Page 36 of Inferno

He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Sounds good. I know just the place where we can get a good meal.”

She wondered where he ate regularly lately and realized again how long it had been since they spent time together. Enough time for him to have found new places and new people.

Meanwhile, she hung out with Bristol and went to work. It had been enough for a long time. But now that Julio was back in her life, it seemed more like a desolate existence.

One she’d have to figure out how to let go.

FOURTEEN

Julio pulled up to the curb in front of the house, feeling better than he had in a long time. He wasn’t entirely sure how to process the range of emotions coursing through him. Most of them centered around Samantha and the way she had kissed him. He hoped she understood the difference in his kiss.

Where she had needed to pour out all her frustration, he had wanted to give back peace. Each had found what they needed in that moment.

He hoped they could continue to work things out between them. With all that entailed—plus the part where they went to church together.

Julio put the truck in Park and turned to Samantha. “I know we need to get inside, but I just want to say this.”

She looked over at him, her elbows splayed. Using the hair tie from her wrist to secure her blond hair back. Switching from the Samantha he had been making out with, back into Detective Jesse. Exercising a little control where she felt like she didn’t have much.

“If we are going to do this again”—he signedwe—“we should do it differently. We should go to church together.”

Samantha nodded, a soft expression on her face. “We do need to get back to work.” She grasped the door handle. “But I agree.” She got out of the truck, closing the door firmly.

Julio pocketed the keys and followed her up the front walk, glad to see she had bounced back in a way that meant she was going to draw her professionalism around her like a coat and finish the rest of the shift. After that, they could go somewhere quiet and talk. Spend time together.

He’d been thinking about taking her to the firehouse because she hadn’t been there in a while. Who knew what they were making for dinner tonight, but it was usually something good and there was always plenty just in case community members dropped in at mealtime. She could see his captain’s office, and he could show her his life the way she had shown him hers.

Definitely a lot safer to be in public than in either of their homes and risk their relationship falling back into the old way of doing things.

Samantha knocked on the door, and it started to swing open, creaking. The sound echoed through the house. A single-story structure that didn’t look like it had a basement. Probably a crawlspace under the floor. A carport in lieu of a garage, covered with a metal roof that leaned against the right side of the house. Grass on the front lawn that had grown to four or five inches, an ocean of thin stems with tiny flowers on them.

He heard the snick as Samantha drew her weapon from its holster.

She stepped into the house, and he followed her, staying back. Not because he wanted her to be the one the bullet hit if anything started flying. More like he didn’t want to get in the way if she had to defend them both.

“Do I need a gun?” he asked.

“I’ll let you know if you do,” she replied.

He figured that meant she thought he didn’t need one.

“I have a gun at home, in my safe.” Not something he usually carried at work, and it was his personal weapon anyway. If there was trouble here, he could quickly dial 9-1-1—which had him pulling out his phone and getting it ready just in case. Samantha might be a cop, but she didn’t need to think he wasn’t capable of protecting her if it came down to it.

“I don’t think you’re going to need it today.” She hesitated, then stepped into the kitchen. “The smell is usually a lot worse than this.”

Julio peered over her shoulder and spotted a man tied to a wooden dining room chair, his hands behind his back. Blood on his chest and face. One of his eyes was almost completely swollen shut. Blood had dripped down the chair to pool on the floor. Not much, but apparently enough that he had succumbed to blood loss.

Samantha circled the room, sticking to the edges. Looking around furniture and out all the windows. “I need to call this in.”

“I’ll do it.” Julio got on the phone with dispatch and moved around the table so he could crouch in front of the man. He explained to the dispatcher who he was and asked for the police. He nearly added a request for the medical examiner, but something caught his eye. “Hold on.”

He put the back of his hand in front of the man’s mouth and nose. The faintest hint of breath touched his skin.

“He’s alive.” Julio patted his cheek. “Mitchell, can you hear me?”

Across the room, Samantha gasped. “How can he possibly be alive? Look at him.”

Into the phone, Julio said, “We need an ambulance. Now.”

---