The Accidental Detective: Finding Her Boss

Chapter 35

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A knock at the door snapped Zayden out of his endless train of thoughts, but he ignored it like he had been ignoring everything for the last two days, his blank stare locked on the clear blue sky outside the large windows of the room.

The door opened behind him and someone walked in, the sound of their footsteps stopping right besides the bed, where he laid.

He didn't bother with turning to acknowledge the person.

"Zayden," it was Zenith.

Of course.

The bed dipped behind him and he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

"You can't lock yourself in her room forever, it's not going to help us find her."

Zayden clutched the pillow tighter to his chest, "nothing else is helping us find her."

Zenith sighed, "doing absolutely nothing is not helping us the most," he retorted.

"What do you want Zenith? And how did you even get in? I remembered to lock the door..." his heart clenched when he thought of the time Loriatte called him out for having the bad habit of never locking the door behind him.

The memory itself was enough to have his heart shattering into a billion pieces, as if he wasn't already hurting enough.

"I broke in but that's not important."

Zayden finally turned to look at his brother, just to give him a look he hoped told him 'you're a criminal'.

"What's important is that you get out of her room and come down to the precinct and help us find her," Zenith stood to his feet.

"Zenith, leave."

"No." The chief detective grabbed a handful of the fluffy pink blanket- which was a part of Loriatte's things from her old apartment- and ripped it off him, exposing him in all his red mini basketball shorts and shirtless glory.

"I swear-"

"Are you seriously giving up on her Zay?" Zenith wrapped the pink blanket around his chest to keep it away from Zayden, then stood with his hands on his hips, giving his brother a disapproving look.

Zayden scowled, abruptly standing and swiping a hand through his mop of hair. "Of course I'm not giving up on her!" He snapped, turning his back to Zenith and walking towards the window, with his fists clenched at his sides.

"Then what do you call this?"

"I'm-" he stopped, running a hand through his hair again, "I don't know, I just don't know Zen. I don't know what to do, it's like I'm back to square one! They're all dead, we can't do anything or get anything out of Mrs. Mason, the warehouses were dead ends, we had never been close to finding Shane Mason, and now the same people that have him have Loriatte, and I-I don't know how to save her."

Zenith's tone softened slightly, "I know Zayden, but you're no good frozen in here, mourning her presence instead of being out there and doing absolutely everything you can to find her. If she was here, she'd tell you to get up off your ass and work!"

Zayden fully turned to face his ridiculous brother. A small grin tugged at his lips as he looked Zenith up and down, "you know, that sounds like something she would say."

Zenith flicked his now short hair with a small 'tsk', "duh."

I...should've been the older brother.

"You look ridiculous," Zayden shook his head, the grin on his face growing wider as he tried to hold back a laugh while looking at his brother with the fluffy pink blanket wrapped around his chest like some stay-at-home mom.