One to Protect (One to Hold 3)

Then she holds it a beat longer. “I won’t let my past get me down if you don’t.”

His lips tighten, and then he nods. “Thanks.”

The girls are camped out on the side porch when we get back. They don’t see us, and I take the chance to try one last time. “You going to be okay?”

He lets out an exhale and looks out the windshield toward the house, were Melissa and Elaine are sitting on the small couch just inside the breezy anteroom.

“I will be.”

“Listen, what you did was wrong, it was illegal, but dammit, somebody had to stop that prick.”

“That doesn’t make it okay.”

Looking toward the place where the girls are sitting, I exhale. “Sometimes it does. It’s like when we’re in battle and lives are lost. It’s for the ultimate good.”

He doesn’t respond for a few moments, and I think it’s possible I finally found the right combination of words to help him see how he can still be a hero.

When he speaks again, his voice is reflective. “At some point, I’m going to have to tell her the whole story.”

I take a quarter out of the console and put it on the back of my hand. “Maybe.”

Derek watches as I turn the coin slowly over my knuckles, thinking. A few more passes, and I say it. “I think you should give it some time. See if it can go into that place we have to put things like this.”

He leans forward and rubs his face with both hands then he looks at his palms a moment. He turns them over and closes his fingers in a fist. “At some point she’ll have to know. She’ll have to decide if she can forgive me. If she wants to be with someone like me.”

“Mel will never turn on you.” I can’t help a laugh. “She might turn on me. I was supposed to stop you.”

He’s still contemplative, so I clap his shoulder. “Just do like I said for now. Sleep on it. Give it time. Don’t burden her with the worry. Enjoy your wife and son.”

That’s as far as we get before Melissa sees us and comes bursting through the door. “Derek!” She’s running, and her face is beaming. I can’t imagine what she’s about to say. “I found it! I found it!”

She laughs, and he steps out just in time to catch her as she jumps, spinning them both in her excitement. Elaine follows her and walks around the car to give me a hug. I kiss her head, completely preoccupied by what Melissa’s about to say.

Derek holds her waist, and he doesn’t seem as bewildered as I’d expect. She pulls her hand from behind her back, and an item I recognize all too well drops down, dangling from her fist.

“Tah daah!” She swings the gold chain with the floating heart in the air then bounces up to catch him around the neck again. “Can you believe it?”

He hugs her back, and I watch his eyes close slowly. “Where was it?”

My brow lines. I fucking know where it was as well as he does—and who had it—but it’s clear my partner is working an angle.

Melissa pops back again. “In the cushions of that damn couch! As many times as I tore it apart. I can’t believe it was there all the time!”

“I’m so happy.” His voice is low, and he puts both hands on the sides of her head, smoothing her hair back with his thumbs. I never got the whole story on why that particular item of jewelry made him snap in Baltimore. I probably never will.

“You guys coming over tonight?” Elaine walks around to her car. “I’ll follow Patrick back. I want to shower.”

She gives me a little wink, and I’m ready to let Derek and Melissa ride off into the sunset. It’s ti

me for Elaine and me to get dirty while getting clean.

“Yes!” Melissa turns to us. Derek’s hands are on her shoulders. “Oh, and Patrick?”

I squint back at her. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

I tip two fingers at my forehead and give her a little salute. “I’m the Guard, baby. Protection is what I do best.”