Неизвестный - 2. Beyond The Breakwater

“Just great.” Carre smiled brilliantly, resting her hand on Bri’s thigh.

Tory watched Reese check her watch for the second time, and repeated, “What’s going on, sweetheart?”

“We might have some information on the arsonist. Ashley Walker is on her way over.”

“Really.” Tory did some quick calculating. “Can I talk to you out on the deck?”

“Of course,” Reese said immediately.

Once outside, Tory turned to Reese and said, “Will you tell me what’s happening after you talk to Ashley?”

“Will you promise to go back to bed and try to get some sleep if I do?”

“God, you’re difficult.” Tory’s voice was a mixture of frustration and tenderness. “Yes, I promise. As long as you promise to come home unscathed.”

Reese pressed her lips to Tory’s forehead, and then her mouth. When she drew back, she whispered huskily, “I promise.”

“Then we have a deal,” Tory said as she rested her cheek against Reese’s shoulder. A moment later, she said softly, “I think that was the doorbell.”

A moment later, Caroline walked out onto the deck carrying Tory’s sweatshirt. She was wearing Bri’s leather jacket. “Do mind company while they’re talking?”

“No,” Tory replied with a smile as she reached for the sweatshirt. “Thanks, sweetie. Now…what’s on your mind?”

“Bri hasn’t said anything about me living with her when I finish school,” Caroline said in a small voice.

“Do you want to?”

“Of course. I love her. I’ve always wanted to live with her.”

“Have you told her that?” Tory asked gently.

“No.”

“Why not?”

Caroline was silent for a long moment. “I guess because…I’m still mad at her for making plans without me. For leaving me alone for the last four months.”

“Then you two have some more talking to do.” Tory brushed her fingers over Caroline’s cheek. “Don’t wait too long, sweetie. Time is precious.”

The sound of the sliding doors from the kitchen opening caught their attention as Reese came out and said, “Bri and I are going in to work in a bit.”

Caroline got up suddenly and started toward the house, Tory’s words echoing in her mind.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“What is it?” Tory asked as she sat up on the lounge chair, making room for Reese next to her.

“Ashley Walker has been running deep background checks on everyone in Morris’s family, as well as his wife’s. She turned up something on an Internet search tonight.”

“What?”

“Morris’s wife’s great grandfather was one of the early 20th-century Provincetown art colonists.”

Tory stared at Reese. “He lived here?”

“He did.” Reese’s eyes glinted in the moonlight. “In a dune shack.”

The dunes shacks where just that, ramshackle buildings built in the shelter of the dunes on the Atlantic side of the tip of Cape Cod, opposite the village. Writers, painters, and photographers had built rustic shelters in this isolated location and often returned to them summer after summer for decades. Most were only accessible on foot. Many of the buildings had been lost to weather and neglect, but some still remained. They were only rarely occupied in modern times.

“Oh my god, do you think that’s where Morris is?” Tory said. When Reese nodded, Tory’s stomach lurched. “What are you going to do?”

“Nelson is waking up the museum curator right now so we can study the dune shack maps. Once we’re certain we know which one we’re dealing with, we’re going to take a ride out to check.”

“Tonight?” Tory asked, her heart pounding.

“At dawn.” Reese shifted and slid her arm around Tory’s waist. “He won’t expect us. Besides, the guy is an arsonist. He’s not likely to put up a fight.”

“Of course,” Tory said evenly, knowing Reese would go, regardless of her fears. This was what Reese did. “Who else is going?”

“Bri, Ashley, and Nelson.”

“Ashley?” Tory said with surprise.

“She’s been chasing this guy a long time, and she’s an ex-cop. She’s probably better trained for this than Lyons or Smith. I cleared it with Nelson already, and she’s earned it.”

“When are you going?”

“We’re supposed to meet at 2:00 a.m.”

“Soon then.” Tory took a slow steadying breath. “Will you call me as soon as it’s over?”

“I don’t suppose there’s any chance that you’ll be able to sleep, is there?” Reese lifted Tory’s chin with her fingertips and kissed her softly. “Maybe just a little?”

“I’ll lie down when you go,” Tory murmured, her mouth against Reese’s. She wanted to fist her hands in Reese’s shirt and keep her next to her forever. “But I might not sleep until you get back into bed.”

“Then I’ll be home as soon as I can,” Reese breathed before she kissed her again.

When Caroline stepped inside, she immediately saw Bri and Ashley leaning against the breakfast counter on the far side of the room, facing one another as they talked. She also noted in one quick glance that Ashley had placed her left hand on Bri’s forearm where it rested on the back of a chair. Without hesitation, she walked to them and put her arm around Bri’s waist. “Hi, baby.”

“Hey, babe,” Bri said softly, resting her hand lightly on the back of Carre’s neck.“Uh, Carre, this is Ashley Walker.”

Caroline extended her hand. “Hi. I’m Carre, Bri’s girlfriend.”

Ashley nodded, her eyes searching the pretty young blond’s. If she hadn’t been too busy with her own love life to pursue the sexy Sheriff’s officer, the look in Bri’s girlfriend’s eyes would have been enough to dissuade her. “Got it.”

“Well,” Bri said, looking from one to the other a bit uncertainly. “I should get ready.”

“I’ll come with you,” Caroline said, smiling at Ashley.

Inside Bri’s bedroom, Carre sat on the side of Bri’s bed and watched her lover change. “We should go apartment hunting.”

Bri stopped abruptly and regarded Carre in the dim light of the bedside lamp. “We should?”

“Uh-huh. You can’t stay here forever, plus I don’t think we can make love in here without waking Reese and Tory up. It doesn’t make sense for both of us to move back to Nelson’s. We need our own place.”

“We do?” Bri’s throat was dry and her heart was beating two hundred times a minute. “Our place?”

“Yes,” Carre said as she rose and walked to Bri. She brushed the jet-black strands of hair off Bri’s forehead, then threaded her arms around Bri’s waist.

“Here?” Bri felt incapable of full sentences.

Carre smiled. “This is where you’ll be, right?”

Bri nodded. She had to go to work. Reese had said ten minutes. But the world had stopped and all she knew was the thudding of her pulse and the warmth deep in her belly. This was what mattered. This moment. “You’ll live here…with me?”

“Of course,” Carre replied, her lips soft against Bri’s cheek. “I love you. I can’t live anywhere else.”

“Carre—”

“Shh,” Carre murmured gently just before she kissed her.

Just before dawn, Reese, Nelson, Bri and Ashley turned onto a narrow trail in the sand that ran parallel to the Atlantic ocean and beach. After a mile, Nelson cut the lights and glanced at Reese in the front seat opposite him. “Think we should proceed from here on foot?”

She nodded. “He’s probably asleep, but nevertheless, vehicles out here are unusual. He’s likely to be suspicious about anything he hears.”

Turning in the seat to look at Bri and Ashley in the rear, she advised, “I’ll take point, and when we get there, Nelson will circle around to cover the rear. You two watch my back. I’ll be going through the door first. Questions?”