"What" -Xaviers narrowed his eyes- "exactly are you doing in my room, Miss Valdez?"

"I chose to stay in this room," I replied with a fairly straight face, trying my best to not stutter due to the nervousness that was building inside me.

"You can stay in June's room," I added.

"Oh wow! First, you barge into my house, and now you even want the liberty to choose your own room. How cool is that?" he snapped.

I was taken aback at that. I had no comeback for it.

"Xav Bro, isn't your bed too small for the both of us? How can we stay here?" Jonas entered the conversation in my support.

"My room has a double bed, we two can share that," he continued.

Xaviers made a short groan to express his annoyance at being defeated. He merely glowered at Jonas with a look that said 'Why have you even brought this shit here?'

Jonas turned his head around in the opposite direction, pretending that he didn't see anything.

"Your Uncle Josh had called," Xaviers informed, shifting his gaze back at me.

A sudden apprehension crawled inside me, alarming all my senses at once.

"You didn't inform him that I'm here-"

"Oh yes I did," he answered even before I could finish my question.

I wanted to burst out at him for this but controlled myself and asked almost calmly, "What did he say?"

I couldn't risk getting myself kicked out of his house at that moment.

"That you're a disgrace to the family and that you've been disowned from the Valdez legacy the moment you stepped out of the house and blah blah,' he replied nonchalantly.

"Well, your uncles don't really care where you stay as long as you transfer the property to their names, that's the real fact you know," he continued.

That direct bitter statement seemed to stab me with a knife from the back.

I tried my best to shove off all the emotions prevailing over me because I knew it was time to act practically now.

I asked Mr. Xaviers to let them know that I would hand over the property once the real culprit received his deserved punishment. I also added the message that I would contact the cops and reveal about the recent attacks if they forced upon taking me back home. My voice was sharp and determined this time.

Xaviers considered a little before inquiring, "And how exactly are you going to find out the culprit?"

"You and Jonas will help me-"

"No I won't," he answered sharply. "Mr. Joseph has dismissed me from this case because you decided to come and settle in my house, so I'm out of it."

"Mr. Xaviers, you can't do that...I'll pay you for it-"

"Miss Amyra Valdez, I've about four to five cases pending. Trust me, it won't matter anything to me if I don't solve yours," he stated with an expressionless face.

"And don't forget that I'm already doing you a great favor by letting you stay here despite being aware of the possible consequences."

He marched towards his cabinet, took out a pair of clothes and looked back one last time before leaving the room.

Before departing, Jonas patted me on the shoulder and assured me that he would put his best efforts into helping me in this case even if Xaviers didn't.

Three hours later, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door to find Mr. Xaviers.

"Water, Miss Valdez," he said, lending me a bottle of water.

Did Mr. Angry Young Man turn kind?

Just when I was about to thank him, Jonas slid into the room squealing, "Whoa you two got along already?"

Xaviers rolled his eyes to give off a vibe that said 'as if I'm interested'. I flared my nostrils to indicate that I wasn't interested either. Jonas just giggled at our stupid sign language fight.

Jonas sprang down to play with Bruno who was wandering across the floor gaily. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Mr. Xaviers sluggishly leaning against the wall next to the door, his hands tucked inside the pockets of his trousers. It was the first time I saw him in an informal attire.

I turned my head around a little to observe him more carefully without him suspecting that I was doing so. He wore a perfectly fitting half-sleeved white t-shirt which did its best in bringing out his flawlessly shaped biceps. His jet black hair was trimmed in a formal haircut which, nevertheless, suited him. He had strong facial features, even though his jawline seemed to highlight its imperfection. There was something on his left wrist-a tattoo of the letter K in an aesthetic font with dazzling flames near the head of the K. He had a well-built body which depicted a young man in his early twenties. In short, he was handsome.

'But that doesn't excuse his rudeness,' I remarked in my mind.

"On a second thought," he spoke finally, hindering my observation, "you are quite brave, aren't you, Miss Valdez?"

He surveyed me with his sea-green eyes- wait, weren't they jade green the last time I saw them? Did they change color?

"Deciding to live in the house of two young men you barely know," he continued.

I gulped in uneasiness, but tried to keep my face straight as I said, "Yeah so?"

"Who knows what we two might do?"

"June is like my brother, he won't harm me," I countered, straightening myself a little.

"Who's June?"

"Me duh," Jonas replied with a grin from the back.

"You two even got nicknames for each other?" Xaviers asked in a way as if it was something impossible.

"We do," I replied.

"Why, you jealous Xav Bro?" Jonas joked.

"Not even a tiny bit," Xaviers demurred, crossing his arms. "You can trust me on that."

He turned to me again and resumed the earlier conversation, "Well Jonas is a good guy, but you don't know about me, do you?"

He took a short pause to suppress his laughter as he continued, "I'm a really bad guy, you know."

Was he-?

He was clearly pulling my leg, but suddenly my lady consciousness kicked in and I re-oriented myself again.

"You- can't do anything to me," I intended to say it in a firm voice, but my nervousness was clearly visible in my tone.

"Why not?" he jested again.

"I- I'm a karate black belt," I answered, trying hard to keep a serious look on my face in order to hide my lie.

I had missed the brown belt back in my high school by two points.

"I have broken the bones of so many guys back in my high school that I even lost the count," I added in a boastful manner to support my statement.

He looked down, and I could almost bet he was biting his tongue to keep himself from bursting into laughter. Did he just catch me lying?

I turned my head towards Jonas to see his reaction. He didn't say anything the whole time. He was merely giggling at the whole scene while playing with Bruno.

"Have some water, Miss Amyra," Xaviers advised with a smile that irritated me even more.

He was clearly enjoying the whole thing.

I didn't know why he said that, but I really needed to drink some water. My throat had dried out like a long-abandoned desert, thanks to all the sudden blows Mr. Xaviers had been gifting me with. I poured some water from the bottle into my mouth when he took out something from his pocket and brought it into display. It was a gun.

I spurted out the water that was still inside my mouth as a sudden reflex. I widened my eyes, feeling guilty as I saw the water splashing right on June's face. The poor boy looked at me through his squinted eyes with an innocent look that said 'Why me?'

"So-rry June" I mumbled apologetically.

"You two okay?" Mr. Xaviers had his eyebrows shot up in hilarity.

"Why on earth do you have a gun-" I stuttered.

"I'm a detective, in case you forgot, Miss Valdez. This is a licensed gun."

"Beautiful, isn't it? The only one who never left my side," he continued, gesturing his eyes towards the gun in his right hand.

I just stared with my mouth agape in short of words.

"What happened? You scared?"

"No- of course not," I lied. "I was just- admiring the gun."

"Thanks, Miss Valdez," he said with his right hand over his mouth, concealing a chuckle.

"Goodnight then. See you soon."

Why soon? I didn't wish to see him anytime soon again.

He left with a small smile curved across his face which was too difficult to interpret.

"Chill, he was just trying to scare you," Jonas reassured, getting up.

Before leaving the room, he turned back to blabber something like, "I still hate you for the water though."

I muttered another 'sorry' before he closed the door.

A pin-drop silence prevailed the room afterwards. I kept on replaying Mr. Angry Young Man's words in my mind.

Did I make a mistake by coming here?

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