Free Between Love and Duty by Janice Kay Johnson Page B

want?”
     
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Jane asked, sounding incensed.
     
    “I wasn’t talking to you. My brother’s decided to drop in on me.” With a grimace, he stepped to the side and let Niall in. He closed the door and started for the kitchen. “Jane, you know I can’t have Tito. So what’s this ‘with reason’?”
     
    “You love Tito. That makes you a threat to Hector. An understandable one.”
     
    “It’s bad that I’m spending time with the boy?” he asked incredulously.
     
    “No. Of course not. I didn’t mean that. Only that I can see why Hector is afraid.”
     
    Aware of his brother watching him, Duncan pinched the bridge of his nose and momentarily closed his eyes. “I don’t love him,” he muttered.
     
    “Are you sure?” Her voice had softened. “Sometimes we can’t help ourselves.” After a momentary silence, she added more briskly, “It doesn’t matter, anyway. Hector needs to concentrate on his own behavior. His relationship with his son. That’s what he doesn’t quite get.”
     
    “ Quite? Understatement.”
     
    “I was blunt. I can be.”
     
    Suddenly he was smiling, something he hadn’t felt like doing all day. “I won’t argue with that.”
     
    “Gee, thanks.” Some of her spirit had returned. “I’ll call when I hear from Hector. Okay?”
     
    “Okay.” The smile hadn’t lasted long. Duncan found he was frowning. “Jane? Be careful.”
     
    “I will. But Hector’s not like that. All he was doing today was venting.”
     
    Duncan ended the call feeling uneasy. Whatever she said to the contrary, he was betting Hector Ortez had scared her today. She should be scared when she confronted a pissed-off guy who’d barely gotten out of prison for having killed someone. Hector wasn’t a big man, not a lot taller than Jane, but he outweighed her by fifty pounds or more, and a whole lot of muscle.
     
    Better yet, she shouldn’t be confronting someone like that.
     
    It had been daylight, he reminded himself. It sounded as if she’d met Hector at Lupe’s apartment house, which meant there had been other people around. And sharp as Jane could be, he’d also seen her exude warmth. Hector had seemed initially to like her.
     
    She was probably right. Sober, Hector wasn’t stupid enough to act out his rage.
     
    Perturbed, Duncan realized he wasn’t as reassured as he’d like to be. It was a good thing that he’d be there most of the time to deflect Hector’s anger. She wouldn’t like knowing he felt protective— he wasn’t sure he liked knowing that he did—but there it was.
     
    “This about the kid you’ve been hanging out with?” Niall asked. He’d peeled off his leather bomber jacket and gone to the refrigerator. He emerged with two beers in his hand.
     
    Duncan took one. “How do you know I’ve been hanging out with a kid?”
     
    Niall shrugged. “People talk.”
     
    “Goddamn it. What are they saying?”
     
    “Not much. That there’s a kid. Somebody thought you might have signed up for Big Brothers.” Niall didn’t smile. “I found that…unlikely.”
     
    Duncan studied Niall, three years younger than him. They weren’t what you’d call close. They spoke. Occasionally one of them stopped by the other’s house for a beer or they sat side by side on stools at the bar one block from the police station. Niall was on the force, too, a detective in major crimes. People were aware they were related, but they didn’t have much to do with each other on the job, even though Duncan was, several rungs up the ladder, Niall’s boss. He was still frequently bemused by the knowledge that his little brother, with a juvenile record as long as his arm, had become a cop. A good one, too. Probably because of his experience on the other side of the fence.
     
    They were of a similar height and build, but Niall had their father’s red hair. Auburn, in his case. He’d had freckles as a boy that were no longer visible. His gray eyes