Dugan shrugged. He didn’t want to fight with her. Her meeting with Oren was more than a day away. Anything could happen in that time period. She could come to her senses and back out. Or they could wind up catching Oren and taking him out.
“Fine,” Dugan told her. “Have it your way.”
Turning, he walked away from his desk, leaving her still standing at hers.
“You still want to get that drink?” Toni asked, calling out after him.
Dugan stopped and turned around to look at her. “What drink?” he asked. He was certain he didn’t recall saying anything about going out to get something to drink after work today. That had been yesterday’s invitation and she had tabled it.
“The one you mentioned getting yesterday,” Toni reminded him.
His eyes slid over her. He was right. She was nervous. This had to be her way of coping with it, he decided.
“Sure,” he answered, beckoning her forward. “I didn’t think you were up for it.”
“That was yesterday,” she told him. “I got some rest last night.”
“What about the baby?” he asked. They were almost alone in the squad room right now, but he was in no hurry to leave. She was finally talking to him and it seemed that, for now, her barriers were down.
“She got some rest last night, too,” Toni quipped, then smiled. “My nanny doesn’t mind staying late with Heather. She’s got her own room in my house for the nights she stays over.”
“Sound like a pretty good arrangement,” Dugan commented.
“Works for me—and for her,” Toni told him. She finished gathering her things together. “She likes my house better than her own, anyway.”
“No family of her own?” Dugan asked, curious.
She was talking too much, Toni realized. It wasn’t her information to share. “What makes you say that?”
The shrug was casual. “Just an assumption. You don’t seem to be worried that Lucinda will turn you down if you ask.”
He remembered Lucy’s name. The guy was a sponge. She was going to have to be careful what she said around him.
“Why do you analyze everything I say?” she asked.
“Sorry,” he apologized. She couldn’t tell if he was really sorry or not. Was he just trying to get her to let her guard down again? “Occupational habit.”
“You’re a detective,” she pointed out, “not a psychologist.”
His smile was rather disarming. “A detective has to be a little bit of everything. Psychologist, priest, mother...”
“Aren’t you getting a little carried away here?” she asked with a laugh.
Rather than become defensive, Dugan looked at her very seriously and answered, “Maybe.” They had reached the ground floor and headed for the exit. “You want to drive over to Malone’s separately, or shall we use my car?”
There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation before she answered. “Separately. I’m not staying that long and I want to be able to go straight home without feeling like I’m putting you out for the evening.”
He read between the lines and guessed at what was really on her mind. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you get drunk. Everyone at Malone’s kind of keeps an eye out for everyone else,” he told her as they walked outside of the building. “We’re all cops, so nobody wants to see anyone getting a DUI.”
That sounded noble, but she had her doubts about the execution of it. “Isn’t it a little hard to tell when a person’s had too much to drink?”
“Once in a while, we miss a call,” he agreed. “That’s when the owners call a cab and have the offending party get driven home.”
She would have liked to believe that was true, but she didn’t see how it was actually possible. “You make it sound like one big family,” she told him, doing her best not to laugh at the idea. In her experience, people who drank were only interested in drinking some more, not in forming a family unit.
Dugan didn’t take offense at her skepticism. “Mostly, it is,” he told her. “I’d say that at any one time, a third of the cops at Malone’s are related to each other. The rest of them belong to the brotherhood—or sisterhood—of cops in general.” He smiled at her as they walked into the parking lot. “We watch out for one another. That’s what makes it all work.”
Pausing by his car, Dugan gave her the address of the bar. “It’s about five minutes away. Ten if all the lights are against you,” he added. Then, getting into his car, he told her, “See you there,” and closed his door.
Toni turned away and got into her own vehicle. Buckling up, she started her car. Dugan’s car was right in front of her.
She had second thoughts about going to Malone’s and came close to turning around. But because it was June, and thus still light out, she decided it wouldn’t hurt for her to spend half an hour unwinding before she went home. Right now, she felt so tightly wound up she could hardly breathe.
In her present condition, she didn’t do anyone any good, and while she wasn’t the type to turn to alcohol to loosen up, Toni could see the advantage of getting just one drink.
Having to drive home would keep her from going to excess or even having more than that one single serving of beer.
Pulling her car up into a spot behind Malone’s, she told herself that she was doing this for background information and that it would add a little balance to her article.
She told herself everything but the truth. That she had gotten herself into something that she wasn’t a hundred percent sure she was going to be able to get out of, and maybe unwinding with Dugan was going to help her handle what lay ahead.
The moment she walked into Malone’s, Toni instantly felt she had come to the right place. While most of the bars she knew of were dark, somber places where dried-up men nursed beers and looked to pick up willing women, Malone’s had an unusually welcoming warmth about it that seemed to just embrace everyone who walked through its doors.
It was also more crowded than she had expected. She scanned the area, looking for Dugan. Several men glanced her way, more than mildly interested.
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come here, after all.
“Hey, O’Keefe, over here!” Dugan called out.
A sense of relief washed over her when she heard his voice. She wasn’t accustomed to that.
She expected to find him alone. Instead, there were two other men sitting with him as well as a woman. The men both bore a family resemblance. His brothers? she wondered.
Toni thought of making an excuse—that her nanny called, saying there was a problem with the baby seemed reasonable—and just going home. She’d just wanted to grab a quick drink with Dugan. She hadn’t counted on meeting other people.
But Dugan headed her off at the pass. Quickly crossing to where she was standing, he took hold of her arm and drew her over to the table where he and the others were already seated.
“On behalf of everyone here,” the lone woman at the table said with a quick smile, “I’d like to apologize for Dugan.”
“Why?” Toni asked, confused.
“Because he’s probably driving you crazy. Dugan believes he knows everything and it’s his job to impart that knowledge to the rest of us, because in comparison to him, we’re all such slow learners.” Rising in her seat, the young woman smiled warmly and stuck out her hand to Toni. “Hi, I’m his cousin, Shayla. That big hulk over there is his brother, Duffy.” She pointed out one of the men, then turned toward the other, “And this is our cousin, Finley.”
“Finn to my friends,” Finley said, rising and putting his hand out right after Duffy had shaken hers. “So, sit down, take a load off,” he invited, sitting down himself again.
“That’s our Finn, silver-tongued to the very end,” Shayla said as she hit his shoulder with the flat of her hand.
“Hey, what did I say?” Finn asked defensively, pretending to
rub his shoulder as he looked accusingly at his cousin.
“You don’t tell a woman to ‘take a load off,’” Duffy said. “Even Dugan here knows that,” he said, nodding at his brother.
“Maybe asking you here wasn’t such a good idea,” Dugan said. “Do you want to leave?”
For the first time since her encounter with Oren and the possible consequences of what she had set up had sunk in, Toni smiled really broadly.
“No, this is nice,” she told Dugan, looking around at the others. “Very nice,” she emphasized.
“She’s being polite,” Dugan told the others. “So try to behave like people even though it’s against your religion.”
“Huh, you should talk,” Duffy laughed.
Dugan ignored his younger brother. Turning toward Toni, he asked, “Would you like a beer? Or maybe something stronger?”
“I’ll take a light beer,” Toni said. “But I can go get my own,” she protested when Dugan rose to his feet to get it for her.
“A light beer? Oh, my Lord, that’s hardly drinking,” Finn commented, rolling his eyes.
“Let the lady have what she wants,” Dugan admonished his cousin. He started to walk away, then stopped. “If I leave her here, will she be intact when I come back?” he asked the others.
Finn crossed his heart with his right hand. “We’ll be on our best behavior,” he promised.
Dugan’s skeptical expression remained. He leaned into toward Toni. “Don’t believe a word they say,” he warned her. “I’ll be right back.”
“So, we heard about your gutsy move,” Duffy told her the moment his brother had walked away and been swallowed up by the crowd.
“My gutsy move?” Toni questioned.
“Telling Oren you’d meet him for dinner. Information gets around,” he confided with a wink.
“I’m not doing anything that any one of you wouldn’t do,” Toni replied, feeling just a little self-conscious about Finn’s comment.
“Not true. Finn could have never pulled it off. I know for a fact that he’s not Oren’s type,” Duffy told her.
Shayla leaned forward and put her hand on Toni’s, calling her attention to her. “Don’t listen to them. They have no idea how to behave around people. That’s why they’re going to be bachelors until the day that they both die.”
“Hey, I don’t see a ring on your finger, Shay,” Finn pointed out.
“That’s because I’m way too smart to get married,” Shayla said with a sniff. “Won’t catch me putting up with some guy’s garbage day in, day out,” Shayla told her cousins.
“Don’t think you have to worry in that department,” Duffy said with a booming laugh, “Most guys are too smart to come anywhere near you.”
“I’m back,” Dugan announced, handing the mug of beer to Toni. He looked at the circle of faces, each one more innocent than the other. He knew what that meant. There wasn’t an innocent one in the bunch. “We can go sit somewhere else if you’d like,” he told Toni.
“No, right here is great,” Toni said, her eyes sweeping over the other three at the table. Taking a sip of the beer, she set it down and said, “I was an only child and if I wanted conversation, I had to imagine it. My dad was gone half the time on assignment and he’d leave me to stay with my aunt Janice. She wasn’t married and she wasn’t much for talking to anyone under the age of twelve.”
“Peace and quiet,” Shayla said wistfully. Leaning her chin on her upturned hand, she asked, “What was that like? There was always so much noise at the house, I could never even hear myself think.”
“You? Thinking?” Duffy questioned with a hoot. “Who are you kidding?”
“You’ve just encouraged them,” Dugan said, sitting down beside Toni. Then he added, “They’re not always like this.”
“Don’t apologize,” she told him. “I’m really loving this.”
And she was. Listening to his brother and cousins take swipes at one another had her forgetting, for a little while, that she might have done a very dumb thing.
And by the time she got up to leave, half an hour later, her fears had mercifully subsided, at least for the moment. Maybe she’d done the right thing, after all. She would have several police officers strategically scattered throughout the restaurant as well as outside of it and her only job, really, was to draw Oren out and keep him in one place for a little while. The police, she felt confident, would take care of all the rest.
* * *
“Sorry about the family,” Dugan told her.
He had insisted on walking her outside when she said she had to be going.
“Don’t be,” she said. “I meant what I said earlier. They were very entertaining. Listening to them, I realized what I’d missed when I was growing up.”
Dugan looked at her, as if trying to get at the truth. “Your father really leave you with your aunt all that time?”
Toni nodded. “He did.”
“For how long?” Dugan asked. It didn’t seem right to him, not when there wasn’t a mother in the picture.
“He would be gone a few months at a time. He’d try to take the shorter assignments,” she told him. “But then he’d come home and it would be like Christmas. We’d spend time together, doing all sorts of things—until he had to leave again.”
He thought of his own parents. “That’s not much continuity for a kid.”
Toni shrugged. “I didn’t know any other way,” she confessed. “And it gave me something to look forward to. My aunt wasn’t a bad person,” Toni told him quickly, defending the woman. “She just didn’t know how to relate to a person.”
“You mean like those guys in there,” he said, meaning his cousins and brother.
“No, she really didn’t know how to relate. There was a lot of silence in that house,” she recalled.
He couldn’t really comprehend something like that. Growing up with three brothers, his own house had always been filled with noise. “I can’t imagine what that had to be like for you.”
“People had it worse,” she told him a little defensively.
“I didn’t mean to insult you,” Dugan said, apologizing.
“You didn’t,” she said quickly, then relented. “Maybe I’m a bit too sensitive,” she admitted. “Well, I’d better get home before Heather puts out a lost poster out on me.”
“Sounds very advanced for a two-month-old.”
Toni grinned. “She is.”
Realizing that she was on the verge of asking him if he wanted to see the baby, she suddenly turned on her heel. Asking him over would be opening up doors she didn’t want to open. Yes, he had helped her deliver her baby and there was something about him that she found really attractive—maybe too attractive—but she didn’t have time for a man in her life right now. She had Heather to think of and take care of. In addition to that, she had a career to continue to nurture. That left absolutely no room for a man in her life, no matter how good-looking and sexy that man might be.
“I’ve got to go. Bye.”
“Bye,” he responded. But when he turned around to wave her on her way, Dugan realized that he was talking to himself.
Chapter 11
“I’m sorry,” Dugan told her. “We’re not arguing about this. I’m not about to let you out of my sight and that’s final,” he said to Toni.
It was the end of the shift, two days later. Somehow, Toni had managed to keep busy and get through the two days between the day she’d set up the dinner with Oren and the actual evening she was to break bread with the cartel kingpin.
The two days had even proven to be rather productive. One of her old contacts had come through and given her the name of someone who was low on the cartel food chain, but who still had access to current information.
Apparently, she told Dugan, according to her contact the next shipment was due into the country in l
ess than a month. The exact location was still a mystery. Which made it more important than ever to be able to capture Oren. He would be their key to finding out the vital information. That, in turn, would allow them to be at the right place at the right time. Without that information, there were just too many drug passageways to stake out and watch over.
“So you’re actually planning to shadow me to the restaurant where I’m supposed to meet Oren?” she challenged.
If she was trying to make him feel uncomfortable, Dugan thought, she was failing.
“In a nutshell,” he answered, “yes.”
“All right,” she agreed impatiently. “But that doesn’t mean that you need to follow me to my house and wait there while I change.”
“Oh, but that’s exactly what that means,” Dugan told her. “It’s faster that way,” he said before she could voice a protest.
She voiced it anyway. Angrily. “No, it’s not.”
She didn’t want him coming to her house. That made this all too personal somehow. It was bad enough that she was laying herself bare with Oren. But this taking it a step too far.
“Don’t worry,” he told her with a grin, “I won’t peek. I’ll just stay out in the living room, get acquainted.”
“With Lucinda?” Toni asked, instantly feeling protective of the younger woman.
He frowned just a little, confused. “I thought you said her name was Heather.”
“Wait.” She stopped getting her things together and put up a hand. “You’re talking about the baby?”
“Yes.” Who else would he be talking about? “I thought you understood that.”
Toni scowled just a little. He really wasn’t making any sense. “You do understand that she’s just a little more than two months old and can’t tell the difference between you and a bottle of formula.”
“Sure she can,” he assured her with a laugh. “I don’t have any milk.”
She pressed her lips together, holding back a cry of frustration. “And why would you even want to meet my baby?”
“Re-meet,” Dugan emphasized. “And to answer your question, I helped bring her into the world and I was just curious to see how she was getting along.”
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