Free Blaze by Joan Swan

don’t have any news on your wife.”
    â€œEx-wife, and it’s fine. My feelings for her died a long time ago.”
    An awkward silence invaded the room. Luke looked at Keira to check her reaction the same moment she looked back at him. Shared opinion passed between them. One that had nothing to with any mind-reading.
    Keira broke the connection and reached out to rub a hand over Mateo’s back. “Hey, buddy, your daddy’s here. Want to say hi?”
    Eyes squeezed closed, Mateo pushed off Luke’s chest and climbed into Keira’s arms, his movements jerky, almost violent in his need to stay connected to her. Pain wrenched through Luke’s ribs, but as soon as the boy was gone, a chill crept into his body. The same loss he’d felt the day he’d watched Keira drive away, headed for the academy. The same loss he’d felt the day he’d given Kat back to Teague when his former brother-in-law had been released from prison.
    None of this made sense. And he couldn’t take that kind of loss again.
    â€œKeira,” Tony said. “Can I have a word with you? Privately?”
    â€œSure.” Keira flashed Luke an apologetic glance. “I’ll be right back.”
    In the hallway they stood close, talking in undertones. With Keira’s face turned up to his and Tony leaning toward her, they were only inches apart, Mateo between them.
    The image was like looking at a picture of what Luke’s life could have been—only with another man standing where Luke should be. Of what Keira’s life would be like without Luke in it.
    Some part of his damaged psyche still saw Keira as his. His best friend, his partner, his other half. She had been his True North during the darkest times of his life—his sister’s suicide, recovering from the warehouse fire, his brother-in-law’s imprisonment, the first year parenting Kat. Nothing had dimmed that deep sense of belonging he’d shared with her from their first moment together. Not time, not distance, not even the end of their relationship.
    We needed very different things.
    Logically, he’d known that. Still knew that. Logically, he knew he couldn’t change what he’d needed then or what he still needed. Nor could he change the fact that Keira’s needs were entirely different. At least they had been then.
    Emotionally, though, looking at her with another man, holding that man’s child as if he were her own, the possibility that maybe they hadn’t needed such different things after all, that maybe she’d just needed those things with someone else, hit him so hard, his knees went weak.
    He turned away, pulled his cell from his jeans, and dialed his boss in Lake Tahoe. His real boss, not the asshole commander at the siege. But Luke’s mind was somewhere else. Greek. Greek. Who did he know that spoke Greek? He was dying to find out what the kid was saying.
    â€œSpecial Agent Carroway.”
    â€œKirk,” Luke said when his boss answered. “It’s Luke.”
    â€œHeard I almost lost you, dickhead.”
    Luke was too frazzled to smile. “Yeah. Kinda wishing you had.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œNever mind. What’s happening at the ranch? Did they get any more hostages out? Any more kids?”
    â€œThat place is a chemical inferno. Nothin’s coming out of there but ashes.”
    Luke’s stomach pitched. “I’m leaving the ER now, headed back to the scene. I’ll check in with that jerk incident commander and—”
    â€œDon’t bother. The army has taken over. Pushed all other law enforcement out. We’re officially released.”
    â€œThe army ?” It was happening again. Just like it had five years ago. An explosion. A fire. Deaths. Trauma. The army sweeping in, taking control, classifying the information so they could bury it. “Can they do that?”
    â€œThey’re the United States Army, Luke. They can do