Cat and Mouse game

Chapter Thirteen

When Elias returned to the apartment, the first thing he did was to take a look around. It was dark, with all the lights turned off and the curtains drawn. Raven was nowhere to be found. Elias was certainly glad about it - he hoped his partner would not show up for as long as possible. He wanted to enjoy some peace and quiet after the stressful day.

But as he entered the living room and turned on the lights, the balcony door suddenly opened. Eric appeared on the doorstep, with binoculars in his hand.

As usual, Elias' joy did not last long. This seemed to be the case whenever it came to Eric.

"Did you take care of your plans?" Raven asked in an unusually angry tone of voice.

The way his cheekbones muscles were twitching made it easy to tell that he was furious about something. His green eyes, fixed on Elias, burned with an incomprehensible blend of emotions.

"Yes, I did," Morales answered briefly, walking into the kitchen.

The blond slammed the balcony door shut with a loud clatter and leaned his back against it

"Did you enjoy it?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" turning to Eric, Elias asked with a perplexed expression on his face.

"Gallery," Eric hissed through his teeth. "Have you seen enough beautiful paintings? Or maybe you met someone interesting there?" he asked in a venomous voice, staring at Elias with a serious look.

"How did you...?" Elias was about to ask, but then his eyes caught the binoculars in Eric's hand. "Ugh, I see..."

Eric placed the binoculars on the nearest nightstand and began to walk slowly toward Elias.

"So? Are you going to answer me?"

"What's the point? You already know everything."

Elias walked around the kitchen table and stood behind it, as if it was a barrier that would prevent his partner from coming any closer. He wanted to be as far away from Raven and from this conversation as possible.

"I need to hear it from you!" Eric suddenly raised his voice.

"What the fuck for?"

"Let's just say..." he paused, "it is a matter of trust."

Raven was getting closer and closer to him with each passing second.

Elias instinctively backed away, retreating. He stepped back until he hit the wall, feeling its cold surface with his shoulder blades. He now had nowhere to retreat to.

In the next instant, Eric quickened his pace, rapidly closing the distance between them. Eventually, he was standing just one step away from Elias.

"Fine!" Elias exclaimed, turning his face away to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, you're right. I did meet Rhino by chance. But everything turned out well! We even exchanged business cards."

Eric took another half-step forward, getting closer to Elias. In fact, he got too close. So close that Elias could smell the scent of his perfume. A pleasant, subtle scent: warm notes of sandalwood mixed with light notes of citrus. For some unknown reason, Elias' heart started beating faster.

"You met him by chance, you say?" Eric asked in a low voice. "And did you, by any chance, notice two armed bodyguards waiting outside?"

"Um, no... I didn't see them. Rhino, his boyfriend, and I were only talking inside."

Suddenly, Eric slammed his fist hard into the wall next to Elias' face. He did not remove his hand and kept it in that position. 

If that punch had been one inch to the side, it would have definitely broken Elias' face. 

"Ha-a-a, oh my... How careless you can be," Eric said with a sigh of frustration and ran a hand over his face.

Elias bit his lip and frowned. What right did Raven have to call him careless?

"What if Rhino had suspected something and called his bodyguards? What would you do?" Eric continued to reproach his 'careless' partner. "They could have easily dragged you into a car and taken you to an unknown location. Do you even realize that?!"

Elias could no longer tolerate this enhanced interrogation and wanted to get away from his interrogator. He made an attempt to recoil to the side, but failed – Eric immediately put his other hand against the wall, blocking his escape route and preventing him from sneaking away.

Of course, Elias could have used force to push Eric away. But he did not dare to do so, lest he make his partner even more angry.

"I don't get why you are so mad at me. You have no reason to be!" Elias also raised his tone. "There is no way that what you are worried about could have happened. I am not an idiot, as you may think. I can do my job properly! And after all, the result is satisfactory, which means I did everything right!"

He couldn't help feeling like he was trying to justify himself to his parent who was scolding him. However, even his parents had never scolded him like that.

"Satisfactory result, huh?" Eric blurted out with a sarcastic grin. "So as long as you get a result, you don't give a shit about your life and safety?"

"It. Is. Our. Duty!" Elias pronounced each word clearly and looked into his partner's eyes with determination. "Putting our lives at risk is part and parcel of our work. There's just no other way, there simply can't be," he said without breaking eye contact, not even blinking.

"Uh-huh, ye-e-ah," Eric dropped his eyes and turned away, finally moving away from Elias, "You're absolutely right. And why am I even so worried about my partner...?"

Raven knitted his eyebrows and pursed his lips. The expression on his face changed from one of anger to one of disappointment and sadness. He took a deep breath and covered his eyes with his hand.

"I just... don't want to lose anyone ever again," Eric mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper. "I don't want to..."

"What did you say?" Elias did not hear what Raven said, so he asked him to repeat it.

"Doesn't matter," the blond replied, his tone of voice returning to normal. "I'm not going to nag you any longer. Just don't act on your own again. Whether we like it or not, we are partners until this operation is complete. We must work together. So let's try to trust each other a little, please?"

"Okay, I hear you," with a tired sigh, Elias reluctantly agreed. "From now on, I will inform you of my plans and coordinate my actions with you."

"I'm glad we came to an agreement," he gave Elias another look and tried to force a smile, but it didn't work out very well.

Then, Raven walked back to the balcony door and took the binoculars from the nightstand.

"But you know," Elias said to his back, "you should think carefully: maybe there's a reason why I didn't want to tell you the truth."

Eric turned a deaf ear to Elias' comment and finally disappeared behind the balcony door. Elias leaned his head against the wall and let out a heavy sigh, exhausted. It was a hell of an intense conversation.

Basically, everything about Eric Raven was so difficult for him.

As Elias regained his composure, he stepped away from the wall and looked up at the ceiling in thought. He wondered what Eric had mumbled under his breath after all...