I'm His

4

Nothing about that date strikes me as off until the next morning. After breakfast, I hang around the living room to play with Jazlyn. Her favorite game is tug-of-war, and playing with a dog that big can feel like a competitive sport. "You can do it, Adrian!" Phaedra lazily lifts a glass of orange juice, which may or may not have also contained vodka. "Show her who's boss." She continues with a grin. "I'm not paying for it if she breaks anything." Jazlyn woofs at Chance. Her barks are muffled by the rope in her mouth, butt wiggling in the air. At the sound of the front door opening, though, she drops the toy at once. My dog bounds over to the door, wiggling all over as Ash and Hideyoshi walk through.

"Hey, you two." Getting up to my feet, I wave at them. Ash is bent over, rubbing Jazlyn's face between two palms. Hideyoshi is leaning against the doorway with both hands in his pockets, looking tired but satisfied. "Good morning. Or is it afternoon already?" He yawns and blinks. "Morning." Phaedra greets too. "We missed you at breakfast. Where were you guys?" Not doing anything fun, if the fresh bruise on Ash's face is anything to go by. "Oh. We were..." The man rolls his shoulders. "Out. You know how it is." I sigh, but shrug. "Okay. Fine. Be cryptic. See if I care." 'I really, really do. Damn my nosiness and worry for their safety.' "Sounds like you care a whole lot." I huff, cheeks puffing out. "Come on, Adrian. Don't be dense." Phaedra winks at Hideyoshi. "It's obvious they were out having...a very special time together. Just like when you and Chance disappear all night." My face goes thermonuclear all the way to my ears. "Ew." Ash mutters under his breath, a blush covering his face too. Chance laughs softly under his breath, while Hideyoshi straightens up, cheeks red. "Don't tell him stuff like that." He directs his next comment at Ash, actually sounding offended. "Also what do YOU mean, ew? Am I not a fine specimen of a man?" I cover my laugh with cough. "Not into guys. Not my type." I don't cover my laugh this time. "I don't care. I'm EVERYONE'S TYPE. Okay? Let's put that to rest now." I hold my face in my hands as I laugh, not being able to stop myself.

"That vanity of yours is such a prickly thing." Marcus strolls in just in time to catch the end of the conversation. He's fully dressed, unlike everyone else, and ready to head out to work. "Marcus, will you tell Hideyoshi he's pretty already so he can calm down?" I'm full out laughing with tears falling down my face at Chance's comment. "Why do I have to do it?" I take deep breaths to calm down enough to say something intelligible. "Because you're the official Yoshi wrangler." Marcus gives me a long, cool glare. Then he sips his coffee, keeping quiet. "Ughh, why am I even arguing about this?" Hideyoshi grits out. "Good question." Taking the remote from the table, Chance raises the volume on the TV. "Now everyone shut up, something actually interesting is demanding my attention." "Jerk." Chance throws a pillow across the room at Hideyoshi.

On the news, an ongoing story evolves before my eyes. "...victim of a robbery gone wrong. But there are some claims that this case isn't quite what it seems. Eyewitness reports claim the perpetrator was more interested in the destruction of property, than the material goods stashed behind the safe." The reporter announces, sounding confused himself. "This was a warning, I tell you." The witness' face has been blurred out, probably for their own protection. Beside me, I see Chance stroking his chin with one hand, eyes narrowed. "Not any kind of random rampage, but a message to the owner and to the rest of us that we better stay in line." I tilt my head at the screen in thought. "This falls in line with the victim's account of this being alleged gang violence. However, as said before, there's more than one layer to this story." 'Gang violence huh?' "This man has a long history of insurance fraud. Maybe this time he went the extra mile of making it look like he had been attacked, but we've seen this all before. As soon as our detectives sort this out, we'll probably find footage of the guy smashing up his own shop to collect the insurance money." A cop explains, looking more bored than anything else. "Heh." Glancing to the side, I see Phaedra grinning nastily at the report, teeth bared in a wolfish smile. 'Wait a second...' Looking up the story on my phone, I find something that makes my stomach drop. 'That store...it was right next to where Chance and I were last night. Was Chance out doing gang business while we were on our date?'