Page 4

Chapter Four

“Are you looking at her underwear?” I ask as I find Ronald staring into a drawer in his girlfriend’s apartment.

When Erin was still missing by eight the next night, he deemed it my job to find her. I feel like he’s still suspecting me, for some annoying fucking reason. Yet here I am, wandering around her apartment with him as he bitches at everything I do. I couldn’t pick the lock right. I was moving things too much. I wasn’t moving them enough.

“Why the fuck are you watching what I’m doing?” he asks.

I fold my arms over my chest and lean against the doorway to Erin’s bedroom. “You really, really think she’s gone?”

“What’s that mean?”

“You don’t have the best track record with women, Ronald. You actually have a knack for running them off.”

He slams the drawer shut and glowers at me. “Fuck off. I’m going to her work. You stay here and find something. Be of fucking use for once.”

“Yep. Yep, sure,” I say as I flip through a notebook sitting on her desk but find that it’s empty.

And with that, he leaves. Since we rode together, that means he’s also taking my car. I wait until he’s gone before wandering into the kitchen. My fingers trail over the countertop before I reach the knife block and pull out a knife. I twirl it once, feeling the weight of it, before reaching out to the pantry door and tugging it open.

Sliding in, I press the dull side of the knife against the man’s throat, pinning him there. “Hello, Mr. Handsome.”

“You’re too observant,” Isaiah says as he holds his hands up, showing me that they’re both empty. “You never even came over here. How’d you know I was inside?”

“Magic.”

“Ah, of course.”

“The door was cracked when we walked in, but the second time I looked, it was cracked even less.”

“By what? A centimeter? It’s not even like it was closed! I barely pulled it shut. No normal person would have noticed that.”

“Maybe,” I say.

“How’d you know it was me and not someone else?”

“Lucky guess.”

“Or?”

“Lucky guess,” I repeat. “Did you kill her?”

“I did not,” he says as I lower the knife before sliding it back into the knife block.

“If you didn’t kill her but you’re here… that makes me wonder if she really is missing,” I muse as I head back over to her desk. Instead of picking up the notebook I’d flipped through, I open a book sitting next to it and flip to a picture that’s sticking out. I slide it out onto the desk. In the photograph is a woman I vaguely remember seeing at one of the clubs Ronald frequents, but the more I think about it, the more I realize I haven’t seen her in weeks.

“Did something happen to this girl?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Did it?”

“At first, I was playing with the idea that Erin got involved with Ronald to figure out what happened to this girl… what was her name? Annalee?”

“Annabelle.”

“Okay, so maybe Erin ended up hiring you because she couldn’t figure it out herself, but I don’t think she could afford you. I can’t fathom you come cheap.”

“Maybe I did it out of the goodness of my heart.”

“You’re a softy but not that soft,” I say as I grab the chair and spin it around so I’m sitting on it backwards as I face him. “How close am I?”

“You’re pretty warm.”

“But not hot?”

“Oh, you’re hot. But your theory? That’s just warm.”

I grin, liking this man. “So she didn’t hire you, but someone else did. Maybe Annabelle’s parents or someone else? You know about Erin because the two girls were close… but I just don’t remember Erin bringing up something happening to this girl. I wasn’t super close to Erin, but I feel like it would have come up at some point.”

“You’re getting warmer.”

“But am I still hot?”

“ You are still hot,” he says.

My grin widens. “I’m sticking with the parent theory. Her parents have money; the jewelry Annabelle is wearing in this picture isn’t fake. I mean, look at that ring and that necklace. Someone gave them to her, but they have enough sentimental value she hasn’t sold them for more drugs. My guess is rich parents with a daughter who got caught up in drugs and ended up dead or disappearing.”

“I should have come to you from the beginning,” he says.

“Damn, am I that close?”

“You sure are.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“Erin knows quite a bit about her. I asked if we could meet up and she agreed to meet me at her apartment.”

“Like she found something new?”

“Maybe.”

“And someone found out and silenced her?”

“Maybe. Or maybe she just wanted to cry to me about something; I have no idea. What I do know is that you’re here, and I’m not quite sure what to do now.”

“So why does your client want David dead? Do they believe he killed Annabelle?” I ask. “It just… doesn’t sound like something David would get into. What would he have to do with some woman on drugs when he doesn’t even deal in drugs?”

“Her parents want answers and want people to pay for what happened to her. And while they’re pointing fingers at David, and by extension you, I’m not yet convinced who was involved.”

“So this is why you’re harassing David halfheartedly, right? You’re trying to frazzle him, see what you can get out of him.” I tap on the picture. “And did you find a body?”

“I have not. I don’t even know if there’s a body to find. She could have run off, she could have killed herself with drugs; hell, she could be under our nose, and we might not know it.”

“But now you have a second missing woman,” I say.

“Nothing’s ever easy when you play this game.”

I lean back a bit. “Will you let me play it with you?”

“Don’t you have other priorities?”

“Maybe… but ultimately, I was told to find Erin… and clearly these two things are connected. Also… I don’t have a car.”

“Alright. Let’s go,” he says.

“It’s like a date.”

“Is it?” he asks.

“Best date I’ve been on.”

“I’m concerned about your previous dates.”

“That’s why I’m no longer going on dates with them,” I say as I follow him out of the room and down the stairs of the apartment. Once we’re on the first floor, he heads out the back door of the building and starts down the alley.

“I’m thinking again about how all of this could be a lie to lead me off to murder me. You’re not going to murder me, right?”

“Not unless I need to,” he replies as he pops the trunk of his car. “This is where you will ride.”

I stare at the trunk. “I don’t think we’ll both fit.”

“No, you misunderstand me, it’s just for you.”

“Ohhhhh, I thought it was like a sex thing. I’m significantly less interested if it’s not a sex thing.”

Isaiah snorts and instead reaches into the trunk to grab a bag out of it before slamming it shut.

“What’s in the bag?”

“A head, obviously.”

“Ooh, whose head?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says as he slips into the driver’s seat and pulls a laptop out of the bag while I get in on the passenger side.

“So when do I get to meet this dog of yours? Are we going to treat it like meeting the parents?”

“Uh… no, I have parents you can meet.”

“I can?”

“If you ever learn my real name, I’ll introduce you.”

“Fuck… let’s see… Chucky. You look like a Chucky.”

“I’m unsure if I should be disturbed by that,” he says as he fiddles around on his laptop.

“What are you looking for?”

“I got the information on her phone while I was in there. I’m logging into her cloud to check her data, see if there were any messages or pictures sent before she disappeared. I can also use it to track her phone if it wasn’t properly disposed of.”

“Ooh, some detective-type shit going on now. I usually just shoot things until they answer my questions.”

“What happens when you shoot them and they stop answering questions?”

“Then I realize I should have shot them one less time. It’s fine, I’m sure of it.”

Isaiah strangely seems skeptical about that. I lean in to see what he’s looking at and not just because I can press into his shoulder when I do. It doesn’t hurt that he smells good. That’s when I gasp.

“What’s wrong? Did you see something?”

“Yeah! Your shirt… it’s so loose.”

“Oh, took you a while to notice. I wore it for you.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear its cries for help, so it threw me off,” I say as I pluck the loose fabric. “I can’t even see your nipples or the outline of your abs.”

“Right? Don’t forget you chose this,” he tells me as I grin.

“I now see the error of my ways.”

“Good,” he says as I notice something on the screen that stands out.

“When I got home last night around eleven forty, Ronald said Erin hadn’t gotten ahold of him all day, but here’s a message from her at four in the afternoon,” I inform him.

He clicks on it, and I see that she sent a pin drop with nothing else that Ronald never replied to.

I scrutinize it, but it’s not an address I know. “Wait, did he meet her somewhere? Then is he over here playing it off like he hasn’t seen her?”

“I don’t know. Let’s see if I can figure out where the location is.”

Isaiah clicks it and when the address comes up, I type it into my phone. It’s about thirty minutes from here, so I glance over at him.

“I didn’t realize our date would turn into a road trip. We’re moving so fast.”

“Funny,” he says as he closes the laptop and slides it into the back seat. “You mind if I grab some food on the way? It’s not like five minutes stopping for food will change anything since she sent this well over twenty-four hours ago.”

“If I order anything, are you going to shoot it out of my hands?”

“I didn’t shoot your drink to be an asshole; I was warning you that someone was coming up behind you.”

“You were bullying me. You know how excited I was about that? So motherfucking excited.”

“Well, now you have other things to be excited about.”

“Like meeting your dog. Oh! And meeting your parents. Man, I’m a bit nervous about that. I don’t know how to do the whole meeting the parents thing,” I tease.

“You’re ridiculous.”

I grin as he pulls into a fast-food place and orders at the drive-through before turning to see what I want. After I order, he waves my card away and pulls out his. I try to catch the name on it, but he keeps his finger over it in a way I can’t see, and when the cashier hands it back, she has the receipt folded around it.

“It has to be something super embarrassing,” I decide. “Did your parents like really love Star Wars and name you Princess Leia or something?”

“You should be a detective,” he says as he slips his wallet back.

They hand over the drinks and bag before he puts the car in drive and turns out onto the road.

“You’re always so curious about me, but what about yourself?” he asks.

“Aren’t you some special ops detective? What’d you find out about me? You probably know more about me than I know about myself.”

“Nothing, honestly. I’m not even sure you’re real because you don’t seem to exist.”

“I’m not real. I’m like your imaginary friend.”

“I think I need to go to the hospital, then,” he says.

“‘Doctor… I think I want to fuck my imaginary friend. Please help.’”

Isaiah raises an eyebrow. “Now it just sounds like an awkward porno. So? Is Aiden not your real name?”

“Aiden’s my middle name. My first name is the same as my dad’s and I hated him for destroying our lives, so I tossed it as soon as I could,” I say as I pull the cheeseburger out of the bag and unwrap it enough for him to take it. “Any other questions, Mr. Detective Tight Shirt?”

“I’m Detective Loose Shirt today.”

I give the fabric a tug. “I kind of miss it.”

“I want you aware that your actions have consequences.”

I grin as I grab a fry and aim it toward his mouth. “Open wide.”

“You are horribly suspicious.”

“Yet you’re still sitting in the car with me. I think it means you like me,” I inform him, which is proven when he eats the fry I’m offering him.

“Intrigued. Let’s go with that.”

“I’ll take that,” I say as I pull out the rest of his fries and tuck them between his legs. “Now I’m jealous of fries.”

“Are you? You want to be eaten?”

“You know what I mean. Do you think this has anything to do with the group trying to move in?” I ask. “David was convinced they were who hired you.”

“I’m not positive, but that could just be standard bullshit. You have a man who has corrupted the police and half the city. It’s not surprising that others are trying to move in on what he’s built up.”

“Hmm…” This talk is boring. “What’s your dog’s name?”

“Bully.”

“That’s his name?”

“Yep. When I got him from the pound, they said he couldn’t go out with any of the other dogs because he wouldn’t stop bullying them. So they named him Bully.”

“Like owner, like pet, I guess.”

“I did not bully you.”

“My drink.”

He flicks the lid of my cup. “I bought you a new one.”

“But it’s not as nice.”

“I will buy you a new drink,” he promises.

“You better.”

When we near the location we’d gotten from the dropped pin, he pulls over as I realize it’s just a field in the middle of nowhere. There are no houses, no businesses. Nothing. Just a field stretching on for acres.

“Well, this looks promising,” I say sarcastically as I get out of the car.

“Sent by mistake?”

“Maybe… but I guess we can’t write anything off.” It probably would have helped if we hadn’t waited until dark to come out here. So I turn on my flashlight and start wandering.

“I’ll take the right side,” he offers, and I glance over at him as I realize that means if he finds something, he could easily keep it from me.

Would it be alright to trust him?

I guess it wouldn’t be the worst thing I’ve done… but it still feels quite… odd. I’m used to working alone or with David’s crew. And even when I’m with them, there’s an obvious wall between us.

Uncertain, I watch him as I walk, in case he finds something and pockets it, but it’s making my search less thorough.

“Is my shirt so hypnotizing that you can’t look away?” Isaiah asks.

“Maybe. Maybe it’d be better if you took it off.”

“I’m… weirdly not sure about that. I feel like your focus would plummet, and then suddenly you’d be talking me out of my pants as well.”

I grin at the idea. “I’m pleased you’re starting to understand me.”

We wander the area for a bit, growing farther and farther apart before he flashes a light at me and starts back toward me.

“I’m not finding anything,” I say. “You?”

“No. We could come back in the morning. It’s just too dark to see much of anything out here. My only worry is that it’s a bit cloudy, so I wonder if it’s going to rain.”

“That’s not good if there is something here to find. I guess we can keep looking for a bit longer?”

“Might as well,” he says as we walk our own ways before steadily becoming closer again.

“Have you thought about it anymore?” Isaiah asks.

“About your shirt? I’ve thought about your shirt a lot . Probably a worrying amount, honestly,” I tease.

“Funny. No, about how much of a difference your skills could make outside of your current situation. Then we wouldn’t have to only meet at night.”

“It’s not that easy. And you don’t understand. David is my only family. This life is all there has ever been for me. It’s not… you just don’t understand. You said you have parents, and you have a family. You have things. Everything I have is thanks to David. You’re looking at things with rose-colored glasses.”

He’s quiet for a moment as we keep walking. “Fine. You’re right. I apologize. Then I suppose our nightly rendezvous is what we have.”

“I suppose it is,” I say as I look all around me, wondering why this spot was marked by Erin. Was she being taken and she’d sent the pin quickly to Ronald? Was the spot a place they frequented? Or was there another meaning to it?

My phone beeps but I pretend I don’t hear it. Instead, I just listen to the night sounds, the way the grass, brown tipped from the hot summer sun, crunches beneath our feet.

Before long, my phone begins to ring, and I reluctantly pull it out to see that it’s Ronald.

“What an irritant,” I say as I grudgingly accept the call. “Hello?”

“Where the fuck are you?”

“Following a lead. Why?”

“I came back and you weren’t there.”

“Didn’t know I was supposed to stay.”

“What kind of lead?” he asks, sounding annoyed. Then again, he’s always annoyed with me.

“I’d rather talk about it in person. I’ll head home shortly and see you then.”

“What the fuck’s that mean?” he demands. “Did you find something or not?”

“I’ll call you when I’m back.” And with that, I hang up.

“You’re not going to ask him?” Isaiah asks.

“No, I want to check his phone first. I mean, I don’t think he’s involved if he’s trying this hard to find her, but he might have also run her off and she’s trying to get away from him.”

“That makes sense,” he says as we start back.

He splits off from me so we cover more ground, but I make it back to the car without finding anything before noticing he’s stopped about twenty feet from the car. He looks over at me and waves something.

“Did you find something?”

“Her phone. The battery has been destroyed… honestly, the whole thing has been destroyed. Someone didn’t want it to be tracked.”

As he walks over to me, he holds it out to show me from where he has it wrapped in a cloth so he won’t leave fingerprints on it.

“Fuck… can I have it?” I ask.

Isaiah takes a bit to think about it. “Is there anything your crew can do with it? If she really is missing, I can turn it in to the police.”

I hesitate before nodding. “Fine, let me get a photograph of it, then, so I can verify with Ronald that it is her phone. I know it almost has to be, but just in case.”

“Got it,” he says as I take a picture of the front and back. When I’m done, he drops it into a bag and heads back toward his side, but before he gets far, I push him against the car door.

“You like to promise me shit that I’m not quite sure you can give me,” I tell him.

His eyebrow rises at that. “All I’ve said is that your life would be better spent outside all of that.”

“Can you prove it?” I ask as I watch his dark eyes. Then I laugh, trying to make it all seem like a joke as I step away to get back into the car, but before I can, he catches my arm.

Isaiah pulls me into him as he tucks his head down so I can hear his words against my ear. “I can’t prove anything if you don’t let me.”

I don’t know what to do with that and end up laughing again. It sounds a bit weak and fully uncertain. Honestly, I thought this was just something fun. Something to pass the day… something to make it feel like I had a bit of freedom in my life.

Yet… the things he’s saying, the way he’s making me feel, makes me question whether there’s so much more out there. It makes me feel like I was wrong. That being locked in this box that David has placed me in isn’t all there is.

But he doesn’t understand.

Before David, I wasn’t in a box. I was in a fucking hole. I was in a hole so goddamn deep I don’t even know how I dug myself out. I didn’t even know which way was up. I was suffocating. Every day I spent wondering if today was the day I was going to die.

I look up at Isaiah. “You just don’t understand.”

He watches me closely. “Will you let me?”

I don’t know what to do with that. I don’t know what to do with any of this.

“I don’t know you,” I say.

“There is only one way to get to know someone better.”

“Fuck,” I hiss as I start to back up from him. “I just wanted some fun.”

“Is that all you want?” he asks, and I grit my teeth.

No… I want more. I want someone to care about me. I want someone to love me. I want to be someone’s number one. Fuck, I don’t even have to be their number one. I just want to be someone they want to love. Yes, David’s taken care of me, but sometimes I feel like I’m a stray guard dog to him.

“I don’t know what I want,” I finally answer.

“You say David cares for you, but he didn’t open his car door for you the day I shot your cup. He left you there.”

“He does care for me… he’s just… a fucking idiot who doesn’t show it well.”

Isaiah grabs my face, probably because he can tell I’m getting ready to turn away. “You deserve better.”

“I also deserved my iced coffee.”

“Don’t try to brush this off with jokes.”

“Well, that’s no fun. Let’s make this a nightly thing. We play detectives and if I win, you end up naked at the end.”

“How do you win, exactly?”

“I find out what happened to the two girls first.”

“And if I find it out first?”

“Then I end up naked.”

“So we just end up naked either way?” he asks.

I give him a wink and turn from him to get into the passenger seat. “Sounds like my kind of game.”

Isaiah drives me within a block of David’s house before letting me out.

Before getting out of the vehicle, I turn to him. “You could… sneak up into my room.”

“Ah yes, let me walk into the lion’s den,” he says.

“If you liked me enough, you would.”

He raises an eyebrow, so I lean in and give him a quick kiss on the lips before hurrying out. I make sure to glance back at him as I walk off and am quite pleased to see he’s watching.

So pleased that I’m still grinning as I waltz inside, where Ronald sees my look of joy and immediately shits all over it.

“What the absolute fuck are you so happy about?” he growls.

“I missed you,” I tease.

“You said you found something?”

“I did, but I need to see your phone first.”

“Why?”

“Because otherwise it doesn’t work.”

“What doesn’t?”

“The magic trick,” I say as I yank his phone from him and aim it at his scowling face. “Man, what an ugly face. Did you practice that scowl when you set your facial recognition?”

“What the fuck do you want with my phone?” he demands as I flip it to the messages and see the dropped pin right at the top.

“I thought you said she hadn’t messaged you?” I ask.

“I don’t know what that is! I went there and there was nothing there. She must have bumped it by accident.”

“But you didn’t tell me?” I ask.

It’s hard to read Ronald, so I can’t quite tell if he’s lying to me. He’s always so busy looking pissed that it’s hard to tell when he’s faking it or not.

“How’d you know that was there?”

“I looked at her messages on the cloud. Her last message was sent to you… that you didn’t have me look at.”

“Because I already did! There was nothing there.”

“Her phone was there. Isn’t this hers?” I ask as I show him the pictures. He doesn’t even have to look at them long before nodding.

“Yeah, that’s her phone case. Where’s her phone?”

“I don’t have it.”

“Who has it?”

“Is she running from you or has someone taken her?” I ask.

“She’s not fucking running from me, you hear me?”

“I hear you,” I say as I head back to his messages and go to the deleted messages before I begin typing Annabelle’s name into the search, but before I can do anything, he snatches the phone from me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asks.

“Helping you find your girlfriend,” I respond as I hold my hand out, but he’s done. There’s no damn way he’s putting the phone back into it. He pulls it back and slips it into his pocket, telling me it’s the end of that route.

He had to have seen me typing Annabelle’s name into his phone. Why’s he so paranoid about that? I head off but don’t get far before Ronald grabs my shoulder and spins me around.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“That you’re far too close for comfort,” I say as I dodge out from under his arm and hurry down the hallway and into David’s office. I slam the door shut and switch the lock on as Ronald tries the door before beating on it.

“What the fuck is this?” David asks.

“Can we talk?”

“You two are both in your thirties. I cannot understand how you both still act like children. What, Aiden?”

“Two things. First, do you know a woman named Annabelle? She worked at one of your clubs.”

David’s face scrunches up—clearly, he’s too busy for my “shit”—but with a sigh, he says, “Uh… I don’t fucking know…”

“Blonde girl, pixie-cut hair. She had the ends died pink?”

“Maybe I’ve seen her? I don’t know.”

“What happened to her?”

“I don’t know. The nice part about my position is that I don’t have to care about minor employees. Now I’m heading out and I want you to come with me, got it?”

“I didn’t ask my second question.”

“I don’t have time for this shit.”

“If you just answered it, we’d be done already.”

“Fine. What?”

“Would you let me go?” I ask.

“Go… do what?”

“Leave this house… go do something else. Would you let me?”

“Why the fuck would you ever want to go? You know your life is here.”

“But if I wanted a life out there?—”

“Your life is here,” he repeats. “Why the fuck would you leave my family? Is it Ronald? I’ll tell him to shut the fuck up.”

I want to tell him it’s not Ronald, but he doesn’t leave me time to tell him anything. Instead, he gets up and heads toward the door, and I’m expected to follow right after him.