31. Garrett
CHAPTER 31
Garrett
The glow of my laptop provided the only light in my dining room. The sun had gone down, but I hardly noticed. My mind was feverishly fixed on the cold case. There was a ticking clock out there somewhere, I was convinced of it. The killer was going to strike again.
Whether or not my superiors believed it, I knew. That package on Harper’s doorstep had been a taunt. He was still out there and he was going to kill again.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Harper was upstairs asleep, and Owen had gone to a friend’s house for the night. He hadn’t been in trouble since the shoplifting incident, and I’d all but forgotten I’d threatened to ground him until he turned eighteen. He’d picked a good time to clean up his act. If I’d been dealing with a cold case murder, a pregnant girlfriend, and a wayward teenager, life would have been even more complicated than it already was.
Wincing slightly, I shifted my arm. The laceration wasn’t serious. It had scabbed over in the several days since the visit to Rich Pine’s property. The bruises were just that—bruises. They’d heal .
I still didn’t know if the incident had been a coincidence. If I’d simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Harper was worried her bad luck was rubbing off on me. I’d told her not to worry about that—that even if it did, I’d handle it. I wasn’t concerned about an amorphous concept like luck.
You can’t arrest bad luck. A killer, though? I could arrest that. Lock it up and make sure it never hurt anyone again.
Especially my woman.
My eyes were tired with strain but I ignored the discomfort. I’d been poring over the old case files, rereading interviews, reports, and field notes. Looking for anything that would point me in the right direction. Anything that might give me the break I needed to find whoever had killed Jasmine.
Other than making sure I hadn’t been seriously injured when the pile of junk toppled on me, my superiors weren’t particularly concerned. Just an accident. I’d been lucky. When Rich Pine got back into town, they were going to reach out and see if he needed help cleaning up his property a bit so something like that didn’t happen again.
I hadn’t pushed the issue or tried to argue that someone had done it on purpose. I had no proof. No evidence. Just a hunch. And my instincts, sharp as they usually were, did not amount to a case.
Besides, I was slightly concerned they were going to start thinking I was paranoid.
And hell, maybe I was.
Thankfully, Harper hadn’t received any more anonymous packages. If someone sent her flowers at this point, I’d probably lose my shit. Especially if they were white.
But it did make me wonder—could I find out who bought those flowers? It had been ten years, but that was still a lead I needed to follow up on. The flower shop in town had been open for twenty-five years and was still in business. If there was even a chance they had purchase records going back far enough, I needed to look into it. No stone unturned, as they said.
I pulled out a printed map of the trail system around Tilikum. I’d marked where Jasmine’s body had been discovered, as well as where I’d found the bracelet and the location of the old barn and root cellar. They made a triangle, each about a mile apart.
There was no record of the barn or root cellar having been searched during the original investigation. It made sense. The assumption had been she’d been taken off the trail and killed where her body was later found. Beyond trying to find signs of the killer’s escape, the investigators wouldn’t have felt a need to search a wider area.
But he hadn’t left anything behind.
I wanted in that cellar. According to county records, it was private property but held in a trust. There was quite a bit of land like that in the region—acreage once owned by old Tilikum families that had fallen into disuse over the decades as the town shrunk. It was too bad it wasn’t part of the area my family had inherited back when my sister had gotten married. That would have made this a lot easier.
As it was, I needed a warrant to get in. And I wasn’t sure how to write it so the judge would grant it.
Was proximity to the location of Jasmine’s body enough? Although it would be hard for a man to carry a body that far, it wasn’t impossible—especially for someone in good shape. For a second, I imagined talking Harper into letting me test it out on her.
Hey love, can we go out into the woods and you let me carry you as dead weight for about a mile?
Probably unnecessary, and slightly morbid, but tempting nonetheless.
I thought about calling Phillip Lancaster. I’d called him with questions about warrants before. He knew how to word them so a judge would be more amenable to granting them. But it was late. I’d run it by Sergeant Denny, or maybe even Sheriff Jack, in the morning.
A pleasant tingle spread across the back of my neck and ran down my spine. I felt her, more than heard her, approach.
Harper slid her hands over my shoulders and wound her arms around me, leaning in to kiss my neck.
“What are you doing up?” I asked.
“I woke up and you weren’t there.”
My body stirred with desire. She was the only thing in the world that could tear me away from hunting a killer.
I shifted away from the table so I could draw her into my lap. She sat, dressed in a thin tank top and shorts, her legs straddling me. Her long hair was messy and loose, her eyes sleepy.
“It’s not late.” I rubbed my hands up and down her thighs. “Not for me, anyway.”
“I know. But I missed you. You’ve been working since you got home.”
I brushed her lips with a kiss. “Sorry. I’ve been preoccupied.”
“It’s okay. You have a lot on your mind.” She gently touched the skin around the laceration. “How’s this? Healing okay?”
“Don’t worry, it’s fine.”
“I think worry is part of the deal. I had no idea what I was in for when I fell in love with a man in uniform.”
I could hear the hint of humor in her voice, see the slight smile on her lips. But I knew she was still going to worry about me. My job was dangerous. There was no way around that.
“I take safety seriously. We’re trained for it.”
She leaned in and pressed her mouth to mine. “I know.”
“What about you? How are you feeling? How’s the tiny one?”
Her smile lit up her face. “The tiny one is fine. I feel okay. I definitely need to hire a second baker, but luckily we’re busy enough for it. It’s going to be hard to keep up as the tiny one becomes less tiny.”
I traced a line between her breasts, down to her belly. She giggled softly, biting her lower lip.
“You should come to bed.”
Work still tugged at me, but she was irresistible. Her warmth, her scent, her voice. She slipped off my lap and grabbed my hand. I got up and followed, leaving some of the weight of the burdens I carried behind.
As soon as we were in the bedroom, I tugged off my clothes and helped her out of hers, eager to feel her skin against mine. We climbed onto the bed and I took my time, kissing her, tasting her, as I worked my way down her body. She moaned beneath my touch, arching her back and writhing against the sheets.
I brought her to climax once, reveling in her pleasure, before moving to settle on top of her. Her eyelids fluttered, and even in the dim light, I could see the flush in her cheeks.
Our bodies joined with a burst of sensation. She was soft and warm, like silk against my rough edges. I lost myself in her heat, let go of all the tension and stress. There was nothing but her.
My woman. My love.
We moved, our rhythm quickening, until the intensity rose to a peak. I growled into her neck, thrusting hard, while her fingers dug into my back. I felt her come again and it was more than I could take. I unleashed, pouring myself into her.
Loving her with everything I had.
After we finished, she kept her arms around me. I held her and breathed her in.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.” I picked myself up and braced myself so I could look at her. “Is everything okay?”
She nodded. “This was good. ”
One corner of my mouth lifted in a subtle grin. “Very good.”
“I don’t just mean that.” She touched the side of my face. “I need this. Needed you.”
“I’m always yours, love.”
“I know. I just mean… sometimes I need you. This Garrett. Not deputy Haven.”
“I’m sorry if I’ve been distant.”
“You just work so hard. I don’t want you to burn yourself out.”
I didn’t either, but she didn’t understand. I had to keep her safe.
Leaning down, I brushed her lips with a soft kiss. “Things will calm down soon.”
She smiled at me, her eyes so full of hope. “Yeah, they will.”
I rolled off her and she settled against me. It wasn’t long before her breathing evened. She was asleep.
The case tugged at me again. She was good for me, there was no doubt about that. But I had so much work to do. I needed to follow every lead and I just didn’t have time.
So I waited until I was sure she was sound asleep and slipped out of bed. I had a killer to catch.