Mako (The Mako Saga: Book 1) Read Free Page B

receive this package, far longer than it should’ve ever taken. Had he actually bothered to show up at the court date when all of this had become final, he’d have had them there on the spot but he wanted no part of that. There had been nothing left to say, nothing left to divvy up, and in the end, nothing left to fight about. So the notion of standing in front of a judge just to hash it out all over again had seemed like little more than a painful exercise in futility. He’d done and said all he’d planned to by that point, and bottom line: he just wanted it over. True, everything had been made official at the drop of the gavel on that early February morning back in Tallahassee, but now—after all the clerical screw-ups, mailing mishaps, and address changes—the physical proof of the closure he’d so desperately longed for had finally arrived.
    Shooting a thoughtful gaze to the picture of his parents on the wall, Lee billowed a hard sigh as his fingers ripped through the envelope’s gluey seal to remove the documents inside. Slowly sliding them out into view, he followed the list of names and dates down the top page—past the judge’s stamp and docket number—until his eyes eventually found the only three words that meant anything to him; “Dissolution of Marriage.”
    Taking a quick pass through the forms to make sure everything was in order, Lee tossed them onto the desktop and sank back into the chair, which let out an eerie creak with his shifting weight. Now and forever, it was officially over.
    “I’m a cowboy… on a steel horse I ride, ” Jon Bon Jovi’s muffled voice wailed from Lee’s jeans, snapping him from his reflective trance. “And I’m wanted… wanted … dead or alive!”
    Retrieving the phone from his pocket, Lee slid his finger straight to the “answer” button, without so much as a glance at the Caller ID.
    “What’s up, Dic?”
    “Oh look, a cop joke,” Danny Tucker moaned at the other end of the line. “How wonderfully original.”
    “If the gumshoe fits,” Lee cackled again.
    “Wow, you’re just full of zingers today, aren’t you?”
    Lee shook his head and smiled. “How ya doin’, Danny?”
    “Just another gorgeous day in food stamp paradise, bro. How about you?”
    “‘Bout the same,” Lee muttered back. “How’s the job search goin’, anyway?”
    “It’s going,” Danny balked. “Not nearly as fast as I’d like, but it’s going.”
    “Any new leads?”
    “Maybe. I got a line on some stuff down south earlier this week, but it’ll be a while before I know anything. Also, a buddy of mine at Atlanta PD says he might know of some stuff up there, but beyond that… nada.”
    “How about the feds thing?”
    “Which one?” Danny asked.
    “The one in Quantico,” said Lee. “You told me about it a few weeks back.”
    “Eh, we’ll see,” Danny huffed. “I’m supposed to hear something later this week, but I’m not exactly holding my breath.”
    “Yeah well, fingers crossed anyway,” said Lee. “In the meantime, any chance you could pick up some reserve duty hours with the Sheriff’s Office in Tally? I mean, you got let go because of budget cuts, so it’s not like you left there on bad terms or anything. Tell ‘em you’ll work the State Fair, for cryin’ out loud. Everybody hates that detail, right?”
    “My old sergeant is keeping his ear to the ground for me, but there’s just no money, man. Everybody’s tightening their belts right now and there’s barely enough money to pay the guys they’ve got, much less bring on anyone else—reserve hours or otherwise. As for off-duty details, those are being snapped up like hotcakes by the people on staff, whether they want to work them or not, simply because opportunities to make a few extra bucks are so few and far between these days, especially with Christmas right around the corner and most of those guys having families.” Danny sighed hard. “I’d be screwed right now if it weren’t for