Chapter Eleven Brad #2
She shifted over so I could join her. I sat and watched her pull up a file on her computer that had little snippets of footage.
“This here”—she pressed play, and I recognized Maria’s bracelet as it came into the shots as she handed out samples of beer—“is when she first spots him.” She pointed at the back of a man’s head.
“Watch when he touches this guy’s shoulder.
” I could see his hand, and sure as hell, he had a green outline on his thumbnail.
“And here.” She started another clip, and he was walking through the crowd but was smart enough to keep his head down for all the cameras.
He even evaded their body cameras, keeping his face tipped away.
“And here.” She pointed at the new clip, where again, he used his arm or hand to block the view of his face.
“Well, we know he’s Caucasian, roughly five eleven, under two hundred pounds, brown buzz cut. That’s good, but, Bree, please give me the rest, and I’ll look through it. You need a break.”
“I got it.” She closed her laptop and leaned back with a sigh. “I’m going crazy here, and now that I know I still have a job, thanks to Cap”—she eyed me—“I just need to get through this weekend and then I can get back to work.”
I leaned back, too, and tucked a hand behind my head and looked at her. “I spoke to the chief of detectives, and he agreed with my concerns and gave Ray a suspension.” I figured I’d tell her now rather than have her hear about it later.
“Why?”
“He left you. I asked him specifically to walk you to your truck.”
She closed her eyes and let out a controlled breath. “The last thing I need, Brad, is a target on my back. He hates me already.”
“I gave him specific instructions, Bree. He knew what I told him to do.”
I really liked that sexy fire she got whenever I was bossy with her. I could see it in her face.
“You think you can order me around and I’ll listen?” She was mad.
“When it comes to work, yes.” I couldn’t resist poking a little more. “And when we’re alone.”
She raised a brow, then her expression fell. “We shouldn’t be alone together.”
“I disagree.”
I breathed in her freshly washed hair and felt my pants tighten. Shit. I needed a distraction, so I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. A movie that had been paused was on, so I hit play.
“Not that.” She tried to grab the remote, and a second later I saw why. I read the title at the bottom.
Through My Window? Now that piqued my interest, and I blocked her arm when she tried for the remote again. “Wait, I haven’t seen this before,” I teased as the guy on TV accused the girl of stalking him.
“Okay.” She pointed at the screen. “Let’s watch it. If you don’t mind that it’s dubbed.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Good.” She wiggled down under her blanket and tried to look relaxed.
Ten minutes in, I wished I had put an action movie on—really anything but the sexual tension that played out in front of us.
I sneaked a glance and saw her neck was strained.
We were both feeling it. My head started to run with memories from when we were younger and how there used to be an unspoken spark between us.
We’d never addressed it. In fact, most of the time, we’d ignored it, but there were a few occasions where we’d given in to the moment, and then the world would pull us apart.
I glanced at her. Something was really off here. Maybe I needed to go slower.
“I should probably go.” I snagged my phone off the table.
Bree paused the movie and quickly stood. “Yeah, it’s probably a good idea.” She walked me to the door, her smell lingering in the air. She opened it, and I reached above her head and pushed it closed again as my head battled with itself. “I wish you would talk to me.”
“Brad.” She slowly turned. I saw her fight tears. She covered her mouth. “I can’t do this.”
I ran the back of my fingers down her cheek. This was the woman I wanted. I needed. “Okay,” I assured her, “but Bree, what are you feeling?”
“It doesn’t matter what I’m feeling.”
“It matters to me.”
“It shouldn’t.” She looked away, and I knew she was closing up on me again. “I need to find where I fit.” Her glossy eyes looked at me.
I needed to say something. I hated to see her so confused.
“I felt so dead inside for so long.” I looked out the window. “Then you came back, and it felt like just your being here mended something.” Her chest heaved, and I looked down at her and saw tears leaking down her cheeks. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t, but you and Sherry have got such history.” She opened her mouth to say more, then closed it again.
Of course, she got the wrong idea of why I was out with Sherry.
“We do, but my heart certainly isn’t with her anymore.
The only reason I met with her the night you were hurt was because I want full custody of Ginger.
She’s not making it easy on me, but I see it for what it is. She’s jealous you’re back.”
I’d made the wrong choice years back when I’d chosen Sherry. I’d turned to her because she’d made me feel safe. I had to make Bree see it wasn’t that way now.
“That explains the ambulance talk.”
“The what?” My hackles went up. “Did Sherry say something to you?”
“Never mind.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, and I could see the sadness in her eyes. “Brad, I think we just need to keep that line drawn no matter how tempting things get.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“Friends,” she said weakly, “coworkers, I guess.” Pain showed on her face, and I wanted to reach out and touch her, but I also had to respect her wishes. She needed space to figure out what she wanted. For now, at least, I’d have to give her the time.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“And I’ll let you know if I find anything else.” She gave a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and I stepped back so she could open the door. “Bye, Brad.”
The ride home was painful. My head was so messed up.
My relationship with Sherry had been so important to me when I was younger.
She had been my anchor through everything that had happened.
The terrible aftereffects the murders at the river had left me with and the constant unwanted attention afterward had almost swallowed me whole.
I felt guilty for checking out on her, and I know I was the one who’d pushed our marriage to where it was, even though she was the one who’d left.
Things got dark, and I couldn’t find my way out.
She told me either I did things her way or she wanted a divorce, but I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life like that.
I needed peace, and going out all the time wouldn’t bring me any.
The time away from life with Sherry had done me good, and I’d started to come around. Then when Bree returned, something inside of me that had been missing switched back on.
While I sat at the stoplight at the entrance of town, I spotted Bree’s old Chevy truck parked by the fence in the impound lot.
I quickly switched lanes, flashed my ID at the gate, and was waved through.
I was pleased there was even someone willing to let me in this late.
I hadn’t seen her truck up close yet, and I needed to brace myself for how it might look.
Cap said the guys would check it out as soon as they could, but I wanted to see it for myself. I pulled up alongside it.
“Is she yours?” one of the employees who was rubbing grease off his hands with a dirty rag asked me.
“No.” I ran my hands along the dent on the bumper. “It’s my partner’s.”
He whistled. “Your partner okay? I heard they fished it out of the lake.”
“She’s okay.” I opened the passenger-side door and saw the damage the water had done. “Lucky as hell but okay.”
“Happy to hear that.” He scratched his head.
“Me too.” I ran my fingers over the broken windshield where her head had hit. I couldn’t even imagine the fear she must have gone through when she came to and found herself in the middle of a lake, taking on water.
“At least you got a lead.”
I pulled my hand away from the windshield and looked at him. “Lead?”
“Well, yeah.” He pointed at something, and I hurried over to his side.
“See this?” He scratched at a black mark on the tailgate, then flipped his finger over.
“I tried to tell the officer that came by before what I discovered, but he wasn’t too interested.
” He rolled his eyes. “Seems I’m not someone people want to listen to. ”
“Yeah, well. I’m listening.”
He smiled. “All right.” He wiped his hands free of oil.
“Well, this paint came from a Ram.” He flipped the tiny flake of paint over.
“Back in 2021, Ram discontinued the color sky gray.” He showed me the other side.
“Seems this guy wanted black. He’d have gone to the manufacturer and got the new 2024 black that just came out and got her repainted.
If you look real careful, you can see it has a sparkle to it. ”
That all lined up with the black Ram that had come at us before. “Okay, what else?”
“My best guess then would be a 2021 with a lift kit, given where this scratch is.” He pointed to Bree’s truck as I scribbled down the information.
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, actually.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “My buddy, Ricky, he’s batshit crazy, but he said he was out night fishing and heard the crash. He was about a mile down from it and said he noticed the truck as it whipped by him. He caught a pic.”
I moved to see his phone screen. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He pointed. “See right there? ‘ACD.’ Last three letters on the license plate.”
Yup, that’s the same plate that I called in the day we were run off the road.
“Did you take this to the police?”
“I was going to show that other detective, but like I said, he didn’t seem interested.” He gave a shrug. “He said everyone’s an expert, or some shit like that. So, screw him. If he didn’t want the tip, it was fine with me.”