“I think you’re funny because you asked me if it was a Native American thing.”

“Why’s that funny?”

“The only thing I know about my culture is what I’ve read in books. I was off the rez by the time I was twelve. The two years before that I was bounced around amongst people with good hearts who took me in but not enough patience to deal with my shit. Before that all I knew was my Dad gettin’ shitfaced drunk every f**kin’ night of his life, most of those beatin’ my Mom bloody while my brother and I watched.”

Every muscle, bone and piece of tissue in my body froze including my lungs and heart. Then I snapped out of it, leaned over him, reached high and turned out the light.

“Jules?”

I settled in beside him and put my arm around his waist and pulled him to his side, facing me.

“Jules,” he repeated.

I looked up at him, my arm stayed around his waist and I pressed my front to his.

Then I whispered, “I can’t do it, Vance. You have to give me time. I need the moonlight.” I took a deep breath then said, “But before you get upset, you have to know that I know it counts, this counts more than any of it.”

A change came about him. I could barely see it but I could definitely feel it.

“Jesus, Jules,” he muttered but he wasn’t disappointed in me. It was something else, something bigger, something that made his voice sound kind of husky.

It was something good.

I pushed deeper into him. “If I had a superpower,” I whispered, “I’d go back in time. I’d talk your Dad to an AA meeting. I’d get you back your family.”

“Quiet Jules.”

“I’d fix your Mom so she was only beautiful and not broken –”

“Quiet.”

“And you’d know all about your culture because you should.”

He rolled into me, then on top of me. “If you aren’t quiet, I’ll make you quiet.”

“You should at least find your brother, Vance.”

His hands came to either side of my face.

“I’ll help you,” I offered.

He kissed me and he didn’t stop there. He did a lot of things that made me stay quiet.

Not exactly quiet, as such, but the sounds I was making didn’t have anything to do with a recognized language.

So I guess I figured out how to get Vance to make a move and take his turn.

After we were done, he pulled a soft knit, chenille blanket out of the cubbyhole over the hall ceiling and arranged it on top of us.

He held me front-to-front, my face in his throat.

After a few minutes I said, “I want you to tell me more.”

He was silent.

“Please. I know it’s hard but –” I went on.

“Later.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

His arms, already around me, tightened when I gave in.

I lay there, still, and thinking it was not that hard.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sometime Next Week

The knock came and although it didn’t take two people to open a door, Vance walked me to it his arm curled around my neck in a way that even I, with my significant lack of experience, knew was somewhat excessively proprietary. I had no choice but to wrap my arm around his waist or I would look awkward and be uncomfortable. Surprisingly the minute I did this I was comfortable, very comfortable.

This was not a bad thing just that I thought it was kind of in-your-face for Luke, considering.

Vance opened the door and stepped us both back, keeping me at his side while Luke came into the house. Luke looked at me then at Vance, his face blank. I held my breath.

“We good?” Vance asked.

Luke’s lips twitched. “Yeah,” he replied.

I blinked. Was that it?

Vance’s arm around my neck tightened and he curled me into his body so we were full frontal. When I looked up at him, he was grinning.

Well, I guessed that was it.

Guys were so weird.

Vance started talking. “Jules, be smart, watch Luke and do what he says. I don’t wanna have to come back down the mountain to sit in an ER waiting room.”

“Okay,” I said.

“No drug dealers tonight. Just business. Got me?” Vance went on.

Hmm.

Macho-speak.

I decided against answering and instead I just frowned.

“Got me?” he repeated.

Okay, so I had to answer and I did so snottily. “Are you aiming for our make-up to be the shortest in history or what?”

Vance grinned again, it was his turn not to answer and he did it better than me.

“I kid you not, Crowe, I’m working the King Sooper’s stores tomorrow. I’m gonna find me a checkout boy. Safe job, good insurance and he probably won’t tell me what to do.”

At my threat Vance kissed my forehead. Then he let me go.

I took this to mean he didn’t feel the King Sooper’s checkout boys were much competition. He was probably right.

“Bye Boo,” I called.

“Meow,” Boo called back from somewhere in the house, likely somewhere where he was getting into trouble.

“Be good,” I called in warning just in case he was getting into trouble.

“Meow!” Boo called back again, sounding harassed.

I turned to Luke. “I’m ready now.”

Luke had a full-on smile going. They were rare and they were effective. Some woman was going to be super lucky one day. I just hoped that Luke was just as lucky.

We started to move, Vance grabbed my hand, gave it a tug and I turned back to him. His head bent and he touched his lips to mine.

“Be careful,” he murmured, his face close, his eyes soft and warm.

My breath caught.

I nodded and whispered, “I will.”

We left and I swung into the passenger side of the Explorer.

“King Sooper’s checkout boys?” Luke asked after I’d buckled in.

“My dream men,” I replied.

“Babe.” He started up the SUV and we headed out. “At least you aren’t wearing purple pants tonight,” he noted.

“I didn’t want to embarrass the team.”

“I’m thinkin’ that’d be impossible.”

Wow.

That was huge.

Even with that hugeness uttered, I decided to take a page out of Luke’s book and be quiet.

* * * * *

It wasn’t a silent night for Luke.

He talked.

He told me Nightingale Investigations had a varied clientele. The bulk of which was corporate investigations, background checks on employees, looking into fraud, that kind of thing. This was done in-office, usually by their computer hacker, a guy named Brody, as well as through surveillance. They did some domestic investigations, cheating husbands, cheating wives, pilfering money from joint bank accounts. They used to do security but now only watched Fortnum’s and recently my place. They took on some government contracts, federal, state and local. They also took on specialized cases. These Luke didn’t share much about but explained they were worked almost exclusively by what I was realizing were the “Top Four”: Lee, Luke, Mace and Vance. The team also did a lot of skip tracing and this they did nationally if the skip seriously skipped. Mostly it was done in a six or seven state area which Luke considered “local”.