Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“Cohen!” she cried out, clinging onto me for dear life.
“That’s it,” I praised her, reveling in the sound as I continued thrusting into her. Pleasure lit me up like a fire, burning through my entire body. “I want you to come for me. Can you do that?”
Zoe nodded in an almost frantic manner, and I felt her thighs try to tighten around me. She let her head drop back against the wall before releasing another blissful sound that filled the whole room.
I buried myself inside of her and finished with a muffled grunt, my face pressing against her neck. We both caught our breaths for a few moments before I slowly and carefully set her down. I didn’t immediately let her go, though, and rested my hands on her waist.
I went from defending my guys from her to wanting to protect her too.
“Shit, I should’ve used a condom,” I cursed, realizing what we just did.
Zoe placed her hand on my arm and gave me a tired smile.
“I’m on birth control,” she comforted me. “It’s okay. I got caught up in the moment too.”
Relief washed over me as I followed her to the bathroom to clean up, heat still lingering over my skin. We washed up, exchanging a smile and a warm look every few seconds. She was different from who I assumed she was. She truly wanted what was best for this town.
“Have you found any leads?” I asked her.
“I have some notes from the arson scenes, but I think I need to look in the past,” Zoe said as she turned to me. “My mom was a researcher. That’s what she would’ve done.”
I watched her eyes grow distant, a bittersweet haze filling them. She wouldn’t ever get over the loss of her mom, but she could still reflect on her memories in a warm light.
“What was she like? Are you like her?” I asked, trying to draw her out of the dark place her mind was trying to retreat to.
Zoe’s eyes brightened.
“She was the kind of mom who never brought me down. Only supported me,” she gushed. “I remember one Christmas we were making sugar cookies, and I knocked over a whole bag of flour on the floor.”
My eyebrows shot up as I imagined the mess. I would’ve been swiftly kicked out of the kitchen.
“She wasn’t mad. Like, at all. She just laughed and flicked flour at me,” Zoe mused. “She said I made it snow indoors.”
I chuckled at the thought. I could definitely see remnants of her mom’s cheery, amusing spirit in her.
“I bet she liked that you were a journalist,” I inferred. Researcher and journalist could intersect at quite a few points.
“She always supported my writing. I wish she could see me now,” Zoe sighed. “I want to do this story right and make her proud.”
No wonder she was so insistent and stubborn about working with us. This wasn’t just any other story for her. It was the story, and if I could help, I wanted to.
“Have you thought about checking out the library? I’m pretty sure they have newspaper archives,” I suggested. It was the only place in town that I could think of where she would get that kind of information.
Zoe brightened up.
“That’s a good idea,” she told me before her face softened. “Thank you, Cohen.”
I was glad that we were on the same page now because we had a lot of work to do. Making this town a safe one wasn’t going to be easy, but at last, I realized that the person we needed to make that happen was finally back home.
Chapter 13
Zoe
The smell of old books and wood filled my nose as I strode inside of the local library that I had been in more times than I could count.
My mom took me here in the summer when school was out, letting me pick out a book to read every two weeks. The library seemed so fun and wondrous back then.
Now, a quiet, still atmosphere lingered around me as the few people who were inside either worked here or were students studying at the long, wooden tables in the back. Rows of bookshelves stretched across the whole room in front of me, making me pause.
Where did I even start?
I wandered up and down the aisles until I found myself on the right side of the library where there were a few desktop computers. From what I saw looking in the aisles, there weren’t any physical newspapers to look at, so they must’ve been stored in a digital archive. It was worth a shot to look.
I took a seat and searched the library’s website until I saw a link to the newspaper archive. Bingo. I clicked and was greeted with a search box, prompting me to type in the word ‘arson’ first to see what it brought up. After a few moments of loading, links to scanned newspapers started popping up on the page.