Trained One ✓

Chapter 05

The next morning, I woke up to excessive banging on my door. I lugged myself out of bed and slowly made my way over, looking through the peep hole to see Josh's face as he continued to bang.

I undid the extra locks on the door and as soon as I opened it for him to enter, he strode in and cupped my face in his hands. My eyes widened.

"Lacey, you are so brilliant I could kiss you right now," he proclaimed as the door shut behind him.

I retreated, taking him with me as he still hadn't let go of my face.

"Please don't." My voice came out mumbled, from his hold.

Josh shook his head and let go of my face. "I said I could. Not that I would."

He made himself at home in my hotel room, making a beeline for the individual coffee cup maker. He poured some coffee grounds in and went to get water from the sink.

"Can I help you?" I asked as I slipped a hoodie on over my head, feeling self-conscious in my pajamas.

"Yes," he said, pushing the start button on the coffee machine and it started to brew. "I was up all last night thinking and going over the entire day which by the way, was a lot more than I thought I was going to do on my first day, let me tell you that. And I may have gone down to talk to some of the others that are already up down in the breakfast area and do you know what they said?" His hands were moving wildly and he couldn't stay in the same spot as he walked back and forth in front of the coffee machine.

"That you've probably had enough coffee?" I suggested quietly, highly doubting he needed any more today.

"What? No," Josh said like my idea was ridiculous. "No one, not one single person out of everyone that I spoke to had any sort of interaction. All they saw were people who lived there."

I pursed my lips. "How do they know they weren't involved in one of the gangs?"

"That's what I asked them but they said the only people they saw were homeless people or elderly people or people who looked like they went home to their family and tried to do the best they could in this shit hole of a town. No, the people we saw yesterday, all of them. They were different. I know they were different. And do you know what none of the others had in common?"

I shook my head, no.

"They weren't with you," he said, nearly jumping with joy.

"Josh, that's stu—"

"Stupid? No, think about it Lacey." He turned his back to me and started getting the coffee ready. "How many possible people did we see yesterday? You don't think that it's a little coincidental that so many popped out? Hell, those two uh, Finn and Ben, even called you over there. They shook my hand! Well, one of them did. No one else had that. You don't think it's because they're familiar with you? I knew I picked the right partner, I knew it." He grabbed the coffee and held the cup out for me.

I barely got any sleep, so I was grateful both to have some coffee and for the fact that the cup wasn't for him.

"So they know me. I don't understand what's got you all hyped up. I thought that fact was already established when I was picked to come on this mission."

Josh waved his hand impatiently, "Yeah but I don't think anyone knew how much of an asset that would be. I thought maybe you'd know some areas or if they saw you, they'd avoid you. I mean, who actively seeks out someone trying to arrest them."

Well, I wasn't trying to arrest any of Cameron's guys so there was that...

I shrugged.

"I suggest we form an alliance," he said as seriously as he could.