Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 346(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 346(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
I turn but he grabs my arm to stop me. I immediately freeze, an instinct I can’t seem to get myself to stop doing. My spine straightens, my knees lock, my body goes stiff as a board, and my brain goes a little foggy. Kendric immediately lets me go and it takes a few minutes for me to gain some composure. A few minutes too many, it would seem.
“Who. Is. Fuckin’. Hurtin’. You,” he growls, his voice so lethal I shudder.
I glance at him again. “I fell on duty, Kendric. It happens.”
“You’re fuckin’ lying to me.”
“My business is none of yours,” I snap. “You and I both know how you feel about me, so why you suddenly care about what’s happening is beyond me. Go back to rubbing yourself against your little lady out there and leave me the hell alone.”
He steps closer but is careful not to touch me. His breath tickles my ear as he growls, “You’re so god damned mouthy and fuckin’ strong when it comes to me, yet when my hands were on you, you froze up. Seen women freeze up like that before, seen my own mother do it. I know exactly what it looks like when a woman is bein’ abused. You got a fuckin’ man that is abusin’ his rights, and I want to know who that man is. When you’re ready to tell me, I’m goin’ to listen, and I’m goin’ to make him wish he was never fuckin’ born.”
With that, he steps back.
My heart is in my throat as I look to him. I know he can see the pain in my eyes. His words affected me in a way I wasn’t expecting. I feel the pain inside wanting to explode out, the memories wanting to shoot forward so he knows exactly what I’ve lived through. He holds my eyes and something shoots between us, a feeling I’ve not felt around a man before. Safe. I can feel the safe space he’s creating for me, and I want to throw myself into it.
But I’m terrified.
I look away, grab my things, and rush out.
Only when I get to my car do I slam my fists onto the wheel over and over again as agony rips through my soul.
God damn me for being so fucking weak.
God damn it all.
7
ZARIAH
“All we know is this woman went missing, without a trace, two weeks ago,” Blanche tells Corey and me, sliding a huge stack of papers toward us. “So far, we know that her boyfriend has a rock-solid alibi and we have two sightings of her walking from her apartment between seven and eight AM on the morning of the 25th. She hasn’t been seen since, her phone has not been used nor has her bank accounts or cards.”
I stare at the picture of a gorgeous young woman in her prime. She was reported missing two weeks earlier when she didn’t show up for her shift at a local café she had been working at for about three years. Her boyfriend was at work and it was said he was there from six AM that morning until six PM that evening. His boss clarifies that, and it all checks out. Two women saw her walking down the street from her apartment toward the café sometime between seven and eight AM, but after that, nobody has seen her. It’s literally like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
“Is there anyone else significant in her life that we need to be looking into?” I ask Blanche.
He looks to me. “That’s your job. You need to find everyone who had anything to do with her—friends, colleagues, family members. We need to piece together her life. Was there any rifts between her and someone else? Did anyone have reason to want to hurt her? Was she suicidal or dealing with something we don’t know about? These are all things we need to piece together a case. Nothing is too small. Get to work.”
Corey and I both nod and I start with her family, organizing interviews so we’re able to get as much information as we can.
It’s exciting and, for the first time in years, I feel like I’m getting somewhere, like maybe, just maybe, I’ll finally move up and have the career I always wanted. I’m excited about coming to work, and knowing that we are able to sit alongside Blanche during all of this is an absolute honour. He’s incredible at what he does, and I want to learn everything I possibly can while working with him.
“How are you doing?” Blanche asks me three hours later as I’m head down in a stack of information that I’ve gathered.
“I have found something interesting. Her sister has a boyfriend, who apparently was meeting with Petra in secret. She’s not sure what they were doing together, she thought they might have been planning a surprise party or something of the sort for her upcoming birthday, but she said she found some interesting messages on her boyfriends phone to Petra, and she is a little concerned he has something to do with her disappearance.”