Page 15 of Justice for Radar

“Thank you,” she murmured as she passed through the door.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “And before you say it, for everything. I mean it. Just try to breathe, try to relax, and I know it sucks given what’s happened but try to enjoy the rest of your stay here in Ft. Royal. We really are a great little town.”

Her light smile intensified, but her eyes… she was tired. I could see it in her eyes.

“I don’t hold anything against the town,” she said. “You all have been so wonderful to me.”

I smiled and nodded. “Good. I’m glad.”

“Oh.” She paused at the opening to the living room, and I turned my head. Lucia was out like a traffic light on the couch as whatever she’d been watching played on the television.

I sighed and chuckled. “She’s too big to pick her up and carry her into her room like I did when she was a kid, but never fails any time I look at either of my girls, grown or not, I still see those gap-toothed smiles from when they were like six.”

That’s when she let another piece of the puzzle that was her slip when she said, “I never wanted children.”

I looked over and cocked my head, inviting her silently to continue.

“Too afraid I would turn out exactly like my parents,” she said with an embarrassed shrug.

“Ah, yeah, my parents were great,” I said with a sigh. “Hardworking people, direct immigrants from Cuba while my mother was pregnant with me.” I shook my head.

“I still turned out nothing but a pain in the ass. Still, I managed, and I don’t know how, to turn out two of the finest women despite how much I fucked up.” I shrugged and moved into the living room to wake up my youngest kid and send her into bed.

So rough childhood, rough marriage, and now – this,I thought. There was a thread. I wanted to pull it and start unraveling the whole mess but everything in its own time.

“Lucia, baby, wake up. You’re done, kid. It’s time for bed,” I said kindly. When I looked up, as Lucia began to shift fitfully in her sleep, groaning, it was to a curious look from Justice as she turned and disappeared down the hall.

“Come on, baby.” I held my hands out for my daughter and helped hoist her to her feet.

“Night, Daddy,” she muttered groggily and fell into my arms for a hug. I hugged her tight and thought to myselfI just wish a motherfucker would try something on one of my girls like what’d been pulled on Justice. I’d have to kill him. No hesitation.

“Night, baby.” She went down the hall after Justice and I stood in the middle of my living room, hands on my hips and let out a sigh, my body sagging.

As fucking early as it was, it was probably time for bed for me, too. I had my laptop in there. I could still do a few things before I completely crashed for the night.

6

Justice…

A light rap fell at the open portal of my borrowed bedroom door, and I looked up and over from my laptop screen, my tablet perched in my lap, stylus poised over it. I tilted my head down slightly so I could look at Radar over my glasses perched on the end of my nose. He grinned at me and said, “You got the whole naughty librarian thing going on with the whole bun and the outfit – it’s a whole look.”

I laughed slightly, and shook my head, pulling my glasses off my face and setting them aside. They were just a pair of simple, black-framed readers but he was right – they did give off librarian vibes and with my hair coiled and pinned at the nape of my neck. I could see the whole librarian thing.

My outfit, however, was probably the one hold out, though. I wore a turquoise cami layered with a white tank over it, with a matching turquoise broomstick skirt, a wide leather belt canted over my hips. I’d sort of developed a sort of southwest hippy chick vibe while living in Texas and it suited my thin frame. The lighter, cooler clothes seemed to suit the Florida weather as well, so that was a bonus.

“What ‘cha need?” I asked with a sardonic smile.

“You to take a break,” he said.

I set my tablet, glasses, and stylus in a jumble on the small desk beside my open laptop.

“You need held with something?”

He shook his head gently.

“You’ve been holed up in here for two days now. It’s low-key driving me crazy that I’ve been in the office that long. Come take a ride with me.”

“Oh.” I straightened and forced myself to my feet, wincing.

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