Page 99 of Fire Fight
“We’re going to catch him, Lane.”
Without looking up at me, he simply nodded and exhaled harshly.
For the sake of my own sanity, I had to believe that was true.
“You good?” I asked. “I’ll stay if you need me, but?—”
“Fuck,” Lane breathed. “You’ve gotta be exhausted. Go home. I’m fine.”
I eyed him. “You sure?”
“Promise,” he nodded. “Gonna be fun explaining to the city why I need to allocate funds to fix my office wall, though.”
I chuckled as I headed for the door. “Knowing you, I think they’ll understand.”
twenty-seven
. . .
CREW
I pulledinto my driveway as Trey exited the house through the porch door. My brother didn’t stop to chat, merely waved and hopped into his truck before peeling out in a cloud of dust as I navigated into the garage.
Weird.
But I didn’t stop to give it much thought in my desperation to get inside and see Aspen.
After the ordeal with her car, I wasn’t taking any chances, and I closed the garage door before I got out of my truck, then ambled into the house. After kicking my boots off, I headed for my room, ready to curl around Aspen and fall asleep.
Only, my bed was empty and the door to the guest room was closed. Had Trey slept in here instead? I supposed that made sense. There wasn’t anything happening between me and Aspen,yet, and she likely wouldn’t want to draw attention to the distinct lack ofsomethingby asking Trey to sleep in the guest room.
Still, I hated that my sheets wouldn’t smell like her when I eventually crawled into them.
But after the interview with Parker this morning, I was too keyed up to sleep. Plus, I’d managed a decent stretch betweencalls last night anyway. I showered quickly, changed, then headed to the kitchen, got coffee brewing, and started on breakfast.
The smells must have enticed her out of bed, because a few minutes later, Aspen appeared.
“Hi,” she murmured as she slid onto a stool right as I placed a mug of coffee in front of her.
“Morning, gorgeous.”
Aspen’s cheeks pinked, and she hid her grin behind the cup as she sipped.
She pulled the mug away slowly, staring down at it as if it were a puzzle she wanted to solve.
“Something wrong?”
“You know how I take my coffee,” she whispered.
I grinned, immensely pleased with myself. “We’ve been living together for over a month, little phoenix.”
“I wasn’t aware you’d been paying attention.”
Holding her cinnamon gaze, I spoke my next words confidently and without hesitation.
“I’ve done nothing else since I met you.”
The gentle, healthy glow turned to a full blown blush that crept up the collar of her shirt and into the apples of her cheeks. She ducked her head, hair falling in a curtain around her, blocking her from view.
