“His intent was to killyou?”
“Not sure about kill. Torture, definitely. You saw the way he looked at me, Gunnar. Pure hatred.”
“And you kept that to yourself all this time? It’s been weeks.”
“He was locked away. If I’d read him again that future would have changed so what was the point of sharing?”
“Oh, I don’t know…so you didn’t have to carry the burden of that knowledge alone?” Gunnar hated that Bryn hadn’t felt able to share.
“I’m used to it. I don’t want to fill other people’s heads with the horrors I see. I don’t want that shit inyourhead. It’s my safe place and it shouldn’t be polluted.”
Gunnar gripped the wheel harder. “Is that how you see yourself? Polluted?”
“Don’t you?”
“Not even close. Fuck, Bryn, I don’t know how you deal with all the shit you’ve been put through but to me you’re special. Precious. And I don’t mean because of what you can do.”
“Then why don’t you do something about it? We’ve been dancing around each other since the day we met. You must know I have feelings for you. Very unprofessional feelings. The things I want you to do to me…” Bryn’s voice trailed off. “Fuck, I didn’t mean to let that out.”
“You touch me all the time. You have to know I have feelings for you too.”
“So…”
“So what?”
“So why haven’t you pinned me down and fucked me to with an inch of my life? I know you want to…amongst other things.”
“Because we’re partners. Because I’m older than you. Because we’ve been getting to know each other and ithasonly been a few months. Besides, Warden would detach my balls and make himself a desk ornament with them if I went near you.”
“There’s nothing in GCR’s rules that says partners can’t date. You are six years older than me, that’s hardly a massive age gap, and it’s been several months, for fuck’s sake. Warden I can’t do anything about, but he does want to keep me happy-ish, even if he doesn’t show it. Removing important parts of your anatomy wouldn’t help with that.”
“We’re here, so this conversation will have to wait. Don’t get distracted.”And that goes for you too, Ericson. Ogling that pretty ass could get us both killed.
When they got into the FBI building, it was Agent Gomez, Bell’s partner, who provided their escort to the incident room.
“Haven’t seen you for a while, Gomez,” Gunnar commented.
“I’ve been off work. Got some nasty complications from a bout of food poisoning and it took a while to get over it. Something called hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure. Never going near prawns again.”
Way too much information.Bryn ignored the stares as he walked into the room. One or two people gave friendly waves and those he nodded to, somewhat surprised. “Where’s Bell?”
“With the boss. He’ll be back soon.”
“Any news on Templeton?” Gunnar asked.
“Nothing. He’s a ghost. We think he must have had help because several cameras that should have caught him leaving the hospital were out of action that day. There was also a fatal fender bender nearby, which meant potential witnesses were all looking the other way. Literally. If he got into a vehicle, nobody saw it.”
“The GCR sent over the letter that was left on my windshield at the Wolf Run?”
“Yeah. It’s gone into evidence but forensic analysis didn’t come up with anything useful.”
“Yeah, I could have told you that without rummaging around in anyone’s head,” Bryn said. He wandered over to the board displaying the photographs of the Walmart killer’s victims. “Whatabout the case wecando something about? How’s that going?”
Gunnar came and stood at his shoulder. “Let’s go sit down and give them time to tell us, okay?”
“Okay, I’m just…Impatient to catch this guy.”
“And I’m sure they are too, but the investigation has to be thorough and you know yourself that there were a huge number of angles to close down.”
