone.”
“True. Five more minutes. I am the boss.”
“I notice they still call you Chief, even off duty.”
“They’re teasing and rubbing in the age a bit and also accepting reality-I am the chief and nothing changes that in our relationship, even off duty.”
“Respectful friends.”
“Yeah. They know the decisions that come across my desk; I’m glad for that at times, the fact the respect stays even when it feels like I’m in over my head with the job. It helps, having cops like that working with me.”
“You’re a good police chief.”
“Working to be. You’ll like my secretary, by the way, and my sister. Both are sticklers for my work staying at work.”
“How long, Luke, before it is safe to meet them? to come out of the shadows? You know as well as I do that we are heading to an impasse if this is still the way it is in six months, a year from now.”
Her question turned him serious. “It won’t continue as it is for months. I’m just hoping we get a few weeks of calm before trouble arrives. You need that time; your sisters do. But we both know there are too many pressures at work for this not to erupt somewhere.”
She sighed. “I know. Sometimes fantasy clashed something awful with reality; I so want to blink and find this was all a bad dream.” She lifted her head to look at him. “Daniel’s got better security around him?”
“Yes. It was a condition of his coming out tonight to meet you.”
“Good. We’d better get back to the house, I think. Marie said something about getting out the picture albums tonight to compare notes on where Henry and Mom must have met and traveled together. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it.”
“They need the closure that facts can provide. Just listen. I’m sorry they aren’t talking about your father too. I know that remains an awful hole for you.”
“I never wanted to know and I still don’t. I’m glad Henry was not my father.”
He looked surprised by the intensity of her answer but chose not to probe that painful spot. He picked up their coats.
“I am glad you came out tonight, Luke. Very glad.”
“I’m not planning to go anywhere for a long time,” he reassured, helping her on with her coat and his hands resting for a moment on her shoulders before releasing her and slipping on his own coat.
He took her hand again for the walk back to the house.
“Until this danger passes: don’t get too attached, Luke, please. When trouble comes-I’ll do what I think is right and best. Even if that means leaving.”
His gaze didn’t shift from the path they were walking. “I know.” He glanced over and smiled but with a hard, watchful look behind that gentleness. “You’ll do what you think is best, just as I will. And if both our hearts get mangled in the process, but your sisters are safe, we’ll still know it was the right decision.”
“I thought you deserved to know.”
“I haven’t pushed for a promise that you’ll stay not because I don’t want it, but because I know you can’t give it. There are risks now and ones that will wound us both if we’re not careful. But I’m committed to seeing Marie and Tracey are safe, because they are the most important people in your life, and I’m committed to doing what I can to keep you safe too, with or without your cooperation when it comes down to the details.”
She smiled. “I’m glad we both know that then. Don’t be mad one day when I decide something you wouldn’t have decided for me.”
He tightened his grip on her hand. “I’ll get mad, but I’ll do my best to forgive you too. But you’ll owe me a phone call or two this time-no more gone-forever-without-a-trace flights. You haunted my dreams for the last three years, you know.”
“Did I?”
He smiled at the pleasure in her words. “I think we should plan an early start next weekend-say 6 a.m., and catch breakfast at one of the truck-stop diners that make the meal a feast. What do you think?”
“I think you’re taking every minute you can get out of a yes, but sure, I’m game. Even if I do prefer to skip breakfast and catch the extra sleep.”
“I’ll be here early then.”
“I don’t know that I’ll be telling Marie and Tracey where I’m going and who I’m going with just yet though.”
“Chicken.”
“You’ve only got one sister. Two is tougher when they both decide to go for answers and giving advice. When can they come out again?”
“It depends on how the press reacts to their disappearance tonight. Basically, as soon as it can safely be done, but not a day earlier.”
He held open the door to the house. Amy paused, hearing music and laughter even before they passed through the coat-room. “Laughter. I’ve missed hearing them laugh for so many years.”
“I know.” He smiled as he took her coat for her, then nodded to the next door. “Go enjoy it.”
Chapter Sixteen
“SO WHAT TIME should I pick you up, Marie? Say 7 p.m.?” Connor showed his badge to the officer guarding the walk path that led up to a small bungalow off Eisenhower Boulevard and then slipped under the police tape. The idea of arranging a date while arriving at a crime scene didn’t sit well as something he wanted her to know he was doing, but it had been such a headache last week trying to coordinate seeing her with the unpredictable hours of the job that he was taking a chance to talk with her whenever he could find an opening.
“Could you make it eight? With the shipment that just came in I’m going to need every minute I can get of
