“She’s getting to know all your preferences,” Duke said.
“That’s how a good waitress earns big tips,” she said and winked at Wade. It made him uncomfortable, and that made her and Duke smile.
“Can I buy you a slice of pie?” Duke asked him.
“No, thanks, I’m trying to cut down,” Wade said and watched Mandy as she went back to the counter and joined her father.
“This is the first time I’ve seen you out of uniform,” Duke said.
“But I see you’re still wearing yours,” Wade said. “Why’d you send those guys over to replace our windows?”
“It was an eyesore,” Duke said.
“You got a problem with plywood illustrated with cops giving it to each other up the ass?”
“We can’t have our police station looking like a condemned building.”
Our police station. It struck Wade as an interesting choice of words. He had some more of his coffee while he pondered it.
“I don’t know if I can accept your generosity.”
“Sure you can.”
“Accepting gifts from felons is what got the MCU in trouble,” Wade said. “Believe me, I ought to know.”
“It’s not a payoff or a bribe. It’s reparations. I may have been indirectly responsible for the damage that was done, so it’s only right that I should fix it.”
“I’m glad to hear you’re interested in doing the right thing.”
“Besides, the station doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the community.”
Wade couldn’t argue with that, and he appreciated the sentiment, even if it was coming from a murderer, a drug dealer, an extortionist, and a pimp.
“Well, Duke, when you put it that way, all I can do is thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure,” Duke said.
And Wade knew that if word got around that Duke installed the glass, and it surely would, then nobody would risk tossing a brick through it or shooting it up. Duke was bringing Wade under his protection, only without the weekly fee he imposed on all of the other merchants in Darwin Gardens.
“You’re almost making me feel welcome,” Wade said.
“You are,” Duke said. “Within limits.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“I’m sure we will,” Duke said, then pointed across the street with his fork. “Who’s that little girl?”
Wade followed his gaze and saw Brooke and Billy in the station through the gleaming, newly installed window.
“My daughter,” Wade said. “I have her for the weekend.”
Duke looked at Wade as if seeing him for the first time. “You brought her here?”
“This is where I live,” Wade said.
Duke finished up his pie and started working on the crumbs. Mandy came over with the coffeepot and freshened their cups.
“You know something, Tom?” Duke said. “I like you a hell of a lot better when you aren’t wearing a badge.”
“I’m always wearing it, Duke.”
“I think he was born with one,” Mandy said.
“You poor bastard,” Duke said and shook his head at Wade. “It’s going to be the death of you some day.”
Wade nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”