The night wind had a chill to it. Kissney wished she’d brought a jacket from home. The Captain had stayed off her ass about the case so far, but she didn’t believe for a moment that it would stay that way. Just as she was putting the key into the door of the jeep, Levi appeared.
“Hey, I need a lift.”
“I thought you left your car here last time.”
“No I left it at your place.”
Kissney didn’t recall seeing his car at her house. Then again she didn’t recall seeing much of anything after he appeared at her house. She could recall his naked chest, the way he moved on top of her, but she had to push those thoughts away.
“Jump in.”
Kissney unlocked the door to let them both in. The ride to the house was long because of the traffic. She hated this shift, it was always so late when she got home and her yard needed some work before it started to snow. Kissney wanted to put up the decorations for Halloween as well. The radio was playing some type of music, but Kissney was spacing out on her thoughts. The killer should take a break after this. Five murders in only a few days were enough to sate anyone’s itch. They might not have any bodies in the snow this year if they were lucky, she thought. The traffic moved slowly as she made her way toward home. Kissney finally pulled into her driveway to see Levi’s car in front. Why had she not noticed it when they left?
Kissney stood in the driveway looking at her yard. It had taken a beating this summer from the heat, the grass was an off green. Levi stood beside her and seemed to want to say something but then thought better of it. She knew he wanted to talk about feelings, but she didn’t want to think about anything, let alone feel.
“If you’re going to stick around you can help get the decorations out.”
Kissney spun away from him with a grin on her face. Once in the house she stripped off her gun then changed into a t-shirt with a pair of jeans. Levi gave her a look as if she had lost her mind but helped her get the boxes out. Once they dragged them outside, the decorating began.
“Levi, no it goes by the porch.”
“This is by the porch.”
Kissney rolled her eyes at the man as he tried to put the coffin by the tree. She walked over taking the coffin away from him. Levi tried to take it back but she smacked his hands.
“It goes by the porch not by the tree.”
“Alright, so you’re going to move it.”
“I said it goes by the porch. The tree gets the ghost.”
Kissney put the coffin in place by the door smiling when she noticed him hanging up the ghost. She had worked hard to get the items she really wanted for the yard. The tombstones looked real and she put a smoke machine behind them to really freak the kids out. Most of the time she worked on Halloween so she never really had a chance to give out candy.
“Kissney, let’s get some dinner.”
She hadn’t even thought about eating. They took the last few items into the house to set them up. Kissney loved Halloween, it was one of her favorite holidays.
“We can order pizza, I haven’t had a chance to go to the store.”
“Fine, you want your norm?”
“You know the answer to that.”
Kissney gave him a sweet smile then stepped past him to put a witch in the window. As she finished with the decorations, the doorbell rang.
“Bart, good to see you, my pie right?”
“Kissney, you know I take special care of your pie. No charge tonight, we hear you’re on that Ripper case. Do us a favor and catch this nut job.”
“Take care on the streets, Bart. Tell the boss I will catch this guy.”
Kissney smiled as she turned to see Levi standing there looking pissed. She didn’t understand why he’d be upset about free pizza. The pizza was warm in her hands when she looked up at him again waiting for him to move.
“You want to eat or stand there looking like a madman?”
“He was hitting on you.”
“Levi, really, he’s married with three kids. That man wouldn’t cheat on his wife, she’d kill him.”
Levi looked at her like she’d grown a second head. Kissney couldn’t help but laugh. She moved past him heading for the kitchen. They needed plates and beer to go with the pizza. Kissney took two pieces for herself and let Levi get his own. She didn’t cater to no one.
“It’s getting cold.”
“I need to wash my hands, not sure what was on that last ghost but it was nasty.”
“Might have been fake blood, some kids thought it would be funny to spray them. They must have missed some when I made them clean it up.”
“You made them clean it up?”
“Hell yes I did. Let’s just say their moms were pretty pissed they would do something like that to a cop’s house. Two of them had their cars taken away.”
He chuckled at the thought of Kissney getting kids into trouble. Levi washed his hands then grabbed two slices and a beer. When he came back into the living room, he noticed Kissney was looking at an old Halloween decoration. The decoration was older, he’d bet it was older than she was, or close to it.
“You make that?”
“I can’t remember making it. Looks like I did. I’d have to call Mom and ask.”
“Kissney, I know you don’t want to talk about what I said.”
“Levi, leave it alone. I don’t want to talk about it. I want to eat then shower. It has been a rough couple of days. Hell, it’s been a rough year.”
Kissney didn’t want to hear any more, but something in the way Levi looked at her set something deep inside of her on fire. She wanted to feel him close, but feared the feelings he had for her.
“Sooner or later you have to act like a girl.”
“I am a girl, what the hell does that mean?”
“To most women it means something when the man they are sleeping with says I love you.”
Kissney rolled her eyes, he really wanted to get into this discussion right now? Instead of answering him, she finished off her pizza then went into the kitchen and cleaned up. She didn’t want to hear him talk about how she needed to understand he loved her for whatever reason.
“Kissney, I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t want to hear it, I’m going to shower and hit the bed. You can stay here or go home it’s up to you, but if you’re staying you can sleep on the couch.”
She spun away from him heading to her room. Kissney closed the door behind her because she didn’t want to hear him leave. With her clean clothes in hand, she went into the bathroom. It’d been a long year, and she didn’t want to think about the killer—she didn’t want to think about him killing again. The hot water felt amazing on her skin. It took the tension out of her shoulders and back. Kissney took her time in the shower, it had been too long since she let herself relax.
Kissney stepped out of the shower to dry off and looked at herself in the mirror. The dark circles under her eyes told her she wasn’t sleeping well. The tightness in her chest spoke of the hurt she felt about Levi. They had been partners for over three years, and she didn’t want to break in a new partner. Did she love him? She couldn’t say that she did, not in the way he loved her.
The bed was cold against her warmed skin, but Kissney just sighed into it. She didn’t go into the living room to see if Levi had left or not. She just wanted to spend some time thinking about what had happened over the last year. To see if she could give her heart to another man. Kane had ripped a piece of her heart out and taken it with him. Maybe she needed to get over him and move on, it’d been long enough.