Where the spirit meets the bone. (Book 1 of the Illicit Affairs Series)

Chapter XXV

The holidays had proven to be a nice distraction, but real life came knocking on your door pretty fast.

You were finally able to schedule a meeting with Maria, your lawyer, and things weren't looking good. Bucky had searched his apartment for any kind of proof that it had been broken in, but it had all been in vain. The only people who had his apartment's key were him, Rebecca and his landlord, who was a nice old lady that wasn't even in her right mind most of the time. The only plausible theory was that the evidence had been planted by the cops during the raid.

In the meantime, deputy chief Williams had called in Steve and Sam for an interrogation, too. Thankfully, Maria had trained them so they wouldn't say anything that could be spun around to look incriminating. Still, Rebecca and Vanessa -who insisted she and Sam were just hooking up- had freaked out. You couldn't blamed them, since you'd been doing the same for weeks, now.

You were trying to act calm and collected for Bucky's sake, but you knew he was doing the same for yours. You had decided to set a few boundaries about it, trying to separate the situation from your alone time together, but it was always in the back of both of your minds.

It was a Thursday morning when something finally changed. You and James were having breakfast in your kitchen when the doorbell rang.

"Are you expecting someone?" he asked, confused.

You shook your head, putting your spoonful of yogurt down. "Maybe it's Becca. She had that follow up interview a few hours ago."

When you opened the door, though, it wasn't Becca greeting you.

"Andrew?" you asked, wondering if you were having an hallucination. He was in a suit, probably on his way to the office, and he was looking around as if he was expecting someone to pop out from behind the plants in the hallway. You heard a loud thud and, figuring that Bucky was standing up to reach you, you raced to question, "What are you doing here?"

"The doorman let me come up. Can I come in?" he stuttered, fidgeting.

"You can go back to whatever dumpster you came out of." Bucky's deep voice reached your ears before you could even see him. He gently pushed you to the side so he could shield you with his body.

"I want to help you, I promise." Andrew begged, "Please, just let me in."

"I think you've done enough helping already." James responded, crossing his arms in front of his chest. You placed a hand on his shoulder so he would look at you.

"I think we should let him in, baby." you said in a soft voice, caressing his shoulder, "What's the worst he could do?"

He shook his head, opening his mouth to say something, but you interrupted him, "Please, honey?"

"You're too trusting for your own good." he sighed, opening the door wider.

"Thank you." you pressed your cheek to his bicep.

Andrew didn't look like he was enjoying the show, but he didn't hesitate to come in and shut the door behind him. Bucky menacingly nodded towards the living room, so he raced his way to the couch. You took Bucky's hand and followed him, choosing to stand up in front of him to look more intimidating.

"C'mon, say your piece." you looked down at him, "It better be good, or I won't stop the big guy here."

"Okay. Well, how have you been?" Andrew started, but you interrupted him.

"You're not the one asking questions, here. For all we know, you're wearing a wire and you're trying to extort a confession from him." you said, "Cut to the chase."