"Episode 17 - Art of slicing humans."

Elena was mad at me.

I hadn't had a chance to speak to her properly even though I was usually at the house. I texted her every now and then but I had to find more evidence that didn't incriminate Capone. I liked my job and I liked Elena. I wasn't going to lose that so quickly.

It's been nearly three days since I met with Nathan Ross. I hadn't contacted him but I felt like I had enough information. Capone had been keeping his head down after the obvious attack on his life. He's been conducting business from home. I'd been recording anything and everything incriminating him to any crimes as an insurance policy for my life.

However, every night I found myself knocking on Elena's door. She'd curse at me or ignore me but knowing she was alive and still feisty, soothed my soul. But I had enough. I needed my hit again. Using my short nails, I scratched my messy hair. I was going crazy but I needed to know more about her.

I used an independent highly secured black laptop to uncover all the details and upload all my files. My bed seemed empty without her body, the sheets had been changed so the jasmine and tuberose flower smell was long gone. With a huff, I slammed down against the pillows, my body aching from the lack of sleep and activity.

"Fuck it." I swore out loud.

I saved everything I could and deleted everything from my laptop, making sure everything was deleted from the backup hard-drive. Detaching the USB from its port, I went to my ensuite and stashed the small plastic cover behind one of the shelves in a small hole I covered with a patch of dark green tile, matching it to the background. Putting on a pair of pants and a black t-shirt, I picked up my phone and made my way over to Elena's room.

I'm coming.

I didn't get any reply. She was poking the bear, depriving the beast from its cure. I checked the CCTV cameras and found her in her kitchen in silky pyjama shorts and a thin spaghetti strap top. It seemed like she hated wearing bras because every time I brought up CCTV images of her from the past few days, I could always see her pebbled nipples.

I cracked the tightness from my neck, the dark hallway echoed the sound back at me. Steam came off the pots and pans that was on the electric stove. She licked her thumb and carried out chopping red peppers. Her eyes were on me the second I came into her view. She narrowed her eyes and went back to chopping.

"Don't you have people who'd do that for you?" I knew they had their own personal cooks. Even I ordered in for my dinner.

"I like cooking." She twisting up her knife, its tip pointed at the ceiling.

"Ahh!" I smirked. "Practising the art of slicing so you can knife someone to death?"

Her head was down, soft hair framed her heart shaped face that stretched into a lovely smile that she was trying to hide. I stretched, twisted my back from side to side until it popped. She was across from me, the counter keeping us apart.

"How's your arm?" The deep red slice stood out against my skin.

"Not bleeding anymore." I sat down on the revolving plush stool.

"Do you know the most annoying thing in the world?" She questioned, carrying on with her cooking.

"A lot of things?" I started eating the raw carrots she left next to the peppers.

"When you're in mid sneeze and then it goes away. It's the worst feeling in the world." I watched her with amusement. She sniffled and cleared her throat. Concern hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Are you ill?" I leaned over, extending my hand over, I put the back of my hand to her throat. The heat from her skin burned my fingers. "You have a temperature." My brows furrowed, my feet touched the ground.

"Yes, I think so." She sounded slightly nasally and I felt guilty for not coming to see her sooner.

"I'm sorry I didn't come to see you yesterday." I slowly walked around the counter, to finally hold her in my arms. She dropped the vegetable in the slow cooker.

"It's okay, I had a dick appointment anyways." I smirked, snatching her in my arms.

"No you didn't."

"How would you know." She turned away from me, my hands were still around her waist.

"CCTV camera." I confessed. Knowing how she was doing, seeing her face, her sauntering around safe was all I needed to stay sane for a while. But not anymore.

"You're spying on me?" She fought in my arms, angry at what I said. I could still feel the heat through her thin clothing.

"Yes, to see if you're okay. To see if someone else was touching you." I bowed until my lips touched the tip of her ear.

"Or is Capone paying extra to keep me in check?" The anger in her voice startled me.

"NO." I turned her around to face me. "Why, what's the deal with you and him?" She looked away and crossed her arms. I finally touched her forehead, she was definitely burning up. "I don't care about him, I care about you and you're sick. Come sit." I dragged her by her hand and sat her down on the plush sofa. She still had that dead look on her face. A look I'd seen on so many men I served with.

"Hey, hey, look at me." I laid her down, put the blankets over her that was there already, crumpled in the corner. "I don't know what you have against him but I'm not here with you because he told me to. I'm not even supposed to be here." I told her honestly. She looked up at me with haunted eyes. Dark orbs that glistened over suddenly, a type of sadness that seeped out from every pore. Dimming the lights, I walked over to her again before squatting down.

She sniffled again before tucking her hands under the pillow.

"You have pretty eyes." She rested her small palm on my scruffy face, the scars hidden underneath the heavy beard. "Like moss green or light brown. I can't tell sometimes." She ran her long nail through the coarse growth.

"You need to start trusting me." I stroked her hair back. This tender side of myself was unknown to me. I didn't know I had it in me. Her hot palms moved to my cold neck, thumb swiped back and forth my jaw line. She pinched my earlobe.

"You have a piercing?"

"Used to." I tried not to smile. "NAVY drilled the habit out of me." She left her hand on my neck, fingers drummed against my carotid.

"I want to trust you but I don't know you." She confessed. I leaned forward and rested my lips on her forehead, something I remembered my mother doing when I was a child. I understood why now, it was the best source to detect heat from.

"We'll get to know each other but I think I need to call a doctor for you." She covered her lips before she coughed into her hand. "I'm going to call the family doctor."

"NO." Frightened, she shot up. "Not him."

"Okay. Okay... shhh." I took her face into my palms, a sense of desperation clawed at me. "We'll just take you to the hospital."

"They won't prioritise a temperature. I promise I'm fine." I laid her back down, her forehead damped with perspiration.

"Why didn't you tell me you were this sick?" My heart started to pump over time in my chest.

"I get ill easily, I asked Jamie to get me some medication and I'll be better in a couple of days I promise." She patted my chest. Anger consumed me as I sat on the edge of the sofa. She ended up on her back, her hand loosely held on to my arm. I called Jamie in seconds.

"WHY THE HELL, didn't you tell me she WAS SICK?"

She slapped my arm.

"It's not his fault. I told him not to." I grinded my teeth to keep myself from choking the life out of Jamie.

"Have you gotten the medication yet?" I spoke through gritted teeth.

"Yes. I'm on my way." I cut the call and focused on her. She rubbed my arm, the heat scared me. I Gulping, I turned the T.V. on to find some reality show.

"Change that. Find the Chicago Fire show from the boxset." I did what she said and we both basked in the silent darkness. The comfort level between us was surprising and I wondered where it came from. I'd never done that before. Sat down to watch something with a girl that I hadn't even slept with yet.

That's when I realised that I liked her. I really liked her, to a point where I was obsessed with her. 

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Edited by CamileWilson