AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"An anniversary for what?" She twisted the small hoop in her cartilage as her breath broke goosebumps out across Teddi's skin.
"Of losing us. Each one is for a year since." The strange ritual didn't hold the sting it had since the last time she visited her piercer. Turning on her side, she traced her thumb across the beauty marks on Vera's chin. She was quiet as she let her explore down onto her collarbone. The quiet of the room became a warm cocoon to wrap themselves in.
"I… I missed you too. I think when things were rough and I didn't know if I could make it through some new training or undercover op, I held onto that missing like an anchor. Because if I could survive that, then I could survive anything. Did you ever go see the northern lights?" Teddi paused her movements, surprised by her admission and the question.
"I did. I left on my twenty-third birthday for an entire year. Took my truck to the West Coast and saw the ocean for the first time in California. I drove up to the Puget Sound and spent a few days whale watching. I wandered around Canada until I finally hit far enough north to reach Alaska. I watched the lights there.”
"Were they what you hoped?" Vera’s smile was soft but sad.
"More than I dreamed of. I felt like I was transported to another world. I wanted to climb inside and ride them somewhere wild and new." It was her most cherished moment of the time she spent trying to find a way to breathe that didn't hurt that muscle beneath her ribs. "I worked a summer up there. It was amazing. More than either of us ever dreamed it would be. I felt…”
“What?” Vera trailed the tip of her finger down the ridge of her nose.
"I felt free. Like a lung able to expand to its full capacity. You know we never went anywhere when I was a kid, it wasn't something my dad wanted to spend money on. But the second I crossed the state line it was like I escaped a net I didn't know I was caught in. There was no one else to count on or to answer to. I had myself and it was lonely and difficult, but amazing." The nights she slept under the stars or rented a cabin in the backwoods for weeks at a time were her favorite. Reading books she found in thrift stores along the way, making campfire dinners while she drank warm wine. It began mending a hole that pain had left and she was proud of who she became in those months away. She made her new dreams come true, even if she had to do it by herself. "I wish you could've seen it all."
"Me too. I'm glad you went and got to do everything you always talked about doing. I just don't understand how you ended up back home." She laughed quietly.
Teddi stopped her hand as it traced her brow, intertwining their fingers together. "I realized that as much as I loved seeing everywhere else, I felt settled in Fort Collins. I wasn't ready to give up on the things I started there. I went back and finished my degree. Got my private investigator certification and then I found Mackey and J and I've never looked back."
"I'm glad you went back then. I wanted you to have a place to call home." Vera squeezed their hands together as she looked at where they joined. The alternating light and dark of their skin tones reminded Teddi of other times they had laid together, whispering secrets in the space between their bodies. But this moment was better because it was new. They were new. She tipped her chin and pressed her lips against Vera's softly. Vera filled her senses as their bodies came together. The kiss stayed gentle and slow. An exploration of giving instead of taking.
“We need to call them back,” Vera murmured as she pulled back. Teddi felt reality crash down around them once again. The moment was broken but her hope flourished. Where Vera always struggled to express what she felt with her words, she was always able to say with her body. Teddi knew a wall was broken down. There would be many more to climb, to obliterate and conquer but she was up to the task. She would do whatever it took to find Vera again and make her understand that she was it for her. She was all she ever wanted, ever dreamed of and she wasn’t letting her go again. Coming together wasn’t just release for them, it had always been soul-deep and she was ready to entangle their souls so tightly that no amount of fears or secrets could separate them.
“C’mon, we need to get cleaned up first.” Teddi didn’t look at the laptop before pulling Vera into the shower.
She didn’t think about it as their bodies rubbed against one another and Vera pulled her nipples into her mouth, warm and wet. No other thoughts filled her mind when she knelt between Vera’s legs and rolled her clit between her lips, watching her fall apart as she moaned. No one else existed when Vera helped her fuck herself with the same fingers still covered in Vera’s come. There were no killers to find or ghosts to fight when they put all of themselves into a kiss that said everything they couldn’t.
Chapter 29
Vera
Thirty-six hours. That’s what Mackey gave them before she called in backup.
Teddi decided to text her boss instead of calling them back. It was hard to do when they couldn't keep their hands off one another from the shower to the bedroom. Vera nearly broke when Teddi ran her finger beneath her bra strap, her hand lingering on her overheated skin long enough to make her want to strip all over again. She stared unabashedly as she slipped on her underwear and slid her jeans over her full ass. Her hands itched, wanting to worship it again. The air was full of tension but it was different. What was made of shattered glass only hours before was now a gentle landing for Vera to fall back on.
There was a wall now demolished between them and she was glad for it. The way it seemed to shift some of the weight off of her chest made breathing easier. Teddi was the one thing she’d never been able to resist. Doing it for ten years had taken everything out of her. Checking for her jeep in the supermarket parking lot when she visited home, scanning busy streets when she would come and go from the house. For years she fought tooth and nail to avoid the weight of her gaze because she knew she would break. Suddenly breaking didn’t seem so bad.
Maybe Teddi was right. They couldn’t change the past but together they could pave a new way forward. Somehow, in some way, it felt possible. Her stomach fluttered at the fragile hope that filled it. Teddi was stronger than she gave her credit for. She didn't balk in the face of Vera's pain. Didn't deviate or shy away when she pulled back the cover on the hideous truth she felt crawling inside her. At least part of it.
“It’s about twenty feet ahead,” Teddi called.
She’d pushed it off long enough. They were near to the location where Sam found Alex’s body and Vera felt steadier than expected. Maybe it was the way she knew Teddi would be by her side no matter what. Or maybe it was her refusal to let the person who attacked her win. Mackey would give her thirty-six hours and not a minute more. She was going to close out this investigation before then.
Pushing back a large branch, she stopped at the lip of a ravine. It looked like a giant had scooped the earth out with its hands, leaving a long gouge behind. Fallen trees, scattered bushes, and mounds of dirt decorated the forgotten area.
“There.” Checking the coordinates, she pointed down towards a flat spot at the bottom of the fifteen-foot-long area.
Brushing her knuckles against the back of her hand, Teddi stood beside her. “You ready?”
Her hair was braided back, her earrings twinkling in the shadowy forest. Pink pinched her cheeks where the cold kissed them. The curve of her jaw above the cowl she wore was regal and strong. She was strong. And so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. Vera held onto each detail like they were the last good things she would see for a long time.
“I’m ready.”
The decline was easily managed but covered in land that looked like it hadn’t been touched in generations. Brushing away stray leaves that clung to them, they stopped in the center of the space. There was little unique about the area. There was no blood or remnants of what happened there. It was average and dull and somehow that made Vera feel worse about the fact that her cousin was left there.
“This is the exact location.” The scattered reports did little to shed light on the initial crime scene beyond the coordinates. He’d been there though.
Vera tried to feel him. To sense Alex in the earth or the trees or hanging around as if he stayed long after his body was taken away. There was nothing but ear-ringing silence. “Let’s take photographs first and then walk it to see if anything got left behind.”
