LITMIR.BIZ

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quit the sparring and you tell me what’s up with the visit.”

      She sighed in resignation. He wasn’t going to give up. “Your father invited me for a vacation. I needed one.” She crossed her arms. “Now it’s your turn.”

      “I’m taking a couple weeks off. And since I hadn’t seen Pops for a while, I thought I’d check how the old rooster was doing.”

      “You’re taking time off?” He never took time off.

      Just then she heard a loud banging at the door. “Oh Geez. I called the police. That’s probably them.”

      They went into the living room. Spotlights flashed through the window, rotating red and blue, lighting up the room like a nightclub. Another percussion of knocking rattled the house. “Sheriff’s department. Open up.”

      She crossed the room and threw wide the door. A tall man in a black hat stood in front of her. His badge said he was indeed the sheriff.

      He peered inside. “I’m Sheriff Ben Yuma. I received a call.”

      Julianna flipped on a light switch next to the door. “I’m sorry, Officer. I called because I thought someone was breaking into the house, but I was wrong.”

      The sheriff glanced at Luke. His dark eyes narrowed.

      “Luke Coltrane, LAPD,” he said, pulling out his shield. “I came to see my father, forgot my key and decided to use a window.”

      The sheriff brushed a hand across his smooth chin, assessing both of them. “With bad results, I see.”

      “I was protecting myself,” Julianna countered. “Well, I thought I was anyway.”

      “What the hell is going on here?” Abe’s gravelly voice resounded.

      Julianna turned. “Abe, what are you doing up?”

      Luke gave her a pointed stare, a slow smile tipping his mouth at the corners. “Question with a question,” he said under his breath, as if proving his earlier point.

      She wanted to laugh, but held it back. He knew exactly how to get to her. Make her laugh and she’d forget everything. But not anymore.

      Ignoring him, she glanced at Abe. Though Luke loved his father, there’d always been tension between them. In five years of marriage to Luke, she’d never figured out exactly why. Luke had always passed it off as his father being too hard on him, making him feel he couldn’t do anything right. She’d always thought there was more to it.

      When Abe saw Luke, he looked surprised at first, but then his mouth turned down, his expression dour. He acknowledged the sheriff and then turned back to Julianna. “I’m up because someone’s making so much racket it’s impossible to sleep. And that’s saying a lot since I can’t hear worth spit.”

      Julianna crossed to Abe and placed a hand on his arm. “There’s nothing to worry about. I thought there was a burglar and called the sheriff. But it was only Luke, so everything’s okay and you can go back to bed. We’ll talk in the morning.”

      “We will not.” Abe made his way to the couch and eased onto the sagging cushion. “Sheriff, you want to arrest someone?”

      “Someone?” The sheriff glanced at the only other people in the room. Luke and Julianna.

      “I invited one person to stay here. The other is a stranger to me. And apparently he broke into my house.”

      Luke’s nerves bunched. Okay, that was his dad’s way of getting back at him for staying away so long. He had to admit it had been awhile, so he probably deserved whatever lambasting he got. Still…his dad was irritating the hell out of him. “Fine. I’ll leave right now.”

      For a fraction of a second, Luke thought his father seemed a little crestfallen. But the reaction quickly passed.

      “If that’s what you want, then go,” Abe said gruffly.

      What Luke wanted was a soft bed. After driving six hours from L.A. to Phoenix and another six to Santa Fe, he was dog-tired. But his old man wouldn’t be satisfied until he had it all.

      Abe wanted Luke to grovel and apologize. “I came to see you, why would I want to go? Why don’t we let the sheriff get on with his business and we can talk about everything in the morning.”

      The sheriff shifted his feet, crossed his arms. “You got a problem with that, Abe?”

      “I got a big problem standing right in front of me.”

      The sheriff frowned. “So do you want me to arrest him?”

      Luke groaned. Another nutcase. “For what reason?” he asked incredulously.

      “Whatever reason I want.” The sheriff shrugged and smiled, his teeth bright white against bronzed skin. “We do things differently out here than in the big city.”

      Great, just what he needed. His father’s wrath and a rogue sheriff who didn’t give a rat’s ass about procedure. And then there was Julianna. Dear Jules. He cleared his throat. “Fine. Arrest me if you want. Otherwise, I’m outta here.” He turned to leave.

      “Suit yourself,” Abe spat out. “Never could stick anything out.”

      Luke edged toward the door, primed for a comeback, but then, for the first time since his father entered the room, Luke noticed how frail he seemed. He’d lost weight, and his face looked gray and haggard, the lines deeper, more like canyons instead of crevices. “Okay then,” Luke said, “if it’s up to me, I need a good night’s sleep. I’ll leave in the morning.”

      Abe scoffed and with great effort tried to rise from his seat on the couch. Julianna hurried over, but Abe waved her off, then took hold of the armrests and laboriously lifted himself to his feet. “I’m going to bed.”

      The sheriff tipped his hat. “Seems everything’s okay here, so I’ll be on my way, too.”

      That left Luke alone with Julianna. The woman he’d once thought was the center of his life. The woman whose very presence pounded in another sharp reminder that he’d lost everything that had made life worth living. A reminder that he’d failed her and their marriage.

      “I’m turning in, too,” Julianna said, her voice oddly quiet. “I’m in the back bedroom, so you’ll have to take the smaller one.”

      “Fine with me.” Only he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d get any sleep with her in the next room.

      CHAPTER TWO

      THOUGHTS OF JULIANNA had kept him awake for a while, but it was the nightmares about the kidnapping that woke him a mere three hours after he’d gone to bed.

      He rolled over, sweat pouring from his body, sheets drenched.

      As Julianna’s face loomed in his mind, muscles cramped in his chest. The death of their son had created a chasm between them and destroyed their marriage. Seeing Julianna brought it all back in spades.

      He had to go. No matter how much he wanted to mend the rift with his father, he didn’t know if he was strong enough to stay in the same house with Julianna. It had taken him too long to get back on track. He couldn’t jeopardize everything he’d accomplished.

      For nearly four years, he’d gone through the motions of living. He went to his job, he went home and went to sleep, but not before consuming copious amounts of alcohol to speed up the process. He’d alienated his father, put his friends at a distance and had been within a hair’s breath of losing his job.

      Life might not be everything he wanted, but at least he was among the living again. His job and his friends were all he had.

      The sharp ring of his cell phone surprised him. He was used to calls at any hour when he was in L.A., but he hadn’t expected to get them here. “Coltrane.”

      “I need some information,” Captain

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