Dahlia's Kiss

I SPY

My doorto my apartment was wide open when we returned. It didn’t look as if anyone had forced it, so I could only surmise that it had been my own carelessness that caused it to be so. I sheepishly ducked behind Sterling when he pulled his gun from his hip and began to search every nook and cranny before allowing me to go any further than my living room. Nothing was out of place as far as I could see.

“Crap!” My scream brought him running from where he was currently searching my bedroom. “Did you see my cat? Please tell me he didn’t get out.”

“You mean the giant ball of fluff on your bed?” Sterling’s gruff voice echoed from the distant room. “He doesn’t seem upset that your privacy was violated.”

A sigh of relief passed over my lips. Bean was born into the outdoor world but hadn’t been out of the apartment since he was a tiny, feral kitten. There was no doubt in my mind he would not know how to survive without a person to fill his food bowl every day when it reached the halfway mark. Because, you know, if the bowl is only half full, he could potentially starve.

“Dahlia.” I didn’t like the dark intonation his voice took. “Come here, please.”

Swallowing hard, I inched my way into the hall with my back to the wall. Every shadow was suspect, and I wasn’t interested in any surprises. In my room, the bedside lamp was on, and the curtains were pulled closed. Had I closed them? I couldn’t remember. Bean stretched and looked at me, his whiskers pushing forward before his mouth broke into a full fanged yawn. Nothing looked out of place. I glanced at Sterling with a question.

“You haven’t noticed yet.”

“Noticed what?” I looked around again but came up empty.

Sterling rolled his eyes. “This is exactly why you need me to protect you. You’re hopeless.”

“And you’re an asshole.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. “Just tell me what I'm supposed to be looking at. I’m not good with guessing games.”

Stepping over to my dresser, he made a show of pointing to the tiny scrape of red fabric trapped between the drawer and the body of the dresser. “Someone has been in your panty drawer, unless Bean here likes to dress in women's underwear when you’re not home.”

Bean looked at him with his big green eyes, and I swear the cat understood everything he said.

“Isn’t it possible that a pair got caught when I closed it?”

“Would you just check it out and make sure everything is there that is supposed to be there? For God’s sake, woman. Do you have to make everything hard?”

I smirked. “I’m good at making things hard. It’s in my nature.”

“Jesus Christ.” Sterling sat on the edge of the bed and wouldn’t look at me. Perhaps I’d gone too far with that quip.

The drawer stuck as I pulled; the cloth making it snugger than it needed to be in the frame. Inside was a whole lot of nothing. “What the fuck!”

“What? What is it?” Sterling was instantly on his feet, examining the space for himself. He looked at me, looked back at the emptiness, and couldn’t help himself. “Let me guess. It’s laundry week, and that is exactly how you left it.”

My blood pressure rose, and I resisted simply throwing him out. As my anger dwindled, the fear took over. “Someone was in my apartment.”

“That was apparent by the open door.”

“They took all my underwear.” I ran my hand across the oak, hoping they would all magically appear under my fingertips. No such luck. Magician, I was not.

“Yes, that seems to be the case.”

I paused and looked at the condescending smirk on his face. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? You want me to need you to protect me. Did you set this whole thing up? Did you have someone come over here while I was with you to scare me so I would fall into your arms and beg for you to take care of me?’

His smirk fell.