Bullets & Bonfires

“Hey.” I place my hand on her arm, stopping her from opening the refrigerator. “What are you talking about?”

“‘Uh, how bad is she? She’s pretty messed up, bro,’” she mimics her version of my conversation with her brother in a ridiculously lousy impression of both of us.

“Your man-voice needs work.”

She snorts and pulls out of my grasp.

“You’re not messed up. That’s not what I said to him.”

“Why didn’t he call me and ask me how I was doing?”

“Maybe he did and you didn’t answer.”

I said it jokingly, but it is odd Vince hasn’t called to check on her. I know they spoke at some point—she called her brother from the hospital, and he called me.

“Nope,” she says, strolling back into the kitchen. She waves her phone at me. “Nothing from my brother.”

“I’m sure he’ll call later.” The look on her face makes me want to take her into my arms again.

“I can’t believe the kitchen,” she says after a few minutes of silence.

“It’s nice, right?”

“It’s certainly homey.” She runs her fingers over the countertop. “Not like when we were kids and used to heat up our own microwave dinners and ate on the floor in front of the television.”

Even though I’ve known both Vince and Bree since we were all kids, those little details aren’t things Vince and I would ever talk about. Bree stating it so plainly leaves me unsure of what to say to make it better.

She spins in a slow circle, taking in every detail. “It looks like something out of Martha Stewart Living.”

“Don’t tell him that. I think he was going for Country Farm Boy.”

She chuckles and runs her hand over the built-in window seat. “I always wanted one of these in my room.”

“Well, when you’re settled, let him know. He built it himself.”

She lets out a soft snort. “Settled. Yeah.”

“Bree, you’re—”

She cuts me off before I can offer any reassuring words. “I had no idea Vince was so handy.”

“Come on, stop trying to shirk potato duty.”

She huffs out a laugh and joins me by the sink. We work together for a while. When she’s done peeling and slicing potatoes, she curls up on the window seat and watches me work.

Her phone jingles, and I glance over. She frowns and squints at the screen. Her lips flatten into an angry line and she bangs out a reply.

“Everything okay?”

“What?” Her head snaps up, confusion all over her face.

Something’s off. Chad shouldn’t be able to contact her from jail, but after a few years with the department I’ve learned to expect just about anything. “Who was that?”

She won’t answer or meet my eyes right away.

“Bree,” I prompt.

“Why are you being so nosy—”

“I’m your friend,” I snap, cutting her off.

She glares at me for a second before relenting and answering me. “Chad’s brother. Harassing me to drop the charges.”

“Like fuck,” I say, striding over with my hand out. “Give me that.”

She tucks the phone in her pocket. “No.”

“Bree. I’m not fucking around. If he’s harassing you, we’ll get a restraining order.”

“I can handle it.”

Yeah, right.

“Why are you being so difficult?”

She lifts her chin toward the stove. “You’re doing enough for me. I don’t need to drag you into my mess.”

“Drag me…are you serious, Bree?”

A soft sigh leaves her lips. “His parents know a lot of people. I don’t want…I don’t want them to try to screw with your job or something.”

I let out a sharp bark of laughter, and she narrows her eyes. The investigator assigned to Bree’s case already warned me all about the deep pockets and connections Chad’s family has. Entitled pricks who beat up their girlfriends didn’t tend to earn a lot of respect with law enforcement.

Squatting down next to her, I take her hands in mine. “Listen to me, I know people too. I’m good at my job. There’s not a damn thing his family can do to me. And even if there was, it wouldn’t matter. You’re more important to me than any job.”

“This is all my fault,” she mumbles.

“No, it’s not.” I shift to sit next to her and pull her into my arms. When she quiets, I hold out my hand. She slides the phone into it and sighs.

“Good. Now where does the brother live? Empire?”

She nods.

“Okay. I’ll have someone I know down there talk to him. And I’m going to get a transcript of these texts in case we need to get a restraining order against him too.”

I work my fingers over her phone. “For now, I’m going to block his number.”

“Thank you, Liam,” she says softly.

“You don’t have to thank me, baby girl.”

Once that’s taken care of we don’t talk about anything to do with her ex. I’ve got plenty of questions, but I’m already a live wire of emotions. Bree’s going to have to repeat her story enough in the coming weeks. Right now, she needs to relax and feel safe, not be interrogated.

She sets the table and waits for me to finish making dinner.

“Do you remember the day we met?” she asks after heaping mashed potatoes on her plate and sitting at the table.

“How could I forget? You were the prettiest girl on the playground.”

Her fork stops moving through the potatoes and she meets my eyes. “That’s not true. I was picking myself up off the ground after Matty Cantwell knocked me down.”

“Yeah, and I was coming over to see if you were okay and then on my way to kick Matty’s ass. Little bastard needed a lesson on treating girls with respect.”

The corners of her mouth quirk up. “I told you not to bother because Vince would beat up Matty on the way home.”

I chuckle, remembering how fierce but vulnerable seven-year-old Bree was. How she matter-of-factly brushed the dirt off her skinned knees, then burst into tears when she realized her dress was ripped.

“Gee, here you are sixteen years later doing the same thing.” She sets her glass of milk on the table with a thump and sits back in her chair.

“What’s that?”

“Rescuing me.”

I grind my teeth, swallowing down my irritation. I’m far from rescuing her from anything. No, I’m picking up pieces after the fact because I didn’t know what was happening to her.

“You rescued yourself, Bree,” I say instead. My elbow bumps against hers. “Eat your chicken. You need the protein.”

She picks at the chicken. “I don’t have much of an appetite.” After a few more bites she sets her fork down. “Chad’s always telling me I’m too fat.”

My fists clench, but I manage not to explode. “He’s an asshole.”

“That was your first day at our school,” she says, sidestepping any more Chad talk. “Right?”

“Yup. We’d just moved here and I thought I’d be bored to death.”

“You and Vince were tight from day one.”

“Well, I wanted to stay close to his pretty sister, so…”

She glances up, disbelief in her eyes. Although I said it teasingly, there’s some truth to that. Vince and I were in the same grade and shared similar interests, but Bree’s the one I was drawn to. Even then she seemed older than most of the kids I knew.

“At least you two always let me hang around. Remember Lucy and Emma? They were always jealous of me because their brothers ignored them.”

Bree wasn’t like other kid sisters and Vince wasn’t like any of the boys in our class. He was fiercely protective of his sister and always included her in whatever he was up to.

“You were fun to be around.”

“And you were a good influence on my brother.”

“He was a hot-headed little shit,” I agree, making her laugh. As a kid, I’d helped Vince avoid plenty of fights. Got dragged into a bunch of brawls because of him too. Vince had a hell of a temper.

Dinner with Bree brings both bittersweet and pleasant memories. I’ve missed her. We haven’t spent time with each other in years. Not like this. Except for the occasional Christmas visit and her mother’s funeral, once Bree escaped our small town, she rarely came home. She sent me a few impersonal emails, texts, and the yearly birthday phone call, but not much more than that.

Despite the murderous rage welling up inside me every time I’m confronted with the bruises on her face, I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.

I work hard to keep my expression blank. Deny the emotions warring inside me. A skill we’re trained to do in the academy and hone on the job. In no way do I want her to feel self-conscious around me, so I lock all of my emotions down.

Now that I know some of the reason she kept her distance was her controlling boyfriend and not one hundred percent my fault, it somehow makes me feel worse. I’d have to be an idiot not to know how much I hurt her feelings when I pushed her away after Vince caught us kissing the night of her high school graduation. Bree’s always been a brave and proud girl. Vince embarrassed the hell out of her and I, like an idiot, only made it worse. She left for college early in the summer. By the time I found my balls and went to see her, she was involved with Chad and blew me off.