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Chapter One
Decker
“Why do you always close your curtains whenever I come over?” I cross my arms over my chest and study my baby sister, Simone.
She turns back from fixing the material and plays dumb, twiddling her blond, curly hair around her finger with wide eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s just sunny out there, and I’m trying to make sure that we don’t get skin cancer,” she says, blue eyes unflinching.
“I know that your neighbor grows marijuana plants, Sim. And probably more than she is allowed. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
She purses her lips. “I’m not confirming anything. But if she did, I don’t want her to get into trouble. She’s a sweet old lady and I’m sure it’s medicinal.”
I lean my elbows down on her kitchen countertop. “You really think I’d come to visit my sister and arrest some grandma while I’m at it?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I just didn’t want to put you in that position.”
“Well, now you don’t have to,” I say as I move to the window and spread the curtains open, giving me full view of Mrs. Masey’s giant plants. “I quit the police force.”
“You did what?” Sim asks, stilling. Her brow furrows. “You aren’t going to start stripping again, are you? That was awful.”
I laugh out loud at that memory. “No, I’m not. Although I still have the body for it,” I say as I tap my abs. I used to do a little stripping to make some extra money while I was in the police academy. No one else knows about it, at least I hope they don’t.
She throws a tea towel at me. “Seriously, Seth, what are you doing?”
“I’ve gone to work at Nadia’s firm,” I explain. “As a private investigator. It gives me a little more control over what I want and don’t want to do, and I’m basically working for myself. I thought it would be a nice change.”
What I don’t admit to my sister is that the line between what the law is and what is right has gotten a little blurred for me. It all came to a head when Nadia was hired to investigate a murder, and together we uncovered that the wrong man had been arrested and convicted. I was reprimanded for helping her and working with the Knights of Fury MC, and my boss told me I would not likely see the promotion I thought I was going to be getting. And after all of that, the fucked up thing is that I was punished for helping find justice for the victim. If Nadia asked me for help again, I wouldn’t have been able to say no. I felt a little frustrated, like my skills weren’t being used to the best of their ability.
And if I’m being honest, maybe being a cop wasn’t all that I thought it was going to be. I wanted adrenaline, excitement and to help people while getting that rush, but all I got was rules and regulations.
Besides, I don’t feel that I was making a difference as a police officer. Not as much as I would have liked. I knew it was time for a change. Maybe I’ll regret my choice. Maybe not.
I don’t know.
But we will soon find out.
“Private investigation. Isn’t that basically the same thing without the badge?”
“Eh. More freedom, fewer rules.”
“But you loved putting away the bad guys. You can’t do that as a PI.”
“Not true. I may not be able to physically put the handcuffs on someone, but I can still help put them away. And I can also help catch the people who aren’t necessarily criminals, but are doing something wrong, and that matters more to me.”
Sim sits on her countertop, legs swinging, as she gives me an inquisitive look. “I promise I’m not being negative, but don’t PIs just catch cheating spouses?”
“You know, that’s exactly what I thought when I first met Nadia.” I smile at the memory. She had come storming into the station like she owned the place, asking my former partner, Felix, an old friend of hers, for some help on a missing persons case. Felix introduced the two of us, and I made a crack about how it couldn’t be hard to find out which hotel a cheating husband was at. Nadia shook my hand, her hold strong, while staring me dead in the eye and proceeded to tell me that she was looking for a missing teenager because the cops had given up looking. Her confidence and work ethic made me respect her instantly. “But there’s a little more to it than that. And I can choose the cases that I want to take on.”
Sim studies me. “It must have been hard, though, for you to walk away from a job you’ve given your life to.”
I nod slowly. “It was.”
But I guess I was given a push. If they hadn’t caught me helping Nadia would I have stayed? I’m not sure what my answer would be. But my actions have led me here, and I don’t have any regrets.
Yet.
“As long as you’re happy.”
“I think it’s the right choice for me. At least for now,” I say, glancing around her black-and-white tiled kitchen. “And Nadia needed someone to help her out, so here I am.”
