"It's a long story, Cy," Luke told me. "Most of the blame falls on my parents, but I kinda wanted to brag about my kid to my little brother."
Faith immediately hopped off the bed and walked over with her arm stretched out. "Nice to meet you, Uncle John," she said.
John took her hand and shook once. "Yep, you are definitely my brother's little girl. I'm very sorry it took me so long to meet you, Faith."
Zeke chuckled and flopped over on the bed. "Luke also called you his boyfriend, Cy."
"Oh, trust me, I noticed," I assured the kid.
"I pretty much gave him the quick version," Luke explained. "Considering that the last time I saw my brother was before Faith was born, I have a feeling that there's going to be a whole lot of surprises."
"Like Violet?" Faith asked, smiling just a little too big.
"I already heard he's dating a supermodel," John said. Then he looked at me. "I'm pretty sure you're not the other model, so are you the doctor?"
"Shrink," I told him. "Technically, yes, I'm a doctor. I'm just the lazy kind who prefers to do more talking than working."
"Mom says he's humble," Zeke added.
I laughed. "Are you trying to get your mother -" I paused as a blue light flashed through the windows and across the walls of the room. Immediately after, a red one did the same thing.
We all shared a look, then Zeke hurried over to the window. "Cy, there are like four cop cars coming up the driveway."
"Shit," Luke grumbled under his breath. "Everyone stay here. I'll see what the hell they want."
"Like hell you will," I said as I followed him out of the room and up the hall. "Doesn't this town only have like four cops?"
"Yeah, per shift," Luke said, never slowing down.
But when we reached the stairs, I saw the kids and Luke's brother following behind us. I wasn't exactly surprised, but I was more worried about what was going on downstairs. I hadn't heard anyone scream, so there couldn't be too big of an emergency, could there?
In the living room, the lights were even more obvious. Darnell, Berto, and Billy had all come in from the back yard. Cessily and Violet were nowhere to be seen, while Ash was telling everyone that he sure hoped this was some misunderstanding. Naturally, all of the women were talking, and the sound of conversation made it hard to pick anything out of it.
I looked over to catch Darnell's eye, then pointed back at the stairs. "That's Luke's brother," I called over to him. "Make sure they know."
Darnell nodded, clearly understanding that I was talking mostly about Billy. If things went sideways, I didn't want the poor guy caught up in the middle of it. Then again, the guy had been missing for a little too long, so if he had brought trouble with him, Blaze would be the man to know how to deal with it.
Then a voice rang out, amplified by a speaker of some kind. "Would the homeowner please step forward. This is the police, and we have had a complaint."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Ash snarled under his breath, and then all of us were moving for the door.
That made the women follow. Luke and I made it out first, but Ash was only a second behind. After him, all of the dozens upon dozens of guests came next. Women moved to the left and the right, filling up the porch, but it seemed that Violet had already stepped up to identify herself. Naturally, Cessily was right beside her.
"Vi?" Luke called out.
"It's a noise complaint," Violet called back.
"What?" a woman asked. "But we weren't even being loud."
"The music," one of the cops said. "It seems your neighbor can hear it from his place."
"There wasn't any music really," someone else mumbled.
On my other side, another woman said, "It had to be Meredith and Jodi. They're just pissed because they got kicked out."
"Have you ever seen this many cops for anything?"
"We weren't doing anything wrong."
