separated because she cheated on me. Yet, I still reached out to her within a month of her leaving me to offer her my friendship, but the instant it appeared as if I was moving on, she cut me off cold turkey. The dozen or so text messages we exchanged each year before I sought her help didn’t compare to how close we once were, but still, I thought she’d give me the chance to prove I didn’t do what I was accused of.
She didn’t.
She didn’t give me the time of day.
Her silence is affecting me more than her. The last I heard she was dating some rich schmuck she met while interning at the DA’s office in Los Angeles. They moved back to my side of the states when Melody commenced her final year of law at Browns. Part of her scholarship was to intern under a division my father was in charge of. I still can’t believe that out of all the people in the world, she ended up working for the man who did everything in his power to keep her out of her university of choice.
To this day, I haven’t unearthed the cause of my father’s motive. Phoenix swears it’s because he didn’t want people to know his son was dating a ‘disabled’ person, but I believe it was more than that. My dad is a shallow, heartless man, but he keeps that side of himself hidden when he’s running for office. Furthermore, Melody would have helped his campaign. Diversity is everything in politics.
I stop reminiscing about jaded memories when my cab comes to a stop at the front of a modest weather-clapped property perched over the Tiburon esplanade. It gives off the vibe of a family home, but it’s a little unkempt like no one has a spare minute to run a lawn mower over the ankle-high grass or to trim the bushes hedging the fence line.
After digging a bundle of bills out of my pocket, I hand them to the driver of my cab. “Come back in around twenty minutes.”
“For this amount of coin, I can wait.” His eyes gleam as he stares down at the four twenty-dollar bills wrapped around a Benjamin Franklin. I’m on a modest third-year agent salary, but old family money reached my bank account not long after my twenty-first birthday. I rarely touch it, but for circumstances like this, I don’t mind dipping into funds I hope never to need.
“I’d rather you circle the block and come back in twenty minutes.” I don’t know about you, but a taxi idling at the front of a property for twenty minutes would be highly suspicious, especially with how high gas prices are. “Actually, make it fifteen. I don’t think this will take long.”
“All right.” After shoving the notes into the top pocket of his lint-riddled vest, the taxi driver pulls away from the curb.
While running my hand down the lapels of my suit to make sure none of his lint transferred to me, I commence walking down the cracked footpath. I’m halfway down when the front door of the residence creaks open. I don’t know why, but I step behind a thick bush in desperate need of a trim, hiding from the woman I’d guess to be around twenty-two perhaps twenty-three bounding out of the door. If I were a person who still trusted my gut, I’d say because it isn’t time for us to meet just yet.
“Wait! Please.” She chases down the taxi I ordered away, her jog hindered by the mountain load of textbooks she’s holding close to her chest.
When the driver seeks my gaze in the rearview mirror, I signal for him to stop. The unknown beauty with chestnut hair and a petite body smiles a blistering grin when the taxi’s brakes squeal through the crisp morning air, doubling her attractiveness.
“Thank you so much. My uncle would have shot me if I missed another class.”
She bundles her books into the back of the cab before slipping in behind them. She’s halfway in when her head suddenly pops back out. My first thought is that she’s spotted me hiding behind a bush at the front of her home, but the generous tilt of her jaw soon exposes my error. She’s noticed the military cargo plane in the air—the same plane the Bureau chartered to deliver Tobias to his final resting place.
She watches it for several long seconds, her chocolate-brown eyes twinkling in the low hanging sun, her brows pinched.