Ricky showed up at eleven a.m. He looked tired and he stopped in his tracks when he saw me.
“For shit’s sake, Max, you look dreadful. Your face—”
“Yeah, yeah. I heard it from Emma already. I had to get to the hospital last night. An A’rea nearly ripped my face off, but don’t worry. I’m fucking fine, all right?”
He was shaking his head, putting his stuff on the desk.
“This whole case is becoming very complicated. One day you’re going to die for that fucker, Maxine, and then what?” he asked. By “that fucker” he meant Arthur. Ricky knew everything that happened to me. He was convinced that I was doing too much, risking my life to find the missing prince who was most likely in hell already.
“Calm down. I won’t be going anywhere alone from now on. Zach wants to keep me on a short leash. You better tell me what you found out about the evidence that the Watcher brought in.”
He wasn’t done with giving me a lecture just yet, but he nodded to me to go to his office. He’d created a spell to deter any intruders from getting inside his drawers. When I looked past the wards, I could see that he was in the process of analysing the potions and hair. The whole setup from the photographs looked a lot like the lab from Jessica’s apartment. There was obviously a connection between Natasha and a demon that kidnapped George.
“You finally met someone that talks with some kind of sense. I’m scared, Maxine, petrified that one day you won’t make it. I know that we agreed that you should be out in the field and I’m taking care of the rest, but last night was a close call. You were risking too much.”
“She could have killed me, but she didn’t, so stop going on about it. Tell me, what is it that you found?” I asked, fed up with talking about last night. I was going to be fine, and my friends didn’t need to worry.
“Nothing yet. The hair is definitely a human’s, but it will take me a couple more days to extract and identify all the ingredients. I’m going to run some tests on all the liquids today.”
“Cool, let me know if you find anything,” I told him. We discussed a few other possibilities, but I knew that he worked better alone, so after a few minutes I left him to it. He’d taught me a lot about potions and elixirs; the books were useful, but there was nothing better than learning this stuff directly from an expert.
I went to my own room hoping to take my mind off recent events. I had some reading to catch up on and I had to take care of phone messages and reply to emails. Sometimes I also took care of the bills and other paperwork, only if Ricky was busy. My throat was dry and I really wanted to get my hands on some tequila. This wasn’t going to happen, because I was planning to stick to my resolution of sobriety. My irritation turned into a frustration just before lunch. I was trying to change my whole lifestyle, and the time was dragging, leaving me free to think of everything I shouldn’t.
Emma knocked on my door and I told her to come in. The smell of freshly baked cake and coffee filled the room. Her hands were full, and she started putting various boxes on my table.
“What is all this?” I asked, scratching my head when she placed a fancy coffee pot in front of me.
“I brought in some homemade cakes… lots of them. They make a nice impression to visitors. I left some in Ricky’s room too,” she said shyly. “I thought that maybe you would like to talk?”
My stomach was rumbling. I realised that I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. Most of the time I missed breakfast. Maybe this was the best time to start changing my routine. I needed to fuel my body with energy and the cakes looked delicious.
“Talk about what?” I asked, and shoved the raspberry turnover into my mouth. Emma was unsure what to say, her thoughts slightly tangled. The work that I needed to do could wait.
“About what happened to you last night. My mum says that if you’re feeling down, talk to someone and have a very naughty cake.” She smiled widely.
I started spinning in my chair moving left and right very slowly staring at her, slightly taken back by the fact that she wanted to make me feel better. In my entire short, but eventful life I never had anyone that I could talk to. Most of my friends were guys and we spent time together drinking or playing cards. Getting together with a group of girls and sharing our emotional experiences wasn’t my kind of thing. I’d never been a sleepover-pillow-fight chick. Emma most probably had plenty of girlfriends, and today I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I decided to go with it. The craving for tequila wouldn’t just go away and these cakes looked really good. Maybe I could substitute tequila with sugar and get a really fat ass and then Arthur wouldn’t be hounding me and then that would be one problem solved!
“Okay, I guess I can try, but I don’t think that I’m very good, you know, at talking about stuff in general,” I told her.
“Don’t beat yourself up over this, Maxine. You saved my life, and I’ll remember it forever. Tell me, what’s bothering you?”
I thought about her question for a second. There was nothing that was bothering me specifically. I’d made certain decisions that impacted everyone around me whether they knew it or not. I couldn’t talk to her about my affair with Prince Arthur. My broken heart would heal eventually.
“The investigation isn’t going anywhere. I’ve made so many mistakes with this case and I don’t know what to do. I feel stuck,” I confessed. Ricky had to have something in that room. George had disappeared down in the cemetery and the demon that took him had covered all their tracks. “But at the same time I’m not that worried. I know that I should be, but for some reason I’m not bothered.”
“Why? Are you thinking about something else?” she asked, and took a bite of a chocolate eclair.
I sighed, knowing that my head was clear. Last night I didn’t drink, so my judgment wasn’t clouded.
“Zach asked me out on a date and I said yes,” I blurted out.
Emma giggled and then started clapping. “OMG, that’s fantastic, he’s so handsome.”
“Yep, that he is,” I admitted, feeling a little warmer all of a sudden, “But I don’t know if going out on a date with him is such a good idea.”
“Why? Because of the case?”
“Yes, we have been assigned to work together, but I don’t want to complicate things. My focus should be on George.”
Emma was chewing her cake, mulling over what I said. Maybe I really needed to change the way I dealt with things in my life. Humans seemed to understand more; their problems were insignificant, but they had to deal with them on a daily basis.
“In my opinion, you just have to get back to the basics,” she announced.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“With the case, the investigation. Go over all the evidence once again, and think about what you would do in the very beginning. Maybe you’re just overthinking this,” she said. “Sometimes I do it too. Before I got this job I was struggling. I didn’t know how I was going to get through this month without any money. My ex-husband was supposed to send the maintenance payment, but I didn’t get a penny from him.”
Only now I begin to realise that Emma used to be broken too, but she always remained positive. Her heart was healed. God, I didn’t even know that she was married before.
“Why is he not paying you? Surely you have a child support agency on your side?”
Maybe I wasn’t very domesticated, but I knew things like that. A while ago I had a mongrel that wanted to track down her ex-boyfriend. A demon that fathered her child and ran away with someone else. She still had to pay her bills and for that she needed money.
Emma smiled weakly. Part of her soul darkened when I mentioned her ex-husband.
“I had to run in the middle of the night with my daughter. He used to beat me up. Things were tight for a few years, but that’s all in the past now.”
I clenched my fists. I hated men, humans that abused women. If I could get my hands on that prick I would kill him. Shit, Ricky was right. It was a good thing that I gave Emma a
chance.
“But you ran and he hasn’t bothered you since?”
She took another bite of the cake and chewed slowly, thinking about her daughter’s dance lessons.
“He came around a few times promising that he would change. I had to call the police on him. He couldn’t understand that I didn’t want to be with him anymore, and when I refused to take him back, he stopped paying me. Things were difficult for a few months, but I managed somehow,” she explained. “There is no point stressing over the past. There are some things you will never be able to control, so appreciate what you have. I’m not doubting that you can solve this case, but first you need to take a step back and relax. Go on that date. Zach is a good man for you.”
I sat in my chair thinking about what she said for a moment. She finished her cake, got up and left the room. She’d been through a lot and still didn’t let this ruin her outlook on life. She picked herself up and carried on. I felt like an idiot, thinking that my addiction could get the better of me.
I could erase Arthur out of my life, but I needed Zach to help me. George was still alive, and I would carry on doing whatever I could, but I needed to cut myself some slack and stop worrying about things that I couldn’t control. I picked up the last cake and leaned back consuming it slowly. For the first time in a while I was thinking about myself and felt excited about my upcoming date with Zachary Quinton.
Chapter 27
“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” ― Dante Alighieri
The next week I was irritated and pissed off for no good reason. Maybe this had something to do with the fact that I stopped drinking or the fact that I was still recovering, trying to heal as quickly as I could. Tequila was out of reach. I didn’t have any more elixirs that would numb my achy muscles and help to heal me quicker. My thinking process was much sharper, but on the downside it was much more difficult to deal with overwhelming memories than before.
I had to admit I had an addictive personality and pumping my body with more magic could cause more bad than good. My relationship with Emma improved over the next few days, and I started paying more attention to what was going on around me. I mentioned to Ricky that we needed to give her a raise. She had sorted out all the files and began advertising our services online. Also the new working phone was ringing off the hook. Most enquiries were related to missing people, things and pets. It was going to take a while before we could start getting more serious clients, but it was an improvement. The past couple of months weren’t great. I had been absent a lot, and Ricky had been struggling to run the business when I was skiving.
On Saturday afternoon we decided to close the office earlier than usual. I wasn’t getting anywhere with any of my new contacts, and my sources weren’t much help either. Ricky had decided to take his work home. Sometimes he was determined to stretch the use of his brilliant mind with a glass of expensive scotch, away from any drama.
When I got back to my flat around three p.m. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Zach was taking me out tonight and I still couldn’t believe that I’d said yes. My dating experience wasn’t very good. I didn’t even know what I was supposed to wear tonight. Most days I walked around in worn jeans with an old hoodie. Zach was obviously experienced and he knew what to expect from a woman like me. After staring at my wardrobe filled mostly with combat trousers, T-shirts and jackets, I decided to go shopping. Back in the days when I worked in the palace, I had to wear a livery uniform or a suit. I kept things casual whenever I was out and about. The restaurants, cinemas or whatever other normal people did on dates weren’t for us, because Arthur could never officially date me.
My first real shopping trip didn’t go too well. I didn’t like any of the dresses that the blond sales assistant picked out for me in the huge department store. She kept telling me that I had great legs and I needed to show them off. Every time I put on something I felt underdressed. My aching body and lack of magical tequila was slowly making me lose my mind. Maybe one night of wild and adventurous sex could shift my perspective, but hooking up with the mouthy and arrogant Zach wasn’t something that I intended to do tonight. We were going out on a date, only because I needed to tear myself from obsessing over my assignment for at least a day.
Eventually I managed to pick up a black dress with lace on the front. I even bought new makeup to cover the remaining signs of my fight with the A’rea. At seven p.m. I stood in front of a large mirror in my tiny hallway ready to cancel the date. Panic settled and nerves kicked in.
For the first time since the breakup, I realised that I needed a girlfriend. Someone that I could talk to, a friendly soul that could pat me on the back and tell me that I was ready.
I had been sober for over a week now and maybe I was seeing clearly for the first time in my life. Changes were on the way. My phone buzzed half an hour later. Zach was downstairs waiting for me and I was losing my shit, thinking that this date would be a disaster. After a few deep breaths, I opened the door and headed out to meet him. It was time to stop stressing and get on with it.
He watched me as I walked towards him, his dark eyes drifting up and down my body, causing my pulse to jump. Yep, even after what he had been through he still wanted to get into my pants. I put my leather jacket on top of the dress, but deep inside I wished that I could slip back into my old jeans. It was cold outside, and my legs were bare, and it seemed that the dress was cut in a way to expose those parts of the body that weren’t for show. I was walking in an old pair of black heels that I bought a couple of years back.
Zach smiled wolfishly when I approached him, not even trying to hide the fact that he was very turned on. Yes, I was much more aware of it now than before.
“Flower, to tell you the truth, I didn’t expect to see you dressed like that tonight. You look gorgeous.”
He even opened the door to the car for me, which was nice. In all my previous experiences with the opposite sex, there was never foreplay or sweet talk or any nonsense like that. We simply hooked up, but this evening everything was about to change.
“So it’s true then, you totally want to screw me in this car?” I asked, and then wished that I bit my tongue. There was something really wrong with me. Hell, I’d never felt so awkward, even when I was sleeping with the most eligible bachelor in the country.
Zach lifted his hands, looking down on my naked thighs.
“Guilty as charged, Flower, but don’t worry. As much as I want to bury myself inside you, I want to enjoy you slowly and thoroughly. And a few hours won’t cut it,” he said, grinning. I felt warmth skittering over the nape of my neck.
“I told you, stop calling me Flower or there won’t be any sex to speak of,” I said. I hated that nickname and if Zach wanted me to forget about the prince he needed to show me that he was willing to be on his best behaviour.
He smirked but didn’t say anything else. This was crazy, my shoulder angel was screaming at me to stop messing with his life. My shoulder devil reminded me I was half demon and in Lucifer’s eyes only a second-class citizen, so the rules were less strict when it came to dating a human. This evening I was planning to enjoy myself and act like the past or the future didn’t really matter.
Zachary started the car and joined the flow of traffic. After some time his fingers slipped down, brushing the skin on my thighs, gently, barely touching them. Electricity crawled across my body, and that smouldering sexual heat was back. He was thinking about sex, and I was trying to breathe steadily and not melt into a pile of sexually repressed goo. Somehow I managed to ignore his tortures throughout the whole drive and after an hour in traffic Zach parked the car in one of the back streets. My stomach growled loudly. I was starving and I was hoping that he planned to feed me before taking me back to his place. My diet was based on cereals, ready-made meals and frozen food. I thought that I took care of myself the best I could. I’d never had a very good example to follow though. I needed to look after myself bette
r.
“I won’t apologise for what I’m just about to do, gorgeous,” he said in a hushed tone. I shivered at the heat of his stare, suddenly aware of my own soaring desire. After that one night with the stranger from a couple of weeks back, my libido was on the rise again.
I shook my head, confused, trying to will my heart to slow down.
“Apologise for what?” I asked stupidly. He moved his arm so quickly and then pulled me towards him. The next thirty seconds were lost in sensations that were far from ordinary. Boiling heat rushed through my veins. He kissed me like no other human had before. His lips were tender and demanding at the same time, like he was desperate to lose himself in me. Zachary used both his palms to hold me gently and then devoured my mouth.
I moaned, enjoying every part of him touching me, and my body was slowly turning into a fireball. The passion and sparks flew, zooming between us. By the time he pulled away from me, I was out of breath and flustered. Zachary’s breath was erratic too, but the inferno in his eyes told me that this was just the beginning.
Crap, I was in a lot of trouble, acting like a normal human being for a change.
“That’s just the pre-foreplay, baby. You have to wait a bit longer for the real deal.” He grinned, ran his thumb over my cheek, and got out of the car. I’d made out with Arthur in the limo a couple of times, but we always had to be so careful and in a hurry. This, whatever it was that was going on between Zach and me, was much more explosive.
I smoothed my dress, feeling slightly off balance once I was back on my feet.
“Where are we going?” I asked, looking around, knowing that I had never been in this area. The streets were vibrant, filled with people from around the world. I was too distracted in the car to wonder what he was planning to do this evening. He grabbed my hand and entwined his fingers around mine.
Doomed Cases Series Box Set Page 21