Burning (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense Book 11)

by Calle J. Brookes

  He climbed in the front, needing the space between them.

  Sin didn’t have a clue why he was so unsettled in that moment. He just threw the blame at her feet.

  Merrick Cody would always unsettle him. He had gotten used to it. And he doubted that would ever change.

  Chapter 8

  He was back. She hated to be so obvious, but the moment he entered the Durango she could feel him near.

  Of course, one knew lightning was about to strike sometimes, too. Knowing he was around always rose a storm, didn’t it? “What did you find out?”

  “Twenty minutes, at the most, and they’ll give the all clear.”

  “No fire?”

  “No. A malfunctioning alarm system. Your landlords will need to service the system in the morning, but you’ll be back inside shortly. You work tomorrow?”

  “Late shift.”

  “Then you’ll be able to sleep in.”

  “Lucy has kindergarten in the afternoons. We’ll be ok.” Brynlock Academy didn’t have a full-day kindergarten program, and it was a year-round school. On the days when she worked early, Lucy would go to Meredith Brockman’s house. She’d drop Lucy and her granddaughter Ruthie, who was in the same class, off at the private school.

  But when she could, Cody liked to take Lucy to school. To make certain her daughter was safe there.

  “Well…thanks again.” She didn’t know what to say to him. She never had.

  He’d hated her for years, and the divorce hadn’t changed that.

  She’d almost cried when she’d learned Sin was transferring to PAVAD four months ago. She hadn’t seen him since Al’s wedding and she’d liked it that way. It hadn’t been the greatest day of her life when she’d learned he’d be there in the same building every single day, that was for sure.

  Still, until he’d shown up at her door tonight she’d managed to avoid him, for the most part. But it had been inevitable that she run into him again. She’d never expected him at her door, though. The next twenty minutes were some of the longest of her life. She knew she was exaggerating, but still…Sin?

  Mostly alone, in a small space, with Sin? That was literally nightmare territory, wasn’t it?

  Finally, they were given the all clear, and people began entering her building once again. She didn’t know what else to say to him, so she settled for the polite. “Well, thanks again.”

  She scooped Lucy up and practically ran back inside.

  Cody never looked back.

  Chapter 9

  Two more false alarms in the three weeks since she’d been stuck in a car with Sin. People in her building were getting sick of it—and immune. She was half afraid the building’s occupants would start to ignore the alarms.

  And that could prove deadly.

  Lucy was more terrified than ever. She’d started sleeping in Cody’s bed again. Which meant Cody was getting even less sleep, and her school was suffering.

  Cody was practically dragging when she found at seat at the Monday morning briefing. She’d had to get up early to meet with the Brynlock principal and counselor to decide how to deal with the school issue. And it hadn’t been good news. If she didn’t find a solution to some of Lucy’s problems, the little girl would be repeating kindergarten the next term. But she had to push that aside for a while. Her team waited, and she forced herself to at least appear alert, instead of exhausted and preoccupied. And fighting yet another headache.

  The false alarm the night before had happened too darned close to four a.m. for her comfort. And Lucy hadn’t fallen back asleep until an hour before they had to get up for the day, anyway.

  Cody didn’t know how much longer she could keep going this way.

  She was starting to think that the psychiatrist she’d taken Lucy to was wrong—the little girl was not healing like the man had said.

  Perhaps she needed to talk to someone else? She made a vow—that evening when she picked Lucy up at the Brockmans’ she was going to talk to Meredith, see what the retired psychiatrist thought. See if she had any other strategies to help them get through the night.

  Meredith’s daughter Al bumped the back of Cody’s chair. Cody looked up at her.

  “You look like crud. Spill,” Al said.

  “Just tired. How are you feeling?” Al was going to be a mother in five months.

  “Like I have been invaded by a little alien.” Al leaned over, close enough to whisper in Cody’s ear. “Seriously? You ok?”

  “Another visit from our local fire crew. At four. Lucy didn’t sleep after. I’m exhausted. And then the school called. She’s not fitting in well. Having trouble connecting with anyone other than your niece.”

  “Go home. Take aspirin. Sleep,” Al said. “I’m sure you have personal days. I’ll call my mom. She’s already picking up Ruthie after school. Wouldn’t be a problem to get Lucy, too. I’ll bring her home after dinner. You’re not going to be good to anyone if you fall asleep before briefing is even started.”

  “I’ll be ok.” She would. But damn, Al’s advice sounded real good. Maybe she should talk to Marianna. Her team, four men she liked and respected, would be fine without her for the rest of the day. They’d finished their two most pressing cases Friday. Today was meant as a cleanup day; they’d be tasked with ensuring all documents and paperwork were completed—and the garage was returned to order.

  And then they would either wait for a new case requiring their particular set of mechanical skills, or they’d be assigned to fill in with other departments.

  Her department was often hit or miss. Sometimes they were needed at the forefront of a case. Other times they were not. She was used to it, and when she’d been asked to take the new supervisory position, she’d made sure the people on the team had multiple skills. That way they’d be useful in other ways.

  Everyone in PAVAD pulled double—and sometimes even triple—duty. Her team was no different. And that was the way she wanted it. She was a fully vetted agent and could double on any team if needed. Something she’d planned with Sebastian’s help before even applying to the Academy.

  The briefing went well. Everyone was present in St. Louis. It was one of those rare occurrences when none of the teams were sent out of state.

  Which meant the conference room was brimming with people. PAVAD had definitely grown over the last two years. One reason she had a supervisory position, to begin with.

  It was a position she didn’t take lightly.

  She’d stick out the day, as long as she could do her job effectively. But she may very well take Meredith up on the offer to keep Lucy overnight.

  As quickly as that idea came, she discarded it. While she might need the break—and a full night’s sleep—she wasn’t certain a night away would be good for Lucy. She still screamed for Cody the instant her eyes opened at night.

  Still feared the only security she had would just disappear. It wouldn’t be right for her to dump Lucy off on the Brockmans’. Lucy was her daughter. And she belonged at home with her mother. Period.

  Thankfully, Monday was a quiet one. She assigned two of her people to assist with processing a scene on the north side of the city. Occasionally, PAVAD’s forensic team was asked to help the Missouri state police on cases that needed rapid processing. PAVAD’s lab was quicker than the state’s.

  Cody and the remaining two members of her team worked on auditing the previous supervisor’s cases. It wasn’t that there were any problems, but Ed Dennis—PAVAD’s director—was obsessive about dotting I’s and crossing T’s. He’d ordered an audit every six months since PAVAD had been formed. And a surprise one for the entire forensics department Friday afternoon.

  Cody understood and admired the man’s thinking. And it gave her people something to do. And now that she knew Sin suspected there was tampering in her department, she’d started going over the files herself in private. She didn’t think it was her people doing it, but she’d been wrong about people before.

  Hugh Schild came to mind. That man ha
d worked with her team in Indiana for years. And then he’d tried to kill her and several other people.

  Security had been tightened since the day Hugh had bombed the forensics department.

  The audit kept her people busy.

  That was always a good thing. Ed Dennis was known to pop into the forensics lab at any time of the day—his wife was the head of the department, after all.

  Idle hands irritated that man. To no end.

  And she’d not been in the position long enough to risk angering him.

  The man signed her paycheck, after all.

  As the clock rolled around to five, she was in her office finishing up the last of the audits. The previous supervisor had transferred to the lab at Washington; he had known what he was doing, and his files reflected that.

  They’d not find a single questionable finding in his work. Cody was confident in that. If they did it may be the evidence Sin was looking for.

  She locked her office door, something that was frowned upon in the division. But she wanted absolute privacy for what she was about to do.

  Every file. She would go over every original file and make absolute certain that every copy matched. In every database. If she found anything out of the ordinary it would go straight to Sin.

  As much as the idea of working directly with him rankled, the idea that someone else could be threatening PAVAD from within her department bothered her a whole hell of a lot more.

  She pulled the first of the files free and shoved them in her bag. Then unlocked her office door quickly. Opened it to her people. Eric Brady, one of her people and a good friend, waved when he walked by.

  Cody tried not to feel too guilty giving him the second look and wondering.

  Saul Hernandez had been considered a friend by his team, too, hadn’t he?

  Would she look at everyone in Forensics as a possible traitor until Sin found the culprit? And she knew he would. Sin didn’t fail at anything.

  Her cell buzzed and she checked it quickly. It was from Al. Mom is keeping Ruthie overnight. Come for dinner at six. Mom will feed you, too.

  She replied, knowing Lucy would enjoy eating with her best friend. Ruthie, the daughter Al’s brother and his wife had adopted, was only a few months younger than Lucy—or from what Luc had told her was Lucy’s birthday. They had bonded quickly. Cody knew some of Ruthie’s background, and it was as traumatic as Lucy’s. Maybe that was why they were so close already.

  And Al’s mother loved having both girls together.

  It wasn’t the first time Cody had eaten dinner there. And she doubted it would be the last.

  She gathered her things and clocked out.

  The Brockmans lived in a beautiful home not too far from the PAVAD office. She pulled in just after Al and Seth.

  “See you made it without turning into a zombie,” Al said. “I wondered.”

  “I survived. Thankfully nothing happened in my department today, at least.”

  She refused to think about the truth. That someone somewhere in her department was doing things that jeopardized them all. Could result in some pretty horrific killers being released if the wrong kinds of cases were affected.

  Serial killers, rapists, kidnappers, traffickers—all sorts of assholes could be released if the wrong kind of information got out. How could anyone think of violating that trust? For what?

  Why? What possible motivation could they have?

  Chapter 10

  Burns hurt. Scars hurt, and he had plenty of those. Both on the outside and on the in. He had been a federal agent for twenty-one years. And in that time he had given far too much of himself to the Bureau.

  He took so much pride in that.

  But retirement was just around the corner, and if he was going to make certain that debts were paid to those that were owed them, it was now, wasn’t it?

  The skin of his burned hand stretched when he flexed, a reminder he had lived with for seventeen years.

  That day had cost him his best friend, his partner, and within a few weeks, his wife and daughters.

  He would never forget that.

  The man responsible still continued to prosper.

  He could see the PAVAD building from his office, its red brick exterior a visible reminder of what he could have had if he had been as fortunate as Edward Dennis.

  But he hadn’t been—because he chose to do the right things, instead of prospering from others’ misfortunes.

  Yes, by the time PAVAD celebrated its third year anniversary, Edward Dennis would pay.

  He would make certain of it—or die trying.

  Chapter 11

  “Cody? Are you in there?” Kelly asked, midway through the next day. Cody looked up to see her friend in the door to her office late the next afternoon. “I’ve been here for almost fifteen minutes.”

  “Huh?”

  “Ok, not that long. But I could have been. Where’s your head?”

  “Probably the last place it needs to be.” With Sin and what he’d said. She’d found a file that had her stumped. And it had originated with people she knew and trusted. She’d been staring at it for over fifteen minutes.

  “We pulled a case. My department is about ready to send it to yours. Unless you want to process together?” Kelly was now the swing shift supervisor of the biological forensics department.

  “Let me grab my bag. I didn’t think you were out in the field yet.” Kelly had required surgery to repair some of the damage done to her a few months earlier. The surgery had to be postponed to let the initial breaks heal. Her friend had just had the plaster cast removed two days earlier. Kelly had been so lucky. She came close to dying when Hugh had attacked—and shot—her, and then to become the target of a serial killer so recently.

  “Have a few people out today. So, it’s either me or Ally in the field. I volunteered. I have been stuck inside for weeks.”

  “I can totally understand.” It had taken her a while to get back out in the field after Hugh. That first day back had been very welcomed. Because it signified the end of the changes he had caused. “Let me grab my bag.”

  A few moments later they were driving to the scene. Cody welcomed the return of normal. Since taking the supervisory position she hadn’t spent much time in the field. Sometimes that was a good thing. Sometimes not. “Turn left at the next light. The scene is four blocks up from that.”

  Cody pulled the vehicle to a stop next to where the locals had the area cordoned off. “What do we know about this scene?”

  “A woman was attacked, alongside the road here.” One of the locals met them and offered to take their bags. Cody and Kelly both shook their heads. No one touched their equipment, even the locals. Especially the locals—the woman who had attacked Kelly had been a local they’d ran across many times. No one in PAVAD’s forensics had forgotten that. And they’d changed protocol because of it.

  She and Kelly did their best not to draw attention when on scenes. They’d had their fair share of negative experiences in the field, and they’d learned to ensure they blended in with the rest of the officials on scene.

  “Automotive and biological forensics. PAVAD.” Cody gave her credentials to the locals guarding the scene. “Who is in charge?”

  “I am.” A voice said behind a taller local. Detective Cheryl Morgan stepped around him. “I spoke with your supervisor, Dr. Dennis. She’s agreed that your lab process the forensics, since our facility is backed up.”

  She looked over her shoulder at the two techs that had arrived. “Dave, Quinn, get started on the car. Kelly and I will search for biological samples. Detective Morgan, what exactly happened?”

  She listened as the woman described the events that led to the small Toyota being ran off the road and lit aflame.

  The details made sense, but the positioning of the vehicle did not.

  Cody was certain of one thing—they were going to be on the scene for quite a while.

  Chapter 12

  They finally got the car back to PAVAD.
Cory was certain the case was going to be a simple one to process, at least. She and Kelly had a good work rhythm when they processed together, and since they’d both been promoted recently they hadn’t had much time to partner up.

  Still, after they’d figured out how the female victim had ended up on the wrong side of the road during the spin out, they’d been able to leave the car in the capable hands of her team.

  Once she returned to PAVAD, though, she and Kelly were both in dire need of showers.

  It put her a few minutes later than she wanted picking up Lucy, but she knew Meredith was used to that.

  How could she not be when all of her children and their spouses worked for PAVAD?

  One big happy family, weren’t they? Cody knew that happiness had been hard won for the Brockmans in question. The Brockman home was a large two story that seemed to always be full of people. The Brockmans had three children, their spouses, their grandchildren, and various extended family and friends that were in and out all of the time.

  And the Brockmans loved having guests.

  Occasionally she’d work on Saturdays and even on Sundays, and they’d never balked about babysitting on weekends. They were godsends, and she knew it. They took Lucy to church with them on the days they had her, and she and Ruthie got to enjoy Sunday school together.

  School.

  Church was a lot easier for Lucy than Brynlock. Nothing was going well, and Cody was counting down the days until the end of the term. Brynlock was on a year-round schedule, and would break for a month soon. Then, if the fates were kind, Lucy would move on to the first grade. The all-day first grade.

  Cody was absolutely certain Lucy wasn’t ready for that. But she didn’t want her to have to repeat kindergarten and start all over again with friends, either.

  Was parenting always going to be so difficult? Could she do it? It felt like she barely got any time with her daughter, between her new position as supervisor, and Lucy having school on the days Cody would sometimes have off.