Mayhem

Ch 16

I woke up in my bed once more without any recollection of getting there. To my surprise, it was nearly three in the afternoon and I hadn't had a single nightmare that entire night. For a brief moment I had thought it was all thanks to the alcohol until I saw my throw blanket laid over me and realized that there had been a dip in the bed next to me. I didn't have a headache like before, so I didn't drink enough to have a hangover. I must have fallen asleep out there at some point. Thinking back to the silence we shared in my favorite spot gave me a weird sensation of closure, having a special something with someone I could trust wasn't really a feeling I got to experience all that often. Most of my life, all I had was Mo and Ronald. This new found friendship, or whatever it was, it really scared me. To confirm my suspicions, I quietly got out of bed and peeked into the other room. Sure enough, Adrian was sprawled out over his sheets. I felt bad that he had stayed up with me, I hoped I didn't say anything in my sleep.

Grabbing clothes to change into, I quickly slipped out of the old and into the new before making my way down the steps. I was forcing myself to take steps and work my whole body to help the healing process. If I quit whenever it hurt, I would never heal. Getting down to the kitchen, I groaned that it was already late and started making us some food before our workout. I sighed at the calmness that I've gotten to experience these past few days and started to think about what life would be like if it was always this way.

As karma tends to follow those who are foolish enough for wishful thinking, my phone suddenly rang from a blocked number. Staring hard at the screen, the thought of whether to pick it up or not flashed across my mind. "Are you gonna answer that?" Yawned Adrian as he made his entrance from the other end of the building.

"It's a blocked caller." Stating what I knew. I watched as the call ended and was relieved that it was over with. The call gave me chills, but I couldn't understand why. Nobody who had my number ever went through the trouble of blocking their numbers from me unless it was for a reason. Within a matter of minutes, the phone began to ring again.

"Want me to get it?" Now walking over toward me, he looked at the screen as well.

"No, they can leave a message." Setting the still ringing phone down, "Eat up, I'll be downstairs when you're ready to train." With all of the extra training we have been doing, I could start work tomorrow if I would be allowed too. We were just shy of a week away from returning to work, the guys had to split up and do individual work in our absence. I didn't like putting them in danger like that, not with everything going on right now. Even I felt more at ease knowing I had Adrian to have my back at a time like this. I'm not so sure I could be as calm with two killers on the loose if I were to have been by myself at this point. My ribs were doing much better with the conditioning we've been doing, I'm sure they'll still be sore for awhile though. It's nothing I can't handle, I refuse to be delayed from work any longer.

"Rose, they keep calling." Sighed Adrian, bring the cursed phone along with him.

"Then turn it off." I said, doing just that before turning to stretch. "We are so close to getting back to work, we need to make sure we're ready."

"Geez Rose! We're just going back to work, what exactly are you preparing for? You've been training like crazy every day that I have to remind you to eat half of the time. Don't you think that maybe you're being just a little bit stir crazy and taking things over the edge?"

"The man was bold enough to try and blow me up at the precinct. We were found at our police sanctioned apartment not even a day after I was put there, don't you think there's something to worry about? If you don't want to train, that's on you. I need to be ready for whatever comes next, I have to make sure I can have my back."

"I'll have your back." He grumbled, crossing his arms at me unhappily.

"Secondary measures." Shrugging him off unapologetically, I turned to head for the ring. "If you were scared to fight me, you could've just started with that." I said jokingly now, watching over my shoulder as he rolled his eyes and started making his way to the ring. "Bring the waters, you'll need it here shortly." Adding one last remark, I climbed into the ring and waited for him to enter.