Page 16 of A Home for Harmony (Blossoms #16)

BEING A GIRL-DAD

“ B arnes.”

Micah turned his head to see one of his investigators come into his office. “Hey, Brooks. What’s going on?”

The minute he saw the man, it hit him that Brooks Scarsdale’s wife worked with Luke’s wife. So that meant that Harmony probably knew another one of his men.

He didn’t remember his life ever getting this complicated.

Then he wondered why he thought that when all it’d been was a few dates and a fabulous night of sex.

It’s not like Harmony was asking a lot from him.

Not much at all like the other women he’d dated.

Maybe being with someone younger wasn’t as big of a deal as he thought. Could be she wasn’t thinking along the same lines as a woman in their mid to late thirties looking to settle down and start a family and putting the pressure on him.

“Got a minute to go over a few things on a case?”

“Always,” he said. “Come in.”

“It’s the elder abuse case.”

He snarled. There were things he hated in life and preying on the vulnerable was at the top of his list.

He didn’t care the age, the sex, the religion, or nationality. None of that.

If the person was vulnerable, it was a cheap shot cowards pulled the trigger on.

“Have you figured out the amount taken yet?”

“I’m still working on it,” Brooks said. “We are over two hundred thousand at this point. I got two more calls over the weekend from potential victims. These were from three years ago.”

“Shit,” he said.

Never believe a criminal either. Married couple Meg and Alex Hammer both worked as traveling home health aides for the past four years.

Four months ago, Meg was reported as having used a patient’s credit card.

Once they looked into it, they discovered she was talking patients out of money or using their funds to buy things for them without authorization.

“Yeah,” Brooks said. “The pattern is about right. Meg would go in for a few weeks to a month to work with the patient, earn their trust and then get loans and never pay them back, or talk them into giving her money. One of the calls this weekend had seen our report on the news and went back to their deceased mother’s stuff and noticed money withdrawn around the time they were getting home health care. I’m going to call them.”

“Do you need some help with this?” Micah asked. “It sounds as if it’s getting bigger than we thought.”

“I’m good for now,” Brooks said.

“You’ve got a lot of cases open still,” he said.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Brooks said.

“I didn’t doubt it,” he said. “But you know to come to me if you need to. I appreciate you stopping in to give me an update.”

“I’ll be out most of today and tomorrow checking on things,” Brooks said.

Brooks stood up and Micah got up with him. He’d grab another cup of coffee before he dove into work again.

Mondays always dragged for him, even though he was working yesterday too.

“Luke,” he said when he saw Luke Remington coming in. His troopers would be getting off the night shift now. “How’s that little man of yours doing?”

“Logan is doing great,” Luke said. “He’s so freaking tiny that it terrifies me to pick him up half the time.”

“I remember those days,” he said. He thought he’d have more kids, but Trinda had put her foot down and said one was enough.

That she didn’t get to enjoy life in her twenties, because she spent so much time being a single mother.

It still piled the guilt on his shoulders, but you can’t plan it all out.

“Now you’re just sweating it with your daughter out driving,” Luke said.

He snorted. “Was she doing something she shouldn’t have been?”

It was the way Luke was smirking. That maybe someone saw Scarlet speeding or being reckless.

“No clue,” Luke said. “Just that I’m glad I’ve got a lot of time before those days because I remember what I was like at that age.” Luke turned to Brooks. “How is Ivy feeling? You’ve had a lot of practice with all those nieces and nephews between your brother and sisters-in-law.”

“Is Ivy pregnant?” he asked.

“She is,” Brooks said. “She’s due mid-May. We’re going to find out the sex in a few weeks.”

“It’s a girl, dude,” Luke said. “You and I both know it.”

“There is nothing wrong with being a girl-dad,” Micah said.

Both men looked at him oddly, but he wouldn’t take offense to it. Maybe he had to lighten up around them some more too.

“That’s right, Micah, nothing wrong with it,” Brooks said. “But you’re probably right, Luke. As my sister told me, it’s going to be only fitting for me to have a daughter and then stress that no man treats her like I might have treated women when I was younger.”

“There is always that,” he said. “And that you get to intimidate any man that comes near her.”

“Do you do that?” Luke asked, grinning.

“Shit yeah,” he said seriously. “No one is hurting my little girl. Though she would argue she can take care of herself.”

“Because you taught her that way,” Brooks said, nodding.

He and Brooks had more of a similar personality than they did to Luke.

“And if I have a daughter, that is going to happen too. Ivy had a nontraditional upbringing in foreign countries. She never learned to look out for herself, rather always having others do it for her. Any child of mine is going to be independent. That’s a given. ”

“I think that is the way to do it,” Micah said. “Even when you want to swaddle and hide them away forever.”

“Oh my God,” Brooks said. “Barnes is getting sentimental. Well, it only took six months for that crack to appear. Who would have thought a child would do it?”

Luke laughed and slapped him on the back. “You’re not as tough as everyone says you are.”

“Don’t bet on it,” he said, his face not showing any signs of humor.

Brooks was smirking at him.

Luke kept grinning and walked away to get his stuff and leave for the day. Luke was a pretty laid-back guy on the surface, but as a sniper with his military background, Luke was one of the most dangerous men in his barracks. You just didn’t see it coming.

Which of course made him even more dangerous.

With Micah, you got what you saw.

Or at least his men thought that.

Maybe everyone did.

Everyone but Harmony.

She saw a different side of him that only his daughter got glimpses of.

He had to ask himself why he let that happen.

Their radios were going off at the same time. Active shooting in progress, local police requesting backup in a residential area.

Micah went back to his desk to pull men off the road and send them over to help now.

When the request came in for a negotiator and hostages taken, he was out the door. As the only one in his barracks with the training, he was the closest to offer assistance.

He was five minutes from the scene when his phone vibrated and he saw it was Scarlet texting him. His daughter must be at his house and heard it over the radio. She’d be following his phone and know he was on the way.

He hit the button quickly.

“Dad,” Scarlet said. “Are you going there?”

“Yes,” he said. He couldn’t say more.

“Please be careful,” she said.

“You know I will. I’ll send you a text when I can.”

“I love you, Dad,” Scarlet said. She rarely said it unless she was scared or wanted something. Sometimes that something was him.

“I love you too,” he said. He’d find out what was going on with her when he was done, because, as he’d said, there was nothing wrong with being a girl-dad.