There is no honour among thieves.
★

Shack's Bar and Grill was no longer a bar and grill. It was an abandoned derelict two storeyed building —a glorified shack really. There was a huge sign out front saying, CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS.

Emilia highly doubted that there were going to be any renovations in this building any time soon. If there had been any plans of renovations before, they would have already started. So why, then, was she meeting up with Rosalia —a woman of high society— in this dump? Why did Rosalia even want to see her in the first place? What did they have to discuss?

Sitted in her car, Emilia stared at the text message again. Maybe it had been sent to her by mistake. Crazier things had happened before. Nonetheless, Emilia texted Rosalia.

I'm here. Can't see u anywhere.

Rosalia texted back instantly.

Basement parking lot. Orange BMW.

Emilia got out of her car, took one last breath of fresh air and descended into the dark basement parking lot.

The basement parking lot had more cars than Emilia had expected. She looked for the orange BMW and lo and behold, there it was, sequestered between a white Honda and an abandoned looking red Audi. Rosalia was leaning against the hood of the car like one of those movie stars in an '80s flick.

"So glad you could make it." Rosalia almost looked pleased to see her.

"Why did you want to see me? And why here?"

Rosalia raised her index finger. "Firstly, I'm sorry for inviting you to this place. I didn't know that it was closed for renovations. You know that I have not been in the country for a while. Now to answer your first question, I have someone who is dying to meet you?"

Emilia's pulse skyrocketed. She began rummaging through her purse for her gun.

Rosalia walked —more like cat walked— towards her. "Don't you want to know who it is?"

Emilia didn't want to know anything. She wanted to leave. It had been stupid of her to come here. At first, when she'd read Rosalia's message, she'd thought that Rosalia was in some sort of danger because of Matthias. Now, that Rosalia was perfectly fine, she could go home and put all this behind her.

Rosalia pouted. "Leaving already? Don't you want to meet your number one fan?"

Emilia continued to walk at a brisk pace. Rosalia was hot on her heels.

"Not even if the person is as important as your future brother-in-law?" Rosalia literally purred.

Emilia stopped. It was a stupid thing to do but she did it anyway. Brother-in-law? Archer had no brothers besides....

"Rosalia, what have you done?" Emilia pulled out her gun, spread her legs and aimed it at Rosalia's head. Emilia heard a faint sound —a car door opening and closing.

Rosalia laughed. "I did what had to be done. Put that gun down because you aren't going to use it. At least not today."

Emilia stared at her, appalled. "You are one sick bitch."

But she was right about one thing, though. Emilia wasn't going to use that gun. She turned to flee but crashed into a big hard body and fell to the floor.

"Not so fast." A deep baritone echoed through the parking lot.

Emilia rubbed her eyes because she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. "You?"

"Yes, me. Matthias Martin Finn. In the flesh." He spread his arms and smiled.

Emilia was instantly angry. She was angry at herself for not realizing this sooner, at Rosalia for fucking setting her up and at Matthias for starting all this.

"We considered you a friend. We trusted you with vital case information." Emilia growled.

"Hey, that was your decision. Not mine."

Emilia eyed her gun that had skittered across the floor and landed next to Matthias' feet. Mathias followed her line of sight and smiled, picking up the gun.

"This isn't something that pretty little girls like you should be handling. Want to see what it can do?"

Emilia watched as Matthias pocketed her gun, got out his own that was armed with a silencer and took aim at her. She shut her eyes just as the gun went off and a scream reverberated throughout the parking lot.

"You stupid bitch!" Rosalia screamed.

Emilia opened her eyes to see Rosalia curled up in a fetal position on the floor. Blood oozed out of a gaping hole on her stomach and pooled around her body. Emilia stared back at a smiling Matthias in confusion.

"Don't look at me like that. You still have a purpose." Matthias shrugged.

Emilia already knew what her purpose was. She was to be used as bait to lure Archer into his trap. Emilia would die first before she let that happen.

Invigorated by the idea of saving Archer from Matthias, Emilia got up and slammed her whole body weight into Matthias. He fell to the floor and Emilia made a run for it.

Emilia didn't run for long. The odds were stacked up against her. The parking lot was too dark and she was unarmed. Matthias grabbed hold of her leg and yanked causing Emilia to fall head first on the hard dusty concrete floor.

Matthias walked sluggishly towards her, savouring the sight of Emilia curled up on the floor. He took out the handkerchief he had laced with chloroform prior to this meeting and placed it over her nose and mouth. She fought against his body until she passed out.

"Oh little bro. I'm coming for you. Actually, come to think of it, you are coming to me." Matthias laughed.

★★★

Across the street from Shack's Bar and Grill, Daisy Atkins roamed the aisles of the supermarket seeing everything and nothing at the same time. She was in a fatigue induced trance. Last night hadn't been easy on her because every time she closed her eyes, she kept seeing Natasha's lifeless body in her car. And don't even get her started on the bones.

"Raspberry or watermelon?" Ronnie held two sealed plastic cups in his hands.

Daisy squinted. "What the hell are those?"

"They are slushies. Now answer my question. Raspberry or watermelon?" Ronnie waved the cups in the air.

"Don't they have alcohol?"

"I told you I wasn't going to let you drink. Besides, you are a light weight. So raspberry or watermelon?"

"I'm not a light weight." Daisy groaned "Fine, raspberry."

Ronnie slung his arm over Daisy's shoulder and guided her towards the checkout counter. This close, she could smell his perfume. Daisy was instantly self conscious of her own body odor. She hadn't even showered this morning. When Ronnie had come over to her house to pick her up, she'd quickly thrown on sweats and a buggy shirt. Her uncombed hair was tied up in a ponytail. Daisy surreptitiously sniffed her armpits. There was no obvious stench. She sighed in relief.

The long queue at the only counter was discouraging and uninspiring. At this rate, their slushies would melt before they even got to taste them. And no one liked a melted slushy. Right?

"Ronnie, this line is too long. We can get slushies somewhere else." Daisy whined.

"Wait, I have an idea. Come with me." Ronnie pulled her by the hand and led her to the aisle filled with baby products.

"Are you planning for a baby?" Daisy joked.

"Could you be a little patient?" Ronnie pulled his shades from his shirt pocket and slipped them on. "Introducing to you blind Ronnie."

"No, Ronnie. We are not doing this whole blind act again. And besides, the guards probably saw you entering the supermarket when you were seeing fine. It won't work." Daisy crossed her arms over her chest.

Ronnie countered. "The guards see many people entering the supermarket daily. They don't have time to memorize everybody's face. And hey, it worked the last time. But if you don't want to, we can wait in that extremely long line because I am not living here without the slushies."

Daisy didn't have much of a choice. She couldn't just leave Ronnie here. He was her ride home. Plus, she couldn't take a bus. She hadn't come with any money.

"Fine." Daisy sighed.

Ronnie leaned on Daisy and they walked clumsily across the supermarket knocking over things and bumping into people and muttering apologies that didn't mean anything. Daisy was trying very hard not to laugh at the looks they were getting from the bewildered customers. By the time they reached the queue, more than half the supermarket knew about their presence.

The customers in the queue made way for them. They paid for their slushies and a polite security guard escorted them out of the supermarket.

Once Daisy and Ronnie were outside the sliding glass doors of the supermarket, they exploded into laughter. They laughed so hard that tears escaped their eyelids.

"Oh God. You are evil. I'm never doing that again." Daisy laughed.

Ronnie looked at her as he wiped the tears from his eyes and face. "You know that we are going to do that again because you hate waiting in line."

"No, I don't. You can let go of me now."

Daisy tried to break free from Ronnie's grasp. Ronnie, instead, pulled her closer into his body so that they were looking into each other's eyes. Daisy didn't wait. She grabbed Ronnie by the collar and kissed him. Ronnie kissed her back with the full force of his lust and his unexpressed emotions. Daisy broke away before the kiss deepened.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." Daisy touched her lips.

Ronnie handed Daisy her slushy. "I won't lie. I'm not sorry. I've wanted this to happen ever since we were fifteen and you were gushing about K-pop and the Jonas brothers. Don't lie that you don't want this."

"It's not that. It's just that I am confused right now. I don't know if I want to be with you after everything that has happened. I need time, Ronnie, to get my feelings in order. Could you give me some time and space?"

Ronnie drunk his slushy. "Sure. Whatever you need. I just wanted you to know that I like you. Everytime I imagined myself settling down and having kids and stuff like that, I imagined doing it with you."

Daisy was uncharacteristically silent as she crossed the road to go to the basement lot where their car was parked.

After they crossed the road, Ronnie grabbed hold of her hand and forced her to face him. Daisy's first thought was that Ronnie was going to kiss her again.

"Hey, at least say something. Anything."

Daisy slurped on her slushy. "I got an admission to Yale to study law. The admission came yesterday in the mail."

"But that's all the way in New York." Ronnie walked away. Daisy knew that he was pissed.

Daisy ran after him. "I'm not going to Yale."

Ronnie stopped and turned to her. "Yale has always been your dream. Don't forsake your dream because of me. I'll be perfectly fine without you here. A little heartbroken, yes, but nothing a few too many slushies can't fix. And besides I can always vibe to Olivia Rodrigo."

Daisy chuckled. "Someone's getting cocky. You are not the reason I am not going to Yale. I'm not going because I don't think I want to be a lawyer anymore. I recently came to a realization that lawyers only fight injustice from the sidelines. They don't do much of the dirty work. The police, the Medical Examiners and the detectives do. Now, I can't be a Medical Examiner because Biology is not my forte." Daisy took Ronnie's hand and held it. " I want to be a cop, Ronnie. And as soon as I tell my aunt, I am going to apply to join the police academy. Who knows maybe in ten years or less, I will be working for the FBI or the secret service."

Ronnie laughed. "Nice. And who knows maybe in ten years or less, I will get to brag to the neighbors that I am the husband of a cop."

Daisy poked Ronnie's arm with her index finger. "Mister, don't get ahead of yourself." She leaned into him. " I had a lot of fun today. Thank you for helping me forget about what happened in the forest —even if it was for a little while. I know it isn't easy for you considering what happened with Natasha. Your mom told me what Natasha's parents said at the morgue."

"They didn't say anything that wasn't true. I'm the reason their daughter was at the forest in the first place."

"Hey, God is the one who gives and takes. You didn't know that their would be a psycho roaming the forest." Daisy touched his cheek. "Natasha was your friend. And even though it pains me to say this, she didn't deserve to die. Now if anyone gets to know that I said that about Natasha, I will beat your ass."

Ronnie gave a two finger salute. "Sir, yes sir."

"You are impossible." Daisy slipped her hands into his as they descended into the basement parking lot.

They had hardly stepped foot in the basement parking lot when Daisy abruptly stopped, causing Ronnie to bump into her.

"What's up? Why did you stop?" Ronnie tried to peer over her so that he could see what had made Daisy stop.

"Did you hear the 'pop' sound?" Daisy whispered.

"You stopped over a mysterious pop sound? We are in a parking lot. Lots of things could make a pop sound."

Daisy was adamant. "I know that. But that specific sound is almost like the one produced when a gun that is equipped with a silencer is fired. I've watched documentaries on guns before."

"The chances of that pop sound being a gunshot are one in a million."

"Look to the left of the huge black car and say that again." Daisy whisper-yelled.

Ronnie's mouth hung open. Daisy was right. There was a bleeding woman lying on the floor next to the black car. From where Ronnie was standing, he could make out the faint rise and fall of the woman's chest. At least she was still alive.

Grabbing Ronnie by the hand, Daisy led him behind another parked car so that they could hide. They both watched in silence as a burly man came into view, carrying a white haired woman on his shoulder. Daisy tried and failed to get a good look at both the man and the white haired woman. The man got into the car and drove away.

Daisy fished out her phone and dialled 911.

"Hello? This is Daisy Atkins. I need your officers track down a car that has been involved in a kidnapping." Daisy glanced at the bleeding woman on the floor. "Yes, I have the license plate number of the car. Also, you might want to send an ambulance to the basement parking lot of Shack's Bar."

"What do we do now?" Ronnie asked when Daisy hung up.

"We wait for the police to get here."

★

Guess who found their romantic bone lol.

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