Page 86 of Lawbreaker

“I got a new game,” Ben protested.

“Well, go play it, then,” he said. “But first, what did you find out from Rudy?”

“Just what we suspected. The guy took a powder. We can’t find him. But we’ve got feelers out,” he added.

Tony sighed. “We know the trail will lead back to DC.”

“Of course,” Ben replied. “Where else?”

“I’ll have to go home eventually,” Odalie pointed out. “And I have that audition date just before Thanksgiving...” She thought suddenly and sadly that she’d go home for Thanksgiving, as she did every year. Tony wouldn’t be there. He probably went to New Jersey to have the traditional meal with his family.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Tony asked, watching her face. “Don’t you want to sing at the Met?” he added, trying to tease but feeling miserable for reasons he wasn’t sure about. Her whole life had been dedicated to singing there, and she had a unique talent. He should be encouraging her, not thinking of reasons for her to postpone the audition—which was what he was doing, to his shame.

“Oh, I was just thinking about Thanksgiving. On the ranch.” She lowered her eyes to her coffee cup. They were sad.

Tony felt that sadness. “Mrs. Murdock goes home to her family for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Tony said surprisingly. “He—” he pointed at Ben “—goes back to Jersey to spend it with his dad.”

She lifted her eyes to his. “Where do you go?” she asked.

He shrugged. “To a restaurant, usually. The family down in Jersey gets together, but I have issues with a few of them, so I try to avoid the conflicts...”

“You could come home with me,” she interrupted and then flushed at her own rush of enthusiasm.

He smiled slowly. “I could? Wouldn’t your folks mind?”

“Oh, no, of course they wouldn’t!” she said. Her eyes were wide with hope.

He studied her flushed face with delight. “I’d like that,” he said, his voice deep and husky.

“My dad’s flying out to Oregon to have Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife,” Ben said with a long, sad sigh. “So I guess I’ll have dinner out somewhere, alone, all by myself, with no company, at a table by myself...”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, you can come, too!” Odalie burst out laughing. “Mercedes would love it! And she cooks this enormous meal with all sorts of breads and vegetables and meats...!”

Ben beamed. “That would be nice!”

“So that’s settled,” Tony said. “You’ll have to call your folks in time to warn them,” he added with twinkling eyes.

“They won’t mind. Honest they won’t. Just don’t upset John,” she added with a mischievous grin.

He frowned. “John?”

“Worms?” she added with raised eyebrows.

Ben and Tony both chuckled.

They found an action movie about commandos to watch, with Odalie curled up beside Tony on the sofa, her cheek resting on his broad chest over the silky shirt he was wearing.

It felt so good to be close to him, to feel his strength and warmth against her. She couldn’t bear to think ahead even one day. Tony had become her whole world.

When the movie went off, he turned off the television and dimmed the lights. The fireplace was blazing with gas logs. In the semidarkness of the room, it was comforting.

“I love gas logs,” she said, closing her eyes. “It’s like having an open fireplace but without the work.”

He chuckled. “Yes, it is.”

“What was your mother like?” she asked softly.

He sighed and pulled her closer. “She was a lot like yours,” he replied. “She was a sweet, gentle little woman. She’d married my father because, well, because that’s mostly how things were done. You married into other families to connect them to yours. But she got a bad bargain. My father had a gunpowder temper and no real conscience that we could ever find. He beat her up for nothing. He’d make up a reason if he didn’t have one.”