Chapter 7
Rated "M"
VII - Unraveling Emotions
I woke up to nothing. No bustling sounds, no annoying dog licking my face to go outside, no screaming of future divorced couples - also known as my lousy neighbors. Just nothing.I checked the time to see that it was ten in the morning. Damn the Captain. Why had he said four and not noon? At the least.
I got out of bed to see clothes sitting on the chair in the corner of the room. My clothes. Not the clothes that Roxanne had brought for me to sleep in that night, but my actual clothes. From my apartment.
Not only was there a fresh suit, clean and pressed, sitting on the chair, but a whole suitcase was lying on the floor next to it. Opening it I found a week's worth of clothing, including my own underwear. Which when I thought about Roxanne raiding my house picking out my underwear for me, it was completely embarrassing.
I got dressed, but not in my suit. In just jeans and a T-shirt. I wasn't supposed to be at work until four, I couldn't go to work until four, so why stay in a suit for half of the day when it wasn't necessary.
I walked downstairs, my stomach grumbling, to see if Roxanne was any where in sight. She wasn't. And neither was Cleopatra. Had she taken her to the vet? Or something?
I opened the fridge, expecting to see nothing - like Roxanne had stated that night - and was surprised as ever. The fridge was full. Completely full. And it wasn't just random stuff, it was literally a marketplace of fruits, vegetables, and everything healthy. No wonder Roxanne was so tall and model like. She was a vegetarian.
I decided on an apple and sat down in the living room, turning on the TV to be rewarded with the news. Was that all that Roxanne watched? News? When did she ever get a break from work? Seriously?
I heard the front door open and the familiar sound of Cleopatra's nails tapping against the wood as she walked. The sound got faster after I heard a faint click and Cleopatra suddenly showed up, her tail wagging furiously as she ran to me.
"Hey, girl..." I muttered, scratching her ear - which was also the sweet spot I had found that morning before Cleopatra suddenly disappeared out of the guest room.
That's when Roxanne walked in. There was no way in hell I could've gotten away with looking at Roxanne the way I did if anyone else had been there. She looked hot. Seriously fucking hot.
She was all decked out in running gear. The tight jogging pants, the sports bra that you could see clearly through her slightly see-through shirt, the sides of her torso that could be seen through the holes that were for her arms. And her height and body structure didn't help my wandering mind, eyes, and everything else in between.
I swallowed as she put away Cleopatra's leash in the closet at the entrance to the hall. I had to look away. For the sake of myself, for the sake of Roxanne, hell, even for the sake of Cleopatra who had nothing to do with my sudden urge to touch Roxanne in ways that she'd surely kill me if I even attempted. Or thought about.
What the hell was I doing? Touching Roxanne like that, even if it was just all in my mind? What the hell? I hated her! That was our relationship. It was all hate! No... anything else! Just hate! Right?
Then why did I feel attracted to her all of the sudden? Why did I feel like I needed her right then and there, when I had barely known her for a few days? Why? Why did this have to happen to me? Why did it have to be with Roxanne? Why couldn't I have been in a bar with some girl I had only known for ten minutes, making our furiously in the back of a taxi, just waiting to get to my apartment? Why?
Roxanne didn't say a word, hell, she didn't even acknowledge me before she went upstairs to supposedly take a shower. God, how much I hated myself as I put "shower" and "Roxanne" in the same sentence. I had to find something to do. Something to do before that woman drove me mad! And to believe that I was about to stay at her house for an entire week, yet I could barely keep my cool the first morning.
I hadn't known how long it had been since Roxanne went up to shower, but by the time she came back down - dressed more decently, I might add - it was already noon and I had begun rewatching some movie that had ended when Roxanne showed up.
"Uh... Are you okay?" Roxanne asked ever-so-kindly as she rose her brow and folded her arms. She was dressed in skinny jeans - which showed off her long, shapely legs in a way that if I had known any better, I would've felt like a pedophile just looking at them - a pair of sneakers, and a plain, V-neck, blue T-shirt that showed enough cleavage to make me avoid any contact of any kind. Whether it was eyes, or anything else.
"Y-yeah. Why?"
"Because you're rewatching one of the Twilight movies." I hadn't even noticed that until Roxanne said it. I swallowed.
"Well, I was just thinking of seeing what all the fuss was about. These movies were a big hit a few years ago." I made up on the spot. Whether or not Roxanne believed me, she just shrugged, ignoring me and walking into the other room. I was relieved of her presence for a few seconds before she showed up again, sitting on the opposite end of the couch and making me physically stiffen when she looked over at me.
Cleopatra, who I had forgotten about walked over to Roxanne, hoping for the same affection I had given her from a different person. From the corner of my eye, I saw Roxanne scratch Cleo's ear, letting her fall asleep on the floor next to her feet moments later before jumping on her phone and texting away.
"Here..." Roxanne stated minutes later - as soon as the good part of the movie came up - and handed me her phone. I took it in my hands and frowned.
"What's this?" I asked.
"The only public picture Zak could find of that guy on the paper. A picture from the army, none-the-less, which gives us more information regarding the reason why the sender sent you what he did, and why he sent you that specific name."
I stared at the familiar face in pure silence. Roxanne just stared at the TV, not really paying attention to what was really happening on the screen, but also not looking to me. I frowned and swallowed.
"I, uh... know this guy..." I said. Roxanne looked at me with no clear expression on her face. I looked down at the picture again and felt nothing but pain and heart ache as I spoke the truth. "He's my brother."
Roxanne said nothing. Her expression was emotionless as she turned back to the TV.
"I know." She simply said. I felt my eyes widen.
"How?" I muttered. "How the hell did you know that."
Roxanne only rolled her eyes at my question before taking the liberty to answer. "You got the note and took it to Mr. Hall of all people. You requested that he find where the letter was from, not who's name was printed on it. That leaves mere family members and friends in the subject. Ones who were preferably dead, since you made no sudden calls to secure the safety of the human being. That leaves you with a dead brother or a dead classmate. Based on your features, the loss was closer to you than anything else. You felt pain and horror as the memories of your brother's death came back to you, even though you weren't there yourself since he died in battle. Therefore resulting in the fact that you neither told anyone of this important information, nor gave a valid reason as to why the letter was so important."
I stared at her in shock. How? How did she know all of that? How could she? It was asinine!
Before either of us could speak, Roxanne's phone rang. I looked down at the Caller ID and frowned. Shelton.
Roxanne took the phone in split seconds, but answered it answered it as if nothing had happened. "Please tell me you actually have something for us to do. Four o'clock is the bitch of hours. You of all people should know that."
"Just because school ends and all the children get out to go home around that time, doesn't make the time a bitch, Miss Winston." Roxanne sat the phone on the table as she had turned it on to speaker. The Captain only called for one of two reasons. He had a lead, or he wanted to make sure everyone was okay. And based on the level of trust and respect he had for Roxanne, it was definitely the first one.
"Children make my job a hell of a lot harder. Especially when they crowd the streets of New York with their curious antics."
"Then you should be glad that you don't have any, or did that change recently?"
I knew exactly what he meant, and no Roxanne and I didn't sleep together. Roxanne glared at the phone, even if no one but myself could see her.
"Don't even go down that road, Kendrick." Her voice was ice cold and serious. It reminded me back to the first day I had met her.
"Ah, right. Business first. Is Alexander there with you?"
"I don't know, why don't you ask him?"
"Good. Alexander, we've found a suspect and want you to come in and interrogate him. You and Miss Winston. You'll probably want to be in the room with the suspect, Roxanne, too."
"We'll leave immediately. Try not to expect mercy if I decide to smite you."
"When you do, please avoid all my good-looking features." Roxanne stood up and rose a brow, giving off a smirk before ending the call.
"I didn't know you had any."
I had no clue who the hell this guy was, but Roxanne on the other hand, knew way to much about him.
"Hello, Mr. Allred. Pleasure seeing you again." The guy smiled upon her greeting.
"Call me Declan. Ah, what's with the formality and sarcasm, Roxy? Aren't you glad to see me?"
"Glad is figure of pure imagination. It doesn't settle well with my feelings toward you."
"God, that's cold. You're starting to make me miss the Jersey life. Drugs, sex, sixteen year old you."
"I was twenty-three. But its none of your damn business."
"Two years and you couldn't grow a heart? Or a pair of wings? Geez, what happened to that girl everyone wanted to-"
"Have you see this before?" Roxanne interrupted, and I could only imagine where Mr. Allred was going with his statement. Twenty-five. That was how old Roxanne was. Twenty-five. Yet she looked almost like a schoolgirl.
"By this you mean the paper right?"
"Yes, Mr. Allred. The paper."
"Nope. Haven't seen it before. Who's this guy, anyway? Senator? President? Both? Is that why you're here? Because the FBI is worried that I'm trying to assassinate the president of the United States?"
"Just because you served two years in jail, Declan, doesn't mean you shouldn't catch up on politics."
"So... he's not a senator or president? Then who is he?"
"That's not for you to know." Roxanne stood up and gathered her papers. "We're done here."
A few officers began to take Mr. Allred out of the room and I followed Roxanne out quickly, confused as hell as to why she'd just let the suspect go without further review.
"What the hell was that?" I asked as I stopped next to Roxanne. She had yet to log into her computer, which was unusual.
"That? That is-"
"A vague term! I got it!" I shouted. The room became quiet and I composed myself. I definitely didn't need the whole damn precinct to hear my conversation with Roxanne. Or to hear how pissed off I was at her for letting the suspect go like she did. "Why the hell did you let him go?" My voice was a whisper, a low whisper. I looked around the room to see everyone look away from me, continuing to do their work like nothing happened. Like I hadn't shouted.
"Can you deduce anything, Sempers?" Roxanne asked. She hadn't addressed me like that in forever it seemed, and I had almost forgotten how cold my name sounded when it crawled off her tongue.
"I'm not going to deduce everything, Roxy." If she was going to call me by my last name, I was going to call her by her nickname. Her face hardened as she glared at me.
"Don't call me that." She spit.
"Why not? You call me 'Sempers.'"
"Don't even start with me."
"Then tell me. Why the hell did you let him go?"
"Mr. Allred isn't the man we're looking for. The man you're looking for."
"And how the hell would you know that?" Roxanne was cold. Everything about her was freezing cold. Her voice, her attitude, her posture, herself. Her tone and eyes. It was all cold. Colder than I had seen before out of her.
"I know who sent you that letter. And he's here in the city."
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