Finding You

by Max Hudson

  Something in her body language told Simon that wasn’t an accident.

  “What do you want, Adrian?” Mina ground out. Simon nearly shivered at the pure ice in her tone, and for just a second he thought he saw Adrian wince.

  “Look, I just wanted to apologize. I know last time we talked was—”

  “A shitshow?”

  “Confrontational.” They glared at each other and Simon looked rapidly between the two of them, trying to figure out what was going on. “So, I just came to say sorry.”

  “Sorry. Nearly half a year later?” She snorted. “Apology not accepted. Leave.”

  Even Simon winced at that. He found himself glaring down at Adrian for a moment.

  “Hey, come on, Mina, I’m trying to extend an olive branch here.” Adrian took a step forward, the slight shift to the set of his shoulders and a tiny glance back in Simon’s direction telling him that he was trying to keep her attention so Simon could look for something.

  Mina held her ground. Feeling his stomach turn nervously, Simon found himself taking a sharp step back when her eyes suddenly snapped to him and locked there. “An olive branch,” she repeated, not even looking at Adrian. “Right. And who’s this? The latest conquest?”

  “What? No!”

  Simon winced again, this time for an entirely different reason. You don’t have to sound that disgusted by the idea, he complained silently to himself. Giving himself a little shake, he tried to straighten his shoulders again and raised a hand to her in what was probably a rather pathetic little wave.

  “Um, hi. I’m Simon, I’m just a friend.”

  “A friend?” Mina scoffed. “Adrian doesn’t have friends except Minnie, I guess. He’s got partners and exes and that’s it.”

  “Hey.” Adrian glared at her, and Simon got the distinct feeling that the real reason they were there was the last thing on his mind. “That’s a little unfair, don’t you think?” Then he smirked, the same damned smirk Simon had grown all too familiar with in the last few years. “We were friends, weren’t we?”

  “I don’t know, Adrian.” She snapped her eyes back to him. “Were we?”

  Mina looked tired, Simon decided. Tired, the kind of tired like she’d been up all night. Possibly several. And she was guarded. More than was reasonable for a confrontation with an ex, or at least he thought. Tired, guarded, and angry, throwing up that anger to block them entirely.

  Simon felt something clench guiltily in his chest, but at the same time a pinprick of suspicion crept up the back of his neck. It was an interesting combination. “Look, we’re sorry to bother you,” he murmured, reaching forward to lay a hand on Adrian’s shoulder as he did. “I think this was a bad idea.” His eyes flickered passed her for just a moment, lit on her desk, and went wide.

  He quickly wiped the reaction from his face and took a step back, pulling Adrian with him. “We’ll go. Sorry, ma’am. Detective Jameson.”

  He thought for a moment that there was just the slightest hint of tension that left her stance as her eyes flickered over him. Then she just nodded and whirled back into her office, slamming the door behind her.

  Adrian turned on him, glowering, “What the hell, Dove?” he whispered.

  Simon cut him off before he could get further than that. “Not now. C’mon, let’s get back to the car.”

  Something in his voice must have hinted at what he was thinking, because he saw Adrian’s eyes widen, eyebrows creeping up, before he quickly schooled his expression back to neutral and nodded sharply. “Fine.”

  They walked at a quick, clipped pace back down the hall and out through the lobby, silently. Simon dutifully ignored the smirk he caught on Officer Cooper’s face as they beat a hasty retreat back to the car.

  He’d barely managed to get into the passenger seat when Adrian was turning the ignition and barking sharply, “Okay, what the fuck happened in there?”

  “Are you serious?” Simon grabbed for the side of his seat as they peeled out of the parking lot and grumbled, “It’s the fucking police station, at least try not to get a ticket.” Raising his voice, he added with a quick glare thrown in Adrian’s direction. “What the hell was that? That was your plan? Go in and try to smooth talk your ex into what? Confessing something?”

  Adrian’s jaw was tight, brows drawn tightly together as he glared at the road. “Look, it’s not like we exactly had a better option. It might’ve worked, too, if you hadn’t—”

  “It wasn’t working, and it wasn’t going to work,” Simon cut him off angrily. “God, for someone who literally talks to people for a living, you’re shit at reading them.” Adrian opened his mouth, indignant, but before he could say anything Simon barreled on, “She was blocking us. Literally, physically blocking us. Which means she didn’t want us in her office. Shocker, I know. But didn’t you see how tired she was?”

  “She’s a detective,” Adrian grumbled, jerking the wheel into a turn that was sharper than was strictly necessary. “She’s always tired.”

  “You would know. Whoa there. Okay, best not say that one out loud. Instead, he hissed, “When she said Minnie’s name, she got tense. Like, really tense. Couldn’t you tell?”

  Adrian was quiet for a few moments longer. Then, slowly: “I guess? I mean, yeah, now that you mention it. Didn’t notice in the moment.”

  Well, he’d been distracted. Simon chose to keep that thought to himself as well. Lowering his voice slightly, trying to calm himself down, he continued, “She also had one of Minnie’s notes crumpled up on her desk.”

  Adrian jerked the wheel again and Simon swore, clutching for the door handle while the car behind them honked loudly. Evidently unconcerned with the prospect of getting them killed, Adrian asked quickly, “You’re sure? It’s a fucking notes, Simon, it’s not like they’re labeled.”

  “I’m sure,” he replied, stuttering a beat as he quite abruptly realized he’d never actually heard Adrian use his first name before. Not the time, not the time. “It wasn’t totally smushed or anything, I caught a glimpse of the writing. 147.”

  “Shit,” Adrian breathed. He lightened up on the gas fractionally and Simon found himself releasing a soft sigh of relief. “That’s…huh. Well spotted.”

  “Ah…thanks?” Simon was thrown off balance, not really knowing what to do with that response. “I’m used to looking for little details I guess.”

  “Really?”

  Simon was thinking again, using the conversation as background noise. Where normally that would have bothered Simon, now he just found himself providing. “Yeah, we had this employee seminar thing a while back. Learning to spot signs of who might be trying to pull something in the bank, that kind of thing. I guess I just sort of got into the habit of doing it everywhere.”

  “Huh.” Adrian tilted his head fractionally toward him, and for a moment Simon caught a flicker of an impressed smile playing at the edges of his lips. “Well. Nicely done.”

  ”Thanks.”

  Feeling pretty thoroughly at sea, Simon lapsed back into silence for a few moments, watching the scenery pass by out the window as they wound their way through a series of backroads back toward Adrian’s apartment.

  “So.” Adrian finally spoke up again after what had to be at least five minutes of sitting in that tense silence.

  “So.” Simon repeated.

  “Well, I guess I should say sorry for snapping—”

  “Does that mean you’re going to tell me just what the heck you—”

  They glanced at each other, both brown and blue eyes starting to narrow as their brows drew together again. Then Simon bit back what he was going to say and gestured vaguely in Adrian’s direction, indicating for the other man to speak, and some of the tension eased.

  “I was gonna apologize. For sort of snapping at you like that,” Adrian murmured after a moment or two.

  Simon raised his eyebrows and nodded slowly, turning his head slightly to continue looking out the window. They were only a minute or so from Adrian’s apartment
now, or at least he was pretty sure. “Well, that’s…thank you. I appreciate it,” he sort of mumbled after another few seconds of heavy quiet.

  “Mm.” Adrian pulled into the parking lot. “So, what were you saying?”

  A large part of Simon sort of thought he actually shouldn’t say anything, figured it would only aggravate the situation. A smaller, more persistent part was irrationally irritated and sort of looking for a fight at this point.

  “147. Suspect armed.” That had definitely been a note from Minnie, he was sure of it. Which meant something was really, really wrong, and they were in the middle of it. He had no idea how to handle that and he was just stressed and frustrated.

  “You could have at least warned me you two used to date,” he muttered as they got out of the car.

  Adrian’s shoulders stiffened and his step actually hesitated for a moment as he walked ahead of him. Then he kept moving with a short, clipped response of, “Why? It’s not that important, it just gave us an easy in.”

  Anger started to rise up in his chest. Simon took a breath, attempting to keep his voice even as they entered the apartment building and headed for the elevator. “That’s bullshit and you know it,” he muttered once the doors had dinged gently closed. “For someone who was so concerned with me blowing our cover, you just—just sprung that on me. And then the way you two were talking, I had no idea how to—”

  “Look, do we really have to talk about this?” Adrian suddenly hissed back at him, snapping his eyes up to glare into his face for a moment before the elevator stopped and he got off quickly.

  Simon was frozen a moment, surprised by the genuine emotion in that expression. It wasn’t exactly something he was used to from Adrian.

  “I mean, I think we should,” Adrian managed to snap back, hurrying after him into the apartment. The door slammed closed behind him and he whirled to find Adrian standing in front of it with his arms crossed, glowering.

  Pushing determinedly through the sudden realization that Adrian might actually care about certain things, Simon continued, “Look, I get that you’re just…like this. You like pushing my buttons, getting a rise out of me, whatever. And I know I make it too easy sometimes, so maybe that’s my fault. Fine.”

  With every word Simon spoke he started to go faster, until it was all sort of tumbling out as his voice rose gradually and the helplessness and irritation began to muddle his tone. “But was it really worth it just to catch me off guard with—with all that? This whole thing is serious, Crow, I don’t think it’s exactly appropriate to—”

  “Whoa. Hold on there.” Adrian cut him off with a raised hand and a firm glare, stomping forward a few steps to get in his personal space. Where normally Simon would have taken an instinctive step or two back, now he found himself holding his ground. He actually tried to straighten his shoulders out a bit, glaring down at him in turn.

  Either ignoring or not noticing the subtle change in his usual behavior, Adrian continued angrily, “You think that was about you? Shocker, Dove, I know, but not everything I do is to get under your skin. I just didn’t want to talk about it before I had to, all right?”

  “All right?” Simon repeated in a low growl. He saw Adrian’s eyes widen, and it occurred to him, in some vague back corner of his mind, that even though they argued plenty, he didn’t know if he’d ever really sound this level of angry with Adrian before. “No, it is not all right! Because if you weren’t doing it in some juvenile bid to force me to stand there and be uncomfortable, then it was just stupid. Minnie is missing, and I didn’t have all the information walking into that situation. What if Mina is dangerous?!”

  It was possibility that was seeming more and more likely, judging by what they had just learned.

  Adrian just snorted and rocked back on one heel, rolling his eyes. “Please, we were in a police station. It’s not like she could have pulled anything if she wanted to. She doesn’t suspect us! She thinks I’m just a useless, pining ex.”

  Simon snorted derisively. “Gee, I wonder where she’d get that impression. Not like you were coming sideways at the whole flirting thing back there.”

  Okay, that was definitely not appropriate right now—but he couldn’t exactly swallow the words back, much as he might want to in that moment.

  Adrian was gaping at him, anger replaced with sheer indignation in his expression. “That was not me trying to flirt! That was nothing like me even leading up to flirting!”

  Simon huffed and rolled his eyes. Not the time, not the time, just shut up—

  “Really? Because there were a lot of hate-flirt vibes.”

  It was Adrian’s turn to scoff. He whirled on his heel and started for the desk in the corner of the room. “Oh, like you would know.”

  Simon glared. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  Adrian sighed, actually sighed. Simon saw his shoulders curve forward slightly. A prickle of guilt that he didn’t entirely understand started nudging its way up against his breastbone. “Just…nothing. Never mind. We’ve got stuff to figure out.”

  Simon opened his mouth. For some reason his instinct was to continue arguing. Then he snapped it closed again and let out a sharp breath of his own, shaking his head. “Yeah,” he muttered in semi-reluctant agreement. “But how are we supposed to do that? We just know that Minnie left Mina a note. Actually, we don’t even know that. Mina might have found it somewhere or something.”

  Another sigh. Adrian changed direction abruptly and flopped down onto the couch. “Yeah. Good point, actually.”

  Simon bristled at “actually.” He was still irritated—both with his perceived helplessness at this whole situation and Adrian’s way of handling things—and it seemed that his temper was ready to flare again at the tiniest slight. “Right. So. Where does that leave us?”

  “With the suspicion that Mina is a dirty cop?”

  Simon jolted. Well, it made sense, but he didn’t even realize he’d been actively avoiding coming to that conclusion on his own because it genuinely terrified him.

  “We don’t actually know that.”

  “Yes.” Adrian lulled his head around to look at him as Simon cautiously sank onto the other end of the couch. He raised one eyebrow. “That is in fact what the word ‘suspicion’ means.”

  Another surge of irritation that he desperately swallowed back. “All right, smartass. Just… So what? We blow the whistle?”

  “And that is not what that phrase means,” Adrian sighed, leaning his head back again and closing his eyes. Dragging a hand down his face with a tired groan, he muttered, “Honestly the only idea I have is head back to Minnie’s, try to see if there’s anything we missed…” He trailed off, then abruptly waved a hand in Simon’s direction and muttered, “That’s what I was talking about, by the way.”

  Simon stared at him, caught between bewilderment and irritation. “What?”

  Adrian let out a long, slow breath and muttered, “How can you be so good at reading people and still be this clueless?”

  “Hey!” Simon bristled. Was he trying to pick another fight?

  In the exact same tone, Adrian snapped, “I’ve been hate-flirting with you for years! If you thought that’s what I was doing with Mina but you can’t pick it up when it’s directed at you.” He shrugged almost helplessly and finally looked at him again. “God help you, I guess.”

  Simon’s jaw went a little slack. He just stared, full deer-in-headlights, and tried desperately to encourage his brain to process that.

  “You what?”

  “Oh my God.” Adrian sat up properly and twisted to face him, a frown sharpening his features. “You heard me. I know you’re not stupid, Simon. Just clueless, apparently.”

  It still wasn’t. But, he was left with no idea how to handle this new information.

  He’d thought before that Adrian was always a little closer to the edge of “playful” than not with his jabs, even if it was irritating as hell. Did that really mean?

  “Is this really t
he time for this?” he managed to stammer out, voice not quite as firm as he would have liked.

  “Time for what?” Adrian replied easily, evidently unbothered. “We’re just talking, Dove. Seeing as we can’t really do anything about this whole fucking mess just now.”

  Simon blinked. “We…you wanted to check Minnie’s house again?”

  Deflecting? Definitely. Because in that moment he had absolutely no idea what else to do. There were an awful lot of emotions warring for his attention, but he couldn’t actually focus on any of them.

  “Not until later,” Adrian sighed. “If something about us did tip Mina off and she is involved somehow, she’ll head over there next chance she gets—which should be the next hour or so, since that’s when she breaks for lunch.”

  “Okay.”

  A sudden, deafening silence descended on them. Simon stared down at his hands in his lap, furiously trying to think. So, they’d wait a couple of hours, then head back to look around Minnie’s house again. Hopefully they’d find something, or maybe she’d even be there and this whole thing could be over with.

  “Any particular reason?” he found himself muttering, and tilted his head slightly to glance at Adrian out of the corner of his eye.

  The other man shifted slightly in his seat and returned the look. “Reason for what?”

  “The, uh…” Simon waved a hand awkwardly. “Hate-flirting.”

  Adrian snorted and raised his eyebrows at him. “Why do people usually flirt, Dove?”

  Simon just stared at him, desperately trying to remember how his brain worked properly. “But, I mean…you don’t even like me! We only even see each other because of Minnie…”

  Adrian was shaking his head, a very, very small smile twitching at his lips. It was not exactly a happy smile, or even the playful smirk Simon had come to expect. “You don’t like me, Dove. You made that pretty clear the first time we met.”

  Simon racked his brain, trying to think back. He frowned. “You were—I don’t know! You just showed up and started in on me, I didn’t even get a chance to know you before you made it your life’s mission to irritate me.”