Recent Posts

He just couldn’t let the coffee drop…or the kitchen….he just had to keep bringing things up, quietly enough that it seemed like he was talking to himself, but loud enough that she could hear every. Damn. Word. It was beyond reproach. She’d been serious about his apartment…if hers was so crappy, he could just go to his own place and wallow in the apparently awesomeness that was his kitchen.

”You said coffee. I provided coffee. What the hell is your problem anyway? I can’t believe you’re actually standing in my kitchen complaining about equipment. I don’t want a new coffee maker. I like my coffee maker just like it is. It makes coffee…easy coffee, which I love. Deal. With. It.” she finished with a poke in the general direction of Aurum’s chest and a pointed glare.

That accomplished, Riley sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to get her head wrapped back around the subject at hand while he jacked with her inferior coffee maker.

”So what do we do now? I mean…do we take the hint and drop everything…or keep going? Do I need to start packing heat or something more than pepper spray? I mean really…”

He listened, but Riley could tell that the good Detective was still trying out his powers with each and every step. She considered putting him out of his misery and telling him to simply try and eyeball four feet…but watching his face as he went through the trial and error process was too fun. But then…it worked.

Riley let out a little, ’oh’ sound and took and involuntary step backwards when the trashcan and the Detective traded places in the blink of an eye. And was that…cinnamon she smelled? Surely the trashcan hadn’t smelled like that before.

Three or four golf claps later, Riley smiled, approaching the spot where the trashcan now stood. ”Very impressive. I should have just told you before.”

She nodded. ”Yup, right at about four feet. That’s what previous testing has shown.”

Riley shrugged her shoulders again, ” Jury back with a verdict on what you think of all this yet?”

Her room wasn’t far from the living room, the apartment was small, and that’s just how Riley liked it. She never…ever brought people back here. Especially not men. Especially not baby lawyers who seemed to get their stupid faces stuck right in the middle of her business. Seriously, who got their stupid amnesiac selves thrown out of the back of a moving truck on the highway? Apparently Aurum did. Just in time to flag down her cab. Damn the coincidence, damn Lonnie, and damn this whole situation.

Her clothes were taking the brunt of her frustration, and Riley sighed, trying to calm herself down so she didn’t rip or tear anything. She’d dressed nice for a reason, but she sure as heck didn’t miss the heels she’d kicked off almost immediately after crossing the threshold of her room. They gave her height, and confidence, and Riley openly acknowledged the fact that heels were made to make a woman’s lower body look great….but they were hell after six or seven hours. Slippers were much better, she thought as she slipped them on with her sweat pants, a cami, and a well worn hoodie. It was amazing how much better clothes could make a person feel, Riley decided, and she grabbed a ponytail holder on her way back out to her guest. Her…unwelcomed guest….who was not where she’d left him.

Riley looked around the living room, then made her way around to the kitchen, where the lawyer was standing in apparently abject horror. Riley came up next to him, suddenly missing the added height from her heels, and he spoke.

”Nobody does make food in this thing.” she said, working her hair up into a comfortably messy bun on the back of her head. ”Why would I?”

She shrugged her shoulders and pushed by him into the kitchen to get a glass of water, ”Besides, I thought I told you that you could sit on the couch, not snoop around my kitchen.”

Aurum offered his hand, and Riley simply stared at it for a moment before reaching out and letting him help her up. She really hadn’t expected him to offer a hand, not after the way he’d flinched away from her after she’d explained what she was. Maybe he did have a head injury….was he having short term memory problems?

Or had she misunderstood?

The thought left a terrible taste in Riley’s mouth, because the only thing she hated more than being wrong, was being wrong in regards to something that had to do with Aurum.

They elevator was two floors away from her…their…stop now, and Riley moved to one side of the elevator door. If someone was going to be waiting out there to jump her, she wasn’t going to make it easy for them.

The elevator stopped again, this time on the right floor and dinged. Riley watched the doors open, heart beating much faster than it really had any reason to and saw….nothing.

Releasing a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and trying to pass it off as a yawn, Riley made her way out of the elevator and towards her door which was the third one on the right.

”No comments…about anything. And if I hadn’t mentioned it before. You’re lucky as hell you’re here…and you owe me.” she said, digging in her purse for her keys, which she found with relative speed. In due time, the door was unlocked and an interior light was turned on.

The apartment was older, but by no means run down…and if the furniture was slightly dated it was still tasteful and simple as were the rest of the furnishings.

This was the part where most people said something like, ‘make yourself at home’ or something else to make their guest more comfortable. Riley wasn’t most people.


”I guess you can hang out on the couch. I’m going to change.” she said, then headed for the small hallway that held her room and the bathroom. Aurum was big boy, he could handle himself.

Riley’s scowl settled into a more comfortable glare as Aurum parroted his words from before about wanting to know all the details. Of course he wanted all the details. That’s how he operated with all his silly lawyer investigator skills. Because normal laymen like herself didn’t have the ability to keep up or draw conclusions on their own.

Riley looked up at the ceiling of the little box they were in, hoping to hear some kind of tapping or hammering that would indicate that someone was working on the elevator. Anything so she could put some space between herself and the questions that were quickly becoming incessant. She’d already told him everything that was important. What more was there?

No sounds. No indication of help. Riley sighed, then begrudgingly told him every tiny little detail she could remember about the whole thing. Begrudgingly and with heavy emphasis on every mistake she could remember him making. Even if it wasn’t helpful, it made her feel better.

Finished, and actually a little satisfied with herself, Riley smiled sweetly, ”So there. Anything else?”

”Not a damn thing?”

”Surely you remember something.” Riley muttered with a sigh, running a hand through her hair and frowning in Aurum’s general direction, then scowling a little bit at the stupid grin on his face. ”It’s not funny. What if some creep is waiting outside the apartment door? You said you just randomly woke up in that truck with those two. What had you been doing before?”

She paused, not entirely focused on the investigation at this point. Sure there were things to tell, like how she’d found the drugs in the vanishing cabinet, and how she’d realized that Lonnie was in on the whole thing. That could wait though, they could hash out those details when they were sure nothing nefarious was going to be waiting for them when the elevator was finally fixed