Chasing Fire

you’re moving in with Ella, she heard.”
    “Hell.” Lucas scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck as they walked. “I should’ve known it’d bounce through the base once I so much as thought about doing it. You’d think with everything going on, my personal life wouldn’t make the cut.
    “Well?” Lucas jabbed an elbow in Gull’s ribs. “How’d she take it?”
    “It knocked her back some. She’ll get used to it because she loves you, she respects Ella, and she’s not an idiot. Anyway, before we get back—and I’d as soon, unless she asks directly, Rowan assume we ran into each other on the road.”
    “Probably for the best.”
    “Generally I don’t mind pissing her off, but she’s got a lot on her plate. So, before we get back, I wanted to ask if I can e-mail you the spreadsheet.”
    “Jesus Christ. A spreadsheet.”
    “I’ve listed names in multiple categories, along with general data, then my take on each. Rowan’s take. Adding yours might help narrow the field.”
    “Send me the damn spreadsheet.” Lucas rattled off his e-mail address. “Want me to write it down?”
    “No, I’ve got it.”
    “Even if Brakeman didn’t do all this—or any of it, for that matter—as long as he’s behind bars it should end. You can’t frame him if you do any of this crap when the cops know exactly where he is twenty-four/ seven. I guess the question we should ask is, who’s got this kind of grudge against Leo?”
    Lucas lifted his eyebrows when Gull said nothing. “You’re thinking something else?”
    “I think it could be that, just exactly that. But I also think Brakeman, with his temper, his history with Dolly, makes a pretty good patsy. And I know whoever’s responsible for this is one sick son of a bitch. I don’t think sick sons of bitches stop just because it’s smart.”
    “I wish you hadn’t said that and made me think the same. Fear the same. If I could I’d make Rowan take the rest of the season off, get the hell away from this.”
    “I won’t let anything happen to her.” Gull looked Lucas dead in the eye. “I know that’s a stupid and too usual a thing to say, but I won’t. She can handle just about anything that comes at her. What she can’t, I will.”
    “I’m going to hold you to that. Now, you might want to make yourself scarce while I go talk to her. Not too scarce,” Lucas added. “It’s likely she’ll need to take out how she feels about my new living arrangements on somebody after I’m gone. It might as well be you.”
     
     
    ROWAN FINISHED HER REPORTS, rechecked the attached list of paracargo she’d requested and received the second day of the attack. All in order, she decided.
    Once she’d turned it over to L.B., she could get the hell outside for a while, and then . . .
    “It’s open,” she called out at the two-tap knock on her door. “Hey.” Her face brightened as she rose to greet her father. “Great timing. I just finished my reports. Got your run in?”
    “I thought I’d take it this way, get a twofer and see my girl.”
    “I tell you what, I’ll dig out a cold drink from the cooler, trade you for glancing over my work here.”
    “If you’ve got any 7UP, you’ve got a deal.”
    “I always keep my best guy’s favorite in stock,” she reminded him as he braced his hands on her desk, scanning the work on her laptop.
    “Thorough and to the point,” he said after a moment. “Are you bucking for L.B.’s job?”
    “Oh, that’s a big hell no. I don’t mind spending the time on reports, but if I had to deal with all the paperwork, personalities, politics and bullshit L.B. does, I’d just shoot myself and get it over with. You could’ve done it,” she added. “Gotten in a couple more years.”
    “If I’m going to do administrative crap, it’s going to be my administrative crap.”
    “Yeah, I guess that’s where I got it. Do you want to walk over to the lounge? Or maybe the cookhouse? I imagine Marg has some pie we could talk her out of.”
    “I don’t really have enough time. Ella’s picking me up in a little bit.”
    “Oh.”
    “I wanted to see you, talk to you about some things.”
    “I heard Irene Brakeman’s letting her house go, and she’s probably moving to Nebraska. That you’re letting her use your house until she’s got it all dealt with. That was good of you, Dad. It has to be hard for her, being alone in the house, with all the memories. Added on to knowing it’s not really hers