So I tried to make the chapters longer again. Please enjoy.
SONG - BAD BOYS - ZARA LARSSON
By some stroke of luck, the very next day was Saturday. I was in no shape to go back to that darned office building within the next forty eight hours or more. Not until the invested in some proper security first.
Plus my body was exhausted due to the rowdy incidents that had taken place during the week.
I slept in until I was woken up by a knock on the door. It was Henry. He was dressed in his jogging gear and had a duffle bag slung over his shoulder.
"I'm gonna head over to my place so that my parents don't get a coronary for not seeing me for an entire week," He explained.
I took in the information rubbing my sleep filled eyes "Oh ok."
"Yeah, at this rate I'm sure they'll ground me once I get home." I snorted at his words. "Maybe you should move out of your parents' house dude. I mean it's not like you can't afford it. Less likelihood of them getting all up in your business."
Henry laughed "Yeah. Gonna be thirty in a few years. It must sound pretty sad that I'm living right out of my parent's basement." Right. His situation would never be as pathetic as that. His family just had this nauseating thing about 'keeping the family together 'like they lived in some monarchial dynasty or so they thought in their hoity toity little minds. Ok that was too mean even by my standards. Perhaps because I didn't grow up in such a big family, I didn't understand well enough.
It had only been Mom, Willy and I. We were close but out mother wasn't the type to try and keep us tied to the nest. I always got the sense that she wanted to but didn't want to distract us from our own lives.
'You have to find and make your own adventures," She would say. My adventures incidentally always ended up revolving around her and Willy and no one else.
Our father and his whereabouts was a subject sent far into the bowels of the unknown since we had never known him and Mom had refused to divulge anything about. She simply didn't talk about it. To her, she was all we needed. Once during my teenage years, I pestered her intensely until she exposed something vague. It was along the lines of 'I trusted the wrong man and paid dearly for it.' Nothing was ever divulged again.
My mother had a habit of keeping secrets from us.
That was one trait dominant in her. She was a tight lipped vault of so many mysteries. Once it got in, it never got out. What aided her was her persistence. It ensured that her secrets never got out. If my mother set her mind on something, she didn't let the task go.
Perhaps the apple didn't fall far from the tree. The memory of the detective's visit lingered subconsciously. Maybe Willy had taken a few paged from her book. Probable theory.
Sometimes I liked to wonder what Mom's previous life was. Whether it was as heinous as her silence towards many things always implied. What she had done to make her run so far from it. Tragically, I would never know.
She died with all her secrets.
"So I'll see you on Monday?" Henry asked.
I made a noise of agreement going back underneath my blanket "Yes you will."
"Make sure you eat," He said dangerously tittering into his mother hen zone. I rolled my eyes underneath the duvet "Sure mom. It's not like I don't know how to microwave my own Thai food."
He laughed and I couldn't really remember what came afterwards because I sunk back slowly into the tentacles of slumber. I woke up about an hour later and the apartment was empty save my presence. I stayed underneath the duvet for a few more minutes to savor its warmth then hopped out of bed. After showering and brushing my teeth, I poured myself a bowl of cereal and sat cross legged on the living room couch.
The crunching of the cereal in my mouth made the most noise in the entire apartment. It was that quiet. I tried not to let my eyes linger on the coated red brick wall. All I could think about was what my sister might have done in the few days leading to her disappearance and if it was what caused it.
Despite what Detective Connor might have drawn in his conclusions I knew my sister. She wouldn't lie to me about anything. We were in everything together, that was our pact. We both swore that we would never deceive each other the way our mother had deceived us. We didn't lie to one another. There was surely a logical explanation for what that witness must have seen.
"Just so you know that witness is lying. She was told to say what she did," the memory of what Reign said last night haunted me. Anyone with two brain cells wouldn't believe a word he said. I shouldn't believe a word he said. Yet his skill as a mind twister was greatly harnessed. Knowing Reign there was a chance that he actually was telling the truth. The man had eyes and ear all over the town as he so fondly stated plenty of times. The odds were equal. Reign Meyers could have valuable information that would help me find my sister. The real dilemma was how much I was willing to give up for it.
"I said that if you came willingly, I wouldn't let you go."
He kept his word. I knew that much about him. I'd already made the mistake of letting my desperation lead me into the lion's den in the first place. I could prolong it as much as I wanted but I knew that he was waiting patiently for his jittery little deer to make a move before he pounced. And boy was he going to pounce.
I needed answers. I needed help. Almost every avenue I sought had failed. The police didn't even pretend to care about it, with the exception of Connor. And his investigation wasn't even going in the right direction if the witness's statement turned out to be falsely motivated. That put the rest of his findings in jeopardy.
Henry was a good soul who loved Willy and tried his best but his family's influence couldn't be harnessed since his parents had been trying to pull him away from the entire situation instead of helping him find the love of his life. Her disappearance to them might as well have been in blessing in disguise. It meant that apart from holding my hand and waiting on the results the police brought there was nothing that he could do.
I couldn't even resent him for it. There was no energy left for that. All I wanted was to get my sister back. In any way necessary.
No matter what it would cost me.
I sighed going into my bedroom to change clothes. Appeared as though I needed to take a long trip downtown.
No one needed to tell me that this was a bad idea of epic proportions. Mega epic proportions in fact. I'd been berating for the entire taxi ride to Noir. The move I was pulling was risky and after the week I'd just had, I didn't need any more to push my luck further. But I needed to pull one more move and hope that it worked.
"Five bucks," the taxi driver stated gruffly.
"E-Excuse me?" I stuttered with my hand on the door.
"You only gave me ten dollars. The fare is fifteen," He explained not even bothering to hide his vexation. Perhaps breaking down change was not his favorite part of the job. I handed him a ten in consolation "Keep the change."
The bastard didn't even have the common courtesy to look thankful for it.
Sighing, I turned back to face the club building. It was closed since it was still day time but I predicted that by night it would be completely packed since Saturday was a party night. That meant that it would be far too cramped and busy for me to encounter Reign especially if he was with his associates. I knew for a fact that during the day he liked to stay alone in the office to count his profits and check the books.
My hope was that I would catch him in and let things go from there. The front entrance was obviously a dead end so I took the back door in the alleyway. Turned out locked also. I placed my two hands on the rusted knob and tried to jiggle it harder in hopes that it turned out to be was weak as its rusted appearance gave away.
"What are you doing?" an accented voice halted my efforts. I turned feeling dread pool in my stomach as I saw one of the men from Reign's office. The foreign one. His name started with an N or something.
"I-I-I, um, Reign told me to come see him," that was certainly stretching the truth but the last time we met, I tried to kill his boss and his colleagues had their guns pressed against my head. I really didn't want to give him any reason to think that he had unfinished business in that regard.
"Are you not that boy from a few days before? The daring one who didn't know his limits?" N-something stalked closer with a less than pleasant expression on his face. If I wasn't already scared shitless, I might have taken offence to the fact that he called me a boy.
I grew facial hair thank you very much.
"Look man that was a misunderstanding -"
"Come with me. I'm sure that the Prince has been expecting you," It took me a second to realize what his words meant. "Really? How do I know you're not lying in order to lead me somewhere to kill me?"
He smiled "Perceptive of you. Unfortunately I'm under strict orders from him not to touch you." that was a big surprise. Reign didn't want anyone to hurt me?
"Unfortunately?" I couldn't help but question.
"Very unfortunate," N-something ground out. Someone was not a big fan of mine. He retrieved a set of keys from his pocket and opened the door letting me inside. He led me upstairs to the office and knocked once. There was no response so he opened the door himself.
Reign was seated on one of the couches, his legs propped on the glass table and a topless girl draped on his lap with her mouth enthusiastically attached to his. She squealed at our presence and scoured off his lap to grab her discarded shirt. I didn't think she was more than 18.
Reign remained unaffected with his unbutton shirt. "Nik, this is a pleasant surprise you've brought my way."
Nik grunted beside me "Found him in the alley and figured you missed him or something."
Reign's predatory gaze regarded me "Thank you. Oh, sorry Daisy, duty calls." He gave the girl a kiss and smack on the butt before she giggled and scampered out the door along with Nik. Reign stood up from the couch "I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon. Can't say I'm sad about it though."
I couldn't hide my disgust "For fuck's sake. What is she seventeen?"
"Sixteen." He answered with a dirty wink. Whether he was kidding or not wasn't something that I wanted to think too deeply into. "Now if you're done berating me for how I choose to get my dick wet, care to tell me what you want?"
I took in a subtle breath "How do you know that the witness's statement is fake?"
He went over to his desk and opened a box full of Cubans. Lodging one in his mouth, he replied "I told you. I have eyes and ear everywhere. I acknowledge what I feel is useful and ignore the rest." Curse him and his vagueness.
"How did you know that the detective told me that?" I asked instead hoping to fish for his methods. He let out a puff of smoke "How do you think?"
"You had someone follow me."
"Bingo."
My hands clenched together in a poor attempt to conceal the rage I felt. I'd never met anyone who felt so entitled to his actions. However I couldn't get angry now. I needed him to agree with me on what I wanted.
"If it's not too much trouble for you, I'd like you to assemble those same resources to help me find Willy. I thought about what you said last night and I've come to the conclusion that I do need your help," I said. "I know that since I made the mistake of coming to you once, I fall into the...agreement we made all those years ago. And I can't come out of it."
Reign was silent for a disturbing amount of time. Then, he simply dropped the cigar into the ash tray and walked to my space. Gently, he reached forward to stroke my face with his knuckles "I'm glad you said so." It was so hard to pretend that his touch didn't affect me in any way.
"One more thing," I managed to let out "Before we can go through with this I need to know if your sources are as accurate as you claim they are."
His eyebrows furrowed "What? You want proof?"
"Yes."
"Very well," he waved one hand in a carefree manner "You'll get your proof. But I have some terms of my own lovely. Firstly, you move in with me tonight."
I frowned "That's not possible-"
"Ahh, no I don't like that word. You want my help so you must agree to my rules. I think it would be easier if I knew exactly where you were so I can keep an eye out for you," Reign explained going back to grab his cigar.
"There's a guy living with me," he visibly tensed at my confession. He wasn't happy at that revelation. Part of me wanted to egg him on just for shits and giggles. But the last thing I wanted was to put Henry in danger. "Willy's boyfriend and my friend."
Reign seemed to relax after that "Make up an excuse. Say you're going out of town on a work thing, I don't care. Just know that your ass is coming with me tonight." I hated him so much. Ordering me around like I was a bitch on a lease. Too bad that I had no fucking choice. I needed his help.
"I'll move in when you prove to me the info about the witness," I said firmly. He grinned "Then it's a guarantee baby." He paused. "I can't believe I get you again after all these years."
I laughed humorlessly "It's not out of my free will I'll assure." A few years before, I would have probably been dying for a chance with him. That boat sailed so long ago.
He shrugged puffing the smoke directly into my face, disregarding my coughing "I don't care. I still get you anyway. That's all that matters to me. So do we have a deal?"
I hesitated. Understandably so. I was about to give into a man with no regard for morals or human life. His reputation certainly stated so. There was no assurance that he would end up finding my sister. But, his lead was the only one I could see now. Especially if the witness thing turned out to be true.
"Deal," I muttered.
To my surprise, Reign leant forward and forced me into a hard kiss. Rough and unforgiving. His free hand moved to my waist and pressed my body closer to his. As much as I hated it, it felt so familiar and tasted almost the same way a simpler time did. Finally he pulled away, grinning like he'd won the lottery "I missed that so much."
"Why did you do that?" I demanded.
"You know what they say, when you make a deal with the devil always seal it with blood." It took me all of an entire minute to realize that the metallic taste in my mouth was blood from the heavily bruising kiss.
"You're a monster," I whispered sullenly. Yet here I was, making a deal with this same monster. He chuckled "Oh darling, don't pretend we both didn't know that already."
I hate Reign so much but I love him too. Watson's undies must get wet when they're together.
Check my new story, In Plain Sight.