Ninety Three

NEW CANAAN, CONNECTICUT.

When Raina woke up the flooring morning after they got here, she thought Tyler would be up in his room sleeping, so she snuck down to the kitchen to make herself some coffee, but he was standing there at the sink when she came in. 

They had arrived late last night, and the first thing Raina had noticed was how simple the house looked. When he had insisted on bringing her to one of their safe houses, she had expected houses with concrete windows, electric wires around the fence like back at his house, a huge iron door and the like.

But, that wasn’t the case at all. According to Tyler, safe houses only needed to have strong locks, a security system, a safe or panic room, and emergency kits.  At least, that was what he told me.

“Good morning, Rain.” Tyler said without turning to look at her. He could just tell she was there because he felt her presence. 

“Good morning.” She said, sliding unto the stool in the kitchen. Unlike back at his house, this was an open kitchen, and it was all wall, with no window. 

There were only two windows in the living room, but they looked like they were strong enough from the outside. From the inside, they were heavily curtained. 

“I got up early to make you some breakfast.” He said, still not turning to look at her. 

“Oh, thanks.” She said, looking at her phone. 

Before they came here last night, Tyler had once again, check her phone for bugs, then he had put in a tracker to allow him know exactly where she was at any time. 

She checked for any mail or messages, but there were none, so she turned it off and dropped it on the table face down. 

Looking at him, she saw that he still had his back turned still, so she used the opportunity to admire his stature and the flawless skin of his defined, shirtless back. 

He was wearing a pair of black gym pants that hugged his beautifully round ass. Raina never realized how incredible his ass was until now, she had been too busy check out his front. Her physical attraction to him really irked her under the circumstances because she should be focused on her safety, but that didn’t stop her from checking him out. 

“Do you always ogle people when you think they can’t see you?” Tyler suddenly asked, his voice pulling her from her thoughts. 

She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. “How did you know that?” she asked. 

“I can feel your eyes burning into my skin, Rain. That’s how.” He said, sparing me a glance over his shoulder. 

“I wasn’t ogling you. I was watching you and hoping you get the food here on time.” Raina said, rolling her eyes at him.

“Oh, yeah right! That’s exactly what you were doing.” He said, shaking his head with a grin as he looked away from her. 

“Are you trying to make me hate you or something? Because you’re doing a pretty damn good job.” She said. 

Tyler didn’t answer her question. Instead, he just shrugged and continued what he was doing. She looked away from him, gritting her teeth. She wasn’t sure what his problem was, but he had just pissed her off and acted like it was nothing. Didn’t he understand that it was not easy hearing things people didn’t think anyone was noticing? 

“You’re annoying, you know that right?” she said, rubbing her arm as if she was irritated by his behavior to her skin. “You’ll just say stupid things just to get a rise out of me, then you won’t bother to reply me anymore, like I can make noise for all you care.” She said. 

Tyler chuckled. “Would you rather I just continue to annoy you then?” he asked, not bothering to look at me. “I’m trying to get my anger in check with you, Rain. You should be happy I know when to stop…unlike some people.” He said and she knew that was for her.

What was with him and indirectly talking to her, thinking she wouldn’t know? What was his darn problem anyway? 

“Will you at least look at me when you’re talking to me?” she asked him, gritting her teeth. Oh goodness, she had woken up on the cranky side of the bed because of the move stress from last night, but he was making it worse from his stupid talks. 

He turned around and walked toward her slowly then he tipped his face in towards hers. Raina could feel his words on her lips when he spoke, “Is this better? You would rather me in your face like this, huh?” he asked.

She could practically taste his breath on her tongue. Her entire body felt weak from the close contact, so she pushed her head back from his before her eyes wandered to his mouth. 

“I didn’t think so.” He said. 

Hissing, Raina pushed off the chair she was seated on and started to walk away but he grabbed her wrist. “Where are you going. The food is ready now.” he said, walking around the table to grab her shoulders and push her back gently to sit. 

Raina reluctantly sat back down, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at Tyler. “You’re lucky I’m hungry,” she muttered.

Tyler smirked, setting a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of her. “Oh, I’m very lucky,” he teased, pulling up a chair across from her with his own plate in hand.

Raina rolled her eyes but couldn’t help taking a bite. It was annoyingly good. “You know, I didn’t think you could boil water?” she said, trying not to sound too impressed. This was the second time he was making her breakfast. Although, Scott had told her that was all he was good at, bacon, eggs, toast and spaghetti. 

“Not sure I could be considered a good cook, but why are you surprised?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You can’t blame me,” she admitted. “I figured someone like you wouldn’t know the first thing about this kind of thing.” She said. 

“Someone like me?” he repeated, leaning back in his chair.

“You know what I mean,” Raina said, waving her fork. “Big house, security firm owner, safe houses, workers and all. You don’t exactly scream ‘home chef.’” Or in this case, breakfast guy. 

Tyler shrugged, taking a bite of his toast. “When you’ve been in as many situations as I have, you learn to fend for yourself. Cooking included, even if it’s just a handful of food I can cook.” He said.

Raina eyed him curiously, lowering her fork. “What kind of situations?” she asked. 

His expression shifted slightly, a flicker of something serious passing over his face before he masked it with a small smile. “Nothing you need to worry that pretty head of yours about,” he said.

“That’s not an answer,” she pointed out, narrowing her eyes.

“It’s the only answer you’re getting at all,” Tyler said, his tone firm but not unkind. “Now, eat your breakfast, Rain.” 

She wanted to push, but the look in his eyes stopped her. Instead, she sighed and went back to her food. “Fine. Il shut up now and stop bothering you.” She said, feigning hurt. 

Tyler smiled faintly, not responding. They ate in silence for a few moments before he spoke again. “So, about the other victims. Scott found out something interesting today. I’ll send you the details later. It’s about Sandra Liu.” He paused to drink some water. 

“He pulled a favor with someone he knows in the evidence room. Turns out, the belt she was found hanging from was logged as evidence but never really examined; because, you know, suicide… so case closed.”

Raina frowned, leaning forward. “So, what did Scott find? The belt… what about it?”

“The serial number,” Tyler said, his tone deliberate. “It was scratched off. Whoever staged the scene tried to make it untraceable. But Scott knows belts like this sometimes have an extra marking… inside the folded part of the belt loop. Manufacturers do it as a backup.”

“And?” Raina prompted, her heart starting to race.

“He checked it. Found the faint imprint of the number.” Tyler pushed his plate aside and folded his arms on the table. “He traced it back to a batch sent directly to the police department.”