Page 104 of Breathe Me In

“But I want you to know that I hear you, and I want you to be where you feel the happiest and safest. I just need you to know that I’ve been in love with you forever. I was just too scared to make a move, and now you’re back, and it’s like someone is giving us a second chance.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know about you, but when we’re together, everything just feels elevated and right.

“Wherever you need to be, Bree, I’ll figure it out. I just want to be with you.”

A tear rolled down her cheek, so I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in for a kiss with everything I had inside.

“Brad.” She struggled and pulled back a little as she studied my face. “I want this too”—she smiled through her tears—“but if we’re doing this, we both need to get help.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “We need to take this slow. I can’t open myself up to you only to have you push me away again. I almost didn’t survive the last time you did that.”

“I promise.” I flexed my hands and slipped them under her silk top.

“All right, then.” She shivered. “Do you want to come in?” She looked at me with her head tilted to one side.

I pulled her in again, and she molded to me. “I need you.” I walked her backward inside and kicked the door shut. This woman was everything I needed in my life. I pulled off my coat, and she clawed at the buttons of my shirt. I stripped it off as hot desire built up inside me. She found a way out of her silky top. I forced myself to slow down. “I want to do this right, Bree, but just for tonight, can we—”

“Brad?” She huffed her exasperation. “Tomorrow’s for talking. Tonight, just take me.”

The morning sun beat through the windshield, offering nothing to help warm the chill in the air. I started the car and glanced at Bree, who sat beside me, already eyeballs deep in some paperwork. I smiled as I looped around and headed toward town. We had gone a few rounds the night before, and, if I was being honest, I wished we had accepted Cap’s offer to take the day off. He obviously didn’t know Bree. She’d insisted we show up at work. We’d promised to take things slow and to keep whatever it was between us to ourselves. The label Bree had put on it was “getting to know one another.” To me, we were in the early stages of dating, but I wasn’t going to point that out just yet.

When she reached for her water bottle, I snagged her hand and kissed the back of it while I relished in the fact that I could. I thought I had gotten my fill of her through the night, but my body already was making plans. I shifted and tugged at my crotch at the stoplight, and she grinned at me. Then looked down at her lap again.

Bree had the victims’ files spread out and kept flipping through the photos. I squinted at one of the pictures because I hadn’t seen it before.

“Where did you get that one?” It was of Shelly White’s bedroom.

She held it up so I could see it better. “It’s one of mine. I’ve learned over the years that I miss a lot of stuff. I’m not blessed with a photographic memory.” She smiled playfully and poked me in the shoulder. “You’d be surprised by how many times I’ve found kids just because of my photos. Things you might not see at first.” She pointed to a Christmas ornament in one of the pictures. “For instance, CSI wouldn’t have any reason to snap a photo like this. It’s a simple ornament, but for me, it’s a lot more. Remember, I found Shelly’s TikTok account on her iPad. This was hanging in full sight, but if you look closely at the picture, you’ll see it’s from her secret lover, the professor. She showed me a zoomed-in photo with a heart and his name written underneath it. I wonder how many times Oliver the ex-boyfriend from the gym looked at it and just thought it was cute.”

“Good catch.”

“Thanks.” She tucked the photo back in its place and closed her eyes.

“We still have a lot to wrap up with this case. Not the least of it is why the hell Hank did what he did. We need a search warrant for his house. I’ll get on that first thing.”

“Okay, I’ll start by talking to his wife if you like. I’m sure she must be shocked over it all.”

“All right, sounds good.” I nodded. “I made a promise to myself that I’d give every case my all. Lord knows I could use a win after staring at that cold case for the past decade.” I knew Bree still struggled daily with what had happened at the river, and to be truthful, so did I, but I channeled my nerves and stress with hockey and my work. I didn’t want it to run my life anymore. It was high time she found better ways to deal with it too. It wasn’t a good time to discuss that, and I didn’t want her to shut down on me, so I changed the topic to something . . . fun.

“How’d you sleep, given the extra exercise you had?” I smirked.

“I was dead to the world until about three in the morning, when my nightmare came to visit.” She gave a small shrug.

I decided not to comment. There was no easy fix to that, but we’d both agreed we’d start seeing a therapist.

She changed the subject. “Do you ever look at a case and just know you’re missing something?”

All the time. “Yes, often. I think it’s a sign of a good detective if you care enough to open the file after the case has been solved.” I parked, but she stopped me from leaving.

“Brad, it’s time to talk about why you kept me from Hank’s takedown.”

I knew she was right, and I only hoped I could make her understand where my head had been. “Truth? You’re still not healed from your accident. You still get headaches. I know from years of hockey that stress is the worst thing when you’re trying to heal from a concussion.” I put a finger on her lips when she went to speak. “I’m sorry, but before you say anything, I need you to understand my thought process. Okay?”

She pursed her mouth but settled back.

“But, the main thing is, and I know this is going to piss you off, you don’t have the kind of training for that level of police work. Arresting a killer is vastly different from talking down a runaway teen.”

She wrinkled her nose, and I waited, but to my surprise she simply nodded. “I understand that.”

“And add to all that”—I threaded my fingers through hers—“I was scared he was going to hurt you, and I couldn’t bear that.”

“Brad,” she warned, “you don’t get to make those kinds of decisions for me.”