Page 78 of Lawbreaker

“I’ll quit first,” Ben said, outraged. “What’s the fun in even having a car that drives itself?”

“It would cut down on drunk drivers,” Tony suggested.

“I can see them now, putting Jack Daniel’s in the gas tank...”

Tony just laughed.

Tony had planned for Mrs. Murdock to be a chaperone, but when he got to the apartment, he found a quickly scribbled note taped to his favorite chair.

“Mom had a heart attack in Wichita,” she wrote. “Must leave at once. Will call when I know something.” It was signed “Helene,” which was Murdock’s first name.

“Damn,” Tony said. “Her mother is all she’s got left of family.”

“I’ll find out her mother’s address and send a bouquet,” Ben said.

“Do that, and make sure she’s got access to the best cardiologist available. Price is no object.”

“I’ll do that, too,” Ben said, and went into the study and closed the door.

“Ben is handy,” Odalie said.

“Very.”

“I’m so sorry about Mrs. Murdock’s mother! Is she very old?”

“She just turned sixty,” Tony said. “Not old enough for social security, and she works as a housekeeper, just like Helene.”

“That’s rough. Anything heart related is expensive,” she added. “One of our wranglers had to have valve surgery. The bill was awful. Of course, Dad has the best insurance he can get for all our hands.”

He smiled. “Your father has a caring nature.”

“I know. But it really doesn’t show,” she laughed. “He scares people.”

He framed her face in his hands and kissed her gently. “He wears a Ruger Vaquero in a holster. Of course he scares people.”

“Yes, well, he does that without a gun, mostly,” she replied with a grin.

He kissed the tip of her nose. “So do I,” he said, and he wasn’t kidding. “We have two guest rooms. You can choose.”

“The smallest,” she said. “I don’t need a lot of room. There’s just me and a few clothes.”

He chuckled. “It’s a good thing, to travel light.”

“Daddy used to take us all camping. We learned not to overpack.”

“I never got to go camping. I’ll bet it’s fun.”

“Great fun. I had a wonderful childhood.”

“Courtesy of terrific parents,” he replied, and bad memories were in his eyes.

She moved close, her hands flattening on his chest. “We move on, because we have to. Most often, the future is better than the past.”

His eyes softened as he looked at her. He smiled gently. “Yeah. Well, sometimes we get lucky. Really lucky.”

She wrinkled her nose at him and smiled. “Where’s my room?”

She was comfortably moved in shortly and sent to bed, because it was late. She’d rarely felt as safe in her life as she did with Tony. She stopped looking ahead. She was going to live for the moment and not one minute further.

---