“Vi’s a mess,” Cal went on and Mike looked to him. “Feb, Jessie and Mimi reported that your girl in high school took a walk on the bitch side. She’s convinced history is repeating itself. You gotta give me something, man, so she doesn’t hunt her ass down and ask her to state her intentions.”

Mike held his eyes and returned, “Dusty just lost her brother. I know Vi gets that and I hope she doesn’t do somethin’ stupid that’ll piss me off because, fair warning, she does, I’ll let her know it.”

“Dusty Holliday?” Colt asked and Mike looked to him.

Colt was Feb’s husband. Colt had lived this all weekend just like Cal. But Colt was a man who let you share when and if you were ready rather than forcing it. That said, if it was out there, Colt wouldn’t hesitate to jump right in and his next words verified this.

“You finally tagged Darrin’s sister?” he finished knowing Mike did since his wife had been talking about it all weekend and some of this talk was undoubtedly directed Colt’s way.

There it was, the floodgates had opened. And Colt of all people opened them.

Fuck him.

Mike had been a cop a long time and a man all his life. He’d seen this before. Often. So he kept his mouth shut, his body leaned back in his chair and let it ride.

“Holy fuck,” Sully murmured, his eyes on Mike. “Funeral hook up. Didn’t know you had that in you. Impressed.”

Mike closed his eyes. He opened them again when Merry spoke.

“What’s that mean, ‘finally’?” he asked Colt, sitting with his ass on his desk.

“Jackie said more than once back in the day that Mike was impatient,” Colt explained. “Dated the wrong sister. At the time, Dusty was too young. He waited a few years, according to Jackie, he’d get his soul mate.”

Jackie was Colt’s mother-in-law. Jackie was one of the J’s in J&J’s Saloon. Jackie now spent some of her time down in Florida, most of it up in The ‘Burg spoiling Colt and Feb’s son and her other two grand children rotten. And Jackie Owens had for years been The ‘Burg’s resident sage.

“Soul mate,” Merry murmured not hiding the fact he found this amusing. Also clearly not remembering not three fucking months ago, shitfaced, Mike at his side waiting for the time he could pour Merry in his truck then take him home and pour him in into his condo, he’d called his ex Mia the same fucking thing.

“Jesus, man, you had the sister too?” Sully asked, eyes wide, now visibly impressed.

“Don’t think I’ll tell Vi that shit,” Cal muttered.

“She already knows,” Mike told him. “If Feb, Mimi and Jessie didn’t share, which they probably did, the first time I had her in my bedroom, I showed her Dusty’s farm and told her about Debbie.”

Cal’s smile died and his eyes got hard.

Score for Mike. Cal didn’t like a reminder his wife had been in Mike’s bedroom at all much less more than once.

Served his ass, walking up to the bullpen knowing full well he’d be instigating this shit just with a grin.

For the record, after playing games of the heart, Mike had an uneasy détente with Joe Callahan. Cal won Vi, he was enjoying the spoils and his getting her pregnant and vocally intending to do it again soon was proof of that. At the time though, Cal had screwed the pooch and he’d done it huge giving Mike a viable shot and Cal knew it. He also didn’t like it

“Only thing I remember about Dusty Holliday back in the day was that she could sing,” Merry noted. “Dad said the only part of church he missed when we quit goin’ was that Holliday girl and her golden pipes.”

“She still sing?” Sully asked.

Mike didn’t get the chance to answer, not that he would have. Merry butted in.

“Don’t know if Dusty still sings but Mike was whistlin’ a tune when he jogged up those steps yesterday mornin’, rarin’ to take on the week,” he said, grinning at Mike like the asshole he could be.

“Never heard you whistle,” Sully said to Mike.

“I meant figuratively, Sul,” Merry muttered but Sully ignored him.

“This one, you think, maybe, someday in his decade or the next, you might introduce to your kids?” Sully asked.

“She practically threw Rees’s birthday party,” Merry shared something he’d been sitting on for use at the right moment, namely this one.

Mike closed his eyes again as he heard the men pull in a collective breath.

They knew what that meant.

“No shit?” Colt asked and Mike opened his eyes again.

“No shit,” he told Colt.

Sully whistled then, “I gotta tell Raine this right away. I wait to get home tonight, she’ll tan my ass. She’ll want more daylight to spread the heartbreaking news around The ‘Burg that another prime bachelor has fallen. She loves that shit. Dashing hopes, killing dreams.”

Sully was not joking. He made that call, which he would or his wife Lorraine would bust his balls, the entire ‘Burg would know about him and Dusty by sunset.

“Fuck me,” Mike muttered.

“Had a weekend of that by the sounds of it, man. You should be topped up,” Cal remarked to chuckles all around.

Mike didn’t even crack a smile.

He locked eyes with Cal. “I appreciate the sacrifice you’re makin’ for your wife, Cal. But in case you don’t get it, Dusty bein’ at Reesee’s party, this is not ass I’m tappin’. It’s not a funeral hook up. It’s Dusty. Therefore I’d advise you to be careful with your words.”

“I know you appreciate my sacrifice, Haines,” Cal fired back. “So I know you know Vi cares about you. Jessie’s a fuckin’ nut. She said some shit that tipped Vi. She hasn’t forgotten, I know you haven’t forgotten and I sure as fuck haven’t forgotten. So you layin’ the heavy on me to lay off your Dusty means this woman means something to you. Carryin’ that through, you might wanna see about doin’ somethin’ that’ll make my woman feel better you ended up with somethin’ that’ll make her rest easy.”

Jesus, fuck. Violet. Mike didn’t get how a good woman could jack you up and the results were more long lasting than when a bitch did it.

“She can rest easy,” Mike told Cal.

“Then I ‘spect, when she calls you to ask you and your woman over for dinner, you’ll say yes seein’ as she intends to do that sometime today,” Cal returned.

Jesus, fuck. Violet.

“You might wanna waylay that considering Dusty knows about Vi and she’s not chompin’ at the bit to sit down to pork chops at her table,” Mike replied.

Cal held his eyes and he read what was in them.

So he muttered, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Smart call,” Mike muttered back.

His cell on his desk rang, his eyes went to it and it said “Dusty Calling”.

“There she is,” Merry announced, seeing it too. “The woman of the hour.”

Terrific.

Hours after a funeral, he’d somehow got catapulted back to high school.

Dusty was getting off on it, loved every minute.

Mike couldn’t say their time by the watering hole was shit but the rest of it was a pain in his ass.

Mike tagged the phone, hit the button and put it to his ear.

“Hey, Angel,” he said with four men listening.

“I know you’re working, gorgeous, but if you don’t want one of your colleagues to be investigating sister-a-cide, you might wanna get to the farm.”

Mike’s straightened out of his chair immediately, ordering, “Talk to me.”

“She’s here. With a bunch of men. They’ve got some kind of equipment so they can survey the land. She’s informed me that if Fin, Kirb and I don’t want to sell our parts, she’s still selling her quarter and she’s got buyers.” She paused, gearing up he would know when she ended on a near shriek, “And get this! Mini-fucking-strip mall!”

Mike was already moving to the backstairs.

“Stay calm,” he told her.

“Calm is history,” she shot back.

Mike stopped at the top of the stairs. “Dusty, honey, listen to me. Are you listening to me?”

“Oh I’m listening,” she snapped and he knew she wasn’t. She was pissed and losing it.

“Deep breath, Angel, and focus just on me.”

There was silence then he heard a breath then, “I’m listening.”

“We’re gonna sort this.”

“Mike –”

“We’re gonna sort this.”

He heard another breath then, “Okay.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

“Okay.”

“Stay calm.”

“Okay.”

“I’m letting you go now.”

“Okay, honey,” she whispered.

“Later,” he said.

“Later.”

He touched the button and, his voice no longer filled with humor but completely serious, Mike heard Merry offer, “You want company?”

Mike’s eyes cut to his partner and his mind conjured an image of Debbie. Then it conjured an image of Dusty strangling Debbie.

Then he answered, “Yeah.”

Merry grabbed his jacket.

Mike jogged down the stairs.

Therefore, he didn’t see the three other men in the room follow Merry.

* * *

“Slow day for The ‘Burg’s PD?” Debbie called sarcastically, her makeup free face twisted with distaste as Mike and Merry with Colt, Sully and Cal bringing up the rear, walked up to the huddle outside the front of the Holliday farmhouse.

“I don’t know what she was like back in the day, bro, but seriously, you picked the right sister in the end,” Merry muttered under his breath.

He’d given Merry the rundown on the way there. And Merry only had an afternoon with Dusty but Dusty was standing on the front porch, appearing to be barring the door, facing down Debbie and four men and the evidence Merry was right was laid out before them.

Debbie was in a power pantsuit, sturdy pumps and a wool overcoat that was good quality but its hints that it was actually made for a woman were few.