Immunity Hunter

Chapter Forty-Five - Ronan Henslee

Just when I think I have the dating game figured out, I mess around and lose—again. What am I doing wrong?

I stand in my living room, shirtless and wet, staring out the front door into the rain. This is the second time since I met her that she ran from me. On top of that, she bit me! I deserve it, though. What was I thinking trying to kiss her? I thought the pizza date went well. Maybe I misread the signs.

I close the door, grab my shirt, and walk to my bedroom. The wooden bedframe creaks as I drop onto the mattress. I try to rework the events in my head. Did I really just mess up a great evening?

She has the cutest laugh and an adorable smile. I feel different with her, like she's sucking in my soul, but in a good way. Dad said being persistent is the key. Never again am I taking dating advice from a man that can eat an entire roast by himself.

Aaron's ringtone breaks my thoughts. I dig the phone out of my back pocket, answering it without looking at the screen. What does he want?

"What?" I say, lying face down.

"I got something to show you."

I moan. "Can it wait? Tonight is not going well."

"Girl problems, huh?" He chuckles.

I growl into my mattress.

He stops laughing and clears his throat. "Don't worry, I'll come to you. Answer the door when I get there."

Whatever Aaron wants to show me better be good. At this moment, I couldn't care less about Cypresis or The Organization. We still haven't found anything useful about them, yet Alec still wants us to pursue Omi. Then again, I never did question Sasame about him or Lin Ming.

I roll out of bed and drag myself to the front room. I slump down on the couch, staring at the door waiting for Aaron to arrive.

Someone knocks after a few minutes. I pick myself up from the couch and swing open the wooden door. Aaron stands on my porch dressed in a hooded raincoat.

"What happened to your mouth?" he asks as he enters my home.

I touch my swollen lip. A tiny drop of blood smears on my finger. "Sasame bit me."

Aaron raises an eyebrow. "She was here? Like, just now?"

"She left a while ago." I drop down onto the couch again. Aaron removes his raincoat and hangs it on the coat rack by the door.

"You didn't try to make a move on her, did you?"

I let my head drop back and stare at the ceiling with my mouth open. "Why are you here?"

"So you did try to kiss her?" He chuckles. "Man, you're not very smooth."

"What do you want, Aaron?" There's no point trying to hide my irritation. I'm in no mood to play around.

He sits on the couch next to me and hands me a black folder. "Two guys were reported missing. Their names are Kane and Barret. They were last seen at the beach talking to multiple girls a few days ago."

The folder is filled with surveillance photos of two male teens around my age. One boy has blonde hair and blue eyes and the other has his ears gauged and brown hair. Aaron continues talking as I analysis the photos.

"Others have been reported missing as well, but the other agents are working on those cases. The thing with these two," he points at the photo in my hand of the two teens, "is that a girl with long orange hair and a floral bikini was seen talking to them."

My heart sinks to my stomach. My hand shakes as I flip to the last few photos in the folder. There she is, dressed in that cute floral bikini and shorts, talking to the blonde one. In the next photo she's walking away with the blonde guy following. The last photo shows the one with gaged ears walking in the opposite direction. It can mean anything. She's just talking, I tell myself. There's nothing wrong with talking. My eyes stay locked on her, searching for any possible sign that she has nothing to do with this.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." I look at him. His face is twisted into a confused frown. "Who took these photos?"

He shrugs. "One of the boy's mothers turned them in. I got them from Alec. He doubts that girl is involved. Those guys were checking out chicks all day. The two went their separate ways when Kane met up with that girl in the photo."

"Why would the missing kid's mom turn in photos to Cypresis?" None of this is making sense to me. We aren't detectives.

"Alec said the woman is a close friend of his and gave him copies in case he could help. She went to the Eradication Squad first."

I look down at the pictures again. "Someone was following them," I say out loud.

Aaron shakes his head. "Nah, it was someone they knew messing around with a camera. The photos aren't professional."

My eyes snap back to the photo of Sasame talking to the blonde boy. I notice Aaron leaning over looking at the photo as well. Then he looks at me. "Do you know her?"

"Her name is Sasame."

"Oh shit. She's the—"

"Yep," I close the folder and hand it back to Aaron. Then I walk into the kitchen and grab a glass from the cabinet. Aaron follows me, standing next to the kitchen table. I don't bother to speak. All I can think about is Sasame and how I scared her off. I walk over to the fridge and pour a glass of water from the jug mom filled earlier today.

"Like I said, those guys were hitting on girls all day. Besides, no tiny thing like her is going to do much. Well, besides bite."

He nudges my shoulder with a grin on his face. I laugh a bit but don't look up from my glass. Sasame isn't involved, I tell myself over and over. Aaron opens the fridge and grabs one of my dad's beers.

"You can't drink."

"Who's going to stop me?" He cracks open the top, tilts his head back, and pours the beer into his mouth until it's full. A loud burp—which sounds like it crawled out of the gates of hell—escapes his mouth as he sets the can on the kitchen counter. He pats me on the shoulder as he walks past into the front room.

"There's more if you're interested," he calls to me. He plops down onto the couch and puts his wet shoes on the glass coffee table.

I walk over to him and push his feet off the table. "Don't be rude."

He laughs. "Yeah, yeah, yeah...anyway, the other girl reported missing was last seen at the gun range. The range operator was found dead next to the cleaning station.

"So the idiot shot himself cleaning his gun. Where's the news in that?"

"There isn't any, that's the point. These missing person reports aren't connected."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying the Eradication Squad should be investigating this, not us. We're wasting our time trying to solve crimes when we should be more worried about that Omi guy." He starts to put his feet back on the table but hesitates.

He's right. None of the disappearances make sense. It's starting to sound more random than anything. All of this has been a waste of time and resources. Out of the six agents, not including the main guy and the lady at the front desk, no one has come up with anything useful. All of our reports lead to one thing: the missing people are not connected and we still have no idea what The Organization is hiding—if they're even hiding anything.

Aaron stands up, stretches, and then heads for the front door. "I better go before this storm gets any worse. I'll let you know if anything else comes up." He grabs his raincoat from the rack. "Oh, and don't worry about that girl. That hair of yours probably scared her away."

He laughs as he opens the door and leaves. Great, now he thinks I'm lame. But once again, he's right—maybe. It's time I back off of Sasame. If she wants to talk to me, she'll talk. It's time to focus on Omi and The Organization. If they'rehiding something, I'll find out one way or another.܉"