0.24

"they're both late." karla frowned, propping her arms onto the desk.

ezra checked the time on his phone. "it's only 4:31, maybe they're coming back from lunch."

karla sneered. "mhm, sure. i'll give those twins another minute and i'm leaving."

two rapid knocks banged against the door, making ezra almost run to open it. "see, here they are! you're being dramatic."

"just let them in already."

locs of curly brown curly hair bounced into the room. a suspiciously bright smile on both of their faces.

"good afternoon, ms. pierce," greeted cj.

moriah cleared her throat. "we apologize for being late. we bumped into some people along the street."

"i don't need any excuses, you two." karla held her hand up. "tell me everything you've found. i've heard some of your work ezra, but i'd like to heard it directly from you two."

"yes, ma'am." they both said.

moriah started, the pearly smile still not leaving her face. "around last week before we came here, we stopped by the club. we brought our tools and decided to look over the walls with UV lights. the moment we turned them on, some sort of... code illuminated onto the wall."

"well what did it say?" asked karla.

moriah set a picture down in front of karla. neon blue words beamed back at the mafia boss as she read them.

MORE IS COMING. - O

"the hell?" karla glared at them. "and you're telling me that this was found on the wall?"

"yes, ma'am," moriah said. "below that thought, there was also a note."

moriah then handed a weathered piece of paper to karla, code scrawn from top to bottom of the small page.

.--- ..- ... - / .-- .- .. - / -.- .- .-. .-.. .- .-.-.- / .. .----. -- / .- .-.. .-- .- -.-- ... / -.-. .-.. --- ... . .-. / - .... .- -. / -.-- --- ..- / - .... .. -. -.- .-.-.-

morse code? what the...

underneath the code read the translation.

JUST WAIT KARLA. I'M ALWAYS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.

and again, the note was signed with an 'o' at the end.

"prior to this, ezra told us about the figure odette. you're familiar with her, yes?" inquired cj.

karla nodded her head. "of course i am. how could i not? she's the one that stole our money."

yet she hasn't done that in a while, karla thought.

"clearly by the signature, she was the one that left these notes. but i'd go further to say that she regulated the whole event along with partnering with the police."

"and what makes you come to that conclusion, cj?"

cj paused. "it seems like the perfect set up for you to be vulnerable to them. and in her eyes, the more vulerable you are, the easier it will be to harm you. odette couldn't have done this single-handledly, so the policed helped along at the scene."

"bold claim. but there's no doubt that you're right." agreed karla. "ezra, set up an convention for me."

ezra's eyes widened. "but karla, you're still hurt. there's no point in setting up a fake scene for them to fall into our trap if you're still hurt. how would that benefit us?"

"i know that odette wants to face me head on. if i send someone else in my place, she'll do nothing but kill them and possibly pull another stunt that puts us in this situation again. i'll go to get her attention, and we'll work things from there."

ezra was about to open his mouth to argue more, yet was cut off by one of the twins.

"but ms. pierce i have one more piece of news," stammered moriah. this time, karla noticed, her smile seemed to falter. "there's... traces of a stalker."

karla sighed. "i already know about that, moriah. i've seen the pictures that they've taken."

"ms. pierce, what i'm trying to say is— there's more. more pictures i mean."

three pictures were then spawned out onto the desk.

gwendolyn and karla standing in the parking lot of the club. gwendolyn wrapped her torn dress around karla's leg. them driving away into the car they stole.

"no fucking way. ça ne peut pas être possible. i saw no one— with a camera anywhere! the site was clear!" (it can't be possible.)

"i didn't hear of this either." ezra raised an eyebrow. "i've seen some pictures from this stalker, but never these."

"i was working in the data bases a-and it was there under a random name."

"mhm, alright. is that all you have to share?"

"yes, ma'am." both twins said.

"you're excused."

karla's eyes trailed after them suspiciously after they left. once they had left the room, she spoke.

"this makes no sense, ezra. none at all."

"you'll have to specify, karla. all of it sounds like shit."

"i have some of the most smartest people on my team." karla rubbed her temples. "there is simply no way possible they did not see that message on the wall."

ezra flipped his locs over his shoulder. "and i made sure to train them correctly. under my training, that's an impossible mistake to make. i'm sure of it."

"all the messages that 'odette' is using... they're too simple. there's many more complicated ways she could've used. yet she chooses sympathetic ink on the walls, morse code, and paper." karla looked down at the paper with morse code. "she must think of me as a fool."

"out of all of this," ezra spoke. "the photos from the stalker surprise me the most."

"i find it strange they found these pictures and did not tell you anything about it either," karla thought.

again, she looked at the picture closely, this time focusing on the photo of her and gwendolyn in the car.

yet as karla looked, she noticed something.

three thin strands of hair. red hair.

i'm freezing, gwendolyn bitterly thought.

she looked down at her phone to check the time: 4:25. at this rate from the cold chill of the afternoon weather, gwendolyn would find herself getting back home at a much later time.

earlier this morning, the weather had become a tad bit warmer from the usual norm. so gwen then took it upon herself to go out and finally explore the area around her. yet, of course, she needed some form of security if she left.

so from the instruction of karla, miles was instructed to stay by gwendolyn's side at all times.

gwendolyn attempted to talk with him (as she usually did), yet was met with a:

"please, let's just get this over with."

so from the moment that gwendolyn stepped out of the car, she made sure to enjoy her time out to the fullest.

in every store she passed along the street, whether closed or open, gwendolyn peered through every frosted window.

by the time she concluded that she was freezing, she had one brown, paper bag in each hand (along with miles holding two more and the new plant she bought).

"miles, i'm cold," gwen stated.

"is this you saying that you want to go back now?" he replied.

gwendolyn grinned, a cloud of hot air coming from her mouth. "it's like you read my mind, miles!"

"i didn't read your mind, gwen. you're literally shaking."

"well, uh, yeah." a short silence followed after gwen's response. "i'll... just go to the car."

in an attempt to escape from the awkward situation, she took off in a rush toward the car.

the faster i walk, the faster i get home, and the faster i get home, the faster i—

THUNK!

the freckled girl looked down onto the snow-covered sidewalk. the brown bag that was once in her hand had slipped down onto the snow.

she kneeled to grab the bag. "gosh, now the bottom of the bag is cold."

before gwendolyn was about to stand, a nearby shop's door opened. the comforting scent of warm, fresh bread blessed her nose delicately. yet the smell stopped as the door slammed shut.

"scarlett, we're going to be late." a woman spoke.

"moriah, calm down. ezra should be there, so even if you're late you'll be fine."

gwendolyn gulped. i haven't spoken to her in... forever.

still squatting, gwen took the contents out of the bag and spread them on the ground. she then slowly picked them up as she listened.

"even so, i don't like being late," huffed moriah.

scarlett scoffed. "you'll be fine."

"you're stalling us, scarlett." another voice spoke. "what exactly do you want us to do?"

"here. take this."

"and what exactly is this?" he asked.

"the evidence and picutres from the scene. did you eat so much that you forgot what i said, cj?"

"i didn't," he murmured. "we show her the note and pictures."

"and? there's more than those two things, cj."

"the stalker." moriah answered. "listen, we've got this under under control."

"you better," hissed scarlett. "i was close, but she escaped me."

cj scoffed. "seems like an issue on your part, doesn't it? you hired all those police, and the most you did was cause that a huge scene."

their footsteps seemed to get farther away, yet gwendolyn still heard more.

"i did not hire the police. that's too much money i don't have. but i've made a..."

"gwendolyn?" miles stood over her. "why are you on the—"

"no reason." she answered quickly. "my legs were hurting, so i had to take a break, that's all."

"but there's a bench right—"

"let's just go."

gwendolyn set on her mission to get back to the car as fast as possible, yet as many times as she had seen it before,

scarlett's red hair burned in her mind.

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hey guys!! 👋🏾

question: any cute little names? possibly for a kid/pet?? (a lil hint!!)

i know this is probably a pretty lame chapter, and no karla x gwen interaction, but just WAIT until next chapter 🤭

and as always thank you guys so so so SO much for the support ❤️❤️

- blushlily