Page 22 of Strangers in Love

There’d been a girl Lumen had met while volunteering at a local group home. Soleil. I didn’t know the whole story about what’d happened to the girl, but what I did know had been enough to make me agree to help get Soleil justice. Brody, Alec, and I, along with Lumen and two of her friends, had put together a plan to catch a dirty cop who’d not only raped Soleil for years but had also given her to his friends to abuse.

It’d taken all of my self-control not to beat the shit out of him. I hadn’t wanted to kill him, though. Not because I wasn’t angry enough for it or because I didn’t think he deserved to die, but because I didn’t want him to get off that easy. Now, he was in prison, and everyone knew he was a cop who’d raped a teenager. I was waiting to see a news headline saying that he’d been killed, but I hoped it wouldn’t be for a long time because he deserved every second of suffering.

Maybe that was wrong of me or meant that I had issues, but if there was one thing I couldn’t ever forgive, it was someone abusing a kid.

That was probably why I thought so highly of Alec’s new girlfriend.

Lumen hadn’t even been content to just get the information from Soleil and let other people do the dangerous stuff. She’d insisted on going undercover with her friend Mai, putting both of them at risk, because she’d wanted to be certain that the cop couldn’t hurt anyone else. No matter how much the two of them had looked like victims, they hadn’t been. They were both badasses.

And that was exactly the sort of woman Alec needed. Someone who could bring out his tender side but could also kick his ass when he needed it. Lumen stood up to him but also supported him. It was a fine line to walk, and she was just the woman for the job. They weren’t engaged yet, but it was only a matter of time. If they could get through the last few months together, they could get through pretty much anything.

And Evanne completely adored her teacher. The transition from teacher to stepmother wasn’t going to be an issue there.

“Uncle Eoin!” Evanne barreled into me, throwing her arms around my waist. “Come be our king cheetah. We’re going to take over the pride lands and build an obstacle course.”

“Oh, you are?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I think the lions might have a problem with that.”

She shook her head, her dark braid bouncing on her shoulders. “They’re going to live in the swimming pool now.”

“Is that right?” I smiled, and it was an easier smile than any I’d had in a long time. “Lions like to swim?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course they do.”

Of course they did.

“Evanne,” Keli called from the other side of the room. “Come say hi to Jeffry’s mother.”

She sighed. “I guess the takeover has to wait.”

I laughed as she ran off. I’d always loved Evanne, and the one regret I’d always had about being in the army was that I hadn’t had as much time with Evanne as I would’ve liked. We still didn’t live in the same city, but we were a hell of a lot closer than I’d been for most of her life. At least now I could come to birthday parties and holidays, be a bigger part of her life.

It was nice to see the rest of the family too. It had been strange watching them grow up in spurts. Six members of my family were younger than me, so they’d all been still teenagers when I’d enlisted. Technically, London hadn’t even been that. It’d seemed like every time I’d seen them, they’d changed. I didn’t want that with Evanne or any future nieces or nephews. I didn’t want it with anyone in my family again.

“She’s growing up way too fast,” Aspen said as she appeared next to me. “It seems like just yesterday she was face planting in her first birthday cake.”

“I showed that video to my entire squad,” I said. “It was a hit.”

Aspen smiled. “I’ll bet it was.”

The strange tone of her voice made me look at her a little more closely. That wasn’t her normal smile.

“Have you talked to Mr. McCormack and Nana Naz recently?”

“I talked to them last week. I’ve been calling them every couple weeks to check in with them.” The words were casual but reaching out to Israel and Nana Naz was definitelynotcasual for me. It hurt every time, but I wasn’t going to stop, no matter how much it tore me up inside. I’d promised Leo I’d take care of them.

“I had the biggest crush on him, you know.” Aspen glanced up at me, and I could see now that her smile was sad. “Leo. For years.”

I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe. “You…he…you didn’t…?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he even knew. I certainly didn’t tell him. I was his best friend’s little sister, and he was far too…honorable to have done anything but let me down easy. Even at thirteen, I knew that.”

My fingers tightened around my cup, and I barely stopped myself from crushing it and spilling punch everywhere. How had I not known? Granted, Aspen and I hadn’t been the closest growing up – or even now – but her crushing on my best friend – foryears– seemed like the sort of thing I should have noticed.

It hit me then that she’d had to hear about Leo’s death second or third hand. I’d never asked Da who’d made all the calls after it’d happened. Or how much everyone had been told. Paris had been in the same grade as Leo and me, so the three of us had spent the most time together, but Maggie was just two years younger like Aspen. Carson and Cory were two years older. Leo had been around for birthdays and family picnics from the time we were kids, so those two years on either side hadn’t really been that much. Just because I’d been the closest to him didn’t mean they hadn’t lost a friend too.

“I should have reached out – called – I didn’t know.”

“No one did. I didn’t tell anyone.”

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