The Worth of a Coin (BxB)

Chapter 23

-Ruarc Brennan-

I was being driven insane.

Not only was my best friend in jail, but my other friends wouldn't even look at me because they thought that I should've fought harder to ensure that Harlen didn't end up in jail. They thought that it was part of my plan, after getting my job at the police station, it would make it easier to ensure that Harlen was behind bars. Nobody listened when I denied this profusely,

Going grocery shopping with Quan was the first hint of normal that I received in a long time. I was able to talk to him about the food on the shelves, and discuss different recipes. I wasn't forced to follow him from a distance, grabbing whatever I recognised on my way past. I didn't need to consider looking like a stalker as I told him the dates on the food he was staring at.

I had almost convinced myself that this was my new normal, food shopping with a blind investigator after work, which seemed pretty normal.

My reality was crushed at three in the morning when I got a call from Quan.

I knew that he was awake, moving around his room, for around ten minutes before I got the call. I had just hoped that he was getting up for a drink, but the vibrations of my phone told me otherwise.

"Hello?" I asked. My throat was dry and croaky, as I'd been resting with my mouth ajar for the past few hours, listening to my favourite CD.

"We got called in," Quan stated. He sounded incredibly grumpy. "I do not like being woken up."

I suppose I had said my thoughts aloud. I coughed awkwardly and nodded, despite him not being able to see me. "I can understand that."

There was a moment of silence before he sighed. "I'll be at yours in ten." He then hung up on me.

I stared at my phone for a moment before throwing it on the bed beside me and looking up at the cracks in the ceiling.

What had gone wrong now? What could be so important that they called Quan in the middle of the night? Quan wasn't really on call. He was just an investigator; he didn't have anything to do with the arresting portion of the police force. He probably hadn't been on site of a crime scene whilst the crime was being committed.

I didn't have long to wait for my answers. Quan arrived at my door exactly ten minutes after he said he would. He had a scowl on his face, but his eyes met mine as soon as I opened the door.

"Kill me," he said before I could open my mouth.

I snorted. "Not a morning person?" My eyes trailed down to his hand which wasn't holding his cane. "I see you already got an energy boost though."

Quan hummed and had a sip of his coffee. "Your denial to kill me is prolonging my suffering."

I shook my head and locked my front door. "My apologies, but killing you is also against my term of contract."

"Worth a shot," Quan muttered. He turned away from me and began to walk down the street. "So, three am murder. How exciting is this?" He did not sound excited.

"Terrifying and worrying actually," I corrected. "How often do you get called in?"

He hummed in thought, his cane bashing the brick wall beside us as we went. Something which I assumed was out of annoyance rather than necessity. "This is the first time."

A shiver went down my spine. This must mean that something pretty serious happened, I didn't want to focus on the worst-case scenarios which were flooding my mind, but some of them were difficult to ignore. The last time Quan was personally sought out was when he was kidnapped. Candice had urged Quan to do his magic trick on the police station and then he went missing. I didn't want anything like that happening again.