Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

12. Hidden Things

Vincent was a little stir crazy. He was cooped up at the warehouse but this was his life. He decided to do some exercise while JT works behind him. He'd left Catherine a note and hoped she would investigate it more before she arrested an innocent woman.

"So, you and Catherine decided to keep in touch," JT says, sipping on a beer and watching Vincent do his 100th pull up.

"Carefully," Vincent says, holding the pull up a second before he went down again.

"So now I'm your carrier pigeon passing notes like it's high school."

Vincent sighs and lets go if the bar, dropping to the floor. He'd heard her. Catherine. He stood listening for her footsteps coming up the stairs, her heartbeat. Always her heartbeat.

"What?" JT asks, noticing Vincent on pause.

Vincent turns to the door. "Apparently not tonight," he says, referring to the note passing.

"She's here?" Vincent blinks at him.
"So carefully means not careful at all. 'Kay, got it." He shakes his head.

Vincent grabs a hoodie so he could put it on. "JT come on," he frowns. He knows JT is worried.

A knock sounds at the door and Catherine walks in. "Hey," she says.

Vincent was still halfway to putting his jacket on. "Hey," he gives her a small smile.

JT just sits at the table, lips pursed. He rolls his eyes.

"I got your note."

JT gives them a look. "What note? You already wrote her back?" He just gave Cat's note to him this afternoon. Was the man that hard up?

They both ignore him.

"Vincent, how do you know?"

He pushes his hands into the pockets, leaving it unzipped. At least he had a shirt on under it. "I saw her."

"Where? When?"

"Who?" JT asks.

Vincent keeps his eyes on Catherine. "Around four o'clock on 123rd." He pulls the sleeves up to his elbows.

"123rd, that is her apartment." Cat frowns.

"And that's near school, but seriously, who are we talking about?" JT looks between Cat and Vincent.

She finally looks at him. "A suspect in a case."

"That's what you're in touch about?" Vincent eyes him. "You gonna start going on stake outs?" he asks sarcastically.

Vincent scoffs. "No," he looks at JT. He smiles a little but then he looks at Cat again and says, "I saw Catherine arrest a woman who was innocent, okay, I thought she should know, that's it."

"Wait, you," Cat frowns. "You saw me arrest her?"

Not knowing how to say it, he looks to JT for help, but he just watches. Cat goes on.

"And earlier at the school," she keeps her eyes on him. He looks at her again, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Afraid of what she would do. "Have you been following me?" She sounds confused and interested at the same time.

"Hah," he scoffs. Then he sees her wait for an answer and he sighs. "After the attack last week, I've been kept tabs, yeah," he admits. She gives him a small smile.

"Okay," JT interrupts. "We're all gonna die." He gets up. "I'm getting a TUMS."

Vincent laughs a little at his friend's overreacting, but keeps an eye on him as he walks to the cabinet.