Cris was wondering how Grace got her hands on all this information that wasn’t made public since he knew he hadn’t gave it to her. While he was scanning through the pictures taken right before the autopsy, he noticed Grace had circled something on each of the pictures and had them enhanced. He knew he had to get his hands on the autopsy reports and quickly. Just as he was about to take out his phone to call his captain, he realized he was on mandatory vacation.
“Cris, I think I got something,” Arie said and turned to him when she finished writing down her notes.
“What?” Cris asked as he looked over and read her notes but for the life of him, he wasn’t seeing the connections she did.
“You see all these different club names that each of the girls went to two months before they were kidnapped? They’re actually the same pool hall. The pool hall they were at just has different themes weekly and the club name was based on the theme that week. That is why the names are different, they must have all went there at a different week. Plus you have to know someone with connection there to even get in the door,” Arie said as she looked over her notes once more.
“We need to find a way to get into that pool hall and probably tonight. It is imperative for us get ahead of the killer. Based on his timeline, he is going to strike in the next week or so,” Cris said as he buried his head into his hands trying to decompress from some of the mounting pressure.
Cris was putting pressure on himself to find the person who killed his sister and the rest of the women before the killer killed someone else. He knew he would feel even more guilt and feel like he let Grace down even more if he let someone else get killed before he could stop it all. It was all too much, but this was a part of being a detective—the really hard part.
“I have an in, my best friend, Kylee, her husband actually is a bouncer for them sometimes when they need extra cash. I can call them since they have been wanting to take me out since the surgery. I will call them now and arrange it,” Arie said as she pulled out her phone from the pocket of her jeans and pressed three.
Kylee had set up Arie’s phone when her parents died. So all she had to do was press a button for the person she needed without misdialing something, which she did many times.
“Hey, Kylee, I wanted to know if you and Jordan were free tonight?” Arie asked.
“Yes, are you finally going to let us take you out?” Kylee asked with a light squeal in her voice.
“Sure, I was thinking about going to the Nameless pool hall after hearing so much about it from you. I want to know what it is like,” Arie answered, trying to be as discreet as she could about it.
“Sure, Jordan and I will pick you up since you don’t have your license,” Kylee answered, she didn’t care where they went just as long as Arie was finally going out with her.
“That isn’t necessary, a friend of mine is driving. Let’s say we meet there at eight-thirty,” Arie said.
“Sure, who is this friend you are talking about?” Kylee asked in a confused voice since she knew she was Arie’s only friend.
“You will see in an hour and a half,” Arie said with a laugh.
“Don’t forget to wear the red dress I bought you for your birthday. It’s in your closet.” Kylee thought she should throw that in.
“Goodbye, Kylee,” Arie said right before hanging up the phone.
“We’re all set now,” Arie said as she turned toward Cris and placed her phone back in her pocket.
“So I am going to get dressed now. I should be ready by the time you get back from your house,” Arie said as she placed the evidence back into the files and walked over to her father’s safe.
“I have clothes in my car. Is it okay for me to get ready here?” Cris asked as he watched Arie take down a photo from the wall.
“Sure, there is a bathroom with a shower in it downstairs by the dining room,” Arie said as she stuck her thumb onto the safe and breathed into a secret compartment.
Her father had the safe custom-made, only opening if either Arie or her father stuck their thumb in the right place and blew their DNA into the secret hidden compartment.
“Thanks,” Cris said as he stood and headed to his car to get the clothes that he kept in the trunk. As he walked to his car, he wondered what kind of safe that was that Arie put the files into. He had never seen anything like it in all his years on the force. It was like something well above his pay grade. Out of habit, he looked around Arie’s neighborhood as he opened the trunk and pulled his bag out the car. From what he could tell, nothing was out of the ordinary so he headed back into the house and headed straight for the downstairs shower.
Arie walked into her room and locked it behind her, a habit she had developed over the years so her mother wouldn’t just barge in. She pulled from her closet the red halter, knee length dress with a tiny slit on the right side that Kylee had given her. As she walked out of the closet, she snatched up the boots with a small heel Kylee had gotten her last Christmas.
The wall behind her bed had stained oak wood attached to it and the rest of the walls were an off white. She had an oval-shaped king sized bed with red satin sheets, her favorite color. The wood of her dresser matched her wall and had a huge mirror above it.
Arie jumped into a hot steamy shower and quickly washed with her favorite kiwi-strawberry soap. She loved the smell of the kiwis and strawberries combined that she even got the matching shampoo. As she washed her hair, she contemplated a hairstyle that would go with her dress. By the time she got out of the shower, she had planned her hairstyle and makeup. If it weren’t for playing dress up when she was older with Kylee, she wouldn’t have been able to apply her makeup.
She plugged up the Instyler since you could use it even while your hair was damp since she didn’t have time to dry her hair and style it. After she wrapped the towel around her body, she pulled out her makeup kit Kylee had bought her when she told her about the surgery. Kylee was more than a friend to her, she was like the older sister she never had.
After placing the makeup kit into the sink and opening it, she dried her hair with the towel before picking up the Instyler and quickly going over her hair. Arie made sure to turn them when she got to the edge of her hair so it could slightly curl when she pinned it up. Thirty minutes later, she was pinning up her hair where the curls hung down without touching her back. She applied light foundation to her face, just enough to even out her skin tone. Arie leaned forward as she carefully put on black eye shadow with a red accent.
“There,” she said as she checked over her hair and face before going to slip on her dress, then walked to her full-length mirror attached to her closet. She sighed as she looked in the mirror, the dress was hot and fit her like a glove, but she hated her body. Arie felt as though she had too many curves in all the wrong places. Kylee told her all the time that she was smokin’ hot and had a body to die for, but she didn’t believe it. Her body was one of the reasons she didn’t think she had a chance in hell with Detective Crow. She was five foot seven and a hundred and sixty pounds, from her oversized breasts, to her narrow waist, and she didn’t like how she had the roundness to her curvy hips. It didn’t help her confidence when she had a jealous mother who wanted the body she had. So she taunted Arie and made her feel bad about herself, causing her to see what her mother led her to believe she saw and not what everyone else saw.
Arie grabbed her purse and sighed one more time to herself; her body would look spectacular on someone else. Not only did her mother make it a point to criticize her body shape, she also made Arie believe her face wasn’t pretty.
****
Cris was in awe as Arie walked down the stairs in the hot red dress she wore that it made him hard as his eyes roamed her sizzling body in the curve-fitting dress. He couldn’t help it, he whistled as she descended the last stair.
“Looks like I am going to have to fight the whole pool hall to keep the guys away from you,” Cris said as he noticed how the dress hugged her nice round ass.
&n
bsp; Arie just rolled her eyes since she didn’t believe him. “Jordan is going to get us in through the back so we can bring our guns in, and no I didn’t tell him we had any,” she said when she noticed the look on his face. Arie also wanted to draw the attention away from herself.
She mistook the look for worry, but in all actuality, he was tongue-tied as his eyes were drawn to her lips. He just wanted to pull her close to him and kiss her until she melted against his body. Cris settled for wrapping his hands around her shoulders and guiding her out the door, he just had to touch her. He knew it was a mistake as soon as he took in her scent. Damn, if she doesn’t smell good, Cris thought as he tried discreetly to adjust himself without Arie noticing. It didn’t help that there was a breeze blowing her scent to him as they walked to the car. He felt tornado Arie wreak havoc on his body. Her sent was like the aftershock of an earthquake, shaking him to the core at the most unexpected times leaving him dazed and confused. He never had this problem with anyone else. Just her scent, smile, the sound of her voice, the way she got that look in her eyes when she was focusing on something, sent him over the edge. Cris had never experienced this before, yes, he had been attracted to other women but not like this, all he saw was their bodies. With Arie, he saw who she was as a person and was intrigued by her. Something about her captured all his senses, and not just the sexual ones. He had dreams of her since the day he met her a few months back. Some were hot sensual dreams while others were of them on their wedding day. He had chalked up the wedding dreams to him helping Derrick with his wedding but now he didn’t know whether that was true or not.
Arie didn’t know what to make out of how Cris kept looking at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She could clearly see the imprint his cock was making in his black jeans and how he was walking funny. His eyes had turned darker and looked as though they were filled with lust, greed, and hunger. She didn’t know if it was for her, well, she couldn’t believe it was for her because who would want her when they could have one of those stick figure models. Stop thinking like that and focus on what you are trying to do. A killer is out there who needs to be caught.
Cris opened the car door for Arie as she slid past him. He got a whiff of her scent and it drove him crazy. He couldn’t help it, he had to kiss her even if it was on the cheek. He leaned down into the car, kissed her on the cheek, and quickly retreated before he pulled her face toward him and kissed her without a care in the world. He shut her door and made his way to the driver side.
A fire started at her cheek from where he kissed her and descended to parts no one else seemed to be able to stoke. She had never felt anything like it before and it was driving her mad, so mad that she wanted to reach across the seat and kiss him senseless. Her ex-boyfriend she had throughout college didn’t even stir these feelings in her. He was waking her body up from a deep sleep that no one else could. She wanted to feel his hands caress her body as his mouth followed them. She shook her head trying to clear it from the thoughts that were making her panties damp with anticipation. She quickly thought about something that would take her mind off Cris and what she wanted him to do to her and thought about her ex-boyfriend, Xavier.
Xavier was everything she thought she wanted in a man. He accepted her for who she was and was her first everything. Her first boyfriend, her first kiss, and he took her virginity after a year and a half of dating. She thought if she held out for a long time and he stayed with her, then he was the one. How wrong she had been. After the first time they had sex, he became possessive and thought because he took her virginity he owned her mind and body. Xavier wanted to know where she was at all times of the day and whom she was with, even if it was her mother and father. It all went downhill one night a few weeks before their graduation when she forgot to answer her phone. He showed up at her house the next morning when her parents left. She thought he may have been watching her house because as soon as her mother and father pulled away, he was at her door. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the living room as soon as she answered the door. What Xavier didn’t know was her father had her continue her boxing, Aikido, and Krav Maga. She quickly found his weakness from her enhanced hearing and took him down. Her father walked in just as she flipped Xavier over, causing him to land on their glass table.
“Now you see why I thought she needed some kind of defense training, even if she is blind,” her father turned to her shocked mother then said before grabbing Xavier by the arm and dragging him out of their house.
Arie hadn’t seen Xavier since that day, not even at graduation. She suspected her father and her uncles had something to do with it, especially after she heard the one-sided conversation a few days later.
Arie and Cris rode the whole way in silence, both thinking about the kiss. Wondering if a kiss on the cheek lit their bodies on fire, what would a mouth-watering, heated, tongues-dueling kiss do?
Cris didn’t know what to think since Arie never said anything about the kiss. It had him contemplating whether or not she had the same feelings he did coursing through her body. Fuck, would you focus on the case before you miss something, Cris thought as he pulled into a dark, practically deserted parking lot with only one lamppost.
“This parking lot is the perfect place to abduct someone. Why doesn’t he do it here?” Cris wondered aloud.
“He wants to feel the rush of getting away with kidnapping someone in the daytime,” Arie said as she pulled down the visor and applied a fresh coat of lip-gloss.
“Yeah, I think so too and it is also feels like he is taunting us all,” Cris said as he took a deep breath and blew it out.
“Let’s go,” Arie said as she reached for the handle of the passenger side door.
“Wait, hold on a second, I will get the door for you,” Cris said as he took the keys out of the ignition and exited the car.
Arie could hear footsteps quickly approaching them just as he opened her door. He reached for his gun and was about to pull it until Arie stopped him. As the footsteps grew closer, he could hear a female shriek. Cris saw a short woman with dark-brown hair running toward him. He began to make out some of her features the closer she got to them and something about her sparked his memory. He hoped like hell that it wasn’t one of his old flings running up to them.
When the five-foot tiny woman with dark-brown hair was close enough, she threw herself into Arie’s arms. She had a rosy pale skin color with a few freckles spread across her face. He realized then the woman was whom he had seen on a number of his visits to Arie’s home a few months back. While the women hugged each other, Cris kept his eyes on a six foot eight, bald black man with muscles bulging. The man reminded him a little of his partner. Derrick’s muscles didn’t bulge as much and he did have hair.
“Jordan Baxter and you are?” Kylee’s husband said as he stuck out his hand to Cris. Arie was like a younger sister to him and he wanted to know who the guy she was with.
“Cris Crow,” Cris said as he took Jordan’s hand and shook it firmly.
“Detective Crow, are you still making up excuses to see Arie again?” Kylee asked with a smirk on her face as they walked to the back entrance of the pool hall.
“What? They were not excuses but legitimate reasons why I was there,” Cris stumbled out, he was glad no one could see his face at the moment since it was red with embarrassment.
“No, they weren’t, even a blind person could tell they were not, no offense, Arie, just an expression.”
Arie knew Kylee meant no harm by it, she was just one of those people who rarely thought before they said anything or acted. She was extra bubbly and was a total chatterbox, but Arie loved her anyway. Kylee’s husband was the total opposite of her, he was quiet but made his presence known in other ways. He thought long and hard before he said anything to anyone.
Cris and Arie followed Kylee and Jordan down some dark stairs leading into a brick building that looked abandoned. Jordan raised his hand and knocked three times, paused, and knocked four more times onto th
e brown steel door.
“What is the theme?” a deep male voice called out from an opening in the door that wasn’t there just a few moments ago.
“Thirty one flavors of pure ecstasy,” Jordan said just loud enough for the four of them and the man at the door to hear.
The door quickly opened and Jordan was pulled into a man hug. “Hey, Jordan, why you didn’t tell me you were stopping by?”
“Last minute thing, finally got my sister to come out and celebrate,” Jordan said with a fake smile plastered on his face.
“Damn, why didn’t you tell me your sister was so fucking hot? I would have helped you convince her to come out a lot sooner,” the man said as he glanced around Jordan and saw Arie standing there.
“Um, because she is engaged,” Kylee’s voice boomed out from behind her husband even though she was tiny, everything about her was packed with a bang.
Kylee didn’t like how the pool halls back door bouncer was checking out her sister. Since he smelled the same as her abusive ex-husband—scum, she didn’t want Arie going through the same abuse she experienced for years.
“Jordan, I have to use the bathroom, now,” Kylee called once more and pushed pass the bouncer, who was blocking the stairs that led into the pool hall.
Cris chuckled under his breath as he watched the small powerhouse. Arie discreetly elbowed him since she was the only one who could hear him.
“Arie, Cris, Jordan, are you guys coming?” Kylee turned around and asked when she was halfway up the stairs and noticed none of them moved.
The Eyes Tell No Lies Page 6