Pretty Punk Cherry

54 ⭑ Mystery Inc.

"I'm the best girlfriend ever, what can I say?"

I rolled over on top of him and leaned down, catching his lips in a heated kiss that he accepted with a gracious laugh. I planted my hands on either side of his head to hold myself up and he smoothed the dangling strands of my hair out of my face.

"How do you feel today?" I murmured, sitting up a little and brushing the hair from his face.

"Little better." Was the best I could get. That and a small smile.

After our visit to Green Haven, Harlow was on edge.

His adrenaline rush wore off once we got back to the hotel and his paranoia kicked him in the ass for the rest of the day.

He wouldn't let me leave the hotel, not even for food and insisted upon checking to make sure that the door was locked every ten minutes. It was almost compulsive.

We ordered room service and watched cartoons all day.

I couldn't blame him. Cole scared the ever-living shit out of me.

The crude and horrifying things he was saying about me on our way out of the door still made my stomach curl.

The way he lashed out, yanking on his handcuffs without a care in the world about how badly be was hurting himself just made matters ten times worse.

He was dangerous and while there was a 99.99% chance he wouldn't get out, that 00.01% chance was a real kick in the neck.

On top of that, without a lead to go on, the search for Bella was once again, stalled.

"Are you lying?"

"No. I really am better today. It's not as intense, the anger and... stuff," Harlow still got uncomfortable talking about his feelings with me, which was crazy considering I'd seen him at his worst ugly cry.

"Has Zayn talked to you about the next step?"

"He won't even look at me." He whispered with a shake of his head, "He thinks I pushed Cole too far and when we get stuck like this he takes it really personally. He thinks he failed me, failed Bella. I mean, it's the reason he got kicked from the bureau, he can't let things go. He gets really emotionally involved in every case he takes. I'm not sure why, but—"

"Kicked from the bureau—like the FBI?" I sat up farther, "Wait, I don't understand. When we met, you said he worked for them. He told me he still does."

Harlow made an o-shape with his mouth and held it open for a moment.

"Hold on, he—he doesn't?"

He sat up, leaning back on his hands, "Cher—and don't freak out or anything but—Zayn hasn't worked for the bureau in several years. Since before I met him. He was fired. He has no connection to law enforcement at all. He's a hacker."

"How old is this man!" Was the only thing that crossed my mind in that second.

"Twenty... seven?"

"Is that—is that a question or an answer. Did I fuck an old man?"

"That's what you're concerned about? Oh, sweetheart," He fell back against the bed and laughed.

"Wait, a hacker?" I exclaimed with even more shock one my brain caught up, "Are you guys the fucking Scooby Gang undercover or something? Geez Louise! What else are you keeping from me?"

"Ooo! If we're the Scooby Gang, can I be Daphne?"

"You are not—" I grabbed a pillow and smacked him over the head with it, "Listening!"