your luck ever since Philadelphia. You practically killed yourself in Cuba. When are you going to move past it?”
“Maybe when those five congressmen have been booted out of office. Maybe when there are finally laws to stop the Magruders from polluting their food with fillers and adulterants. That would be a start.”
“Luke, what happened in Philadelphia wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known. You tried your best.”
“And my best resulted in three dead people.” He wandered to the window, staring out over the bleak view of wet concrete and melting slush. “Whenever I start to laugh, I think about them,” he whispered. “When I hear beautiful music, I am reminded that they can’t hear it too. They are three ghosts who sit on my shoulder wherever I go.”
“And are they good ghosts or bad ghosts?” Gray asked.
“Oh, for pity’s sake, they’re ghosts, Gray! The kind who wake you up at night and steal your joy and make you pray to God for forgiveness. That kind of ghost.”
Slow footsteps indicated Gray was coming up behind him, but Luke kept staring out the window, even when his brother laid a hand on his shoulder. “Then you’re going to have to defeat them. Or turn them into something that inspires you to be a better man.”
Luke pushed away from the window and began unpacking the books. For years Gray had been trying to nudge him toward a life of safe, law-abiding good sense. Obey the rules, stay within the lines, don’t rock the boat. It wasn’t in his nature.
“I really hate the Magruders,” Luke said. “They never paid a dime to those people in Philadelphia.”
“But we did,” Gray said. “Those families were all compensated and signed off on the legal settlements.”
“You paid them. The Magruders got off scot-free. They’ll do anything for money, so I intend to strike where it will hurt. First I’ll knock Clyde out of Congress, then I’ll go after their company. I’ll burn it down and force them to start over.”
“Absolutely not!” Gray lashed out.
Luke let out a snort of laughter. “Don’t be so literal,” he teased. “Of course I won’t actually burn down their factory. I bet it’s fully insured, so where’s the advantage in that? I’ll expose the Magruders for who they really are, ruin their business, and change the laws so that they can never exploit those loopholes again.”
Across the room, Gray still looked at him with that mournful, somber expression. While Luke used to tease Gray about his overly protective ways, Gray had been a hero over the past year. Luke wouldn’t have survived the crucible of imprisonment in Cuba if Gray hadn’t made repeated visits to keep his flagging spirits alive. They were complete opposites, but over the past year Luke had learned to love and admire his older brother.
“Gray, I’m sorry,” he said. “When I was in Cuba, I thought I was going to die. My biggest regret was that I was going to leave this world without making so much as a scratch on it. That wasn’t how I wanted to leave. I told myself that if I made it out of there, I would do something to make the world a better place. I had fifteen months with nothing to do but read the Bible and pray to God. In the end, the only sense I could make of what happened in Philadelphia was that it was a clarion wake-up call. A blast from a trumpet shaking me out of complacency and setting me on a course to do something important. And getting Congress cleaned up will be a good starting point.”
Gray sighed. “Luke, you’ve already accomplished great things. You single-handedly broke up a spy ring in Cuba and stamped out corruption in the War Department. The articles you write for Modern Century go out all over the nation to sway opinion. I spend my time figuring out a better way to sell pepper or paprika, but your stories move the world. I’m proud of you. Dad never said it, but I will.”
Luke paused. Gray was twelve years older than he was, so he’d always been more like a father than a brother, and his opinion meant the world to Luke.
“Thanks for that,” he said, a little embarrassed at the emotion in his voice.
Gray turned away and lifted a thick package wrapped in butcher’s paper from the box he was unpacking. “What’s this?”
The breath in Luke’s lungs froze. “Nothing! Let me have it.” He crossed the office in two steps and