Etched in Glass

by Nyxie Marrs

  “Got information we forgot to tell you earlier.” He mutters as he finishes his piece, walks into the living room and returns with his computer.

  “Is it about Vega living with you? Or should I be concerned?” I’m expecting her to throw out some aggression as I laugh. I saw her earlier, she doesn’t hold back. Instead, she blushed and shies away. Well, enough said.

  “No. Not that.” He replies as he props his computer up on the counter and pulls up the video from Molly’s case. I glance to Vega as she walks over to a map they have laid out and stares at it.

  “Okay. Now. Watch.” He points to the screen and plays the video in slow motion. He pauses it just as the woman starts to leave. “See that?”

  “Nope, what am I supposed to see?” I squint my eyes, trying to look for more details, but I’m not seeing it.

  “Right here. You know how we said this man may or may not be him? Well, look at his hand.”

  I stare at the screen a bit longer. My eyes widen and I’m sure my jaw dropped as I see this man placing a cup on the table behind Molly’s back. “Holy shit. How’d we miss that?” I look at him, then her. Vega’s smile increases as she tries to focus on the map. I assume she’s the one that found this, given that smart-ass smile.

  “Vega remembered something about her sister’s case. Took a look at this video and found what we missed. Now. Here’s the unfortunate part. We think there’s three men involved.”

  He says as he rewinds the video and plays it. Pointing out the three men walking in one goes off to a corner as the other two men take up their seats at the bar, and distract Molly’s friends.

  I lean back against the cabinet and run my hand over my face for a second. “Three? Really?”

  Vega walks to the small eat in counter and leans forward onto it. Does she realize what the hell she’s doing? That’s a damn nice view of her body. I glance to Miles, who helped himself to a look at her too. She really shouldn’t be this comfortable here already, not from the distance I’ve seen from her.

  “Thirty, today. She was the first out of two lone women taken.” She stares off with a blank expression as if thinking about these women and how we’ve been finding them. How this victim today could have easily been her sister.

  She looks up at Miles, who is doing nothing but watching her. Catching his gaze on her, he didn’t let up, and she didn’t seem to care. If anything, I swear his eyes darkened the longer they hold eye contact. What’s going on with these two?

  “We need to get back out there, Miles. What’s different about this is we don’t have number forty taken yet. He’s been taking then dumping.”

  “Or he dumps, and we don’t find them ‘til he’s taken.” I add in. It may not have been an answer she wants to hear, but it’s a possibility.

  “No Vega. You are still recovering from the other night.” He’s pretty aggressive with that answer. I completely understand that tone of voice, I’m about there with him. She was in a dangerous situation the other night, and I’m sure Miles will never let her out of his sight again.

  Her eyes soften as she looks to him, nearly in tears. “I know that. But we need to. He’s going to pick up forty.”

  “What if he’s already taken a woman and we just haven’t heard? Or he went to a few towns over?” I don’t want to make it worse, but given everyone’s reaction to these cases, it wouldn’t surprise me.

  She shakes her head. “This is a big enough city for a handful of women to go missing, not all of them. He seems to take a woman once a month. How long has it been since Talia was taken? About three weeks? I’ve mapped out enough bars. One of those have to be it.”

  “Vega. It’s a complete hit or miss at any bar. Even with all of the mapped out places, it’s still a long shot.” Her eyes read fire the longer she stares at him. She pushes away from the counter and angrily walks back to the map.

  “What’s all this?” She’s dedicated to this, isn’t she?

  “Vega’s hunted him since Miss Weaver, or number thirty. She’s mapped out potential bars he’d hit. Along with bars he’s already hit, from what we can gather, noting he hasn’t repeated bars.” Miles mumbles as he watches her inspect the map. No. He isn’t watching her, he’s looking her body over like he’s never seen a beautiful woman. I understand that hunger in his eyes, but I doubt Vega is feeling the same.

  “Seriously. So you brought all of her things here?” I’m sure they both picked up on my skepticism in that statement. Why would they bring all of her research here? Unless she’s staying here for more than a few days.

  “Miles wanted a bigger workspace. I figured why not.” She sat on the couch and tucked her legs under her.

  “Well, what’s the plan?” I say as I follow him into the living room.

  He sighs looking at her. “Only if you stick with me. I’m not letting you sit out and remain a target. Not after the other night.”

  “We need to pick a bar then. Redmond?” She looks at me with a sly smile of accomplishment for getting her way.

  “Oh, me? You want me to pick one? Explain your map to me.” I rub my hands together and step up to the map.

  “Well, these reds are the bars that I know where a woman was taken. These green ones are the bars I think he may hit. But, after Molly’s case, these yellows are bars with high traffic.” She points out her marks.

  “What do you mean?” I reply as I look over each mark she has placed. I didn’t realize how much she’s put into this.

  “We mean, we are focusing on bars where there are a lot of strange people who stop in because of their location. High out of town traffic. A non-regular wouldn’t stand out because that’s common. Also, a breakup is a commonality between the victims.” Miles replies.

  “So sulking women. He targets sulking women?”

  “Yup.” Vega bitterly replies.

  I take a deep breath and look over each mark she’s planned out. Knowing high traffic is a possible major role I take a look at the bars on large roads.

  “Here. Let’s try here.” I point to one of her yellow marked bars and she smiles.

  Taking a closer look, she grabs a piece of paper with the bar names next to it, corresponding to the letter on the yellow tag.

  “The Lucky Hit?” She looks at me then Miles and laughs under her breath. “Maybe it’ll live up to the name?”

  “Dress down and have a few drinks with me?” His voice eases up immensely. Great, I’m going to tag along on their date.

  “You sure you want me to dress down?” He checks her out.

  “Maybe. You’re staying at my side the whole time, Vega.”

  “Or with me.” I chime in chuckling. Miles gives me a death stare after that comment.

  “Well, if I stay with the both of you I may be the envy of every woman at the bar.” She laughs knowing Miles would hate the idea of her on a date with both of us.

  “Okay, settled?” Miles quickly moves away from that comment.

  “Well, what time should we head out? Do you need to go to your place, Vega? To change into something?” I know she has what she needs here. Her stuff is subtlety laying around, but here nonetheless. Like she just moved in.

  She thinks for a few seconds like she’s cataloging what she has, then shakes her head.

  “I think I’ve got what I need here. And maybe head out soon? I mean, it’s about seven thirty, yeah?”

  Chapter 26

  Vega

  I walk down the hallway from the spare bedroom Miles set me up in. Reaching the living room and finding both of them sitting on the couch, and staring at me.

  “What is it?” I say as I pat myself a few times hoping there’s nothing on me.

  “Uh. Nothing. Vega.” Redmond says as he elbows Miles to break his concentration.

  “You look damn good Vega. I thought you were going to dress down? You’ll stand out and I don’t think I like that.” He looks to Redmond, noticing his unblinking stare. Yeah, I see what he means.

  “Tough. Deal with it. I’m not
changing.” I slide on a thin, light gray sweater to go over the tight gray spandex shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, and some comfortable black tennis shoes to finish off the look.

  “Fine.” He grumbles.

  *​​*​​*

  We walk into the crowded bar, the strong stench of alcohol stings my nose, and the humid atmosphere from the large group of people stick my clothes to my skin. Out of the bars I’ve been in, this one definitely has the most customers. Redmond walks in separately.

  We take a table in the back which provides us with a great vantage point to watch everyone in here. Redmond takes a seat at the bar, also with his back to a wall at the opposite end, we have this place covered.

  It’s close to eight thirty when three men enter this dimly lit bar. Three men I want to consider suspicious. The loud music is trying to take over my thoughts while I need to concentrate on my suspects. All of them in a ball cap and jacket. Not exactly like the video, but close enough for me. I nudge Miles trying to grab his attention towards me so he can see the shady men. They walk in minutes after one another and sit separately.

  “Miles.” I anxiously whisper. His response is to put his hand on my leg and squeeze his fingers lightly.

  “It’s okay Vega. We’re watching.”

  Well, that doesn’t do anything to calm my nerves. I look to Redmond through this cluster of people talking, laughing, and drinking. He tips his head at me. That didn’t help my nerves either.

  I watch these men, what they order, who they look at. I make sure I remember all the small details of what I can see about them, which isn’t much considering the jackets and ball caps on. We sit here for over an hour. I’ve had three or four old fashioned drinks by ten. I haven’t seen anything odd, or suspicious that makes me want to run after a suspect. Redmond texts Miles; he doesn’t see anything odd either. This better not be a bust.

  A tall blonde woman walks away from a group, sliding her hand over her cheeks briefly as she looks around. She picks up her purse, smoothing her dress over her hips, and walks towards the bathroom- by herself. Her steps distancing her from her group, and towards that long, dark hallway. My eyes snap to one man who stares in her direction, but I can’t see a damn feature on him. Something doesn’t feel right. The closer she gets to the dark hallway the more anxious I became.

  “I’ll be right back.” I touch Miles’ arm and follow that woman.

  Just as she enters the small hallway, a man cuts in right behind her before I could get there. Shit. I look at Miles who has his eyes on me, I hope he can see the worry I have right now as my heart scrambles to keep a steady pace. My attention is drawn to this unsuspecting woman now being followed. This tall, broad man hurries his steps and is uncomfortably close to her. I tighten my focus and all I see his hand raise to her shoulder as she touches the door. My heart beats heavily at the thought of him not knowing I’m here.

  “Lisa!” I yell. Hell, I don’t know this woman’s name, but hoping she would turn around. It’s just us three in the hall, she has to respond, right?

  The man turns around, his face whitens the second he looks at me. He had no idea I was behind him. The woman squeaks and jumps into the bathroom because when she turned around, that man scared the hell out of her with how close he was. He drops his hand and stares at me for a second. I’ve seen him. I know I have, but where?

  “Miss.” He lowly grumbles, tipping his head to me, making sure to lower the bill of the cap quickly over his face, and he rushes out of the bar as if his ass was on fire. Once that front door closed, I burst into the bathroom to find that woman leaning against the wall crying.

  “Are you okay?” I say quickly as I try to calm my mind down from what just happened. My heart increases and my breathing races out of my body the longer I think about it. I just intervened. Hell, I just intervened.

  She sniffles and wipes her nose with the back of her hand. “Y-yes. Who?”

  “Miss, did you know that man?” I try to look at her face but she keeps turning away from me, sniffling as tears stream down.

  “No. And I don’t know you. Back off.” Well, I give her credit for that attitude. Hell, I shouldn’t scare her. So what do I say other than that man almost abducted you?

  “Same to you, Miss. Watch your surroundings better before you end up dead like those other women turning up.” I scoff, hoping I can make an impact on her. So much for not wanting to scare her.

  It’s the only thing I can think of to snap her attention back to reality. She nods and I bolt out of the door and on my way out of the building to catch that man, until a hand wraps around my wrist and pulls me backwards.

  “Well, if it isn’t Vega.” Oh, that liquor tainted breath makes my stomach curl. He tries to pull me onto him as he sat, fuck no.

  Just as I turn, before I even see this bastard’s face, my fist goes first. Making this guys' chair tip back, forcing him to release me. Watching his stunned, drunk expression as he went down felt good. Even better once I realized who this drunk man is. An evil smirk forms on the side of my mouth, and I know my eyes darken at the fact that I’ve accomplished one thing.

  “Fuck off, Brad. Or do you want to not make it into work?” Maybe he’s drunk enough that he won’t remember I threatened him. Who cares, that man got what he deserved.

  He gets up and stands in my face with his disgusting liquor breath. I punch him again. Kicking him as soon as his side met the sticky bar floor. Before I can turn to leave, a man places his hand on my shoulder. What the hell is this? An ambush, isn’t it? Well this man isn’t going to be standing long.

  I turn around and met this man’s eyes, then after a brief smile from me, those eyes met my fist. Jesus what kind of night is this? None the matter, I’m kicking the ass of two of the men who desperately needed it.

  Dante goes down without a word and I’m wrapped by arms, which by now, I know its Miles. I still struggle against him, I’m not finished with those men. It wasn’t enough to satisfy my blood-lust.

  Once we’re outside I take in a deep breath, the cool fresh air is relaxing right now. Turning my boil of hate into a strong simmer. I still want to go back in there and finish that fight.

  He walks with me still wrapped in his arms like I weigh nothing to him. I give up fighting him, I know it’s pointless with him like this. He walks to his car in the far corner of this small parking lot. One not-so-bright street lamp pushes a faint fog of light around us as he sets me down.

  “What happened?” He growls. Why the hell is he pissed? He’s the one that just man-handled me out of a bar.

  “What the hell happened?” Redmond says out of breath as he met us at the car. These two better get their moods in order. The only one who should be pissed is me.

  “Depends on what you saw.” I glare at these two men like I may just kill them. I cross my arms and lean against his car while I wait for their response.

  “What I saw was you running into the hallway, a man runs out and leaves instantly. Followed by you, who then lowers two men to the floor.” Miles replies as Redmond nods, backing him up.

  “Know what I saw? A woman being followed by a man she didn’t know into the bathroom. Me scaring the hell out of this familiar looking man and him leaving. Only for me to be gripped by two men, whom are now floor ornaments inside that bar.” They better register my smug smile before they even try to rebut my story.

  “Who?” The strain on Miles’ face as he tries to put this all together breaks through my barriers.

  “Did you miss it? What were you doing? I assumed you were watching my every move. How’d you miss that?” He rubs his hand over his face. Redmond, I assume is shocked to hear my account by the look on his face. Were these men blind? Did they not watch what was going on in this place?

  “Who’s going to go grab the security tape? Inside and out. Please. If I go back in there those men may not live through this night.” Without a word, Redmond hurries inside. Leaving Miles staring at me. Is he expecting more explanation from me? What t
he hell is going through his head right now?

  “Miles?” I soften the edge in my voice and put my hand on his arm. He looks lost.

  “When you got up, I watched you. When the man ran outside Red followed him. A group blocked my view of you so I didn’t see either one of those men grab you. Why am I failing at this? You could have been hurt again. It’d be my fault.” I can see he’s really beating himself up about this. It’s almost as bad as the other night from being drugged. He skims his hand through his hair.

  I lets out a frustrated breath, perhaps a bit apathetic to how he’s feeling right now, but I can’t force my aggression away. “Why do you immediately assume it’s your fault? I got myself in that situation and you got me out. Enough said.” I try to hold back my frustration. He thinks he failed me. When, for the second time, he rescued me from danger.

  “Vega. I should have seen you.” His low voice carries his concern. I see the worry in his eyes, nearing tears at the thought of me being hurt.

  “You’re not handcuffing yourself to me, Miles. You did fine and saved me. Is that what you want to hear? If not for you, I’d be put in jail right now. Guarantee that.” I get a small chuckle from him.

  He takes a step closer, purposefully invading my personal space. Like the night we met, my mind freezes and I can’t think of a reason to leave. “It is nice to hear, but no one should have had a chance to put a hand on you. And that’s happened twice now.” His rough hand grazes my cheek, his thumb caresses my lips. He’s dangerously close to me right now with a pining look in his eyes, and I’m not hating it.

  “Well, thanks for saving me then, Miles.” My voice fills with flirtation as I try to remain calm. I can’t help my heart flutter and my breath escape me when he leans closer and his warm hand slides to the back of my head. Am I just going to let this happen?

  He presses his body against me and moves a hand to my waist. I am going to let his happen, aren’t I? His inviting green eyes glow with want as he keeps his contact with me. The softest touch of his lips takes over my attention when pressed against mine. My body gives in to the emotions running through me, I’ve been wanting this to happen.