Eternal Longing ✓

33. Elusive Rats

FINLEY

Perhaps agreeing to meet in this abandoned warehouse with an unknown man was not such a smart decision.

Here.

I send the message to the number, watching warily as an unusually large rat scurries to my left and slams against one of the many cardboard boxes scattered around the space, before finding a wall opening and darting in there.

"Fucking hell," I mutter, my eyes raking over the decrepitness surrounding me then going back to my phone. No answer yet.

Again, being here is probably an extremely foolish decision, but the thought of the ominous text I received last while Jaya and I left the hotel after the Emphasized event was over is what keeps me rooted in place.

3434 Riverview Street. Come next week. Alone. It's about Jaya.

Even my tech guy has been unable to track the text, and though Kyle advised me not to listen to the simple demand from an unknown source, I ignored him.

I don't have any enemies that I'm aware of, but anyone who has spilled another's blood should never be surprised if those ghosts are to catch up to them.

And months ago, after over a decade of painful memories and nightmares, I finally got the revenge I craved, tying almost every loose end except for one slippery snake that has been quite elusive.

So maybe my ghosts are catching up to me. Maybe not.

Either way, I'll be six feet under before I let anyone threaten my woman.

Therefore, instead of spending the day alongside her, gently encouraging her as she hyperventilates over every detail of her first sketch for her primary Emphasized submission, I'm in an old warehouse filled with crazed rodents while she thinks I'm handling emergency business in the city.

Gearing to send another text to the unknown number, my fingers stop when I hear footsteps. From the other side of the large space, a man wearing all black walks out of the shadows.

"You made it."

I lock my phone and slide it into my back pocket, not saying a word as I observe the older man walk toward me with a distinctive air of arrogance and calculated destruction around him.

"How was the drive from Muller?" he asks cheerily, not caring that I'm not talking. "Beautiful weather today, no?"

He must be in his late forties, his dark skin barely wrinkled and his eyes matured and aware. He looks like a man that has lived a long, experienced life. A man that has seen and done a lot.

"How do you know where I attend school?" I ask him, and if he's surprised that I don't seem intimidated by this whole ordeal, he doesn't voice it.

"Ah, well." He smiles, white teeth shining brightly, and something in me steels at the sight. That smile. I know that smile. "I thrive on information."

Eyes narrowed on him, on his smile that is so similar to Jaya's, I watch as he comes to stand only a few feet from me, his height perfectly matching mine.

"You're Jaya's biological father," I deduce, only mild curiosity evident in my tone because this isn't the strangest thing that's ever happened to me.

His smile widens. "I am. Charles Keith, a pleasure to meet you."

I tilt my head at this new revelation, wondering what the hell the man is thinking and why he's contacting me. Weeks ago, when Jaya was on the phone with her mom, she made it clear that she doesn't want anything to do with the man.