10. Dahlia #3
“Alright then. Dahlia, why don’t you dump that swill and we’ll get you some real coffee on the way to the office?
” He smiled, and Asher rolled his eyes, pointedly drinking more of his own coffee.
I just laughed and took another sip before taking my mug over to the kitchenette.
We gave Asher a few minutes to finish getting ready, and when he came back out, he was once more dressed in his tucked-in shirt and tie, his hair smoothed back instead of its usual rumpled state.
I guessed he made a bigger effort to look the part when he had to go into the office.
We piled into Hunter’s SUV this time, and I sat back and listened while they talked about work, watching the city pass by out the window.
It felt so strange to be home, and yet I was still somehow not home, left adrift in a hotel in my own city.
I really needed to start looking for a place as soon as possible.
True to his word, Hunter stopped for coffee, and I ordered a mocha and a croissant, earning a look of approval from Asher.
Next, we drove to pick up Amanda, whose apartment wasn’t actually on the way at all, but they didn’t say anything.
She bounded up to the SUV, looking effortlessly pretty in a maroon jumpsuit, and she slid into the back seat beside me, giving me a fierce hug before buckling herself in.
“You’re really going on TV?” she asked me incredulously.
“You don’t even like giving lectures when it’s more than fifty people. ”
“I figured I should get it over with,” I murmured, and she nodded, understanding. “At least, this way I shouldn’t have to say much.”
“Probably for the best, you’re very dull,” she mused, and I swatted her playfully. “You know, if I had known you were going on TV, I would’ve done your hair.” I frowned and ran my hands through it, looking at the ends, and she cackled evilly.
We continued to bicker for the entire car ride, even as we pulled into the office parkade.
The men escorted us on the elevator, and I somehow ended up jostled against Asher, Amanda taking up more than her share of the space as she looked around with unabashed interest. My arm grazed his chest, sending warmth straight to my core, and I felt his fingers brush against my back, steading me softly.
I resisted the urge to lean into him, his presence was so comforting I could just sink into him, knowing I’d be safe there.
We got off on the same floor as last time, but instead of taking us to the conference room, we kept walking, stopping at a smaller office near the end of the hall.
I looked inside and immediately ascertained that this was Asher’s office.
It was like someone had taken the chaos in his head and dumped it haphazardly inside a room.
Stacks of files were piled up on every spare surface, and more papers were pinned up on the walls.
A book shelf was in one corner, overflowing with books, and more books were stacked up on the floor beside it.
“You’ve got a little bit of time to kill before we need to take you downstairs, are you okay to hang out here for a bit?
” Hunter asked as Asher slipped inside and started to tidy up, cleaning some pens off his desk.
I nodded, and Amanda immediately went inside, zeroing in on the bookshelf.
“Great, I’ll swing by to get you in a few,” he told me, and I followed Asher and Amanda inside, drifting over to look at the papers on the wall.
I scanned the documents, but most of them made no sense to me, and I couldn’t fathom what they did to earn a space on the wall, instead of in one of the files littering the office.
“Doc, you have some weird interests,” Amanda mused, holding up a book that seemed to be about Medieval torture methods.
“Believe it or not, that was for a case from a couple years back,” he replied, and Amanda’s eyebrows shot up as she replaced the book.
She continued to browse the shelves, and my eyes drifted down to the books stacked up on the floor.
I wondered if these ones were newer, from more recent cases, or if they hadn’t made the cut to be saved and were destined for a second-hand store somewhere.
I studied the spines idly, then grabbed one from midway down the pile, slipping it out to look at it.
“Hm, the Psychology of Sexual Relationships, now that sounds like an interesting read,” Amanda said, looking over my shoulder at the book I’d found.
We both looked up at Asher, who seemed ready to sink into the floor to avoid this conversation.
Amanda slipped it out of my hands, flipping it open to look through it.
“Oh, there’s even pictures!” She grinned, pointing to a photo of a man tied to a bed.
“Man, if I’d known the FBI was kinky I would’ve gotten myself arrested a long time ago.
” I laughed, and Asher reached between us, snatching the book away and shutting it with a snap.
“Alright, enough of that,” he huffed, setting the book behind him. “Remember, I can still arrest you,” he muttered.
“Hear that Dee? He’s got handcuffs,” Amanda mock-whispered, and we both doubled over with giggles. Asher groaned, running a hand through his hair, immediately destroying the effort he’d made to smooth it down.
“Okay Mandy, stop teasing the man with the gun.” I grinned, and she made a low growl in her throat, her eyebrows waggling suggestively.
I laughed harder, my hand going up to cover my mouth.
Asher’s cheeks were flushed, but he was smiling too, so I felt less bad about teasing him.
I looked through the rest of the books, switching places with Amanda to peruse the shelf instead.
I spotted an oddly familiar book and pulled it out, my mouth dropping open as I recognized the cover.
“Why do you have a copy of False Gods: The Misuse of Religion in Modern Rituals?” I asked, holding it out to Asher.
“Oh, well, we had a case that had some ritualistic aspects to it,” he replied, taking the book gently and flipping through it.
“I ended up falling down a bit of a rabbit hole, but it turned out the ritual was fake, just a smoke screen to hide the true motive of the murder.” He held the book open, showing the notes on one of the pages about Satanic symbolism.
“This is like… the bible of my field,” I told him, smiling.
“My book is going to apply more recent findings and add to Delman’s original research.
I reference this book constantly in my class.
” His eyes lit up, and I took the book back from him, flipping through it as he had.
It was well used, I could tell, as if he’d read through the entire thing several times.
He was one of those people who defaced books, but I understood it when it came to textbooks.
Highlighter littered the pages, notes scribbled in the margins, complete with his signature ink smears.
For some reason, knowing that he had read this made me ridiculously happy.
I looked up to find him watching me, gazing at me with a heat that had butterflies jumping around in my stomach.
“It’s like nerdy foreplay,” Amanda murmured, breaking the spell. I swatted at her with a glare, and she jumped away from me, smirking knowingly. I replaced the book gently in his collection, and Asher returned to his file sorting while we continued snooping through his small library.
“Hey baby girl, do you want me to do your makeup?” Amanda offered abruptly, and I remembered suddenly what we were doing here, my mouth going dry.
I hadn’t put anything on this morning, mainly because all of my makeup was buried somewhere in a storage unit and I hadn’t been desperate enough to have Asher or Hunter stop off at a drug store so I could grab some.
I chewed on my lip considering my options.
“Do you have stuff with you that would work?” I asked curiously. We had markedly different skin tones to begin with, but now that I’d just spent nearly half a year in a windowless basement I would probably cause a glare on the cameras if they used too many lights directly on me.
Amanda grinned and shook her giant purse excitedly.
“I have some things that should do the trick. Although what you could really use is some direct sunlight and three to four days of sleep,” she mused, pushing me down into Asher’s office chair.
He backed up against the wall to avoid being rolled into as Amanda wheeled me around to find some good light.
She dumped her bag over Asher’s desk, random bottles and compacts tumbling out and rolling across his desk.
I winced and mouthed a quick ‘sorry’ over her shoulder at him.
He looked a little pained, but ultimately shrugged and got comfortable in the little corner he was now trapped in.
I let Amanda do her thing, trusting her not to make me look any worse than I already did.
She did her best to cover up the dark circles that seemed to be permanently tattooed under my eyes and, once she was somewhat satisfied with that, she moved on to blush, testing a bunch on herself first before deciding on one to use on me.
“Don’t worry baby girl, I’ll have you looking alive and breathing before you know it,” she promised.
Her face was close to mine, so I was able to see the deep sadness that welled up in her eyes, and she bit her lip, clearing her throat as she continued on with applying powder to my cheeks.
She kept things pretty simple, not going crazy with eyeshadow colors or heavy on the eyeliner.
It was just enough to help me feel a little more put together— war paint as my mom had called it.
Sometimes, when you were doing something you were scared of, you just needed a little bit of war paint to help you feel more confident.
“Perfection, as always.” Amanda grinned, looking over her work. “Fuck, I should quit my job and just do makeup full time,” she mused, and I laughed.
“You would hate that kind of work, you’d end up stabbing someone with an eyebrow pencil,” I replied with a smirk, and she just huffed and rolled her eyes, shoving her makeup back into her bag as I did one last check in her little compact mirror.
My cheeks were still too shallow, and I missed the softness I used to have.
Even my eyes looked harder, like I’d aged ten years in the last month.
I grimaced and snapped the mirror shut with a small click, tossing it back in her bag.
“I think you look really nice,” Asher said quietly, catching me off guard. “Not that you don’t usually look nice, you do, of course! But the makeup looks nice, I mean...” He trailed off, cringing, but it just made me smile.
“Oh Doc, I’m sorry, I completely forgot about you. Would you like a touch up?” she asked, brandishing a brush at him threateningly. He stared at the brush like it was a loaded firearm.
“I, uh, I won’t be on TV, or in the press conference. I’ll just be in the room,” he replied, his brow creasing, and we both laughed.
“Come on now, you don’t need to be on TV to wear makeup,” Amanda teased breezily, advancing on him with her brush.
“I bet you’d look sexy with a little eyeliner, it would make your pretty blue eyes pop.
” She grinned, popping the p , and when he tried to scramble out of the corner I stepped in front of him, blocking his route.
He towered over me, and probably could’ve just lifted me up and moved me out of his way, but instead he stopped dead, nearly pressing against me.
I put my hands on his chest and pushed lightly, directing him backward until he fell back into his chair.
“I really don’t think I need anything.” Asher laughed nervously as we advanced on him like wolves, Amanda digging through her purse for supplies.
“It’ll be great, don’t worry.” I smiled as Amanda held out the eyeliner.
I pressed up against the edge of the chair, my legs brushing against Asher’s as I leaned forward to get a good angle.
I tilted his chin up with my hand, and he shifted anxiously in his chair.
“Hold still,” I instructed, and brought my knee up, propping it on the chair beside his thigh so I could get in a better position.
I cupped his cheek and used my thumb to angle his right eye closer to me.
“Look up and don’t blink.” He was very obedient, I’d give him that.
My tongue poked out between my teeth as I gently added a light hint of brown along his lash-line under his eye.
“Okay, other eye now.” I shifted until my other knee was up on the chair and directed his face in the other direction, doing the same to his left eye.
Once I was done, I sat back a bit and looked over my handiwork.
I felt Asher’s hands graze across my thighs, hovering in case I toppled backward suddenly.
“Ha, I was right. His eyes are popping now.” Amanda grinned, and she was right, his eyes were almost unsettlingly bright now, it was almost unfair that he was able to look so good with so little effort.
Amanda nudged my foot silently, making me aware of the fact that I’d just been staring at Asher while practically straddling his lap for a little too long now.
I slipped off the chair, handing Amanda her eyeliner back.
“You do look really good,” I told him, and he gave me a lopsided grin, his hand going to his hair and mussing it up further.
I caught Amanda staring at me, questions shooting out of her eyes, and I realized that I was grinning like an idiot.
Thankfully, the door opened and Hunter walked in, preventing her from saying anything.
“Hey, they’re starting to set up downstairs, we should head down now,” he announced, taking in the scene in front of him.
Amanda and I were standing over Asher, who was hunched down in his chair looking like a hostage.
He frowned as he stared at Asher in particular, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“What’s going on with your face?” he asked, and Amanda and I burst out laughing.
“Alright, well… come on then.” He waved us forward, still trying to figure out what was different about his partner as we stifled our giggles.
I was looking forward to getting this over with, hopefully the whole thing would be done in five minutes.