Page 9 of Girl, Fractured

‘Jesus, ma.It’s ten in the morning.You expecting a famine?’

Patricia Hawkins didn’t look up from the batter she began violently whipping into submission.‘Megan’s coming home too.Her flight gets in at twelve.She’s bringing the kids.’

Megan was Luca’s sister.By his count, he hadn’t seen her since last Christmas.

‘And this,’ he gestured at the baking apocalypse, ‘is your response?’

‘Those kids eat like pigs.You should have seen how much cakeyouput away when you were five.’

‘Why’s she coming back?’

‘I thought you’d be more excited.’

‘I am.I’m just surprised,’ Luca said.

‘She’s coming to see you.The girls have been talking about Uncle Luca super cop for ages.’Patricia threw down her spoon and wiped her hands.‘And I get both of my babies in the same place for the first time in years.You don’t have to rush off back to D.C., do you?’

Luca leaned against the counter and weighed his options.On one side: returning to the Bureau where Marshall would immediately throw him into the deep end.On the other: a chance to be a son, uncle and brother for a few days, and spend time with two nieces who he knew more from pictures than real life.

The Bureau had dumped him without a second thought when it suited them.His family had never once shut the door on him, even when he probably deserved it.

But then there was Ella.

She’d asked him to stay away for his own safety.She didn’t need the distraction of worrying about him being in the killer’s crosshairs.

All things considered, it was an easy decision.

‘No,’ Luca said, surprised at how right the answer felt.‘I don’t have to go anywhere.’

His mother’s face brightened in that way it did whenever she won an argument she hadn’t technically been having.‘Good.You can pick up your sister at Logan.’

‘What?Me?’

‘Yeah.I gotta finish this baking.

Deputy Director Marshall would just have to wait.The world wouldn’t end if Agent Hawkins took a few more days of the leave he’d been unceremoniously placed on.The Bureau had managed without him this long; they could survive until he was good and ready to return.

CHAPTER FOUR

Ella had interrogated serial killers across tables narrower than the space between her and Edis in the living room, yet this still felt more uncomfortable.

The director sat in the middle of the sofa.Two brown folders were piled beside him.It was a strange sight, seeing the man outside of his office.FBI directors belonged behind mahogany desks with American flags in the corner, not in plush safe houses with pirate ships out back.It reminded Ella of when you’d see your teacher at the grocery store as a kid.He was holding off his explanation for coming until Ripley had done her grandmotherly duties.

‘You haven’t come to serve an eviction notice, have you?’Ella said finally.

Edis’s face twitched.It was the closest thing to a smile his facial muscles allowed these days.‘If only it were that simple.’

Ella’s brain kept circling back to the same thought: directors didn’t do house calls.They sent minions.They dispatched agents.They sure as hell didn’t show up unannounced at safe houses on Monday mornings unless something had gone catastrophically wrong.

‘Thanks for putting all of my contacts on watch,’ Ella said.

‘36 people,’ said Edis.‘Cops are still in position.No incidents in a week.’

The way he said ‘no incidents’ made Ella think of hospitals.How they used the same tone when things were about to get much worse.‘Have you got the case under Bureau jurisdiction?’

‘Still working on it.Should be cleared within a few days.’

‘I appreciate it.’

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