a perk. I elbowed the guy in the windpipe and became a liability.”
“And did a week in juvenile hall for attempted manslaughter,” Ellery added darkly, because stories like this from Jackson’s past were one of the reasons he defended kids like Ty Townsend and Tage Dobrevk for free.
“Who got you out?” Henry asked, his voice neutral.
“Jade and Kaden’s mom,” Jackson said softly. “She was a paralegal in a public defender’s office. Didn’t make much, but boy, she put the fear of the law into us.”
She’d also given him the love and stability his life had been missing until Kaden had brought Jackson home. The debt Jackson felt toward Toni Cameron was not something he could ever repay or work off. It had taken Ellery a while to understand that Jackson’s entire life had become dedicated to making the sacrifices she’d made for all three of them absolutely worth it.
“Good,” Henry said softly. “I’ll light a candle for her if I ever go to mass again.”
Jackson gave a sweet smile. “I think she’d like that.” The smile faded. “Why do you ask?”
Henry shrugged. “Just… just an odd thing to tell a guy like Avi Kovacs.”
Jackson was silent for a moment. Then he said, “Don’t you think the bad guys need confession?”
Henry grunted, and Jackson tried again.
“Didn’t you?”
“I was nowhere near—”
Jackson’s turn to grunt. “No, no, you weren’t anywhere near an Avi Kovacs. I’m just saying that when people are being human to you, you try to be human back. Even the bad guys. Every now and then someone pays it forward, but even if they don’t, it’s like Avi said. He gave away that thing that tried to be moral when he was twelve years old. You need to decide right now what the price is inside you.” He shrugged, but Ellery knew it wasn’t that easy. “Being human to a guy who’s about to go away for twenty-five years and who just made our job a little easier is not anywhere near that price, you know?”
Henry made a thoughtful sound. “You never think about it in the military. You assume the people telling you where to go and who to shoot have done the math. But here….”
Jackson’s eyes slid to Ellery’s before they refocused on the road. “Second thoughts, Junior?”
“God no,” Henry answered smartly. “But I do have a small request.”
“What do you need?” Ellery asked, knowing what it would be.
“Absolutely not,” Jackson told him, because Jackson wasn’t stupid either.
“Next time there’s going to be high-speed chases and daring rescues out apartment windows, you have got to let me in.”
“That doesn’t happen every day,” Jackson said with such a straight face that Ellery had to look at him twice.
“That ends with a y,” Ellery finished dryly. “Henry, I’ll tell you what. I will have you on speed dial so I can tell you what we’re doing next. How’s that.”
“That’s a deal,” Henry said smugly. “Jackson? Piss up a rope. I’m your backup, dammit. Treat me like it.”
“His boyfriend’s gonna kill us,” Jackson muttered to Ellery, and Ellery just laughed.
LATER—AFTER Henry was dropped off at the office and Billy came by with the car, Jackson and Ellery took an early day home.
“Is everybody getting nice and rehabilitated?” Galen asked, his voice arid.
“No,” Ellery told him, and then heat crept up his cheeks. “I mean, yes, we are both healing nicely, thank you, but that’s not why we’re going home early on a Friday.”
Galen’s eyes lit up. “Could we… could it possibly be… are you two having a date night?”
“It’s an anniversary of sorts,” Ellery responded with dignity, and Galen smiled back.
“You know what happened in mid-July?” he asked.
“The heat spiked to 110?”
Galen made a face. “Yes, but it was a dry heat,” he returned. “Besides that.”
“Not a clue,” Ellery said. “Besides perhaps that may have been about the time Jackson got so bored he took an online criminal-justice class specializing in children’s crimes, because why be a lawyer when you can take all the classes, right?”
Galen snorted. “Of course. But no, this was for me. See, two years ago in April, John and I met in Florida. I was in a really bad place, and John was coming out of a worse one. And we did all the things we weren’t supposed to do if you’re recovering addicts, and we fell in love. But John had to run his company, so he came back here, and I still had rehab, so I stayed out there. I could barely walk back then,