Chapter 16 Miami
? Grey ?
A day after touching down in Miami, we've settled in where we've been put to stay and have been introduced to the unit we're assisting for the rest of the week.
It pisses me off the looks we get because we're young. If we were fucking bad at what we did, we wouldn't have the job we do.
It doesn't piss me off as much as the fact that Azalea is obviously hiding something from me. And not letting me touch her. And the way she had ignored me for a full fucking week. And one day.
The girl doesn't fucking understand that I've thrown everything I used to do all away for her. It's not like I did shit with a girl every night or anything but I had the occasional hookup and 'fun.'
It's different going as long as I have without hooking up and not even wanting to.
Unless the girl is her.
And I know that Jonas catching me and her in that room together hurt her. Him being the fucking idiot he is just had to add the 'another one?'
The only other one beside Azalea that had been in that room with me was a random girl that had followed me into the back room. Did we do shit? Hell no, I kicked her drunk ass out. But did Jonas just happen to walk in there? Yeah.
But I'm not a liar and I do want to fall in love with her.
Who wouldn't want to?
I don't have a damn clue what the feeling is like to love someone. I don't even think that word has ever left my lips before but with her, I can feel it being a possibility.
If I don't fuck things up first.
Even now, for the first time in my life, I think I miss her. I think; I don't know what that feeling is. But I feel like I'm missing something and it isn't the fucking scrunchie on my wrist or our weaponry.
Her stupid random comments.
Fuck, even her laugh has my heart feeling like a dumb blubbering bitch.
I take another sip of my fucking milkshake.
Goddammit.
Roman looks at me with a calculated gaze. I glare back at him.
"Are you mad at your milkshake?" Jai asks from beside me and I loosen my grip on the cup in my hand.
"No."
"They're ready for us to be there," Roman chimes in.
"They can fuckin' wait."
"They've already been waiting for almost an hour now. You've got a long lasting milkshake," Jai chuckles. I feel my jaw tick as I rise from my seat.
Arriving at the unit's HQ I walk into the meeting room and they're all there. Jai and Roman follow soon after and take their seats along one of the tables.
"Joshua Vander," I speak out, picking up his file.
"He's been on the run since early last year," I continue. And apparently you fucks can't catch him, that's why we're here.
"Hold up," a guy sitting at one of the tables say suddenly. I feel a scowl form on my face at the interruption. A guy, probably in his mid-thirties, leans forward at his table, his eyes on me.
"They expect us to listen to some twenty-something year old who's wearing a scrunchie and drinking a milkshake?" he asks out. What the fuck is everyone's deal with the goddamn scrunchie?
I sit my milkshake down. I guess the title FAA that rests on the fucking board behind me doesn't mean shit to him.
"If it bothers you that much," I keep my voice calm, "go ahead and don't listen to me. Then get your fucking ass killed, see if I care."
"It'd be under your mission," he tries back. Everyone else remains quiet.
Like that would fucking hurt me.
"Not my responsibility. You don't follow my orders, that's your own fucking fault.
I'm only here to win the chase that you couldn't," I look down at the ring on his ring finger.
The idiot who has someone waiting for him at home can't even swallow his pride enough to listen to someone younger than him.
"Who says we couldn't catch him ourselves?" his face turns redder and redder as he gets mad.
"The fucking time limit between the date the warrant was set and now," I look at the original warrant date, "almost two years ago."
"Fuck you," he sneers. Being as old as he is, I would've thought he'd be less of a prick. Guess not.
"What the fuck do you know? I've been in this unit for over ten years, I know what the hell I'm doing!" he stands up and I pick up my milkshake, taking another sip.
"Well damn!" Maxon chuckles. The one Azalea said had a nice fucking ass.
"Why didn't you tell us that!" he says sarcastically, "If you're so good, where is he?"
The room remains quiet.
"Oh, don't tell me you don't know," Jai chimes in, shaking his head.
"Now sit the fuck down and shut up," I give him one more glare before going back to explaining what the fuck we're going to do to catch the guy.
~~~
In a quick two days, we find his location and have our means of catching him planned and memorized.
Jai hands out the padded leathers.
Her voice fills my thoughts.
'Don't get stabbed. Or headbutted. Or hurt. Please.'
I grit my teeth and yank a jacket from Jai's hands whose eyes widen in surprise. I pull on the jacket and sit her scrunchie down on the table, pushing the thoughts of her out of my head.
"You're wearing-"
"Shut up," I cut off Theo as we get into the SUVs.
On the ride, my mind drifts off to her.
Her soft sighs when I kiss her neck. Her body shimmying excitedly when she sees me. Her soft skin. Fuck.
I get a surge of adrenaline when we pull up to Joshua's hideout. A fucking shack in the middle of the goddamn swamp.
"If I get ate by a damn 'gator, I'm gonna be pissed," Jai mumbles as we get out of the cars and sink our boots into the deep mud.
"Is now a bad time to admit I'm scared of reptiles?" Theo's voice comes from behind me. The guy she said had pretty fucking eyes.
I hope one bites him in the fucking ass.
We execute our plan exactly as it was written.
Being nearly soundless, we walk through the front part of his shack. Guns lay all over his shabby couch. Not taking any chances, I motion for them to be taken out before we head into the back of the run-down place.
We find Joshua and a hooker both asleep on a mattress that sits on the floor. I walk in the room first. The woman's breathing catches my attention.
She breathes at an abnormal pace for anyone who's sleeping. Or awake; it's way too fast. I look at Joshua. I just barely see his arm twitch and I know that they know we're here.
I hold my arm up to the guys behind me. His lower arm twitches and he shoots up in a flash, a gun positioned in his hand.
Instead of firing, he grabs the barely clothed girl beside him and holds the gun to her head. The guys fill the room and he looks at us all.
"Drop your guns, o-or I'll kill her," he warns shakily, obviously fucked up by the fact that he's been caught.
Wanted for four counts of second-degree murder, two counts of arson, and armed robbery.
He won't hesitate to kill her. I nod to the floor and we place our guns down slowly, kicking them to the bed.
"She doesn't have anything to do with this Josh," Jai speaks and with the silence in the room, we hear the safety on his gun click off.
"I don't give a fuck," he shakes his head, pressing the gun further into the girl's temple. Being the only one slightly out of his range of view, Roman slowly moves behind Joshua. He keeps his eyes on me as he takes his other gun out the back of his pants.
"You don't want to do this, just let the girl go," Jai warns, seeing the position Roman is in.
'I've got the shot,' Roman nods to me and I look back at Joshua, then the gun in his hand. His finger rests on the trigger, slightly pressing down on it.
I give Roman a single nod and roll my eyes internally at the amount of paperwork I'm going to need to fill out after this.
He takes the shot and Joshua falls to the ground, the girl still in his arms who's now crying her eyes out.
My eyes find the guy who loved to fucking argue with me earlier.
"Clean this up," I nod at the body on the floor and his face falls as my lip rises in a small smirk.
Clearing the shit-shack of paraphernalia, guns, and whatever else, we leave the swamp.
"We're in Miami, let's party," Maxon groans, climbing up into the dark SUV.
"I'm up for it," Theo nods, along with the rest of the fucking people in the car. They don't have a shit ton of paperwork.
It's not like I have a desire to fucking 'party' in the first place.
Five and a half hours later, the finished paperwork sits on the table and the fucking idiots stare back at me.
"Now we go," Theo smiles and I scowl at him. I look up at the clock and see it's already three thirty in the morning.
The sooner I fucking sleep, then the sooner I can go home; to Lilah.
My mind wanders off to her. Sleeping in my bed. Fuck.
Maybe a couple of beers will make me think of something else.
~~~
Six beers in, I'm a little buzzed. That doesn't change the fact that I still want to fucking leave.
"Look," Linc slaps my shoulder, "you're having a good time, aren't you?"
The guy that Azalea said she loved his fucking hair.
"Don't fuckin' touch me," I glare at the fuck. I sink down on a couch in the VIP section.
"I think you need a good lay," Linc says and I hold back from punching him in the fucking face. I finish my seventh beer, grabbing another.
I feel someone sit beside me and my jaw ticks. I look to my left to see a blonde haired girl staring right back at me.
"What are you doing all by yourself?" she asks seductively.
Her hand slips to my arm and she runs her fingers over my tattoos.
I don't like to be fucking touched.
"I think I should join you," she whispers, her lip rolling into her mouth.
Months ago I would've found her 'attractive' and we probably would have hooked up.
Now all I see is someone who is not Azalea. And that's not what I want.
This girl's hair is too dark of a blonde to be Azalea's hair color.
Her eyes are bright blue instead of that fucking wild green.
The girl beside me is too tall and too leggy to be who I want.
This girl's smile can't make my heart beat faster than it's supposed to.
And she sure as hell can't turn me on by using that voice or showing me what's down her shirt.