Page 27 of The Stolen Dagger
“Take a seat.” He pointed to the wooden bar stool. “I made you breakfast, an omelet. I know you don’t like coffee first thing in the morning, so I have orange juice for you, too.”
A warm, fuzzy feeling expanded in my chest, and I smiled back at him.He made me breakfast.
I couldn’t remember the last time someone did that for me or anything that thoughtful. It felt nice. More than nice. It made me want to round the counter, leap into his arms, and kiss him until I forgot about everything else.
My stomach growled, breaking my stunned silence at his gesture. “This looks great, Drew. Thank you.”
He nodded with that same grin on his face, looking satisfied as I dug into the omelet.
“Now that you’re fed, down to business.” Drew leaned against the counter and took a drink from his coffee cup. “I’m going to look into Adrian today at the station, but I wanted to ask you a few questions about him if that’s all right.”
“I don’t really want to talk about him,” I said and took a sip of the orange juice.
“I know, but I think it’d be good for you.”
The early morning sun filtered through the kitchen window to the left, casting him in a golden hue and turning his eyes into a mesmerizing green.
“What makes you so sure?”
Drew sighed and set his cup of coffee on the counter. “Talking about it might help jog your memory about the dagger. I also need to understand him a little better in order to come up with a plan.”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, he had a point. Maybe talking it through would help him understand and find the answers we both needed.
I nodded. “If you think it’ll help.”
Drew leaned forward with his elbows on the counter. His smile disappeared and was replaced with his emotionless cop mask. His dark eyebrows flattened across his forehead in a serious expression.
“When you started dating,” Drew began, “did you know he was in a gang?”
“No,” I said. “I found out the night I left, but I should have seen the signs. He would disappear at certain times, and I saw him with some sketchy people when we went out in public. We dated for about two years.”
His head tilted down in a slight nod. “Do you know the name of his gang?”
I hesitated, not having spoken about this since I ran. “The Phantoms. He told me that after the …” I looked down at my half-eaten omelet, suddenly feeling nauseous, “… incident.”
“Did he tell you about any of his deals?”
I thought back on my relationship with Adrian. He didn’t mention anything about his work life. He usually tried to steer clear of the subject altogether, and I was too passive to ever really question him.
“I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “He rarely talked tome about what he did. Anytime I did ask, he’d get angry. I tried not to upset him.”
Drew’s lips pursed. He stared at me for a few more seconds.
“Okay,” he finally said, but the look on his face told me he wouldn’t forget about that little detail anytime soon. “What about the dagger he thinks you stole from him? Is it possible you have it and just don’t know it?”
I scoffed. “I think I’d know if I’ve been carrying around some dagger with me this past year.”
“I know, I know, but it has to be connected to what happened that night you left. Otherwise, why would he think you still had it?”
I didn’t know why he thought I had some dagger, but I tried to think back on it anyway.
After he found me, he took me back to my house and then left to deal with his mess. When I was sure he was gone, I immediately went to Pearl. I definitely didn’t take anything of his. I made sure not to.
Frustration filled me as I tried to remember more, but most of that night was a blur of fear-induced thoughts and an overwhelming urge to escape.
Drew must have seen my emotions displayed plainly on my face because he stepped around the counter and said, "I know this is hard for you, dredging up the past like this, but you’ll have to face this one way or another. It’s the only way we might figure out how to end it.”
While Drew might have been right, that talking about it would help and give us the answers we needed, he had to know that recounting what happened was like living through it all over again.
