Page 58 of Wild Justice

“Stop,” Henry interjected. “I know that she cares, she’s told me so. I care, too. But care isn’t enough. Sure, in the beginning it’s great, but eventually the real world starts to intrude, and suddenly you start to resent one another. You wish the other person would change, and we all know where that leads. Love dies, and maybe…if you’re lucky…pity comes after. If it’s not pity, then it’s hatred. I don’t want Lisa to hate me down the road. If that makes me a coward, I can live with that.”

“There is no way after what you’ve been through that anyone could call you a coward,” Kai said. “Clearly, you’ve faced the worst and come out the other side.”

“With some battle scars, and I won’t inflict them on anyone else. I won’t drag them through that nightmare with me over and over. Someday, when she’s happily married to a nice nine-to-five man and has a couple of lovely kids, she might think of me for a moment and thank me. I don’t want to be the selfish asshole here. She and I will both end up disappointed.”

“I think that you’re a better man than I am,” Kai replied honestly. “Not everybody would be so selfless.”

“I am far from selfless. If I was truly a selfless person, I never would have spent time with her at all. I’d be alone all the time. I wouldn’t be friends with Lulu because far too often she has to deal with me reliving it all again. I never wanted that for her, but damn, she’s a stubborn mule. Every time I tried to kick her out of my life, she just kept coming back. That’s how amazing she is. I couldn’t ask for a better sister. Speaking of family, as her honorary brother, I need to tell you that if you hurt her, I will hunt you down like a dog and rip out your insides while you’re still alive and watching me do it.”

“Well, that’s…vivid. I’m not planning to hurt Lulu. I care about her. I can tell that she’s special.”

Although hearing Henry talk about her the way he did, only served to remind Kai just how special Lulu truly was. He’d never met anyone quite like her. For a former wild child, she was down to earth, pragmatic…and a freak in the sheets.

How lucky could a guy get?

“I felt it needed to be said. Lulu has always been there for me, and if you mess with her heart and break it, you’ll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life.”

“When I least expect it, expect it?”

“Pretty much.”

“I respect that,” Kai said.

He admired Henry’s loyalty. In Kai’s experience, that was hard to find these days.

“Look at all of these people here,” Henry said, his gaze roaming the room. “They’re all watching and waiting for Lulu to fail. Maybe because they’re sexist assholes, or maybe because it will amuse them that she can’t do the job. It might make them feel better about their mediocre lives or some shit like that. But they’re all watching every move she makes, just waiting for her to fall flat on her face. Well, I’m not going to let that happen. Lulu’s been there for me whenever I’ve needed her, and if she needs me to go with her without backup to catch a crazed killer? I’m in. I’ll never let her down. I hope you feel the same way.”

Kai wasn’t as convinced that the people of Harper wanted Lulu to fail. But he did think that they expected her to. They weren’t quite ready to move on from Sheriff Seth Reilly, their famous lawman. They were unsure if Lulu could truly do the job, and yes, they were watching. But were they rooting for her to crash and burn?

“I do feel the same way,” Kai replied. “But I don’t think everyone wants Lulu to fail. I think there are people that want her to do a good job and find the killer.”

“You have a hell of a lot more faith in humanity than I do.”

Henry had earned his cynicism in the human race fair and square. Far be it for Kai to lecture him about how people were usually good. That hadn’t been the man’s experience.

“Can I give you some advice that my grandpa once gave me?”

“Yes, but it’s not going to make me change my mind about Lisa. Or about these people wanting Lulu to fail.”

“Fair enough. It was pretty simple advice, and perhaps I was just in the perfect frame of mind to hear it that day. He told me that life was short, and there were no guarantees of tomorrow. We have to do whatever we can today. We can’t wait to be happy or get to a milestone, and then our life would be good. We had to try and make it that way today, and it requires a bit of optimism to pull it off.”

“Sounds like your grandfather was a wise man,” Henry replied. “But here’s the difference between you and me, Kai. I don’t expect happiness or goodness. Ever. I’m sure before everything happened, I was a happy kid, although I don’t remember much about my life then. I may have blocked it all out; I just don’t know. But today? Today is as good as it’s going to get. I’m just trying to survive the daylight hours to get to the nighttime ones. And then, in the nighttime, I’m just trying to survive until the sun comes up. It’s not a bad way to live. I don’t long for things I know I won’t have. In a way, it makes it a hell of a lot simpler.”

To Kai, it all sounded incredibly sad. However, when he looked at Henry, the man didn’t appear bothered by it at all. Right now, Henry was even smiling a bit as if enjoying the sunny afternoon. He even waved to a few people as they entered the coffee shop.

But there had to be demons, maybe lots of them, that Henry battled each day and especially at night.

“I’d like to say that if you ever need anything, day or night, you can call me,” Kai said. “If the night gets far too long, or anything like that. Hell, I love staying up all night. I know that Lulu would be your first choice, but I’d like to be friends with you, too.”

“I’m getting so popular around here,” Henry drawled, and then chuckled at his own joke. “It must be my new cologne. Seriously, don’t make the offer if you don’t want to be called.”

“I’m serious.”

“Then I’ll save your phone number,” Henry said. “Prepare to be bothered in the middle of the night with a request to go find the nearest ice cream shop.”

“It sounds like fun.”

“It won’t be, but I admire your optimism.”

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