Secrets Of The Guilty [Nanowrimo 2019]

TWENTY-TWO

Eli's shoes were soaked before she reached the bottom of the steps. Looking down at them she swore under her breath, pulling her jacket tighter and flipping up the hood at her shoulder.

The rain fell, steady and hard.

With one hand raised, Eli spread her fingers as an unoccupied cab drove past her. This one unoccupied but stuck in the pull of traffic, too far to the centre lane to get to her.

She tried a second time, then sighed.

She tucked her fingers into the cuff of her wet jacket, feeling along the edges for the printer paper, willing the ink not to be smudged, or illegible. She pushed her fingers deeper, focusing the pages to the dries crease in the jacket.

It wouldn't be enough, of course, but it was a start.

The truth was, Eli was running out of moves and with an hour left till her deal with her own devil timed out, and her office off limits it was going to be even harder to make one. Fenton had gone from being a foothold to a shackle, to a hindrance.

She tried a final time and dropped her hand. No one was stopping in weather like this. Maybe if she walked a bit, someone would stop a street or two over or she'd just keep walking until she made it to Nat's apartment. At the east end of the building, which was the shortest route to Second, Eli stepped over the curb.

She stood under the overhang out of the rain in almost exactly the same spot that August had stood. Missing. Missing. Missing. Those words chased her further into the alley. The rain dulling under the words echoing in her head.

Until she registered a scratch along the pavement, covered up by honking horns and sirens. She sunk her left heel into a puddle, catching herself against the brick, forcing both of her shoulders against it. The angle hiding her left hand from whoever was in the alley with her.

Eli shivered feeling the cold between her toes.

She could see the wet around her heel in the constant strobe of car headlights and overhead streetlights and then she saw it, like a magic trick. In the orange light of a passing car the metal glinted and next it was gone. But she'd seen him.

Eli stepped out of the alley, keeping her stride even and calm, onto the sidewalk of Second. Finding it empty. She detoured to the east end, clenching and relaxing her fingers casting her eyes around the street, into empty shops or car windows, trying to see if anyone was still behind her and almost to the end of another street did she watched a car slow.

She looked up to find a car idling against the curb on the other side of the street. Right signal blinking at her, black and sleek it idled right in her way. Eli went to take a step back, going to put distance between her and it when James stepped out onto the sidewalk.

His eyes swept over her, behind her, around the alley. The driver's door opened, at his back, and Lucius joined him. One of the boxer's hands was curled across his stomach and into his jacket.

"You have a tail," He said, eyes still watching everything behind her.

"I noticed," she said, ignoring the cold in her feet and the fear in her voice.

"He's not under ordered from your detective." He pressed, gesturing to the car that had stopped beside her. James reached out, letting his fingers graze her jacket at her elbow. The dark of his eyes on her. "Now what do you say we get out of the rain?"

She offered him a small, exhausted flicker of a smile and climbed into the car. Trying to ignore the water falling along her back, raising goosebumps along her spine. She watched James speak with Lucius before he ducked through the opening beside her, closing the door.

She shifted her legs to the side, offering him more space.

"Would you like something to fight off the chill?" He lifted a poured amber liquid, the hot hand holding the glass brushed her knee and sent a shiver through her.

"Please," she said lightly, taking a second to watch him. Everything felt cold and warm and numb.

The edge of a smile. "Two fingers?"

She went to answer but he'd already started to pour. She took the glass from him, keeping herself together enough to thank him again. He'd remembered how she liked her drinks. And the brand, she realized, after taking a sip.

He takes a considered drink from his own glass, watching her.

"Why are you following me?" She leaned into the leather letting the warmth of the car take some of the numbness from her fingers. There was no bite in her voice just blatant curiosity.

"I found something while I was working on our deal. I had Lucius make a turn around the building after the news broke. I made a judgment call after we spotted a friend follow you into the alley." He looked down her body to her toes, still wet and squishy in her shoes. "You can take them off."

So Eli did just that, she moved her drink to her right hand and reached down to pull her heels off. Curling her legs underneath her on the seat more than aware of the seatbelt digging into her hip. The wet of her toes against her pants started a small shiver to run down her spine.

James sipped his brandy. "Better?"

"Much." She moved against the headrest pressing her ear against it, blinking up at him. She was warm and soon she'd be dry so she wasn't going to push him. "Where are you taking me, James?"

"Someplace safe. Somewhere you'll find safe, on the request of a friend." He amended. The glass slipped in her hands as the car slows, shifting the light around them. The red light sharpening her focus. Pulling her thoughts from the panic that had distracted her only minutes ago, loosening and warming. "Just for one night and in the morning you can go home."

"Why? What friend?"

"Tess." He said, quirking a brow at her. She watched him smile through his glass, sharp teeth flashing at her. Right then the world slanted and she barked out a laugh almost of the edge of hysterical and after a moment she shook her head.

She could feel the heat of him, the pressure of his leg against her and the warmth of his hand so close to her knee. Her stomach tightens as his hands come up to take the empty glass out from between her fingers. The red stoplight decorating the glass-like diamonds. Blood rubies, pressed together against a leather tray, in an expensive car and with his head turned from her, he looked just as glittering as the glass.

"Do you trust me?" he said instead, leaving the question hanging.

Did she trust him? Still, trust him enough to protect her? It would be something wouldn't it, she thought. She let the doubt move into her head, let it spread across her body until it hit the end of her toes. Curled them. Did it matter? Something happened when he straightened up to face her.

"Do you trust me?" she whispered without answering him. He faltered, drew up short as she held her breath. How much would it hurt her to kiss him again? Just once more. To feel him love her as he used too?

"More then I should."