Page 62 of Her Righteous Protector

Zephyr twisted his head to look from Lark to Max. “Is she one of the workers on your team?” he asked Max. “Is she a SEAL?”

Lark’s laughter filled the room.

“No, son, she’s not a SEAL. You’ll meet my friends when we all move to my house in Virginia.”

Zephyr twisted his head again, this time to look up at Hannah. “And you’re coming too, right?”

Max grimaced. He wondered if there would ever come a day when Zephyr wouldn’t need so much reassurance.

“Absolutely, I’m coming with you,” Hannah grinned down at the boy. “But let’s not forget our manners. We have a visitor, so why don’t we ask Miss Lark to sit down and I get us all a drink, what do you think of that?”

Zephyr grabbed Hannah’s hand. “Okay.”

Max looked over at Lark and realized she hadn’t missed one bit of the interaction, and knowing her, she knew exactly what it all meant. “Lark, before we head over to the living room, why don’t you come over to the dining room and look over a couple of files I have, then we can get some drinks, how does that sound?”

“That sounds great,” Lark said.

“Have you eaten anything?” Hannah asked Lark.

“I have dinner reservations with an old friend in two hours.”

Hannah looked from Lark to Max, then down at Zephyr who was avidly watching all of the adults. “Hey, Zephyr, wouldn’t it be cool if you helped me to get some cheese and crackers for everyone to go with the drinks?”

“Can we use squirt cheese?”

What is it with this kid and squirt cheese? That shit’s disgusting.

“We’ll see,” Hannah said as she guided him to the kitchen.

“Ahhhhh,” Zephyr whined as he followed her. “That always means no.”

Lark laughed. “I pray to God that Taja and Nazy will sound exactly like your son does.”

“Like a brat?” Max asked with a grin.

Lark beamed up at him. “Hell, Max, you know your kid is cute as hell. He’s not a brat in the slightest, but he sure is outgoing and not afraid to ask for what he wants. That’s what I want for the Nuri girls.”

Max waved her toward the dining room table and pulled out a chair. “When did you last see Samira and the girls?”

“Two weeks ago. They are staying with a family in Santa Clara, near San Francisco. They’re an older couple affiliated with a church who have been taking in refugees for decades. Mom made sure that this area has a strong Muslim community so that Samira would have a good network of people she and her girls could rely on.”

“That’s good,” Max said with relief.

“That’s my mom for you. She had that set up before we left Afghanistan.”

Max gave Lark a close look. “So you and your mom are an awful lot alike, are you?”

“Not at all. I have no appetite for taking over the world,” Lark snorted.

Max laughed. “Yeah, you only want to change it.”

She gave him a disgruntled look. “Anyway, as I was starting to explain, they’ve already started attending English classes, and Samira found someone she once knew in Afghanistan at the community center. So far things are going really well.”

Lark leaned over the table and pulled one of the manila files toward her. “Is this regarding our favorite duo?” she asked.

Max sat down next to her and whispered. “Zephyr’s never met or heard about them, but I still don’t want him to overhear anything about them, so let’s not mention their names.”

Lark nodded. Max opened the file. The first page was a printout with the three different crimes that were attributed to Bob and Peggy. Lark pointed to the top bullet point. “I went to Detective Roberts at the first district in Chicago. I bypassed Evanston’s police department even though I have one contact there who is pretty solid, but she’s only got four years on the force. Detective Roberts has worked twenty-two years as a detective, he doesn’t want a promotion because he hates politics, all he wants to do is solve crimes.”