by Linzi Baxter
Brandon looked down at his watch. “It’s a quarter to nine.” Even later than I thought.
“No wonder I’m so hungry.”
The meal Lily cooked for us at lunch was delicious, but it wasn’t enough to keep me full all day long. I planned to stop by the deli on my way home and get a bottle of wine after the long day I had. Luckily, the program was close to being precisely like Jared wanted.
“Then let’s go get you some food. I could use a cup of coffee and some grub.”
“Coffee? After the day I had, I want wine or a shot of vodka.” Drinking during the week had never been one of my top things to do but being called back early from vacation, redoing work, and getting arrested was an excellent reason to have a drink on a weekday. I stopped at the desk and signed a couple papers before walking into the waiting room. Brandon was right. The Black brothers, Lily, and Kaylene were all in the waiting room. Jared paced back and forth and Kaylene’s eyes following him with each step. Jax sat on his phone and Jacob and Lily were talking to Tommy.
Jared was the first to see me walk through the door. “About time they release you from custody. I showed them the video over an hour ago.” He walked over and pulled me into his arms.
When he pulled back, Lily was the next to give me a hug, followed by Tommy and the rest of the gang. Jacob handed me my bag and phone.
Brandon cleared his throat. “I’m going to take Sasha to grab something to eat at the diner down the street.”
Jared ran his hand through his hair. “Thanks, but I’m going to run back to work and make sure everything is cleaned up for tomorrow.”
“That’s what we hired the cleaning crew for.” Jacob frowned. “We need to get Tommy home and to bed.” He walked over and gave me a hug. “Come in whenever you want tomorrow. We have lots to talk about.”
Before walking out the door, Jared wrapped me in another hug. “Be safe.” He pulled back, turned, and walked out.
Jax waved as he walked out the door with his brothers.
Kaylene came over and gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, “Go have a drink with the sexy cop.” She turned and walked out the door with the rest of my coworkers.
Someone tried to set me up for killing my boss. Now I had to figure out who it was or why. Mike was the first person who came to mind. He’d messed with my code then walked in the exact moment I went into my boss's office. He shouldn’t even have been at work that late. I wanted to know why he was there.
Brandon placed a hand on my lower back and guided me out of the police station. The warm air hit my face and it felt so good. I never wanted to experience being locked up again.
A large man stood with his arms crossed and his hip against the car. He was watching our every step. “Do you know that man?”
Brandon nodded and steered us over to the intimidating man. “You leaving for New York?”
He shook his head. “I wanted to, but I want to know what’s in the storage unit. I called my boss and told him I would need a few more days.”
Brandon reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. “You can stay at my house. We’re going to grab a bite to eat before I start looking deeper into his old cases.”
“Not sure I can help with the case, but I want to know what he was talking about in the storage units.” The stranger ran his hands through his hair. “Hell, they are going to probably find a dead body in the unit.”
I stuck out my hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name. Mine is Sasha.”
“Sorry, Sasha.” Brandon waved to the other man. “This is my brother, Paolo.”
With a closer look, I noticed the similarities between the two. They both had sapphire eyes and were the same height. Paolo, though, had the arms of a boxer. “Nice to meet you, Paolo. You want to come to eat with us?”
“Thanks for the invite, but I’m going to go crash.” Paolo circled the keys in his fingers before heading to the driver's side of the car.
Brandon pressed his hand to my back. “Let’s go get some food.”
The walk to the diner was quick. Brandon’s warm hand heated my back and sent a shiver down my spine. “Your brother seemed nice.”
Growing up, I’d always wanted a sibling. Ms. Carla had other foster kids, but I’d spent my time with my head in a book. I didn’t want to end up not making something of my life or turning into a criminal like my father.
He led me to the back of the restaurant and we sat down in a back booth. A few uniformed officers sat at the counter having coffee. Most nodded as Brandon walked by. The vinyl seat creaked under me as I sat down.
A waitress in a pink dress walked over. Her name tag read Shelby. “Hello, Brandon. And what is your name?”
I smiled up at the waitress. “Sasha.” I looked over at Brandon. “You eat here so much they know your name?”
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I might come here for lunch and dinner some nights.”
The waitress barked out a laugh. “You forgot you come for breakfast, as well. I’m not sure you’ve cooked yourself a diner in your entire life. Now, do you need a few minutes, or do you know what you want?”
The blue cheese burger special caught my eye when we walked in. “Since he eats here all the time, I assume he knows what he wants. I will have a blue cheese special.”
“I’ll have the same.” Brandon handed the menu back to the waitress.
When she gave Brandon her number earlier in the day, she thought that he would call and that they would go have a drink and a proper date. Instead, he’d been the one to release her from an integration room. Luckily, she didn’t have to go through the part of being interrogated.
“So, do you go out to eat with innocent people often?”
He laughed and took a sip of coffee. “Nope, you’re the first one I’ve ever released and taken to grab something to eat. Let’s say today has been filled with lots of strange encounters.”
“At least you weren’t framed for murder. Did you get any leads on the case we talked about this morning?”
The door chimed, and three more officers walked in. Each of them nodded to Brandon. He raised his cup to them as they took the last few seats at the counter.
“Well… I met my brother for the first time today. Then we went to visit our dad in jail, who informed me my mother wasn’t who I thought she is, and if I want to solve the case, I have to look through a storage unit full of my family answers.”
I thought my day was fucked up. “I’m not even sure how to respond to that. Wait you just met your brother and gave him access to your home without you there? Maybe you should’ve gone home and talked with him.”
Shelby walked back over and to the table. She placed our plates on the table and filled up Brandon’s coffee. “Do you guys need anything else?”
She barely had the words out of her mouth before I sank my teeth into the burger. It was almost the best thing that happened to me today. Bumping into Brandon was at the top of my list and now we were having dinner. “No, I’m good. And this is fucking delicious.”
Brandon took a couple bites of his food. “I talked with him enough today, and after this, I plan to head back over to the station and dig through some old cases. The FBI is going through the family storage unit. I didn’t think it was the best place for me to be.”
My hand went to the necklace around my neck, it was the only thing I had to remember my mom. By the time my father was killed, he had sold everything that belonged to her. The only thing remaining was my necklace.
“Probably not. I’m sorry I didn’t call on better terms. Hell, I’m not even sure why I called you. I knew Jared would bring a lawyer to get me out, and I didn’t kill him.” I took a sip of my drink. “Thank you for coming through.”
“I was hoping you would call—not to come get you out of jail, but go have a drink together.”
“I would like that.”
“How about dinner at a nice restaurant on Friday?” Brandon asked.
“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll try no
t to get arrested on Friday,” I joked.
Brandon laughed, and we spent the next hour talking about his time in the military. I told him about the simulation I was building. He walked me to the curb and called an Uber.
He took my hand and pulled me into his arms, drawing me against his chest. “Would you think it’s too fast if I kissed you?”
“No.” I had wanted nothing more than his lips on me.
His mouth took mine, his lips forced mine open. My arms wrapped around his neck as our tongues met and glided in a dance together. My troubles melted away as he pressed his lips harder to mine. His dominance burned like fire inside of me. The kiss was full of so much promise, and if I didn’t pull back, I would strip down on the sidewalk and climb him like a tree.
The kiss was better than any alcohol drink I had ever tried. With each swipe of the tongue it replaced the worry from the day and I felt right where I was supposed to be. In books, I heard of an instant connection, but I never thought it would be true. Hell, Lily talked about it with Jacob.
When he finally pulled back and came up for air, he rested his forehead against mine. “Friday is way too many days away.”
My Uber drove up to the curb. “This is my ride.”
Brandon pressed his lips to mine one more time before I pulled away and got into the car. I slid out my phone and sent him a quick text. I’m counting down the hours.
6
Brandon
Everything left from my childhood was spread across the conference room table, and now a new set of photos lined the wall. SA Smith worked to pull each of the kills linked to my father. After going through the storage unit. A new list of victims was added to the wall. They also found proof my mother was the one behind the murders.
“I spent years thinking my father killed all these people, but it was my mom? What kind of man would bring home victims for their wife to kill?” I ran a frustrated hand through my hair and stared at the mountain of evidence on the table.
A new package arrived with five photos of Tammy. It was the first time the Houston Internet Slayer had sent a picture as proof of life during the three days. We were running out of time, less than twenty-four hours. If I had to guess, even less. In the set of photos sent to me by the killer, Tammy had been laid in a coffin the only reason I knew she was still alive is that one photo had her eyes open and the next closed. Nothing in the picture gave me a clue to where she was. A message was written on the photo: “tick tock.”
Like the other items delivered to me, there wasn’t any evidence on the packages to tie back to the sender. The more evidence the forensic team pulled from the storage unit, it tied the case together just as my father said it would. The only person who could possibly know about the kills was someone close to my mom. Years before, I remembered having an Aunt Kathy, but the police looked for her after my father went to prison and found no sign.
“Dexter’s dad taught him to only kill by a code,” SA Carson added as he paired another set of murders together. “Over the years, I’ve seen some messed-up serial killers, but your family is fucked up.”
After dinner with Sasha, I went back to the office for a while to go over the case again. I racked my brain, trying to remember my mom and signs she might have been a serial killer, but the only thing I remembered was her baking cookies for the PTA.
Paolo had left for New York this morning after we made plans to meet in a few weeks. I still wasn’t used to the fact that I had a brother. Nothing in the storage unit answered the questions to exactly who we were looking for.
“It seemed my mother had a partner. Dexter was a fictional character played on TV, and that came on well after my dad assisted my mom in killing criminals.” That was a stretch since the killings had started seven months before, and my mother had died over twenty years ago. Most killers didn’t go dormant for two decades.
“From what I’m looking at, your mother didn’t kill anyone that didn’t deserve it… well, except your sister, but we aren’t sure that was your mother either.” SA Carson held up a photo of my sister and mom laughing together.
I took a sip of coffee and sat down at the table. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. Years I spent hating my father for killing my mother. Don’t get me wrong, I still think she should have had a trial like he did… What we need to find is someone who went to jail around the same time as my mom died and was released seven to eight months ago.”
I pulled open the laptop and typed in the criteria. The results came back almost instantly with zero. “Fuck.”
“Try extending both search dates by a few months.”
I nodded. I searched for anyone who had entered the system a few months after my mom died and was then released ten months ago. “Came back zero again.”
“I think you are on the right track, but what happens if you change it from prisons to mental facilities?”
With a couple keystrokes, I changed the search criteria. “Shit, you nailed it. Someone by the name of Mary Brown went into the facility for killing her neighbor.”
A picture of Mary came across the screen. She was the spitting image of my aunt, but with a different name. Growing up, I called her Aunt Kathy. “It says here she was released into a group home in Houston.”
I wrote down the address to the place and grabbed the keys off the table. “I’m going to go check out this group home.”
I needed to get a break in the case and find Tammy before she was the next victim. The trip across Houston went quicker than I’d imagined. I pulled into a parking spot across from an old house. The group home wasn’t in the best part of Houston, but I hoped it had my answers. Mary looked just like my mother, and I remembered her coming around. Dad would always take me to the game or away for the weekend when she came to visit.
With a couple deep breaths, I opened the car door and walked across the street. Two men in their late fifties stood at the bottom of the stairs, smoking a cigarette. I held up a picture. “Hey, have you guys seen this woman?”
The man on the right scratched his arms, and I saw the signs of needle marks. I would be lucky if these men knew their own names.
“She moved out months ago.”
“Do you happen to know where she is staying now?”
Instead of answering, he looked down at my watch. Giving money never guaranteed any useful information, but I didn’t have another choice. I dug out my wallet and handed a twenty over to the man.
When he smiled, half of his teeth were missing. “She left with some man.”
Beating the man over the head wouldn’t get me any more answers. “Was she friends with anyone here?”
“No, she only stayed for a month, and they released her into the care of the man who came to get her.”
“Here.” I handed him another twenty with my card. “If you hear anything, give me a call.”
It was more than likely a waste of money, but I needed to keep as many feelers out as possible. I crossed the street and climbed back into my car. It looked like I needed to make another visit to my dad, but first, I needed to eat.
I turned the car around and headed toward NSS. I’d told Sasha we would see each other on Friday, but after that kiss, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. The coffee shop across the street also sold sandwiches. I could have a bite before heading to the prison.
When I pulled into the visitor spot at NSS, I sent Sasha a text: Are you hungry?
Three bubbles appeared on the screen. A few seconds later, the text came through. Always.
Want to have a bite at the Java place?
Yea, when?
Now?
On my way!
I let out a deep breath. Relationships had never been my strong suit. I usually picked someone up from the bar for a one-night stand. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually looked forward to seeing a woman the next day or setting up a date with one.
It didn’t take long before Sasha walked out of the office. Damn, she was hot. She wore a tight red wrap dress. He
r hair was up in a ponytail, and her high heels made her ass look amazing.
I jumped out of the car and crossed the street to meet her at the entrance. Before she grabbed the door to the coffee shop, I took her hand and pulled her against my chest. I didn’t know what was coming over me—only that I wanted to spend time with this woman. Our lips crashed together, and I swiped my tongue against hers, demanding entrance. She immediately opened to the touch and leaned into me. When we pulled back, we were both panting.
“Damn, you taste good.”
“Not too bad yourself.”
I followed her into the coffee shop, and we got in line. “I’m glad you weren’t too busy to have lunch with me.”
Her smile lit up the room. “Thanks for the break. Jared has security watching over my every move. I was able to ditch them and come over here.”
“I checked on your boss’s case this morning before I started work. They haven’t figured out who killed him, and they made it look like it was you.” They walked up a few more feet toward the counter. “Yes, it would suck to have someone follow you, but it’s better than someone killing you or framing you for another murder. Your only saving grace was the camera in the common area.”
Not sure how closely the killers were watching me, it made me feel better to know that Sasha had the guard on her.
“I know, and Jared is extra cautions today. I’m surprised he’s not over here right now, having lunch with us.”
I arched my brow. “Does your boss have a thing for you?”
Sasha shot me a nasty look. “That is the grossest thing I’ve heard today. The Black brothers are like family to me. Nothing more.”
“It’s not too often I see employers care that much about their employees. Furthermore, Jared doesn’t seem like he cares about many people.” The man always had a scowl on his face. Over the years, I dealt with Jacob when it came to the foundation. Jared would show to a few of the events and leave after an hour.
“I started at NSS as an intern and never left. Jared and I work on a lot of the same projects. He has a programming background, and we do all the simulation work for the astronauts to test new features before they go into the ships. Once tested, I work with a few engineers to implement my program into the rocket.”
