Unbreakable

Chapter Twenty-One - Who Are You

It had been two days since I received the stuffed rabbit on the front porch of Sierra's house. I was completely on edge. I felt like no matter where I was, or what I was doing, someone was watching me.

Someone let the front door slam shut yesterday and it had me jumping out of my own skin, everyone in the office had noticed and had begun eyeing me curiously.

I knew people were getting concerned, but they were too polite to ask why I was so on edge, instead stealing glances at me and quickly looking anywhere else when I noticed. It didn't help the paranoia I was already battling.

Rushing out to my vehicle to grab my Identification Card that I left in there, I heard the distinct sound of shuffling feet coming up behind me. Feeling someone's hand reach out and grab my shoulder I took a quick breath and reached for the wrist resting on my shoulder. Yanking it upwards, I threw my elbow back into the person behind me and used my body weight to pull them forward, effectively flipping them over my back and onto the ground with a hard thud.

I brought my fists up into a fighting position, already trying to anticipate their next move when I realized that the person I had flipped was Nathan.

"Oh shit! Are you alright?" I asked Nathan, extending him a hand to help him up off the ground.

"What the fuck Spencer?" Nathan groaned through labored breaths, rubbing the part of his ribs that my elbow made contact with.

"I'm so sorry Nate, I didn't realize. I've just been a bit jumpy lately." I tried to defend myself.

"Yeah we've all noticed. What the hell is going on with you?" He questioned inquisitively, leaning against the side of the vehicle to favor his now bruised ribs.

"Nothing Nate, I'm fine-"

"You've said that word so many times, it doesn't even sound like a word anymore." Nathan put his hand up effectively cutting me off before I could say another word. I could see it in his eyes that his patience with me had dwindled to almost nothing. I began shifting nervously under his gaze while he studied me.

"We're supposed to be partners Spencer, partners aren't supposed to lie to each other and don't even try denying it." He pinched the bridge of his nose before letting out a deep sigh. I felt like someone was sitting on my chest and preventing me from speaking out, it was such an unsettling feeling deep within me that I didn't know how to shake. I watched helplessly as Nathan gave me a pained look before walking away.

"I always thought if you were in trouble that you would tell me, I don't know when that changed but, I miss my friend." Nathan said over his shoulder before disappearing out of my line of sight, leaving me to replay his words in my head over and over again.

I felt so many different emotions run through me in an instant. Pain, hurt, regret, anger, and fear. My legs felt like they were ready to give, my lower lip starting to quiver as the unshed tears begun to sting my eyes. Sniffling through the emotions I felt my phone vibrate with a reminder for the meeting that I was now running late for. Taking one last second to myself, I pulled it together before joining the others.

After the assassination of Rita we had begun having daily meetings to discuss any new developments and run through the facts we had so far, nevertheless we always ended the meeting in the same place we started, confused and angry. The files on the mayors flash drive were indeed encrypted. Elara had been working through them but had only managed to decrypt a few things so far, revealing more random routing numbers and offshore account details. I had a hunch that the entire flash drive was filled with evidence to keep him in prison for embezzlement for the rest of his life.

The gun we recovered from the safe had been wiped down, so we were unable to pull any prints off of it but ballistics was able to confirm that it was in fact the gun that fired the bullet that I took to the chest.