Chapter 158 - Family Reunion and Holiday Celebration (PART 1)
If Luke went to college right now, he would only be 22 when he got his degree four years later.
A 22-year-old sergeant? That would be too unbelievable.
Elsa was 32, and she had only been promoted to sergeant recently.
Luke’s recent achievements were so astonishing that Dustin had subconsciously forgotten his age.
Dustin rolled his eyes and suddenly smiled. “Well, we’ll be getting some new cars. Do you have a favorite model?”
Luke thought for a moment and said, “I’ll just use the same as everyone else. Any car will do for me.”
Dustin nodded his head, satisfied that Luke didn’t get cocky.
The second thing that Dustin talked to Luke about was the robbers that Luke had killed and injured.
But since Luke didn’t have any outrageous requests, Dustin promised to take care of everything for him.
What a nice young man! Dustin remarked inwardly.
Seeing that Dustin had fallen silent, Luke stood up and said, “Boss, I’ll be leaving.”
Dustin made a call after Luke left the office. “Supply division? What are the new cars that you’re giving us?”
Luke found it was still early when he left the police department, so he took a bus home. Selina was already up and was doing some cleaning
Selina was surprised to see him. “That was quick.”
Luke shrugged. “Maybe because I saved Dustin a lot of trouble.”
After they left the house, Luke told Selina about Dustin’s offer in the car. Selina was amused.
She already knew that Luke wouldn’t consider a promotion for the next couple of years.
But she was rather jealous after learning that he would get his own police car.
Police cars were quite good. Moreover, since Luke had won his boss’s favor, he could even use the police car for personal business.
Luke smiled. “But you’re not losing out on anything. You’ll be free to use the Ford whenever you want in the future.”
Thinking for a moment, Selina realized that it did make sense, and she cheered up again.
When they reached the airport, they chatted as they waited for Luke’s family.
Thanks to the good weather, the flight wasn’t delayed, and Luke’s family arrived right on time.
It was quite joyous when they met in the hall.
Claire hopped around in excitement as she clutched at Luke. Joseph looked at his sister scornfully, but was secretly happy too.
Robert and Catherine, on the other hand, greeted Selina first, before Selina greeted their children.
When they left the airport, Selina drove off with Catherine, the kids and the luggage, while Luke and Robert took a cab.
Robert and Luke bickered nonstop in the cab, but Robert was stunned when he saw the villa. “You can afford this?”
Any diligent man in Shackelford would be able to afford a house like this, since Shackelford had plenty of empty land, and anyone could build whatever house they wanted.
But this wasn’t Shackelford; this was Los Angeles, which was right next to Hollywood.
Luke laughed. “It’s a windfall. But let’s not talk about it now. Let’s check your rooms first. I don’t know what you need yet. I only moved in yesterday.”
Robert followed him into the villa in a daze, only to be even more shocked.
This villa wasn’t extremely extravagant; at least, not that Robert could tell.
However, the furniture and appliances inside were all the best products on the market.
He couldn’t afford them even if he saved up for two years.
However, since Luke had said that they would talk about it later, he didn’t ask.
Robert was lost for words when he saw the gigantic bathtub in the backyard outside.
Well, Robert was quite similar to Luke in that neither of them regarded it as a pool.
Then, it was lunch for everyone, which Luke had already prepared.
Many of the ingredients that he had brought over yesterday had already been mixed together, and would be ready as soon as they came out of the oven.
And so, in the cool afternoon breeze, everyone enjoyed roast meat and chicken in the backyard.
Selina lured the two kids into playing in the bathtub. The three of them had a water fight, laughing and shouting.
When they wanted food, they would get Catherine and Luke to deliver it to them.
Of course, Luke was summoned more often, since the kids hadn’t seen him in a long time.
Robert watched Luke deliver a plate of roast meat to Selina with a strange expression, before he asked in a low voice, “Dating your colleague isn’t forbidden here?”
Understanding what Robert was implying, Luke chuckled. “Of course it is, but to me, Selina is more like Claire.”
Robert realized that Luke regarded Selina as a sister.
He finally asked, “What’s the deal with this house? Don’t tell you that you bought it.”
Luke said, “It’s a personal gift from Mr. Takagi, head of Nakatomi Corporation. He offered me a million bucks, but I refused it so he gave me this.”
Robert and Catherine both exclaimed, “What?”
A million dollars was a huge amount of money for most Americans.
Luke smiled. “I saved him from robbers and helped his company recover bearer bonds worth 640 million. This isn’t an excessive reward for that, is it?”
Robert and Catherine couldn’t believe it.
Robert came back to his senses first. “What’s going on? Why didn’t you say anything before?”
They talked a couple of times every week. Robert was surprised that Luke hadn’t mentioned it earlier.
Luke shrugged and said, “It was supposed to be a surprise. Besides, it happened on Christmas Eve.”
Robert and Catherine were stunned yet again. It happened three days ago? No wonder they hadn’t known anything.
Luke told them the story, skipping over the details. He exaggerated Detective John’s contribution, and claimed that the New York officer took down a dozen terrorists on his own.
Catherine was more or less convinced, but Robert was suspicious, because he felt that Luke was more likely the one to have hunted down the terrorists.
But they were both reassured to know that all the robbers were accounted for, and that 80% of them were killed or heavily wounded.
Those robbers were certainly done for.
Although they had only been pretending to be terrorists, what they had done was precisely an act of terrorism.
In the current climate, any criminal in America that had links to terrorism would be heavily punished without the possibility of parole.
