“Where’s Rand?” Brylee blinked a couple of times and looked at the empty spot beside her on the bed.
“He’s making coffee. We woke up a little early but didn’t want to disturb you until we had to.” I smiled and took her hand.
“I slept like a rock.” She squeezed my hand and sat up in bed. “I thought I would toss and turn all night, but once I fell asleep, I was out.”
“Good.” I nodded and let go of her hand. “Let’s have a cup of coffee and then we all have to get ready for work.”
“Sounds good.” She slid to the edge of the bed. “It was really nice to wake up next to you—I hope that doesn’t sound weird.”
“No, not at all.” I slid over next to Brylee and pulled her into my arms. “I really like seeing your beautiful face in the morning.”
“I don’t think it’s very beautiful at this point.” She giggled and sank into my embrace.
“It’s always beautiful.” I leaned back and stroked her cheek. “The most beautiful sight in the world.”
I couldn’t resist kissing her soft, pouty lips one time before we went to the kitchen. I was growing extremely attached to Brylee. I wanted to wake up beside her every day—I wanted to start every single morning with a kiss that made fireworks explode in my head. We weren’t there yet, but I hoped we would get there one day. She was too perfect to sleep alone, even if we didn’t spend the night tangled in a passionate embrace. I just liked being with her. All of the lonely nights—all of the dates that went nowhere—she was the one I had been waiting for. I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that she understood how special she was every day that we were able to spend together.
“Okay, you two.” Rand walked into the bedroom and cleared his throat. “We have to get ready for work.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I chuckled under my breath and stood up.
Rand immediately took my spot on the bed and started kissing Brylee once I walked into the kitchen. I couldn’t say anything because I certainly didn’t have the power to resist her lips when they were begging for mine. I poured three cups of coffee and once they were finished, they came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. We made small talk, completely ignoring the topic from the night before, and then it was time for Rand and I to go back to our apartment. I hated leaving Brylee, but duty called. The three of us ended up leaving at the same time—without me staging a meeting for once—and we made out a little bit in the elevator before it got to the bottom floor. I barely had time to pull my lips away before the doors opened.
“Okay, I really have to get to work now.” Brylee squeezed my hand and giggled.
“We all do.” Rand pushed the button to hold the elevator door open so she could exit first.
“But first we need some breakfast.” I patted Rand on the shoulder once we exited the elevator.
We said goodbye to Brylee again and headed to the truck. Our favorite diner was packed, so we decided to grab a couple of sausage biscuits and eat them on the way to the station. I was glad to see that it was relatively quiet when we got to work. The investigators still didn’t have any new information on the warehouse fire but expected something back that afternoon. We lounged around mos
t of the morning, played a few games of poker for pocket change, and finally got a call around ten for a car accident. It wasn’t very severe but we did a little cleanup at the scene before heading back to the station. There were a couple of small fires in the afternoon, but nothing that was out of the ordinary. It was shaping up to be a pretty slow day, and I hoped the night would bring more of the same.
Later that evening
“We got an update on the arson at the warehouse.” Chief Johnson walked into the common room and tossed a file on the table. “I know you two were curious about it.”
“Did you get a positive identification on the woman we found?” Rand reached for the folder and picked it up.
“Yeah, her name was Dana Brooks.” Chief Johnson shrugged. “The police have been trying to reach out to her family, but her parents are deceased and she wasn’t married.”
“That sucks.” I shook my head and sighed. “She disappeared and nobody even noticed?”
“I don’t know. Until we know more about her, we won’t be able to figure out why she was in that warehouse to begin with. She didn’t own it and as far as we can tell, she didn’t have any connection to the owners at all.” Chief Johnson sighed.
“Do the investigators think she was the one who started the fire?” Rand flipped a page in the report.
“Everything seems to point to that.” Chief Johnson nodded. “We just don’t know why.”
“Wait a second.” Rand’s face went blank. “It says she worked for Dunkirk Financial.”
“Dunkirk Financial—Dana. Fuck!” I slid my chair over beside Rand so I could look at the report.
“Do you guys know something I don’t?” Chief Johnson tilted his head to the side.
“I don’t know.” Rand’s tone became hurried and he started flipping through the pages faster. “We have a friend—she works at Dunkirk Financial. She mentioned that one of her co-workers got fired the other day and she hasn’t been able to get in touch with her. Yeah, this has to be her—holy shit.”
“We have to call Brylee.” I stood up and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket.