Chapter 9 #2
The woman had no pity on me. She waited me out until I gave in and offered her an embarrassed nod.
“Okaaaay,” she said, drawing in a deep breath. “I mean. You know I’d never kink shame you. And I’m assuming you liked it. So, I’m not seeing the problem?”
A sound of frustration escaped past my lips. “The problem is that he… he… he put that idea in my head, had me call him that, and then just ghosted me. And now, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. Should I find out more about him or do I let it go as a casual one-night thing?”
My fingers tugged at the too-long strands of my hair in frustration.
I wasn’t used to dating or hookups. So, of course, when I did finally hook up with a guy, he had to make me question everything I thought I liked and wanted.
And not just about relationships in general, but about myself.
But then he wasn’t actually there to help me navigate it.
It made me realize maybe he was one of those guys who only thought it was hot to be called that in bed and weren’t up to actually holding the title.
Because from what little information I’d gleaned from my late-night self-loathing searches that I refused to admit ever happened, Daddies were supposed to be there to care and support their boys or littles.
Not leave them floundering in the midst of an identity crisis.
Fuck.
I really didn’t need that in the middle of a work week.
Vic squeezed my arm, grounding me and helping to pull me out of my spiral.
“Hey. It’s okay. Maybe he’s not the guy for you, but there are still lots of guys out there.
And even if he isn’t the one for you, maybe you were meant to meet him so he could help you discover that part of you.
And that is why you haven’t been able to find Mr. Right yet, because you were looking at the wrong kind of guy. ”
I tilted my head in consideration. Sure, it was possible. But something in my gut didn’t believe that.
It was Nate. He was meant to be my Daddy. The little figurine on my desk was proof of that, even if I couldn’t tell Victoria about that. She’d think I was crazy. Worse, she would think he was crazy.
Fuck. What if he was?
I shook off the thought, not ready to deal with that rabbit hole just yet.
But I needed to find him. I needed to talk to him and we had to hash this out.
There were questions that only Nate could answer.
Though, I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to show my hand and let him know that in one night I might have become just as obsessed with him as he seemingly became with me.
“Cooper! Coleman!” Chief Vasquez’s voice boomed from his office, startling me back to reality.
“Yes, Chief?” Victoria asked as she sprinted into his office. I let out a chuckle. It seemed she was eager to get back to solving murders after her week of tedium at her cousin’s house.
Though, I didn’t know how anyone could consider wrangling a ten-year-old to be tedious. Just the thought of it gave me a headache.
I slowly walked into the room and hooked my thumbs in my belt loops as I leaned against the door. “What do you have for us?”
Chief Alex Vasquez tossed a file folder onto the desk and gave a sneer.
“There’s another one. Seems to line up with the other two you have. Not sure if it’s connected to the Loretti case or not. You’d have to check with OC for what they have. But from what I can see, there were some similarities.”
He let out a huff and my eyes went wide, seeking out Victoria to see her response. For the most part, we’d been able to keep the similarities of the other two victims out of the media’s frenzy. The last thing we needed was a panic. But three murders all with the same MO?
Possibly four?
That was going to be harder to keep under wraps.
We potentially had a fucking serial killer on our hands. Of course, we couldn’t confirm anything yet, not until we saw the new victim, but from the way Chief was acting, he was pretty sure it was our guy.
“Fucking hell,” Victoria said as she leafed through the file.
“Travers and Nash caught it a few hours ago. They just handed me this,” he said, indicating the file with the preliminary notes and a few pictures that had been printed out.
I let out a low whistle. From the bruising around the guy’s neck and the setting of the scene, he definitely looked like he could be linked to our other two cases.
Fucking hell.
I wasn’t sure if I was excited or scared shitless. Serial killer cases could be career-ending or career-making cases. Only time would tell which way the chips would fall for Victoria and me. But I had a feeling nothing was going to be the same after this case was over.
“I need the two of you to get your asses down to the crime scene and see what you can find. Not that I think they missed anything, but you’ll be looking for different things—for similarities to the other scenes and victims.” He gave us a stern look that clearly said Don’t fuck this up.
“Unfortunately, the vic is already in the morgue, so you can’t see him at the scene to examine him, but I told Jefferies not to touch him until after you were able to stop by and take a look.”
“On it, Chief.” I nodded at the Chief and ushered a grinning Victoria out of the office.
It wasn’t ideal to get handed a case after the body had been moved from the crime scene, but it wasn’t the first time we had to deal with a situation like that.
There were still procedures we would all still have to follow.
The thought of dealing with my first serial killer had my stomach all in knots. If the press got wind of the possibility, they’d have a field day and there would be panic. That was the last thing we needed.
We needed to maintain control of the situation so we could control the narrative.
“Do you have to look so giddy?” I muttered as I grabbed what I needed from my desk before we set out to the crime scene.
Victoria grinned wider and shrugged. “It’s just good to be back.”
I let out a long-suffering sigh. Some days, I wondered what I had done in a previous life to be her partner. Other times, I counted my lucky stars that we had been paired together.
For this case, I had a feeling I would need her strength and moxie.
Fucking serial killers.