The Accidental Detective: Finding Her Boss

Chapter 43

🕵🏾‍♀️

"To teach you a very valuable lesson, little girl."

Was what Mrs. Mason had said on the other side of the metal bars after she had her hounds throw Loriatte into the cell of a dingy basement.

The damp air of the underground cell clung to her skin, it's pinching stench making each breath she took feel like a chore. The faint, flickering light from a lone, overhead bulb barely cut through the darkness, casting eerie shadows on the stone walls.

Her bruised ankle was once again chained to a metal loop connected to a heavy chain that was drilled into the ground, making every movement send fresh aches through her limbs, although the sting of the chain had long since dulled into an uncomfortable pressure.

She didn't know how long she had been there- three days? Five, maybe? The passage of time felt like a distant concept to her, as though it had ceased to matter. Her mind drifted in and out of sharpness, but one thought had remained constant: escape.

She needed to get out of there, she was no good to herself or her boss being locked up in the basement of some crime tycoon's mansion.

She couldn't die there, she wouldn't let herself die there.

There was so much to do, so much to experience in her young life, she had so many plans for her future and she vowed to see each one of them through.

And step one was finishing her damn story after finding her boss.

But there was one thing...or more like, someone that wasn't part of her plan but somehow managed to burrow himself so deep into her life and heart that she had an empty and sinking feeling in her chest from being away from him.

Zayden Harrison.

He was supposed to be the detective protecting her because she was nearly a victim at some point, and also helping her find her boss, that was all it was supposed to be and nothing more.

But there he came, with that permanent frown, adorable rare smile, and his silly stupid little banters that had her wanting to pull all of her hair out, but in the same breath, kiss him till his scent became hers.

Loriatte couldn't wrap her head around how he somehow slithered his way into her plans- into her life- when at first she wanted to be as far away from his brooding face as possible. Now, she would find her mind drifting off to how her future would look with him in it.

Of course, the thoughts were ridiculous and would never in a million years come to fruition, she hated entertaining them, but oh, how sweet it was to think that someday when all of this was over, she'd come home from a long day's work and run into the arms of her favourite detective.

What bittersweet thoughts to have while you're locked up in the cell of a basement with a ticking clock on your life, but her thoughts were all she had for now, if anything they were the one thing keeping her head above the water.

The door to the basement creaked open, and Loriatte's heart jolted, she jumped up from her cross-legged position on the floor and rushed to the bars boxing her in, wrapping her hands around two of the cool metal bars.

One of the masked men who stood guard outside of the basement door walked in, "I brought you a friend," he dryly said.

The door opened wider, and a figure stepped forward into the dim light.