Page 11 of Secrets Bared
Love, Mom
Luke had to snort every time he thought about Marcus hitting either one of his sons. His dad hadn’t needed to raise his hand to them. His expectations and disappointment were always enough.
Was Mom really accusing Aaron of dealing drugs? Granted, Luke hadn’t been home much since leaving for the FBI Academy at twenty-three. When he’d left, Dad had been alive and Aaron had been entering kindergarten. The accident happened two years later. He’d barely got any bereavement leave to come home for the funeral due to the case he’d been working at the time. After that, it had been easy to get swept up in work. Now, ten years later, he realized he only ever saw his family at holidays and that was if he wasn’t working an active case. Luke rubbed at the ache in his chest as he sped along the highway. He needed to make a better effort.
It’d be easy if he was closer in age to his brother. The Hunt brothers he’d met, Jon, Finn, and Roger, were much closer in age than he and Aaron. It was easy for them to be tight-knit. Plus, they had the same parents. Sure, Marcus Graham had adopted Luke when he married Mom, but Luke was already ten years old at that point. He’d been well-versed in the stigma of being the son of a single mother. Marcus had been everything Luke ever wanted in a dad, and loved that Luke called him that. But then Mom got pregnant with Aaron when Luke was in high school, and it only emphasized the unspoken divide.
Luke had always felt like an outsider, even in his own family.
The miles sped by, the air getting colder as he headed further north. At the last rest stop he had to give in and dig his winter coat out of the back seat. Even in early March, winter still had its claws in the Pennsylvania mountains. Or maybe his blood was thinner from living in Maryland and Virginia the last ten years. Either way, he needed the extra layer.
Luke passed the town borders around dinner time. He wanted to see Mom first and foremost. He probably should have called and given her more of a warning of when she could expect him. But when he’d responded to her letter, he hadn’t known when the Bureau would approve his leave. Deciding to take a chance that she wasn’t working the dinner shift at the diner, Luke followed the familiar streets to his childhood home.
The two-story farmhouse that Marcus and Debbie Graham had bought after their wedding glowed with warmth at the end of the driveway. Luke pulled in next to his mother’s Jeep and took in the view of the house he’d grown up in. The sky was just beginning to darken but he could still see Mom’s herb box, empty now for winter, outside the kitchen window. Snow still clung to the ground here, the house looking a bit dirty against the pure white backdrop. Immediately Luke thought about staying long enough to paint it, then shook his head. One crisis at a time. He’d assuage Mom’s fears about Aaron then see what needed done to the house.
He opened the door and stretched his arms above his head. God, he shouldn’t feel this old at thirty-five. His boots crunched over the salt on the walkway as he made his way to the front door. Pausing on the front porch, he knocked.
A murmur of “Who could that be?” reached his ears as the wooden front door opened, and Luke beheld his mother through the screen door. “Hey, Mom.”
“Luke!” Her squeal made her sound like a young woman again, a juxtaposition with her gray hair he didn’t want to think about.It had been easy to forget from his visit six months ago, and jarred him all over again.
“Yeah, it’s me.” He bent over to hug her and the strength of her grip made tears burn behind his eyes. It had really been too long.
“Come in! You’re just in time for dinner.”
“I should have called.”
“You did; you just never mentioned when you’d get here.”
“I wasn’t sure when my leave would start.” And he hadn’t wanted to wait any longer to get back.
Mom dabbed at her eyes with her apron. “I’m so happy you’re here.” She closed the door behind him and called up the stairs. “Aaron! Come down! You’ll never guess who’s here!”
Luke braced himself for the teenager he’d last seen at his high school graduation. He’d managed to get two days’ leave to come up but had to leave the day after the ceremony to make it back to work. It hadn’t given him much time to congratulate his brother.
Naturally, Aaron was on his best behavior then. And Luke hadn’t been around very long.
“What do you mean, you’re leaving already?” Aaron stood on their porch, a cold soda in his hand. His friends were throwing a Frisbee back and forth across the damp yard. Mom’s homemade banner flapped in the breeze, “Congratulations Aaron” painted in black and gold. Matching balloons floated on ribbons tied to the banister.
“I’m sorry, bro. I have to get back tonight.”
“But why? It’s my party.”
Luke bit the inside of his cheek hard enough he tasted copper. How could he explain to Aaron, an innocent teenager, that he had to go undercover in a sex trafficking ring? That there were awful, evil humans that would kidnap young women and even some boys, and force them to sell their bodies?
No, he dealt with the scum of the earth so his family didn’t have to.
“It’s classified, Aaron. I can’t tell you.”
He could see the argument forming on Aaron’s face when Mom stepped onto the porch. “Luke? Do you have everything?”
Aaron spun to face her. “You knew he was leaving in the middle of the party?”
Mom settled her fists on her hips. “I told you he only had two days’ leave. Now hug your brother and wish him luck.”
The sullen grump in a black hoodie at the top of the stairs was a far cry from the subdued graduate trying not to get in trouble before walking across that stage.
“What the hell areyoudoing here?”
