A Real Bad Boy(26)

A part of the reason was my studies, but an enormous part of it was me.  I'd forgotten how to enjoy my life. I was so busy in my relationship  with Elijah, in my depression, that I had lost sight of everything that I  loved.

I didn't want that to happen anymore. So I pulled out a pair of  earphones and plugged them into my phone, turning to my favorites when I  was drawing. The classics. I loved Brahms and Mozart and all of those  beautiful instrumentals that allowed me to get lost in my own thoughts. I  just sketched the first thing that came to mind. Drawing the human  form. I didn't know what it would be. What it would turn out to look  like, but I wanted it to be beautiful. The hard curve of a jaw, the  powerful form of a man.                       
       
           



       

It was half done when I realized what I was doing.

I was drawing Zachary. He was the first thing on my mind. The one thing  that I wanted to see. I wanted to tell him how I felt about him. Hell, I  needed to. I'd pushed him away. I'd asked for space, and almost  immediately, I'd regretted it.

So I pulled out my phone and I texted him.

Hey, I'm at the High. Missing you. I'll be here for another couple of hours. Come find me if you get time. - Willow

I made up my mind. I'd tell him tonight. He deserved to know the truth about my feelings.

And I would see where he was with it, then I would make a decision that I'd previously pushed out of my own mind.

I'd ask if he wanted to marry me.





Zach



"You're sure about this?" Leo asked as he looked from me to Glitch. The  three of us were dressed in dark clothing with hoods covering our faces.  It was silly, but we felt it necessary to hide our identities. What we  were doing was highly illegal and I wasn't about to put myself in a  vulnerable position.

"I'm positive. The tech doesn't lie," Glitch said. He had the kind of  smile on his face that made him look like a feral animal. Glitch hardly  ever got to come along with us on missions in the past. Me and the crew,  that is, and so for him, it was like a little treat. But he was wild,  and he had a tendency to misguide things in person. So he relied on his  tech.

It never lied to him. It never cheated him.

"Just stay calm, man. You know the drill; we've done it a thousand  times." Usually Glitch was on the other side of a computer screen, but  Leo wanted him there. It was his lead, so it should've been his  consequences. That was the way Leo worked, and I respected it. He was  calling the shots; he was the boss.

I grabbed my set of lock-picking tools and got to work on the door. I'd  done enough of these missions to know the way they went. We got in, the  guy screamed out, tried to call for 911, but one of the men silenced  him. That would be my job. We'd confront him and get what we were  looking for. Judging from the picture on his police issued badge in his  file, he would be an easy nut to crack. He looked like the kind of panty  waist that cried out at the first sign of a fight.

It was easy to guess why he'd failed to include the real DNA results in  the file. It was easy to understand why someone like him could be easily  intimidated.

Getting into his head wasn't the hard part. Not nearly as hard as  picking that damn lock. It finally clicked, and I sighed then pushed in  the door. The three of us entered the backroom of that house and swept  through the rooms until I heard Glitch call from the living room.

He had him.

"Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my house?" Ben Sherman said, his voice shaky as he looked at Glitch then me.

"We don't want to hurt you, Ben. We just want some information," I said.  I always tried it this way with men like him. It barely had to get  physical. Even though a part of me was hoping that it did. A man like  him would crumble, though, and that wasn't what I was looking for. I  wanted a real fight. One I could count on.

"I'm just a lab tech, guys. I don't know what information I could  possibly have," he said as he put his hands up. He was looking for  something, a phone, a gun, something. I could tell by the way his eyes  shifted around the room as he searched it out.

"Don't do anything stupid," Leo said, his voice disguised. He kept it  deeper and harsher than his normal tone as he came in from the back of  the room. "We need to know about the serial killer you are protecting.  The one you are hiding."

"We saw your little note in the file," Glitch chimed in. He was too  excited. "We know there were two other people there. Why didn't you test  the DNA? Who was it?"

"There was. There was two other people. And we did test the DNA. But one  of them-" he started to say but he stopped. "I won't say a word until  you promise me that you won't hurt me."

"We won't hurt you. This is a crime that needs to be solved, Ben. You  know that. Hell, I bet you put that little note in the file hoping  someone would see it." I knew men like him. They weren't bad men. They  were just weak. I was there to help weak men like him do the right  thing. Or the wrong thing.

It all depended on who paid me.

He nodded slowly then looked between us. Our faces were obscured, but  that didn't seem to matter. What mattered was that we were there,  looking for the truth. I knew what I was doing, the hard approach  wouldn't work with a man like him. It didn't need to.

"Miles Landis. The DNA belonged to Miles Landis." I looked at Leo,  confused, but he wasn't. He knew exactly who that was. I could tell by  the rage forming on what I could see of his face and the fists he was  balling. He was positively livid.                       
       
           



       

"Tell no one we were here," I said as I pushed him away from us and  grabbed Leo's arm, pulling him through the foyer and out the front door.  We could talk about this when we were far away and safe, just in case  he called the police.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked when Leo and Glitch were safely in the unmarked car as I drove. "The look on your face."

"We are fucking with shit that is way beyond our pay grade," Glitch said  as he typed on his computer. I assumed he was bringing up the name in  question. "Miles Landis isn't just well known in Atlanta, he is well  known in most of the business world. Motherfucker is a shark. A  goddamn-"

"Demon," Leo finished as he pulled off his hood. He looked scared. It  was the first time I'd ever witnessed this from him. Leo was always sure  of himself. Always confident. I'd never witnessed him wavering. Not  when it came to finding Hope's killer. He was genuinely concerned.

"I want everything you can find on him, Glitch. Even shit you shouldn't  be able to find. But be careful. Don't trigger anything. If he's as good  as you say, he'll find out Ben snitched, but we can't give him any  clues about who we are." I raced back towards the warehouse. We needed  some time to gather what we knew and to formulate a plan. "You doing  alright, Leo?" I asked.

This was what he wanted. This was the how he wanted to deal with it.

"Yeah. I just …  I thought it was one of the men in the club. I thought it  was Tommy. I could've sworn it was. I would've bet my life on it." He  shook his head. "Drop Glitch off at the warehouse, but take me home. I  need some time to think."

That suited me just fine. I had a woman I wanted to get to.

There was more to the story. More we had to piece together, and that was going to take time.





Chapter Seventeen



Willow



"Willow?" I heard the deep rumble of Elijah's voice as I was leaving the museum. Fuck.

I turned to see him walking towards me. "How did you know where I was?" I asked as I stepped away from him.

"I had no idea. I thought I would check out this little pub just down  from my hotel, there," he said as he pointed towards the Marriott. Damn.

Why the fuck did fate continuously screw me over?

He put on a charming smile and took another step closer to me.

"Join me for dinner," he said. It was not a request, and immediately I  felt like I was back in his world. Like disobeying him would end in  serious consequences. But we were in public, in the middle of the street  in front of a major attraction. Surely he couldn't do anything to me if  I refused. At least that was what I told myself.

"I'm sorry, I'm just leaving now," I said as I turned to go, but he  grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. I could feel his fingers digging  into my flesh, the painful sting of them causing me to gasp aloud.

"It's just a little dinner. Join me. I insist." He pulled me with him  and I followed, trapped in the dutiful act that I'd once lived it. I was  scared, and mostly, I was ashamed. A man like this shouldn't have been  able to have so much power over me. He shouldn't have been able to do  this without consequences.