“This isn’t New York.” I give him a playful wink. He doesn’t smile. “Sometimes we’re first on scene. We’re trained to look for safety first and should stand down if we feel unsafe, but sometimes as I’m sure you know people can bleed out in minutes. Sometimes there aren’t seconds to wait.”
“I guess I never thought about how dangerous your job could be.”
“I don’t carry one on me, but yeah, I keep a weapon in the ambulance. Never had to use it, but it’s there. I’m a better shot than my brother.” He gives me a skeptical look. “Okay, he’s better with a rifle.” I roll my eyes. Vincent still doesn’t crack a smile.
“Like I said, I’ve never had to use it. I doubt I ever will.” Would be nice if I could shoot Blake in the nuts. I pull my hair up into a ponytail as I make my way into the bathroom to finish getting ready for work. When I walk out, Vincent hasn’t moved an inch.
I go to him. He said he wanted to wake up every morning with me in his bed. I think it would be nice to kiss him goodbye each day before I left for work and again when I got home. I lean up on to my tiptoes and offer him my mouth. Again, he brushes his mouth gently against mine as one of his hands grabs my ass.
“If anyone harms a hair on your head, they’ll not only have you to deal with but Frank and me too.”
“That so?” I smirk up at him, but something dark flashes in his eyes.
“You like to toy with your prey, sweet thing. Mine never see me coming.”
He’s right. I never did see Vincent coming, but I don’t think he’s talking about me right now.
CHAPTER19
VINCENT
I waituntil Emma leaves for the park before finding Frank. He was responsible for running down additional intel on Chief Finley while I helped Mrs. Charles prepare an enormous ramen noodle salad.
Frank is in his room, sitting at a small maple desk, scrolling through some old news articles. He swivels toward me. “You save me any salad?”
I drop a bowl next to his computer. “I didn’t, but your mom did.”
He digs in immediately. “This is pretty good. I expected it to taste like dog shit since you were in the kitchen, but I guess you can’t screw up with my mom watching over you.”
“What’d you find?” I ask.
With a mouthful of noodles, he pushes the computer screen toward me. “I typed it up.”
According to Frank’s notes, the mayor had several middle of the week unexplained visits during Finley’s college years. They weren’t during sporting events or family gatherings, and they stopped as soon as Finley graduated. A few young women from the area left quickly and haven’t returned. One of those girls, Cara, had gone to the emergency room twice in the span of four weeks with bruises. According to the hospital records that Sam could access, Cara worked as a large animal vet technician, and she blamed her injuries on work duties.
An elementary teacher by the name of Rosie had also had an unexplained teaching absence around the same time it was rumored she had been seeing Chief Finley. The two had been seen having dinner together a couple towns over, but after a two-week impromptu vacation from work where her neighbors said she didn’t leave the house at all unless she was wearing a hat and mask, those rumors died off.
“She’s married now. Or engaged. One of the two,” Frank informs me between bites.
Finally, one of the girls from the bar called Sam up and asked if all ambulance calls were recorded or whether those could be kept private.
“He’s a serial abuser.” I shove the laptop away in disgust.
“Yeah. My guess is that Emma figured it out and tried to do something.”
“She got caught by Finley and came away with the busted lip.” I straighten up and grab the half-empty bowl.
“Hey, I wasn’t done with that,” Frank yells.
“You are now. Time for us to go play some football.”
“What?”
“It’s field day, and Emma said people play football.”
“Touch football, yes,” Frank says as he follows me into the kitchen. I empty the bowl and stick it in the dishwasher.
“It’s tackle today.”
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