The Accidental Detective: Finding Her Boss

Chapter 39

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The diner's neon 'OPEN' sign buzzed faintly in the distance, casting a low, almost sickly glow across the almost empty parking lot.

Despite the warm breeze in the air from the hot day that just ended, Detective Zayden Harrison felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand.

This felt like his most important mission yet, and it was, the life of the love of his life was on the line.

This was it.

He pulled on the oversized black t-shirt Zenith made him change into, hiding the bulletproof vest he wore underneath- for you know, just in case things went left- glancing across the cracked asphalt at the rundown diner.

It seemed like any other hole-in-the-wall, and unless you were on strict police business like Zayden, Zenith, and Elias, you would have no idea that the Hossain's latest recruitment drive was happening two blocks away, at a typical bar with stained windows and peeling paint where the worst person you knew went to mourn their dead dreams.

Inside the black van where they had all reconvened, Zenith's fingers drummed nervously on the steering wheel. His eyes flicked over to his little brother who sat in the back of the van on a bench-like seat, checking his gear.

His face was set in a grim expression, jade eyes making sure the wire connected to a small microphone under his shirt was not visible and the micro earpeace in his ear sat well.

"You nervous?" Zenith's voice broke through the silence, and Zayden looked up to meet his eyes.

Even Elias, who had his eyes on the monitor showing the map of the area with the gang meetup point marked in red, looked up at the question- mostly because he was nosey.

"No, are you?" Was Zayden response.

"I'm not the one going undercover," Zenith said with a chuckle to hide how nervous he actually felt for him.

Elias cleared his throat, a sign that he was about to give another one of his irrelevant opinions. "If it makes you feel better, detective, I will take care of your baby brother. You have my word, no need to look so scared."

Zayden looked back down, now picking up his gun and fiddling with it, "is it a requirement of some sort for you people to be professional assholes before getting accepted into the bureau?"

Zenith raised his eyebrows in agreement to his brother's words, "could be. Anyways, we've got backup in place and eyes on the entire block. If anything goes south, we'll pull you out...but if all goes perfectly good, you'll both have to play criminals until we figure out where they're holding Loriatte and that other fella."

Zayden let out a tight breath. He wasn't worried about the mission, well not really. He trusted himself to pull the undercover mission off, and Elias looked capable enough so he kind of trusted him as well, he had no choice but to trust him for this.

No, his worries were about something a lot more personal, something that sat at the back of his mind like a gnawing itch.

What if all of this was for nothing? What if she was already dead?

I mean, there was no reason for them to keep her alive since they made it very clear that they were going to kill her if she didn't accept their stupid deal.

Who was to say that she wasn't already dead, and he was walking right into one big fat trap?

He hated to think that way but he couldn't help it. He hated not knowing things, it made him come up with stupid scenarios that kept him anxious.