Page 86 of Falling for Her

“Are you going to play with yourself?” I ask her.

“I mean”—she turns on her back—“I have the time.”

I look over at the clock. “I have to go,” I groan. “I can’t stay here all day and fuck you.”

She laughs. “Who’s stopping you from leaving?”

“If I fuck you with my pants on, I’m going to have your pussy juice all over me.”

“Get out.” She points to the door. “I promise I won’t play with myself in your bed. Happy now?”

I get up, not wanting to leave her. “Yes. Call me later.”

I’m almost to the door when she calls me. “Lincoln.” I turn and see she’s up on her elbows. “I never said anything about the shower.” She winks at me.

“You’re fucking with me.”

“You’ll know when I’m fucking with you.” She falls back down. “Now go away and let me sleep.”

I shake my head and jog down the stairs and out the door before I do something I’ve never done in my life: not show up for my shift.

Instead, I force myself to drive straight to the station.

Cathy’s desk sits empty since she starts at 8:00 a.m., and all calls are forwarded to the fire station. I toss my phone and keys on my desk before walking over to the coffee machine.

“How old is this coffee?” I ask one of the guys.

“We made it around two in the morning,” he says. I empty it in the sink and start a fresh pot. “What are you doing here so early?”

“I have a meeting with Captain,” I tell him, “and I want to see the evidence from the break-in at my house.”

“They were just talking about it.” He motions with his head toward two uniforms, Brian and Nik, who are sitting at one of the desks. I wait for the coffee to finish, pour myself some, and join them.

“Hey.” They look up from the screen in front of them. “What are you looking at?”

“Stills from that Ring cam you have,” Brian says as I put my coffee cup down and pull up a chair.

“It’s pretty quiet, and then it goes black for a second.” He points to the picture. “Then it comes back again for a split second, and you see something on the side.” He motions to a hooded figure. “Then it goes black for good.”

“So they fucked with the wires?” I ask.

He nods. “I’m going to swing by your house today and check. Other than that, we got nothing. You don’t even see the apartment in the frame, so we can’t see how they got in there.”

“Used a screwdriver,” I tell him. “Busted the lock. I’m going to ask Theo if he can fix it today.” I get my phone from my desk to do that now and see that I missed a text.

Finley:

Since I was up at the ass crack of dawn because of you, I’ve decided to nap and let Asa tend to himself.

I try not to smile as I answer her.

Me:

You would never leave him alone.

Then I pull up the text thread for Theo.

Me: