Fuck.

Ty pulled in breath. Then he asked, “Why does she wanna talk to me?”

“She hasn’t explained that, sir. She just requested your contact number. Obviously, we can’t give her that information unless you agree.”

“Give it,” Ty stated.

“Sorry?”

“Give it to her.”

Pause then, “Oh. Okay, well thank you –”

Ty flipped his phone shut.

An hour and a half later, it rang again. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the display and saw an LA area code.

He sucked in breath.

Then he flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Walker.”

“Tyrell Walker?”

“Yep.”

Pause then, “This is Jolinda Hayes, I’m –”

“Know who you are.”

Silence from Jolinda Hayes.

Ty wasn’t silent. “Know what he lived through, all of it, bein’ inside and not wantin’ to go back, bein’ framed, knowin’ he was goin’ down and why. Don’t know you; don’t know the kind of life you’ve lived but I do know it’s doubtful you lived through somethin’ like that. I know why he did what he did too. It was his choice. It was him takin’ his power back. It was him doin’ what he could to save you from livin’ through that hell with him. It was not the right choice but it was a compassionate one.”

When he stopped speaking, he heard quiet tears and he silently listened to them for a f**k of a long time.

Then he was done listening so he called, “Mrs. Hayes.”

I tearful hiccough then, “Yes, Mr. Walker?”

“Ty,” he corrected then didn’t hesitate and continued. “It’s too late but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there to savor. Your son got his shit together and died a good man and everyone in the country knows it. That’s worth somethin’ so savor it.”

“Rah… rah… right.”

“Right. Now, get a piece of paper and a pen. I’m gonna give you my wife’s number. You wanna talk, she’ll listen. You wanna laugh, she’s f**kin’ funny. You never call her, that’s your choice. But way I see it, we’re family and my wife does the welcoming.”

Another hiccough, some noise then, “I, um… Ty, I have a piece of paper.”

Ty gave her Lexie’s phone number and name.

Then Jolinda Hayes pulled it together and said quietly, “Thank you, Ty, for taking my call.”

“Lady Luck finally saw fit to shine her light on me but life taught me to share. Welcome to the light.” That got him a quiet sob into which he said quietly, “Mrs. Hayes, call my wife.”

“Rah… rah… right.”

“Take care.”

“You… you too, Ty.”

He flipped his phone shut, opened it, called his woman and told her she might get a call from Jolinda Hayes and why at the same time he hoped to f**k she wouldn’t burst into tears again.

She didn’t. She asked him what he wanted for dinner.

He told her he’d eat whatever she made and flipped the phone shut after hearing her tell him she loved him and returning the sentiment and then he got back to work.

* * * * *

Four weeks later…

Ty stood at the basin brushing his teeth wondering where the f**k his wife was.

It was time to shower.

Unusually, as in, for the first time ever, when they got up, he went to their bathroom, she wandered down the stairs.

He was about to bend, spit, rinse and go find her when he saw her in the mirror, wandering in the door behind him, her eyes on him, her body in a pair of loose drawstring shorts and a tight little tee, her arms behind her back, her face wearing an expression he couldn’t read.

He continued to brush as through the mirror he watched her slowly make her way across the bathroom to him then he lost sight of her when she fitted herself to his back.

Then he felt her lips move on his skin and he knew she was tracing his tat.

He put a hand to the edge of the vanity counter, bent his neck, spit, rinsed, shoved his toothbrush in the holder, looked at himself in the mirror and rumbled, “Lexie.”

Her hand appeared, coming around his side and his eyes dropped to see she was holding a white stick. She placed it on the counter by the sink.

There was a little window in the stick.

And there was a little, pink plus sign in the window.

His body went still.

He felt her lips move against the skin of his back as she whispered, “I’m pregnant, honey.”

Ty Walker closed his eyes because he couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t even see her and her light was shining so bright, it seared his retinas, beat through his skin, his tissue, warming him straight to the marrow of his bones.

When he felt her movement, his eyes opened and Ty watched as her other arm snaked around his waist, her fingers light on the skin of his abs when he felt her lips go away and her chin rest gentle on his back and she called, “Ty?”

“Boy, Julius Tatum. Girl, Ella Alexi,” Ty declared and felt his wife still at his back.

Then she asked, “Did you just name our future child?”

“Yep.”

“Uh, honey lumpkins, that’s the kinda thing that’s discussed.”

“You get the next one.”

Silence.

Then, “All right, baby, I can live with that.”

His gaze moved to his eyes in the mirror.

Then he smiled.

Then he moved and he moved in order to take a shower with his wife.

* * * * *

Lexie

Two weeks later…

I walked into the diner, already knowing what I was going to order.

And it was a miracle when my step didn’t stutter when I saw Detective Chace Keaton sitting at the booth at the back.

It was the first time I’d seen him since that day in my closet except once when he was on television, caught by the news reporters walking into Carnal Police Department.

The media circus had died down, the reporters moving on to feed on fresher meat.

But things in Carnal were still shifting and hopefully this was in order to settle and not to rock again.

There were four police officers who kept their jobs at CPD. Chace and Frank were two of those four. Three had been indicted as had a clerk and the secretary who worked for Fuller and the detective pool. The rest of the Carnal Police Force had been discharged. Detective Darren Newcomb was one who’d been discharged but he bought this rather than an indictment because he made a deal and was turning evidence.

Arnold Fuller had been stripped of his position due to multiple counts of corruption and mishandling the investigation of a local serial killer including delayed responses to dispatch his officers when two of his female citizens were reported missing as well as his pending indictments for corruption, conspiracy and providing false evidence during an out-of-state murder investigation.