Page 29 of Nightfire

“Yeah.” Harry shook his head. “Man, am I glad you’re going to be staying with us. You’re going to stay a long, long time.”

“Until all Gracie’s teeth come in, at least,” Ellen added fervently. “Maybe till college.”

Chloe leaned to one side as Manuela heaped food on her plate. Seconds and thirds included. Manuela belonged to the More is Better school of cooking.

“I only packed for a couple of days,” Chloe said, smiling. “Be hard to stay here until Gracie goes to college.”

“So buy new clothes,” Nicole said, slicing into a sausage and onion omelette. “It’ll be fun. I’ll take you shopping.” She slanted her eyes at Merry, leaning against Chloe, looking up in adoration. “Merry can come. She loves shopping. I think she’s fallen in love with you, too.”

“Shopping,” Merry said with almost religious fervor. “With Aunt Chloe.”

Harry laughed. He was seated across the table from her and leaned forward. “Honey…” He stopped, hesitated. Mike looked at him surprised. Harry wasn’t the kind of man who hesitated. “If you need money, that is absolutely not a problem.”

“Oh, not at all!” Ellen chimed in. “Whatever you want, whatever you need⁠—”

Chloe held up a hand, looking dismayed. “No, no, I don’t need money. As a matter of fact…” Sitting next to her, Mike could see her hands trembling. She drew in a deep breath. “As a matter of fact, that was the main reason I tried to track you down, Harry. My parents—my adoptive parents—left me money. A lot of it. And it’s only fair that half of it go to you. We can make an appointment with a lawyer while I’m here and I can transfer half the estate to you.”

Silence. All eyes turned to Harry, who was shaking his head.

“Chloe,” he said gently. “I don’t want your money. Not a penny of it. Our company is doing very well and even if the company went belly-up—” He shot a smile at Ellen. “If I were to go bankrupt tomorrow, Ellen here earns so much she can keep me in the style to which I’ve become accustomed. Not to mention the fact that she’s so good with the damned stuff that she doubles the value of our investments every six months. You went through hell, Chloe. Keep all the money and enjoy it. Just as long as you enjoy it here in San Diego. With us.”

Tears shimmered in Chloe’s eyes.

Mike leaned in close to her. “Told you,” he murmured. She turned to him with a choked laugh. “So it’s dinner at the Del. Tomorrow night.”

Oh yeah. Tomorrow night, the night after, the night after that. What Mike felt was right there in his face and she blushed when she looked at him.

Oh man. Life was really looking up. Last night he was fucking a whackjob and less than twenty four hours later, here he was with the most delectable woman he’d ever set eyes on, and he wasn’t going to let her go.

“Okay,” she said softly and he did a mental fist pump. Tomorrow night. Dinner in the Crown Room. Soft candlelight that would make her skin glow more than it did already. A great meal, a walk along the beach afterward…

His cellphone rang.

He pulled it out to turn it off. Nope, sorry, whoever you are. Not in. Not now, maybe not ever again. Everyone he cared about in the world was right here in the room with him. The rest of the world could just fuck off.

Oh, shit. Bill Kelly. His former boss in SDPD and, most of all, a former Marine. Being a Marine was the closest thing to a religion Mike had. Though he wasn’t on active duty in the Corps, Mike was still a Marine. All Marines were his brothers. The second half of the famous motto. Semper fi, yeah. But above all, semper fraternis. Always brothers. Mike had Sam and Harry, his blood brothers. But he also had the whole Corps. Every Marine was in a sense his brother.

And Bill Kelly was one of the best. A hard-ass but a real good guy. Mike couldn’t blow him off, not even tonight when he might have found the woman of his dreams.

So, with a sigh, he took the call. “Yo. Bill. Now’s not a really good time, but⁠—”

“You home?” Bill’s gravelly voice was flat.

“Nope.” Mike frowned. “I’m at Sam’s, but⁠—”

“Be there in two,” Bill growled and the screen went dead.

Mike held his phone for a second, staring at it, then put it away. For Bill to be here in two meant that he was at Mike’s door five stories down.

What the fuck?

It didn’t take Bill two minutes, it took one. Nicole went to answer the door and Mike heard Bill’s low rumble in the front hall as he greeted Nicole, then he followed Nicole into the dining room.

Bill was no dummy. He saw he was interrupting something. He ducked his head. “Ladies. Reston, Bolt.” He stuck his thumb over his shoulder. “Keillor, you’re with me.”

This was wrong. Everything about it was wrong. Bill had an old-fashioned sense of propriety. He would never interrupt a family party like this on a casual visit. So this was business.

But Mike wasn’t a member of the SDPD anymore. He wasn’t under Bill’s command. If Bill was going to ask for a favor, he was going about it the wrong way.