Mayhem

Ch9

I couldn't believe that I'd be standing back in this bar on the shady side of town on my own again. Tears threatened to fill my eyes as I fought hard to keep them at bay. "And here I thought you only liked me for my brother." Throwing in a joke to break the ice, I choked on a laugh as my mood was slightly lifted. I had grown close to Ryan as well with the time I spent working with Ronan.

"You always were one with words." Rolling my eyes at him, I wiped my arm across my face to keep any left over tears from showing their face.

"What can I say, I'm trouble." Winking my way, he smiled fondly at me before turning to his only employee, Rolo. "Keep the place on lockdown for me for a little while, my sister is in town." Giving off his orders to his friend, we waited until we got a nod back in return.

"Mind if I join you two?" Came a familiar voice, halting us in our tracks.

"Listen buddy, my advice isn't available at the moment. As you can see, I'm with a lady." Glaring at the person and holding me close, I felt my cheeks burn red as I tried not to laugh.

"It's okay Ryan, he's a part of this whether we like it or not." Giving his back a quick pat, I turned from his embrace to find my parter seated at the stool from earlier. I could nearly die of laughter at the cloak he had on over his fancy clothes, it's no wonder I didn't recognize him.

"Who the hell's this guy?" Questioned Ryan, looking between the two of us.

"Her partner." Grumbled Adrian, annoyed that he needed to explain himself.

"Assigned, my assigned partner." I corrected, feeling my heart beat faster and faster as guilt began to wash over me. This wasn't how I imagined our reunion going.

"I see." He commented, still looking between the two of us skeptically. Now turning toward Adrian, his face hardened. "This was the partner you were talking about earlier?" Shaking his head at Adrian for whatever they may have spoken about earlier, he turned to me. "He can come if you want him to, otherwise he can stay out here like any other ordinary person."

"I don't necessarily want him too, but he needs to be here for the intel anyway." I grumbled, getting a laugh from Ryan as he pulled me close and began to escort me to the back. I could hear Adrian following us from a distance, he wasn't waiting for us to call for him.

"You haven't changed a bit, still as honest as ever. Don't be so hard on your partner, what happened to Ronan had nothing to do with you. Don't let that drag you around like a heavy weight , he wouldn't want to see you like that either." Waving his hand over my head to mess up my hair, he smiled cheekily at me. "It's really been too long. I wanted to reach out. I really did, but..." Scratching his head, he began to look embarrassed and sighed. "I shouldn't have let you go through it alone, I know how close you two were." Apologizing to me, I stopped him dead in his tracks.

"I should have came to you, you had no obligation to come see if I was alright. After all-." Before I could finish my sentence, he cut he off with a stern look.

"Stop, it wasn't your fault. That's exactly why I should have checked on you, I should've known you were crazy enough to pin it all on yourself. That was not and will never be something on you, only that sick bastard Bomgardi and his delusional family." Spat Ryan, opening the door for us to enter into the back kitchen. We usually would go upstairs to his apartment, but I knew he wouldn't risk bringing a total stranger around his kid.

"Would the two of you mind stating your relation, I was told that Detective Rose had no siblings and that this was to be a relative of Detective Mathews. I was never informed that she was related to Detective Mathews either." Spoke Adrian, killing the atmosphere with his annoying need to pry.