Blaze (6 page)

Read Blaze Online

Authors: Joan Swan

BOOK: Blaze
2.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
She wandered to the gurney, where she gently laid the sleeping boy, and Luke experienced an ease in the atmosphere. And an unmistakable and powerful connection. They each knew and accepted that they affected the other—mind, body, and spirit. Like it or not. Accept it or not. Deal with it or not. The facts didn't change.
Luke finally focused on the kid. He was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, his brown hair a mass of damp, dark curls. “They found him some clothes, huh?”
“Yeah, but he doesn't like wearing them.” A smile softened the edges of her pretty mouth, making Luke want to do things that shouldn't even enter his mind. “Absolutely wouldn't put on shoes.”
“Sounds familiar.” Luke chuckled, his heart warming over the parenting experience he and Keira had shared while raising Kat for that year before Keira left for the academy. These were the moments that made him long for a wife and children of his own. Only, the more time that passed, the further away that dream slipped.
Keira rested one slim hip against the gurney and crossed her arms over her chest. “How is Kat?”
She wasn't combative. Just sad. Which intensified his lingering guilt. “She's great. Has everything she always wanted—her dad, great new mom, baby brother—”
“On the way,” Keira finished. “I know.”
Luke bit the inside of his bottom lip to keep from asking about her visits to the area or nagging her about never looking him up when she came. Not even tossing him one damn phone call.
“You had a phone, too,” she said. “My cell number hasn't changed.”
“I thought we talked about this mind-reading thing.”
“We did. It sounded something like
projecting
. Remember?”
“I remember how exasperating you are.”
“Ditto.”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Just talked to Teague.”
“Yeah?” She straightened, her eyes sparking. “What did he say?”
“Doesn't have any info on this yet. Mitch is on his way to Truckee. I guess I'll head home, too, once this quiets down.” He hesitated. “He asked if you would be coming. . .”
with me
.
He cut off the last two words, but he guessed she'd probably heard them anyway.
“I don't know.” She shifted her feet and dragged the corner of her lower lip between her teeth as she looked at the sleeping boy. “My team may be here until it's over.”
Luke met her at the gurney, absorbing the sight of her now in civilian clothes. Dark blue jeans hung low at the curve of her hips. A plain white short-sleeved T-shirt clung to breasts that looked fuller than he remembered in comparison to the narrowness of her waist peeking from beneath a trim-fitting lightweight jean jacket. She'd always been healthy and fit. Perfect, in his opinion. But this little body was a compact machine of muscle.
The metal badge hooked at her waist created pressure beneath his sore ribs, a mixture of pride and regret.
Second chances don't happen as often as people think.
He skimmed the fall of her shiny hair, nearly black. The way her eyes glimmered a brighter blue in contrast. That creamy, smooth skin. And the crème de la crème, her freckles. The caramel-colored dots across the bridge of her little nose, fading as they arced out over her cheekbones. Eighty-three of them. He'd counted every one. Kissed every one.
Was
this a day for miracles? Had they been brought together again for that rare second chance?
Keira's brows pulled together. Those silky lips parted, and Luke's chest tightened in anticipation of a
yes
coming out of her mouth.
“Luke, we really need to talk about Mat—”
“Keira?” A male voice called from somewhere down the hall. “Keira? Where are you?”
She startled. Her gaze broke from Luke's, and she spun toward the door.
On the gurney, Mateo's eyes popped wide open, but his body remained stone still.
Kakos andras.
A chill prickled over Luke's shoulders like a cold breeze. The kid's mouth hadn't moved, but Luke knew the words—the same ones he'd heard from the boy in the chopper—had come from Mateo, and he really didn't like this new ability to hear the kid's thoughts.
Keira must have also heard him, because her attention darted back to Mateo and held.
A man stopped at the exam room doorway, both hands on the jamb to halt his forward momentum. A little on the swarthy side with a day's worth of whiskers covering the lower half of his face, dressed in typical office casual, slacks, dress shirt, tie loose at his neck.
“There you are. This place is a zoo.” His dark eyes traveled over the room, took in every detail, then latched on to Keira with the heat of ownership. “Beautiful, I owe you. Big-time.”
“Tony.” Keira's shoulders tightened, her hands dug into the front pockets of her jeans. “Wow, you got here fast.”
Tony. The father. The coworker-slash-boyfriend-slash-whatever. Only this wasn't the greeting Luke expected for lovers. Definitely not the way Keira used to greet him, by wrapping her arms around his neck, sliding that perfect body up against his, and latching on to his mouth with her own until he couldn't think straight.
Jealousy burned white-hot. It would have erupted into an inferno if Mateo hadn't distracted him. The boy sat up, his round eyes stuck on the other man with even more fear than Luke had seen on the kid's face when he'd been standing on the opposite side of a wall of fire.
Mateo's fingers curled around the gurney's metal side, his stare intent on Keira.
Thia! Kakos andras.
Luke reached out and touched Mateo's hand. The boy flinched, and Luke expected him to pull away. Instead, Mateo flipped his hand over and gripped Luke's fingers so hard they stung. He scooted to the edge of the gurney, wrapped his other arm around Luke's waist, fisted his fingers in his T-shirt, and pressed his face into Luke's belly.
An instant, completely irrational urge to shield the boy had Luke drawing Mateo closer, bringing with it a new appreciation for Keira's protectiveness. Luke ran a hand over the boy's head. His curls were as soft as feathers. No wonder Keira couldn't keep her hands out of them.
“Kakos andras.”
Mateo's murmur vibrated against Luke's stomach.
Keira's eyes rounded in surprise. “Did he just talk?”
He's fucking terrified
. Luke found himself thinking at her instead of talking to her. This was all so damned weird.
He picked Mateo up and rubbed his back. “It's okay, buddy.”
Tony dropped an arm around Keira, pulling her close. Luke gritted his teeth. Wanted to twist that arm behind Tony's back and break it. The guy stared at Mateo, an uncertain smile turning his mouth. Luke's senses simmered. Where was the awe of seeing his child for the first time in three years? The relief? The excitement?
“Wow,” Tony said. “He's gotten big.”
“That happens with kids when you don't see them for a while,” Luke said. “And judging by your height, he's probably pretty small for his age.”
Tony's eyes strayed to Luke's face. “Are you a doctor?”
“Luke is ATF.” Keira's demeanor had shifted, as if she'd climbed back inside an uncomfortable shell. “He helped me get Mateo out.”
“Thank you, Agent.” The gratitude was stiff, but Tony offered his hand.
Luke should have taken it, but he couldn't make himself do it. Something was very wrong with this scenario, with this man, but he had no idea what because his emotions had his mind and body cross-wired.
When Luke didn't respond, Tony's hand dropped. The tension in the room spiked.
Keira stepped into the space between them and looked at Tony. “Mateo's still a little rough around the edges. He's been through a lot in the last few hours.”
Mouth tight, eyes fiery, Tony turned his attention to Keira and relaxed. He reached out, ran a hand over her hair, and squeezed her shoulder, an intimate gesture that spoke of familiarity. One that made Luke want to deck the bastard. “Sure. I understand.”
“What is he saying?” Luke interrogated. “What language is he speaking?”
“Probably Greek.” Tony's expression had closed. Turned businesslike. “His mother was Greek. Very proprietary about her heritage. She spoke Greek to him from the day he was born.”
“Tony,” Keira said. “The situation was pretty bad at the ranch when we left and I don't have any news on your wife.”
“Ex-wife, and it's fine. My feelings for her died a long time ago.”
An awkward silence invaded the room. Luke looked at Keira to check her reaction the same moment she looked back at him. Shared opinion passed between them. One that had nothing to with any mind-reading.
Keira broke the connection and reached out to rub a hand over Mateo's back. “Hey, buddy, your daddy's here. Want to say hi?”
Eyes squeezed closed, Mateo pushed off Luke's chest and climbed into Keira's arms, his movements jerky, almost violent in his need to stay connected to her. Pain wrenched through Luke's ribs, but as soon as the boy was gone, a chill crept into his body. The same loss he'd felt the day he'd watched Keira drive away, headed for the academy. The same loss he'd felt the day he'd given Kat back to Teague when his former brother-in-law had been released from prison.
None of this made sense. And he couldn't take that kind of loss again.
“Keira,” Tony said. “Can I have a word with you? Privately?”
“Sure.” Keira flashed Luke an apologetic glance. “I'll be right back.”
In the hallway they stood close, talking in undertones. With Keira's face turned up to his and Tony leaning toward her, they were only inches apart, Mateo between them.
The image was like looking at a picture of what Luke's life could have been—only with another man standing where Luke should be. Of what Keira's life would be like without Luke in it.
Some part of his damaged psyche still saw Keira as his. His best friend, his partner, his other half. She had been his True North during the darkest times of his life—his sister's suicide, recovering from the warehouse fire, his brother-in-law's imprisonment, the first year parenting Kat. Nothing had dimmed that deep sense of belonging he'd shared with her from their first moment together. Not time, not distance, not even the end of their relationship.
We needed very different things.
Logically, he'd known that. Still knew that. Logically, he knew he couldn't change what he'd needed then or what he still needed. Nor could he change the fact that Keira's needs were entirely different. At least they had been then.
Emotionally, though, looking at her with another man, holding that man's child as if he were her own, the possibility that maybe they hadn't needed such different things after all, that maybe she'd just needed those things with someone else, hit him so hard, his knees went weak.
He turned away, pulled his cell from his jeans, and dialed his boss in Lake Tahoe. His real boss, not the asshole commander at the siege. But Luke's mind was somewhere else. Greek. Greek. Who did he know that spoke Greek? He was dying to find out what the kid was saying.
“Special Agent Carroway.”
“Kirk,” Luke said when his boss answered. “It's Luke.”
“Heard I almost lost you, dickhead.”
Luke was too frazzled to smile. “Yeah. Kinda wishing you had.”
“What?”
“Never mind. What's happening at the ranch? Did they get any more hostages out? Any more kids?”
“That place is a chemical inferno. Nothin's coming out of there but ashes.”
Luke's stomach pitched. “I'm leaving the ER now, headed back to the scene. I'll check in with that jerk incident commander and—”
“Don't bother. The army has taken over. Pushed all other law enforcement out. We're officially released.”
“The
army
?” It was happening again. Just like it had five years ago. An explosion. A fire. Deaths. Trauma. The army sweeping in, taking control, classifying the information so they could bury it. “Can they do that?”
“They're the United States Army, Luke. They can do anything they want.”
Dread filtered in. A sense of complete loss of control. “What about the FBI?”
“Even the Feds are out on this one.”
“You know they're covering.” He had to force his voice down. “Where did the chemicals come from? Why didn't we know what we were walking into? We're ATF, for God's sake. If anyone should have known, we should have.”

Other books

The Cheater by R.L. Stine
Set This House on Fire by William Styron
Too Young to Kill by M. William Phelps
Tarzán en el centro de la Tierra by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Running for Home by Zenina Masters
Two Brides Too Many by Mona Hodgson
Round Rock by Michelle Huneven