I stood up and went to the hall, where the rest of the detectives and a couple of clients were starting to meet. Penny, the normally tough-as-nails detective, was with her client, who looked a little spooked. She was reassuring her that everything was fine and that this happened quite a few times (it didn’t), Penny herself looking a little shaken.
That’s when I heard it. When we all heard it.
“Get out!”
It was Jonah and he was shouting at the top of his lungs. “Everyone! Out of the building, now!”
No one asked questions. No one waited another second. We all filed out, hurrying through the dark hallway, unsure of what the hell had caused Jonah so much panic, but knowing that whatever it was, it was deadly serious.
16 Oliver Brightly
The sun was setting over Miami, throwing a bucket of purple-and-orange paint over the sky, coloring the puffy clouds that lazily pushed in from the ocean. I had my windows open as I cleaned up the apartment, enjoying the intermittent breeze that would drift in, dancing as I dusted off my rainbow bookshelf. I hadn’t talked to Beckham all day, which was odd for us, but I knew he was meeting with my old neighbor today and figured he was busy with detective things.
I made myself busy with cleaning and the occasional studying in the meantime. It was my last year, so everything I was studying had been more of a tune-up than an info dump, thankfully. The first two years of vet school were brutal, but the last one had been more hands-on instead of us sitting in classrooms, which reminded me of the exact reason why I’d chosen this as my career. I loved helping all kinds of animals, big and small, furry and scaled, and I loved seeing the smiles on their owners’ faces when things turned out all right.
It was either being a veterinarian or a backup dancer for Mariah Carey. Those had been my only two options growing up as a kid, so thank gawd vet school worked because I could barely control my legs to cross a room, much less dance behind a real-life queen.
I finished up cleaning and got to preparing dinner. This was the first night Beckham was coming over, and I had decided to cook him a nice steak dinner.
Thankfully, my cooking wasn’t as bad as my dancing.
By the time I was wrapping up in the kitchen, I could tell my entire apartment smelled like buttery soft and seasoned steak. I was working on the mashed potatoes and asparagus when I got a text from Beckham telling me that he was on his way.
Not too long after, there were a couple of hard knocks on my door.
I lowered the music I’d been listening to and went over to the front door, a small pep in my step that certainly hadn’t been there before as I was vacuuming the layer of cat hair on the floor.
“Hey there, Beck.”
Beckham was looking delicious. He wore a black shirt with three buttons down the center of the collar, two of them popped open and revealing a sexy tuft of hair and tantalizing skin. His jeans looked new, crisp. His sneakers were definitely new with how white they were.
He pulled me in for a kiss, one that surprised me. It lasted for a long moment. It felt like he was relieved to see me, to share this moment.
When the kiss broke I stood there, looking up into Beckham’s emerald-green eyes. There was turmoil in there. A storm brewing. Something had happened.
My blood thickened.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, bringing him inside. “What happened?”
“That obvious, huh?”
“Honey, the library is open because I can read you like a book.”
That got a laugh out of him, but the storm was still swirling inside his gaze. Mason and Jar both hopped off the couch and sauntered over to the new guest, Jar a little more hesitant than Mason, who was already purring like a motor as he neared Beckham.
“These are the famous Mason and Jar, huh?” Beckham, a smile on his face, crouched down and gave Mason chin scratches, somehow knowing the exact way into that big orange tiger’s heart. Jar, not one to be left behind on chin scratches, bumped into Mason and pushed him out of the way, positioning himself for the same treatment. Beckham gave them both neck scratches, which I thought was about to legit blow both their little cat minds.
“So what happened?” I asked, still worried even though cat cuddling seemed to be easing some of the tension off Beckham.
“We got a bomb threat at Stonewall Investigations today.”
“No.” I covered my mouth, shock washing over me. I could feel myself getting light-headed. “What? Is everyone okay? What happened? Is Jona—”
“Everyone’s fine. Your brother was the one who got the call and had all of us evacuate.”