When Hell Runs Cold

Chapter Nineteen

Alysia cleared her throat, blinking the tears out of her eyes. Dwelling on it never made anything better, she reminded herself. "So what else do you want to know? Ex-friends? Ex-coworkers?" She tried to keep her voice even, but on the last word, it broke.

Nathan decided not to push the subject thankfully, continuing his questioning along a different route. "What about we stray away from the exes? What about current friends?"

Alysia gave him a confused look, reaching for the last donut. Nathan slapped her hand away, taking the donut for himself. She shot him a dirty look. "What do you mean current friends?"

"Who are your closest friends?" He clarified.

"Uh April and Eric, I guess." She shrugged, wiping a few crumbs off the desk they were sitting at. "I'm not really close with friends from college, we're just acquaintances." She listed off a few for him.

Alysia watched as Nathan typed their names onto the lists of potential suspects. She narrowed her eyes at the man, "Why are you adding April and Eric to that list? They're not my enemies. Especially not April."

"Haven't you heard the saying? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Sometimes the villains are the ones we don't expect." Nathan muttered, his blue eyes glued to the screen.

Alysia leaned forward, shaking her head. "Yes, Nathan, I read books and watch movies. I know the trope. April isn't a villain. And neither is Eric. I mean yeah, he's emo, and dead inside, but he's not a villain."

Nathan shrugged. "It's not impossible. It's the people you expect least that are the villain. I mean, look at you. High School valedictorian, former babysitter, volunteer at the orphanage, you don't seem like you'd be a thief, right?"

"Well, sometimes you need to do bad things for good reason." She reasoned. Nathan raised an eyebrow, daring her to elaborate. "I mean, you aren't the nicest person, are you? You're a vigilante. You've killed people. Granted they were still bad, but still."

Nathan gave her a disapproving look. "You shouldn't believe everything you hear, Lockheart."

"William Snow?" She named the politician that had reportedly been killed by Nathan. William Snow was loved by everyone. Only after his death, when detectives uncovered a collection of inappropriate videos of children, exposing him as a pedophile, but people still hated Whirlwind for killing him.

Life was life, no matter what kind of person lived it.

"Shot himself." Nathan responded, and the words sent a jolt of shock up her spine. The news definitely hasn't heard that part. "Apparently the idea of death was more appealing than being in jail for a long time. Being a pedophile wasn't the only bad thing he did. That dumbass Blitz saw me with his dead body, and just assumed that either I killed him or made him kill himself."

"Oh. I see." Alysia muttered. Turning slightly, Nathan's eyes lifted to catch hers, intense and dark, a lost galaxy of failed wishes and tortured memories.

"I know, I'm not a good person, Alysia." He said softly. His gaze dropped back to the screen, the moment vanished like stars in daylight. Something in Alysia's chest twinged painfully as she watched the chiseled profile of his face. "I would kill to protect the people I care about. I would do bad things in order to achieve good things. There's a reason I'm called a vigilante, not a hero." Nathan closed out of the document, whirling around in his chair to face her. "You work with April now, right?"

Irked at the abrupt change in topic, Alysia glanced down at her wrist watch, rising to her feet when she noticed that she only had thirty minutes before her shift started. "Why do you ask?" She couldn't be late on her first official day of work. "Speaking of work, I need to go."

"I'm coming with." Nathan got up from his seat, grabbing a napkin, wiping off the crumbs of the Boston crème donut he had stolen from her. "Let's go."

***

"Why did you even come?" Alysia muttered to Nathan as she got out of his sports car. "And I like walking, by the way."

"April's a suspect. And we need to keep an eye on our suspects. Plus, Eric is there too, right? Another suspect."

"April wouldn't hurt a fly. Actually, maybe she would hurt a fly. But she wouldn't hurt me. We've been friends since middle school." Alysia told him, giving him a look. "And Eric doesn't admit it, but we're friends."

"Still. Better to be safe than sorry."

"Okay, what am I supposed to say when April asks me why you're with me? Why Nathan Carstairs, out of all people, is with me?" She scoffed.

Nathan shrugged, unconcerned with the possibility. "I'll deal with it. But the most important part is to make sure that Frostbite isn't affiliated with April or Eric."

Alysia gave him an incredulous look, her eyes wide open. "You'll deal with it? Yeah, good luck with that, she won't stop interrogating you." Nathan opened the door for her, and she walked in, shrugging her coat off her shoulders. The smell of freshly brewed coffee and pastries hit her nose, and she took a deep breath, taking in the pleasant aroma of Busy Bean.

Nathan took her jacket from her, draping it over one of his arms. When Alysia gave him a confused look, he shrugged. "Part of the plan."

"You were almost late!" April exclaimed, rushing to the pair, giving Alysia a dirty look. "You can't be late on your first day on the job, Alysia. Rush hour is going to start soon!"

"If you wanted me to be perfectly on time, you should've made me pinky promise." Alysia said, holding up the small digit, wiggling it a bit.

April rolled her eyes, a slight smile making its way onto her face. Her eyes widened, seeming as if she had just noticed Nathan. "Oh, hi!" Her gaze fell on the coat in Nathan's arms and a slight smirk appeared on her gloss-covered lips, before she looked back up at the pair.

"Nathan, this is April. April, this is Nathan." Alysia muttered, rolling her eyes as she noticed the excited sparkle in April's eyes. She glanced at Nathan, who had an easy grin on his face. Eerily identical to the grin he'd flashed her the first time they had officially met, Alysia noticed.

"It's nice to meet you! Alysia didn't tell me that you guys were close!" April exclaimed, the bright smile never leaving her lips. She gave Alysia a look. "I need all the details after our shift."

As if Nathan wasn't standing right next to her.

Alysia gave her an unimpressed look, mumbled her response of, "Yeah, yeah, okay."

April looked at her expectantly, before holding a pinky up. The dark blue nail polish which Alysia had painted during their sleepover had started chipping off, peachy skin showing through. Alysia let out an exasperated sigh, before hooking their pinkies together. "Pinky promise." she muttered, and April's smile somehow got wider.

"Great!" April beamed, linking her arm through Alysia's. "Let's get to work!"

Happy Friday! Good news, I've prewritten the next few chapters, so my updates will be more consistent! I'm starting a new book for Nano next weekend, so figured I'd prewrite all the chapters for November, so I don't get stressed out. How many of you guys are planning to do Nano?

Onto question of the day!

QOTD: What's your favorite breakfast food?

Mine would probably be bagels, which is pretty basic, but I don't usually eat breakfast a lot. Hope you all have a good day!