Unfinished (New York Unraveled #3)

Chapter One.

STUART.

The doors opened with a slight creaking sound which echoed through the silent library like a whiplash, making every single person turn or peer around to see the newcomer. The wooden doors were half as old as the books sitting on the shelves and their constant noise was very annoying to people like me who were trying to slink by without catching attention. I huffed in exasperation at the stupid shit and walked inside, ignoring people like they didn't exist in my peripheral vision. They usually turned back to their own work after a minute or two. There was only one set of eyes that didn't bother me.

The pretty raven-haired girl lowered the book she was reading just enough to reveal a perfect set of blue eyes peering at me. When I glanced her way, she hastily pulled it back up to hide her face. I had to bite back a smile at her bashful attitude.

I took a seat in one of the aisles at the very back. The two shelves on either side of me ended on a wall which was mostly covered by a French window with white panes that overlooked a small garden out back. The garden was a part of the library with many huge trees spreading out at different spaces. Many people issued books and laid down on the grass or beneath the shade of the trees to read.

I took out a thick reference book from the shelves and began to flip through the pages, finding the one I had been reading yesterday. I patted the pocket of my jeans for my reading glasses and put the ugly big-framed black spectacles on. I didn't like them even a bit but then again, I had come in the library to study, not pick up chicks. It took me only a few minutes to get so deeply submerged in the pages describing various mental disorders that I had studied once before. But that was a year and a half ago. And now I had to start all over again.

I still worked diligently, mostly because there was nothing else in life and also because this was what my life- and my family's- depended on. Six months ago, the mayor of the city had boasted about how they had cleaned New York, purged it of a major evil that threatened to be the doom of youth. I was one of the evils they had purged. I used to be one of the middle men who transported drugs from the suppliers to the distributors. My trusted accomplice had to fall in love with the detective who was behind all the operations. She told him everything about each person involved and I ended up going to jail. I had come out only a year ago and even that was because my brother was in the army and had considerable influence. I still spent eight months in prison and when I got out, no university wanted me back in. I was having to do correspondent studies from a shack of a university and spend half a day in the library so that I could pass this time.

"Umm, Stuart?" came a hesitant voice, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Yeah?" My head whipped towards the source of the voice with a start, getting sucked out of the book way too suddenly. If it wasn't been the pretty librarian, I would've been pissed.

"There's a call for you," she said in her sweet chiming voice.

I nodded with lowered eyebrows and followed her to the main desk. A landline phone was kept on hold with the receiver lying carelessly over two books by Dan Brown. I picked it up and spoke, "Hello?"

"Stuart. Where the fuck is your phone? Chuck it, there's no time for that. Go home. Now," said my brother's urgent voice.

"Why?" I asked him. "And how'd you get this number?"

I wasn't surprised that he kept a track of me. After my previous shenanigans, I expected him to already be aware of my schedule and any changes I ever make in it. He had enough connections to have me stalked and followed. What was surprising was that he took the pain of finding out the number of the library and calling me there to tell me to go home. It was only seven in the evening. It wasn't that late, damn it.