Quiet Nights Read Online Free PDF Page B

interested in me.”
    It made sense. Anyone in their right mind would be interested in Dwyer Knolls. He was tall, golden god perfection, but how in the hell anyone would ever extricate him from his even more breathtaking partner was beyond me. “And when was that?”
    “When we first came here.”
    “Which was right before me,” I said, smiling—but I stopped because it hurt.
    “Yes.”
    I had to know. “So Takeo is interested in the new lawyer for Hutch Crowley?”
    “That’s my theory, yes, but this is Takeo we’re talking about. I could be completely misreading him. He said something about Mike Rojas the other day, too, but I wasn’t listening.”
    “Huh.”
    “What?”
    “No, nothing.”
    He studied me a moment before he smiled. “Try to stay somewhat in the shade today, and please, remember to hydrate.”
    I thanked him again before I headed for my ancient rolltop Jeep. I was about to start my girl up when I heard the blare of a siren behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I was surprised to find Chief of Police Farley Porter parked behind me. Waiting as he got out and walked over to me, I twisted around in my seat to face him.
    “Chief.”
    His smile was warm as he stopped in front of me. “I need a favor.”
    This was new. “Name it.”
    “I need you to stop pissing off my officer and telling him to quit!” he barked, his demeanor changing instantly.
    “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
    He crossed his arms. “You and I both know that this town is not as sleepy and tiny as people tend to think. I need Renaldi because he’s military-trained and people respect him.”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “And I need Hadjian because he’s loyal and approachable. I need my men to complement each other, and they do now, but not if you keep screwing with my monolith.”
    I sighed heavily. “He can’t get shot. Think of his mother.”
    “I can’t promise he won’t, but he’s safer with me and Arad than he’d be anywhere else.”
    That was true.
    “But when you say something to him, he takes it to heart like he doesn’t with anyone else.”
    “Oh, that’s such crap,” I groused.
    He put a hand on my shoulder. “You have no idea.”
    I leaned back in the seat. “I don’t want him to get hurt—I can’t live through him being hurt again.”
    Coz had been lying in the shell of an exploded humvee bleeding to death, and I’d crawled through what I figured hell looked like to reach him. I hadn’t thought of the others as I did it, didn’t visualize the remains of men as being friends of mine at the time. Only later, in the hospital, holding his hand, barfing and hyperventilating in rapid succession, had my mind made that connection. Only then had I realized that the blood on me was not only Coz’s and mine.
    “He needs to be good, do you understand me?” I rasped, my voice gravelly and low, the memories thick around me. I had visited each of the homes of my fallen friends before I returned to Coz’s side in Mangrove. First, before anything, when I got back to the world, I had paid my respects to their families. Small tokens that I had from all of them—knickknacks, insignificant things, a bookmark, a keychain, whatever it was—had been joyously, graciously received.
    “Kelly?”
    “Do you get it?” I pressed, because it wasn’t only important, it was vital that he understood.
    “I do, son.”
    “Oh, don’t fuckin’ son me,” I growled. “Just—make sure. Have Arad be sure. Both of you—our family doesn’t work without Coz.”
    He nodded like he was actually hearing me.
    It was hard to explain, but I felt it whenever I was around Coz and Mia and their mother. I had never met Mr. Renaldi, but Agosto had been there long enough and had loved hard enough that they all carried him with them and their hearts were bigger because of it. But if they lost Coz, if Mia and her mother faced going on without him… I wasn’t sure they could.
    “Or you.”
    “What?”
    He sighed. “The family doesn’t work