Page 33 of Legends Luke

Her expression softened as she slid off the couch’s arm into her husband’s lap. She smiled at Luke as she made herself comfortable in her husband’s arms. The boys were used to the public displays of affection from the couple, but this was the first time it made Luke wonder what it would be like to have his own woman cuddling up to him. And of course, the image wasn’t just of any woman. Melody’s face was the one in his mind’s eye.

“That’s great, Luke. I know it’s not easy for you to open up to someone. She must be special.”

“You had one date.” Easton declared the observation as if it was a point they’d all overlooked.

“It was a long date.”

Easton’s interest piqued. “How long are we talking?”

“It ended at six the next morning.”

Ben whistled then winced as he waited to see if the high-pitchednoise disturbed Jax. When it didn’t, he got back to his ribbing. “The sex must have been mind-blowing for you to spill your guts.”

Luke’s anger flared up like adding gasoline to a structure fire. He flexed his hand before balling it into a fist, ready to smash it into Ben’s perfect nose before he felt Jackson’s grip on his arm.

“Stop being an ass, Ben,” Reagan snapped.

Ben threw his hands up in surrender. “What? It was only an observation. Anyway, I wanted to see what his reaction would be. He’s got it bad, and I can’t say I blame him. She’s gorgeous and was very nice.”

Reagan sighed. “I think it’s romantic. The epic first date where you’re so comfortable with each other you end up talking for hours about nothing and everything. I thought they only existed in movies. I’m glad to know I was wrong.”

“Was it like that?” Jackson fixed his intense stare on his brother as if trying to read Luke’s thoughts.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I mean she is gorgeous. And she is nice. And we talked a lot. She said something about how much she told me about herself, but I hadn’t said much about myself. Next thing I know, I was telling her shit I never tell anybody.”

Easton nodded. “And now you’re regretting it. I get it. I’ve lost my good sense over a girl before. It’s been a while, but it happens.”

Luke started to retort, but he snapped his mouth closed. The conversation was already more personal than he wanted to get, even with his brothers.

“He doesn’t regret it.” Reagan sat up straighter, and Luke willedhimself not to squirm under her scrutiny. “It freaks you out, doesn’t it?”

“Can we stop talking about this? We’ve got a case to work.”

“Okay, okay,” Reagan said, pushing up to her feet. She took a sleepy Jax from his uncle’s arms and turned back to Luke. “I’ll tell you one more thing and then leave you guys to it. Don’t let this freak you out. You deserve someone special, and this girl sounds like she is. I look forward to meeting her.”

She left the brothers alone. Luke unlocked his computer, ready to focus on the case.

“Hey, man,” Ben interrupted. “How did Melody react when you opened up to her?”

Luke hesitated as he considered his answer. “Like she cared. Like it didn’t matter where I came from.”

“Then don’t run from it,” Jackson interjected. “Someone like her doesn’t come along every day.”

“Can we get back to the case now?”

Easton was the first to indulge Luke’s request. “Do we have any new leads?”

“Not exactly,” Luke responded. He pulled up a couple of videos and flipped his laptop around to show his brothers. “Once the cops figured out it was a crew committing the crimes instead of only one or two suspects, I started looking closer at what security footage we had. Some of the places they hit didn’t have cameras, and witness descriptions were all over the place. But Gish pointed out something in the footage that got me thinking.”

Luke lowered the volume before starting two videos simultaneously. He pointed to the masked figures in black in the footage. “I started syncing up some points to help us establish a description. You can’t see their faces, but based on measurements of the rooms, I could pinpoint approximate heights and weights. Most of them are right-handed, but a couple hold their weapons in their left hands.”

The two crimes played out on video. One was a robbery of a jewelry store in Madison while another was a carjacking in Valley. The store robbery involved five suspects, and the carjacking was pulled off by three. As he watched the footage with his brothers, he noticed details he was certain they picked up on.

“I see what you mean about the physical descriptions,” Ben responded once the videos stopped playing. “But was it me, or did you guys notice differences in how they handled themselves? The ones who carjacked the family seemed like amateurs. This one has to be a kid. Look at the way his hand is shaking while he’s pointing the gun. He’s tall and all limbs, like he’s still not used to his own body. Am I crazy?”

“No. The cops noticed the same thing. They think the crew is a bunch of kids. Teenagers, likely, maybe early twenties. What Gish noticed was how the crimes were pulled off. Some were more precise than others. The harder the target and the bigger the haul, the more professional the crew’s execution was. So I started adding to the descriptions details like how they handled themselves, how they handled the weapons, how confident they appeared…shit like that. Then these two stood out.”

He hit play on a different video, but slowed the action down, pointing out the two suspects he wanted his brothers to watch closely.

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