Stephanie sat next to Max and gently rubbed the fur away from his eyes where the surgical ointment had gathered. “You did a great job, buddy.” She stroked his head and gently scraped her nails behind his ears.

The commotion from the front of the vet clinic filled her with dread and elation at the same time. The vet clinic was a ghost town this weekend with no overnights or surgeries planned. And no one to keep Max company but her until Grimm arrived.

“Let me tell her that you’re here.” Gloria stomped through the halls, every step thundering in the silent clinic.

Speak of the devil. Stephanie grinned and ran a hand self-consciously over her hair to smooth it out.

“She’s waiting for me, and so is Max. But thank you for escorting me. I’m one lucky man.”

“Escorting,” Gloria’s scandalized cry triggered a tired chuckle from Stephanie. The normally unflappable woman had already raised her voice twice. Grimm really knew how to get people going.

“Is she here?”

“Don’t go in there.”

“Quit torturing Gloria. We’re down the hall. The only room with the light.”

Grimm ducked inside with a grin about a mile wide. Too wide. Too forced. He was afraid to ask.

“He’s going to be fine.” She ran a hand over Max’s face again. “Though he’s going to be out of it for a while. A couple of those gashes were dangerous. He’s lucky.”

The smile slipped from his face and he stood there, staring at Max. So much pain flowed from the man in front of her. A man she thought she knew pretty well from Ryan’s letters, phone calls, and random emails. But nothing could have prepared her for the entirety of Grimm.

“I’m going home, Dr. Lowe.” Gloria ducked her head inside and pointedly ignored Grimm. He, on the other hand turned that kilowatt smile back on the front desk mistress.

“G’night Gloria. Thank you for staying with me to lock up.”

“Good night sweet lady. Thank you for showing me to Max.”

“Yeah, sure, help yourself. Don’t mind me or the rules.” She emphasized the word and it echoed in the hallway.

Grimm thumbed in Gloria’s direction. “She’s nice.” He took off his jacket, folded it, and laid it across his arm.

She noticed the holster immediately. His job was far different than the one he’d had as a firefighter. “My brother calls her the dragon lady.”

“Dragon? No, more like a griffin. Maybe a mother hen pecking at anything that disturbs her chicks. She also gets bonus points for not staring at my spooky eye.” His lips lifted at the corners.

“It’s not spooky.

“Like hell it’s not.”

“I think it’s gorgeous.”

His lips twitched and the rise of color in his cheeks showed his slight blush. “There it is.” She walked toward him.

“What?” The smile faltered just a bit.

She touched the corner of his lips. “That smile Ryan mentioned seeing once in a blue moon. I should tell the captain that your new job broke you.”

Grimm caressed her wrist, but didn’t push her away. “Tattling to my captain isn’t very fair.” His gaze searched her face.

She couldn’t be the only one fueled by the attraction between them.

Stephanie took his hand in hers and pulled him closer to Max. “You can touch him. He may not be able to acknowledge it, but he knows you’re there.” She could feel the tremble in his fingers. This strong, capable man who saved countless lives as part of Station 58 alongside her cousin. He, at this moment could have shattered into a million pieces.

He put his hand on Max’s face and gently brushed the lab’s graying muzzle. “I’ve known this guy for less than two days, and he’s wrapped himself up in my life like he’s always been there.” He leaned down at put his face next to the dog’s.

“Animals do that to you.” As she stared down at Grimm’s head, her fingers seemed to entwine in his soft hair. Her fingernails scraped lightly against his scalp.

Grimm leaned into her touch for just a moment. He turned his head and pressed a light kiss on her palm. Heat simmered from that soft caress. “That night at the hospital. I remember you in bits and pieces. Everything from the fall onward is a blur, but I know you held my hand and talked to me.” Grimm stroked Max lightly as his partner huffed gently in sleep.

She couldn’t forget it. Would never want to. The raw grief in his heart, his voice, when he finally accepted Ryan was dead had shattered her entire world. “You said you could see Ryan right behind me. It was hard telling you he wasn’t there.”

Grimm stiffened beneath her touch. She watched down his back as his muscles grew rigid with controlled strength. “What if I told you I could see him.”

“What?” She stopped stroking his hair and stared down at his dark head. “Like a hallucination?”

He stood slowly and turned to stare at her, blue eye bright and unique. “Like a ghost. And he’s not the only one I see.” His jaw clenched slightly and he drew in a slow, shaky breath. “Crazy, right?” More than his body seemed to withdraw into itself.

“Wait.” She clenched his hands in hers. “Hold on a second. You mean, you see Ryan still? Couldn’t it be guilt or—“

“Trust me.” He squeezed her hands. “I wish it was something like that. Ryan saved my life and the life of that woman the night he died. He guided me out of that fire.”

“I heard that story from your captain.”

“Today, Max and I were saved by another ghost. Alex.”

Stephanie froze and stared at him, taking a moment to get a good, hard look at his face. He was completely serious. “How? Can you prove it?”

“I don’t do ghost hunter stuff. I don’t like it. As a matter of fact, that’s why I used to wear the patch. I’m thankful I got your reaction before I saw some of the others. Sometimes I can’t even see real people, only ghosts. It’s disorienting.”

Stephanie sucked in a breath. “Your left eye? Oh—“ she reached up and touched his cheek beneath the eye where a distinct scar still stood out. “But why?”

“How should I know? I ignored it for two years. No, that’s not true. I was hiding from it. Afraid of what it could mean. Was I crazy?”

Her stomach twisted. To be able to have that ability for a few seconds, to speak her mind to her cousin. She’d give anything. “If you could see Ryan…”

“I don’t see him like I remember him, Steph. I see him the way he was the night he—“ The agony in his expression couldn’t be faked. He had to know how crazy this sounded.

“Oh God.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “Do you see other ghosts?”

“I can, but not clearly. Even if I concentrate, they’re like shadows moving in and out of my vision. It gets annoying, so I don’t spend time in high death areas like hospitals and graveyards.”

“What about here? The animals?”

“Nothing. I never see animals, if they even stay behind. It seems like they don’t try to hang on.”

“So why Ryan? Why can’t he rest?” Her heart thundered in her chest. The moment she asked the question, she knew the answer.

“There’s a reason I tracked down a witness to the fire that night. A reason I found evidence in an obscure part of my first crime scene, and a reason Max and I are here, right now, with you. Do you know what that is?”

“Luck?” Her attempt at humor fell flat.

“Murder. Specifically, a serial arsonist. And now I know he connects both Alex and Ryan.” He stared at her and beyond her shoulder, the way he had that first time they saw each other with Max between them.

“You see him right now.”

“Yeah, and he wants us out of here.” Stephanie spun around on her heel and stared at the spot supposedly hosting her cousin.

“Why?”

“Not asking. After today, I’m not taking any chances.”

“Is he saying anything?”

“They don’t talk to me.” He turned to Max. “How do we do this?”

“I have a small carry board we can use and strap into your truck.”

“Let’s go, then.” He put on his jacket. When she stood there staring at him, he touched Stephanie’s shoulder and turned her toward the hallway. “Get your things. If we wait any longer, we might not make it.”

She jerked forward and raced to the office to grab her things. “If he doesn’t speak, how do you know?” She called from the hallways as she raced back to his side.

They carefully lifted Max and put him on the travel board. “Arm motions from our time at Station 58. He repeats the sign for danger and hurry over and over, each time with a little more urgency than before.”

“How urgent is it now?”

“Oh, I’d say if he flapped his arms any faster, he’d fly.”

“Is this really the time to joke?”

“Know what else to do? It’s not like I can call the police and tell them the ghost of my old station buddy is telling me we’re going to die if we don’t move our asses, do you?”

She lifted her end. “Point taken.”

He grabbed his of the board and they coordinated their way out the door to the front. They set Max on the waiting room table. “I have to open both sides of the door. Give me a second.” Sometimes they had bigger animals, so the two doors were designed to open from the center if necessary. She was grateful for whatever engineering genius had decided on it.

With the doors open they moved Max outside. The cold air slapped her in the face, making her wish for the jacket she’d left in her office.

His truck was close enough to ease Max inside the extended cab from the ramp. They moved along at a clipped pace until he jerked to a stop. She had to readjust her grip or drop Max. “Don’t just stop. We almost dropped—“

“Run.”

“What?”

“Now.” He turned around and practically threw her up onto the top ramp. Max came after.

Anger and frustration overcame any empathy she was starting to feel for him. “Hey be easy on the dog.”

“Get inside, drag him if you have to. Lock those doors, and call 911.” He pulled his gun free of the holster.

High beams came on, and she recognized a too-familiar Dodge Magnum. “That’s my brother, you can’t shoot him.”

“I have two very pissed off ghosts trying to convince me to run the other direction from a car I chased down today at a crime scene. Are you telling me that’s Keith? It’s not a different car?”

“No. That’s what I’m saying. He’s probably here to pick me up.”

The car revved its engine and Grimm jumped the ramp. Squealing tires shrieked in the night and the car launched forward. Straight for Grimm.

Stephanie dragged Max, desperate to get him inside. The ramp was made of wood, if he hit the thing at that speed, they wouldn’t survive.

The car slammed into the truck and shots rang out. Smoke rose up in the car and Keith coughed as the airbags deflated. It took a moment to catch his breath. Stephanie could clearly see Keith’s face beneath the parking lot lights as he reversed and backed up. His expression was focused, determined. And chilling.

“What are you doing?” She screamed at her brother, but he ignored her and sped forward again. This time Grimm was climbing into the back of the truck.

“Will you please just get inside, like I asked?”

Stephanie glared at Grimm, but kept moving. “Don’t kill my brother!” she shouted, realizing, at that moment, she asking him not to kill a man who was trying to kill him. But her mind couldn’t shake loose the idea that this was some terrible, horrible mistake.

“Tell your brother not to kill me, dammit!” He shouted back as the car slammed into the back of his truck. Metal screamed and ground while the tires burned a path on the road. He was still gunning the gas, trying to get closer.

Grimm stood eye to eye with her brother, gun drawn, an easy shot.

“You can’t do it, you piece of shit. Ryan, you, everyone, none of you have the balls to do what needs to be done.”

“Why are you doing this?” Stephanie screamed from the doorway. Desperately trying to comprehend the man bent on killing Grimm. “Ryan’s death isn’t his fault.” Maybe he would see reason. The tires stopped squealing as he quit trying to accelerate.

“He knows it’s not my fault, Stephanie.” Grimm still stood there, weapon drawn, staring at Keith. “Don’t you?”

“Yeah. And you morons thought you were so smart, talking about the different fire types and ways you’d outsmart anything. Didn’t work, did it?” Her brother, who had always coughed so much during regular conversations, seemed better than ever. He leaned with an arm out of the window. “Why don’t you put that gun down, Giddy boy? We both know you won’t pull the trigger in front of my sister.”

“What have you done, Keith?”

He smiled, then. All the masks, all the lies. All stripped away in that one, painful moment. Her mind flashed back to the phone conversation that morning. “You tried to kill Grimm.”

He nodded. “Twice, if you count now. Three if you consider the night you became a blue-eyed freak, huh?”

Stephanie dropped to her knees. The night Ryan had died. “You set that fire.” She noticed sirens coming closer, but in Dallas, that wasn’t unusual.

“That’s not all, is it?” Grimm still stared at him. Waiting. For what, she didn’t know. Her mind was a complete blank.

He shrugged and switched gears. The reverse lights came on. “I could tell you more, but that’s boring.” He hit the gas and shot backward, dragging part of the truck bumper with him. The screech of twisted metal tore through the silence. Grimm stepped forward, maintaining a close distance with her brother.

“You already heard her once, freakshow. She doesn’t want me to die. Since one of us have to, I guess you’ll be the sacrifice.”

Stephanie jerked to her feet. “Why are you acting like this? This isn’t the brother I know.”

“You want him back? Give me the idiot firefighter who couldn’t save Ryan and that fucking dog who just won’t die. Then everything will be back to normal.” He turned the car toward the ramp, and panic raked its nails down her spine.

“Stephanie, get inside with Max. Now!”

Her brother was insane. How long had he been that way? And when did it happen? The fire when they were kids? When he found out he couldn’t be a firefighter because of his lungs?

The sirens wailed closer and Keith shot forward, metal screeching. Grimm rushed forward and fired three times in the windshield. Her brother jerked as though shot and then hit reverse on the car to speed backward. Grimm chased after him. Her brother raced backward toward a deep flood run-off, he spun the car just enough to grin at them through the passenger window.

She saw a flash of light for just an instant, and then fire erupted inside the car. Her mouth opened in a scream the moment an explosion decimated the vehicle. She dropped to her knees next to Max and screamed. Angry, desperate to understand.

Grimm couldn’t stop the fury from raging inside him. He reached her side and wrapped her in his jacket.

“How long did you know it was Keith?” She stared right through him and spoke with a dull voice. Shock. Of course she’s in shock. Her brother just confessed to killing her cousin.

“I didn’t piece it together until he decided to run me down with the car. Even then, I kept waiting for the punchline, like it was some kind of practical joke.”

“He hates jokes.” She wrapped her arms around her knees

Grimm touched her face and then checked on Max. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“He was banged around. I need to check him for bleeding.” She barely moved, but Grimm helped her. He remember the way she’d led him from the darkness the day Ryan had died.

“Do you see him?” She didn’t look at Grimm, but he knew what she meant. He glanced around the parking lot.

“No, I don’t see Keith.”

“What about Ryan?”

“Not right now.”

“Why did he—“ her sobs broke his heart, shattered him. “What happened?”

The Calvary arrived in the form of Torres, two investigation teams, the Dallas PD, a rig and ambulance from Station 58, and more curious onlookers than he wanted.

There was no break from the insanity, as Torres seemed intent to ask questions.

Torres stared at them both and gave a gentle pat to Stephanie’s shoulder. “This may be hard for you to hear, doc, but I have a few questions. I was just about to call you before you got a hold of me.”

Grimm watched Torres shift his balance back and forth. Whatever the man had to say was going to be terrible. “Spill it, man.”

“Doc, does your brother ever visit the indoor skating rinks around town?”

She sniffed back her tears and shook her head. “No, he has COPD. Walking to and from the car on his worst days was almost impossible. And he hated skateboarders. Said they trashed a local park he liked to walk to now and then.”

Torres eyed Grimm. “Did he wear any jewelry, doc?”

Grimm had already put the pieces together.

“Yeah, a medial ID bracelet I bought him a few years ago. That’s about it.”

She froze in Grimm’s arms. “You found his bracelet. Where?”

“I can’t tell you that, doc.”

“The skate park, right? The fire?” She sniffed and shoved the hair out of her face.

Torres glanced between them. “How did you—“

“It was in the news. Not hard to figure out since you just asked if my brother liked to skate.”

“I know it’s hard to believe—“

“Hard?” She ran a palm along Max’s body. Though whether it was soothing him or her, Grimm couldn’t tell. “I just watched my brother try to murder my cousin’s best friend. Hard doesn’t cover it.”

“The Dallas PD is going to need to get your statement.”

She reached over and grabbed his jacket. “There’s no chance this is a mistake, is there?”

“We raided his home earlier today. He had a secret life, doc. One I can’t talk about right now, except to say, no. There is no chance this is a mistake.”

“He loved firefighters and obsessed with learning everything about them.”

Torres gently pulled his jacket free from her grasp. “There are two types of obsession, doc. The kind that vitalizes and the kind that poisons. Did he use his obsession for the good of others, or not?” He glanced at Grimm and jerked his head toward the truck. “Get her home. And get some sleep. You’re gonna need it.”

Grimm nodded and wrapped his arm around Stephanie’s shoulder. They were released after their statements, and Grimm loaded Max and Stephanie in his truck.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently across the forehead. “Where do you want to go?”

“With you.” Her fingernails dug into his shirt.

“Whatever you need.”

“Do you pity me, Grimm?”

Pity her? “Two years ago, you were my angel of light that banished the darkness. You saved me when my world fell apart and I couldn’t be there for you when you needed it. I’ll be here, for as long as you need me.”

She interlocked her fingers with his. “If you see Ryan again, tell him he was right about your way with words.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Let’s get out of here before Max wakes up and realizes how bruised he is. You think he was grumpy before.”

“Come on, Stephanie, tell me.” Her laugh was forced, and difficult to hear, but important. There shouldn’t be a world without Stephanie’s laugh. Ryan believed it, and so did Grimm.

“Help me find out why.”

“If it’s within my power to do so, I will.”

“Take me home, Grimm.”

Those words devastated and thrilled him all at once. If she let him, he’d never let her go.

---

Thanks for reading BURNING MEMORIES! Stephanie, Max, and Grimm became incredible characters in my life. There are times where we, as authors, fall in love with a cast of characters so much that we want to continue their adventures. If you’d like to find the root of all evil in the dark closets of Stephanie and Keith’s past, watch Max’s new adventures with Grimm, and watch a budding romance evolve into something more powerful than death itself, let me know by filling out this quick, anonymous .