Bound to Forever - Book ll

The Boss

I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I've fallen back into a depression to where my life feels like a constant repetitive cycle. I went to bed around 7pm last night and didn't get out of bed this morning until noon. I've barely contacted anybody and it felt like an act of congress just to make myself write, but I knew I wanted to update. I'm just trying to heal mentally. I got back on the stupid dating app and started chatting with this guy from the Navy. Things were going well with conversation, and he was even wanting to meet me in the next few weeks or so, then suddenly, he completely disappeared. Blocked me on snapchat and Hinge without an explanation. I need to just take a break, because I'm so done getting ghosted. Yet I don't want to give up in trying to find love.

Simon's Point of View:

The twins were taken to daycare while Kiera came to work with me, toting Stella along as coming with me was Kiera's excuse to get out of the house. I didn't blame her, though, she hated it when she was home all the time. She was also adamant on finding out further information regarding this case, and I wasn't about to stop her considering this entire case revolved around her mother. Detective Graves picked up Charlene and her two kids the same time we left the house, advising us that he took a few personal days to watch the family himself. Luckily, this Graves bloke did not resemble the Graves that Kiera and I knew in the past. He seemed honest and good-hearted, but I grew to never trust anybody.

"What's our first stop for the day, babe?"

"Well, Finley called me this morning while you were getting ready. Gotta meet him at the morgue."

"Another body?"

I nodded.

"What is going on around here?"

"Hopefully I find out something soon, love," I sighed, reaching over to gently grasp for her hand, sensing how nervous she was considering how she subtly trembled with anxiety. "Everything is going to be alright. I'm not patrolling today, so unfortunately for you, you're stuck with me all day."

She giggled, "I don't mind being stuck with you for the day. You're forgetting that we're married, so we're stuck with each other until the day we die, so if anyone is unfortunate, it's you."

"I know what I signed up for. Had to put a ring on that perfect finger of yours before someone else beat me to it." I smirked, pressing my lips against her knuckles as I turned into the parking lot of the morgue, seeing Finley's vehicle parked in the front.

"Mr. Riley, I see you brought the boss with you." Finley snickered, stuffing his hands in his tweed pockets.

"Yeah, both of them," I scoffed, referring to not only my wife, but my new daughter, knowing that soon enough, the little lass would have me wrapped around her little finger more than she already has. "What've we got this time?"

"Come with me."

"Here you go," Bradley, the coroner whom we had dealt with multiple times already, said as he handed the file to Finley himself. "I-I'm sorry, Mr. Riley. I-I didn't know you were coming, or I would've had a file for you—"

"Don't worry about it."

"This victim was one of the easier ones to identify. We found him a quarter mile from where the first two victims were found. Once the prints came back, we got a full run on the man. Victim's name is Grant Johnson. A trucker for West Coast Shipping, which makes sense because of the test results I got back showed a little too much hydrogen sulfide in his blood gases and tissue. By the looks of it, he spent his whole life on the road not only to make money, but sniffin' other people's catalytic converters."