FADED (book I)

XXXIX

"Jacobs won't do shit, trust me," he reassured him. "Are you finished lecturing me, 'cause I'd like to get back to work now."

Marcus sighed, trying not to start another argument even though he was really tempted. "I got some news to share. Good and bad," he announced, leaning against Jordan's desk. "Which one do you wanna hear first?"

"Does it matter?" Jordan couldn't help but roll his eyes as he rubbed his forehead tiredly. What was the point anyway, everything was bad news unless the news was about Jade and that they had found her. "Let's hear it."

"Alright, bad news it is. We still haven't been able to track down the van."

"Yeah, I already know that Marcus," he snapped, not even bothering to conceal the irritation lacing his voice.

Marcus paid no heed to his partner's grouchiness, he couldn't really blame him, so he continued. "Good news - we finally got the lab results from the handkerchief. You were right, it was Chloroform."

Jordan shot him an impatient look. "Are you gonna get to the part where you tell me something I don't know already or what?"

"They also took DNA samples and guess what?"

Jordan set his jaw because right now, Marcus wasn't talking fast enough. "What?"

"It matches our two persons of interest, Mooney and Miller."

Jordan shot him an irritated look. "Yeah. Isn't that what I told you literally an hour ago?"

"Well, it's confirmed now."

"You know what Marcus? Get the hell out of here." Jordan sat up on his chair abruptly and went back to work. "And don't come back until you got something useful to share. You're just wasting my time with this bullshit."

Marcus scoffed. "What the hell are you talking about? We're making progress, that's a good thing."

"Progress," he snorted. "Just because we finally identified those scumbags, doesn't mean we made any progress. We still don't know where they are. We still don't know where Jade is."

"Hey." Marcus' hand cupped his shoulder, squeezing it firmly. "Step by step. And stay positive, isn't that what you said?"

That's exactly what he had said. Optimism leads to achievement, nothing could be done without a little bit of hope and confidence. But Jordan would be lying if he said he wasn't reaching the end of his rope. He always used to be a firm believer in the fact that everything happened for a reason - he only wished he knew what that reason was.

FADED

Tristan closed his eyes as he let the scalding hot water run down his back. His forehead was pressed against the tiles of the wall, cool to the touch. He didn't know how long he had been standing under the shower but he didn't plan on doing anything else until he felt numb. Numb enough to block the scent of vanilla coming from that bottle of shower gel; numb enough to ignore the pink towel hanging on the rack; numb enough to pretend there were no hairclips and hair ties on the edge of the tub; numb enough to turn a blind eye to the purple toothbrush.

He gritted his teeth when he heard the sound of his phone buzzing in the pocket of his jeans, which he had discarded carelessly onto the floor. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Why was it so hard to understand that he needed space?

With a rough exhale, Tristan eventually stepped out of the shower. He stared at the floor where a puddle of water collected around his feet. His lips twitched as he thought of how Jade hated it when the boys left the bathroom floor wet. She was used walking around the house with socks on and according to her, nothing was worse than wet socks.