Anything For Grace

Chapter 6

Elijah's POV...

I stayed up majority of the night, pondering through any private archives I could to search for Penelope Bryan. Nothing. I couldn't find a single thing about her and it was going onto four in the morning. She was like a case I couldn't crack for the sake of my sanity. All I had on her was her current address and her name. How could she live in the shadows with no trace?

My phone chimes its alarm, alerting me to wake up and get ready to work out before work. Time was passing before I actually thought about sleep. I shut it off and toss it onto my bed. I sighed, frustrated that I wasn't getting anywhere. It's like she didn't exist. She was a ghost, gracing my chair and my presence and I let her go through the door.

My fingers were turning numb at the constant pecking of the keyboard and my eyes were growing weary from the going back and forth. I scrolled many sites, trying to find one hint at a social media account, but she didn't have anything. The one thing that kept my frustration brewing was how common her name was. There were about two-hundred Penelope Bryans in the area alone. To sift through all the profiles, it was stressful.

Finally, it dawned on me. I clicked onto CPD, the Columbus Police Department website and hacked into their records. Earlier, I hacked all of the hospitals in Columbus, which were luckily only two, to find Penelope didn't have a birth certificate that would lead me to her. They were my last resort and after them, I would be a loss cause.

I scrolled through reports from three months ago, wondering if a woman by the name of Penelope Bryan has ever received a record. If she's received a record, maybe that's why she isn't on social media. To lay low and not be a walking target. My mind was glitching at five in the morning as I am almost awake for twenty-four hours.

The page loaded all mugshots and her face wasn't showing up. I narrowed my eyes and leaned more into my laptop screen, keeping track of all the faces I see so I didn't accidentally skip hers. I needed to find her; I needed to see her.

The search continued going for about fifteen minutes and I was getting weary in the end. I needed sleep before showering for work, but I was obsessively eager to complete this mystery. I get restless and my back slumps into my couch and I closed my eyes for a second. I was two seconds away from closing my laptop and hurdling it across the room and smashing it into a million pieces.

As soon as my eyes opened, I found it. Her mugshot.

She was arrested and it was finally updated from two days ago. Her face wasn't busted like the ones I previously seen, but she looked rough, like she was drunk. Her easy brown eyes and a slick smirk on her face as her brown, curly hair was drifted onto one shoulder. I clicked on her photo, seeing if it would take me to a profile processed on her. No more information than I already knew popped up. They booked her for prostitution. Strange.

Even though, it was satisfying to finally reach the end of my goal, even though it took me a whole day, it was unfulfilling to not know everything about her. When she was sitting in front of me yesterday, she didn't seem like a woman who would have a mugshot. She had power; her eyes were her weapon. Her body language was unreadable.

I can see how she used the charm. She posted bail of $5,000, so I can imagine her bank accounts were suffering, especially if she was selling her body for cheap. I leaned back as I questioned my next move.

What was I going to do?

Was I going to shut my laptop, fake my satisfaction and continue the process of business?

Having a criminal background is taboo in corporate; she'll be a liability to me before she's an asset.

I tapped my chin, weighing my thoughts out. Was she someone I had to take into consideration? Although, I know nothing about this girl and she could be an expert in robbing men blind, we were similarly cut from the same cloth. We'd do the low-down dirty things to get what we want. Her eyes told me her life story, but there's more. She had a choice, why didn't she take it? Were there opportunities she declined? With the skillfulness beauty she possessed, she could've been a model.