The Accidental Detective: Finding Her Boss

Chapter 27

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"Took you two long enough."

Doug eyed Loriatte weirdly, "baby girl, normally I love your hair, I absolutely do, but yikes! Did a raccoon just escape from there or something?" He reached out his hand to touch her wild curls but Zayden was quick to slap his hand away.

"Don't touch her."

Doug threw his hand up in the air in mock surrender, "hands off your precious, got it."

Loriatte cleared her throat, combing through her curls with her fingers as if it would help tame them, "why isn't Zenith here again?"

Zayden placed a hand on the small of her back to lead her closer to him on the sidewalk and away from the road just as a single car sped by the fairly empty road.

Loriatte felt heat from where his hand was placed spread all over her body, and so she looked down at her feet to avoid his eyes.

"Zenith is dealing with some paper works because he has to release Mrs. Mason by tomorrow since we really don't have any solid proof against her-"

"I'm sorry, the millions stolen out of Shane's account and put into her own aren't solid enough? What about the 'cancelled' divorce? The van traced to her garage which she lied about? Being at a club at her old age surrounded by criminals? Hello??" Loriatte raised her eyebrows, mostly looking at Doug even though the person who spoke was Zayden, who still had his hand sitting comfortably on her lower back.

Doug who was confused with why her attention was suddenly on him shrugged before answering her, "yeah, but as far as the documents go, everything looks legal on paper and everything else in between are just speculations and theories, and until we have solid proof that Mrs. Mason has a hand in her husband's kidnapping, we don't have proof against her at all. All she is right now, is a person of interest."

Loriatte scoffed, "ridiculous."

A sudden shiver went up her spine when she felt Zayden's hand begin to rub her back in small circles, as if trying to comfort her, but it had the opposite affect as it had her tensing up and wanting to run away from him and hide behind Doug.

"And don't worry about Zenith not being here," Zayden began, but she still wouldn't dare look up at him, fearing that her heart would actually explode from all the nerves she  was feeling, so she kept her narrowed eyes trained on Doug who blew her a kiss and wiggled his eyebrows.

"We have enough armed police officers waiting nearby, so if things do go south, we have back-up."

"Besides, Zenith loves staying in the office, his days on the field has been long over," Doug made things clearer for her, and she nodded with a slight look of defeat.

Loriatte looked around the very quiet area, with only one house in the entire street, "I do wonder why that man wants me here...here of all places? How do we know this isn't some sort of set up?"

The house was big, a mansion even, about three floor high, it sat alone in a wide open field with well kept grass, it actually looked lived in and well maintained, not the shack in the woods she was expecting from murderous criminals, still, the silence around them brought an unsettling feeling deep within her.

"That's the best part," Doug smirked, pulling out his gun from his waistband, "we don't."

Loriatte gaped at him as she watched him walk the long bridled path leading to the front door of the house, playfully waving his gun in the air as if it was some toy.

Zayden put a finger under her chin and turned her face to finally look up at him. "I don't like when you avoid me."

"I don't care what you like, Detective," she quoted the words he had once said to her, her voice unintentionally coming out in a quiet whisper.