Scarlett: (GxG)

Chapter 45

Zoey

I rifled through the dresser, pulling out clothes and tossing them onto the bed. When one drawer was fully checked, I moved on to the next, and the next one after that. I found nothing but his clothes, an array of deep blues and blacks that spoke volumes about the man's sense of style. He'd had absolutely none.

Stomping my way through the quiet apartment, I tried to think of where else I could look. The dusty shelves still housed an array of frames, one of which was empty thanks to my sticky fingers.

"Anders... this is getting ridiculous now."

Everything was as it had been weeks ago when I'd broken in with Scarlett's help.

A face attempted to join the name in my head the very second I thought about her. I shoved it aside.

I needed the man more than ever and there just wasn't a trace of where he might be. Percy had mentioned him going back to Greece, but I knew that was just a lie to shut me up for some reason. A reason I would soon be figuring out, I assured myself. My hands dove into any cabinets I could find. I wanted papers. Anything to prove where he could have possibly went or that he was even still alive at all.

No. I couldn't let myself think that way. He was too tough to kill. Too careful. Everything I wasn't but needed to be.

I spent the day going through Anders' things. The idea of possibly rustling up a girly mag or some strange porn in my searching still made me occasionally laugh like a madwoman in the quiet of his abandoned apartment. Thankfully I didn't find anything of the sort. Unfortunately I didn't find any real clues as to where my mentor was. If anything it made me increasingly suspicious that something was wrong. I'd been back for nearly a month, surely he'd come to his home at some point. But I did find something interesting. Tucked away neatly in his bathroom closet, behind rows of cleaner and family size packs of toilet paper, had been a case.

It reminded me of the one I had for my weapons so when I opened it I was only partially surprised with what I found. The dagger was long, thin and incredibly durable. It was also bigger than anything Anders had ever trained me to use. In short it was love at first sight.

Standing in his cramped little bathroom, I let the weapon spin on my fingers. In that moment I felt tough. Like nothing could hurt me. My skin was iron hard. My aim sharp as ever. But the moment the weapon was out of my hands. The more I felt like a lost twenty something girl, in desperate need of guidance. Or maybe even a kind word?

How utterly pathetic.

I walked home even though I'd gotten a cab to take me deep into the city that morning. Truth was I was in no rush to get back. I didn't want to face her and yet I didn't want to be under the same roof and not speak to Scarlett either. It was a conundrum that made me queasy for most of the day when I thought about it. And when I eventually walked up the sidewalk, the sun slipping away behind me, somehow I knew she was gone and I was now officially alone.

The jacket lay across the couch when I stepped inside. The couch we both hated with its ugly vintage flower pattern that matched nothing in the townhouse. I touched it, feeling the sharp, dangerous spikes against my palm. Forgetting the way it had cut me the first night we'd met would be impossible and I had a feeling she knew it.

This was her goodbye.

The sadness I was getting used to came at me like a powerful wave, one I probably would have allowed to overtake me as the quiet from Anders' abandoned apartment had apparently followed me home, but when I moved to the kitchen I spotted something out of place in my backyard.

A man, dressed in slacks and a dress shirt was kneeling by the newly planted flowers, tugging out a few weeds that had already begun to push through the soil.