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I blinked, my eyes searching the room.
I found an officer that my dad had partnered with his rookie year.
I pointed at him.
“You were on your first call together, he told me. He said that you were scared out of your mind, and nearly drowned a man with an Icee when he tried to rob a convenience store. He said that you shoved your entire cup into his face and wasted every single drop.” I grinned. “The store employee made you pay for it.”
The man, Chris Tomlinson, smiled.
I found another man in the crowd. This one on the SWAT team.
“And you, Miller,” I said, pointing at him. “You and my dad ran a warrant once. It turns out that the man was a transvestite, and you were looking for a man, and he was dressed as a woman. You let him go and only realized later what had happened.”
Miller chuckled.
“I have thousands of stories in my head,” I said. “That’s what happens when you don’t forget anything. Some say it’s a curse because there’s just so much information to sift through. But me? I’m happy that I can remember so much with such vivid detail. That means that I’ll never forget my dad. He’ll always be right here.” I patted my chest. “So if you’re ever in need of remembering, I’ll tell you something about him.”
With that, I went back to my seat and disappeared back into the shadows.
There was a long silence and then people started to clap.
I looked down at my lap, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.
Today was a bad day.
***
“What are you thinking about?”
I started, surprised to find that Derek was still wide awake.
“Uhh.” I swallowed. “I was thinking about my dad’s funeral.”
He moved until he had an arm hooked around my waist, then hauled me backward across the bed until I was in his arms.
“Who do you think it is, Avery?” he asked then. “Do you think it’s Rachel?”
I had no idea anymore.
The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But this has been happening for years between me and Rachel. She’s never even gotten violent before the time she pushed me. And even then, it was due in part to an accident. I have a feeling she would’ve never pushed me at all if she knew what would happen.”
“But…” he urged.
“But,” I continued, “she’s been very vocal on how much she dislikes me. She’s also gone out of her way to let me know that she hates me. And she is now being charged with attempted murder. She might very well be pissed off enough to hit me with a car.”
He made a grunting sound of agreement, sliding my hair back over my shoulder so he could get to the bare skin of my neck.
His lips ran against the skin, from shoulder to shoulder, as he ran his palm up and down the length of my outer thigh.
I squirmed until I was pressed fully against him, causing him to growl.
“I don’t know what is going on,” he said. “But I have some people working on it. And Lynn’s working on it. From what my dad tells me, Lynn’s got his own sources that even he can’t touch. But… I would like to go talk to this woman that used to date your dad. I’d like to hear it myself what was happening with the insurance. Something’s missing here.”
I agreed.
But I had a feeling I wouldn’t find out what.
If she didn’t want to talk about it, there was no way that I could make her.
I sighed deeply into Derek’s neck. “This is a mess,” I told him. “Are you sure that you want to enter into this with me?”
I’d been teasing, of course. I knew that Derek wouldn’t let me go on my own now. He cared about me.
“Yes,” he answered simply.
His voice sounded lazy and drowsy, as if he was fighting sleep just because I was awake.
“Go to bed, Derek,” I ordered.
He chuckled, his chest rumbling with his amusement.
“I’ll go to bed just as soon as you do,” he teased.
I turned around in his arms, moving until my face was pressed into the divot of his chest where his pectoral muscles separated.
His chest hair tickled my nose as I pressed a kiss to the skin there.
He gathered me in closer, his hand on my neck.
“I’ve loved you for a really long time, you know,” I said softly. “Even though I’m good with details, I can’t pinpoint an exact time that it happened. One day, I just woke up, and I knew.”
His heart started to pound.
I could feel the hard, fast beats against my lips.
“I…”
His phone went off, signaling a SWAT call.
My heart started to race for an altogether different reason then.
He groaned and rolled over onto his back, taking me with him.
