Page 42 of Night Hawk
“I guess Toni and I can meet—”
“It’s Toni I don’t want in the room.”
“What?” Clay asked. “You do a background check on her?”
“I’ll explain when we talk.”
Clay glared at his youngest brother. “I didn’t ask you to look into her.”
“Yeah.” He stuck out his chin in the defiant look that usually preceded a fight. “But you didn’t stop lookingather so I figured I better lookintoher.” Erik said nothing else, just grabbed two boxes and marched away.
Clay stared after him. Clay was half proud of his little brother’s initiative and half mad.
“He did the right thing,” Drake said on his way past with boxes.
“And you know it,” Brendan added.
Aiden shook his head. “Hard being the one in charge, isn’t it?”
Clay grabbed the last three boxes and took them inside. After he set them on the piles, he looked at Toni. “I need to talk to Erik a minute. Be right back.”
He spun and grabbed Erik by the arm as he moved past him.
“We’ve still got groceries to unload,” Erik said.
“The others can handle it.” Clay gave his brother a push down the hallway.
“Come, Pong,” he called over his shoulder.
“Must be serious if you think you’re gonna need your dog for protection.” Clay laughed, but it was forced. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what Erik had dug up.
Erik marched down the hall to the furthest bedroom, which happened to be the master. His silence put a pang of worry in Clay’s heart. He hoped Erik was being dramatic.
Clay thought they were far enough away from Toni that she wouldn’t hear them and entered the room their mom had redecorated when they were kids. The nautical theme included blue walls, a blue-and-white comforter that looked like rolling waves, and a porthole mirror on the wall.
Erik dropped onto the bed, patted the space beside him, and the dog hopped up.
“Mom won’t like that Pong was on her bed.” Clay closed the door.
“She doesn’t have to know.”
“You’re gonna pick off the dog hairs one by one, are you?”
“Oh, right.” Erik motioned for Pong to get down. He slunk down to Erik’s feet but didn’t look happy about it.
“So out with the big secret,” Clay said, ignoring the dog’s sad eyes.
“Not a secret really. I just thought you’d want to know before I said anything in front of Toni. Her father had some trouble in 1990.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“He made a bad decision as an agent, and it almost cost him his job. He got into a shootout in Virginia, where he was assigned at the time. Guy he shot was Andrew Martin, and he died.”
“An agent involved shooting.” Clay understood the toll that took. “It’s traumatic but it happens. So where’s the problem?”
“Her dad was related by marriage to Martin. He was the brother of his wife’s mother.”
“Oh, man. That changes things.” Clay clamped a hand on the back of his neck to rub away the tension that had been building all day. “Her grandmother’s maiden name was Martin, so maybe Long didn’t know about the connection.”
