Lips of deceit

Truces

Sanders had been going out a lot lately, he was probably trying to fix things with Caroline… Dean usually covered for him, but he had some errands to take care of and trade places with Josh when he left the house. If Mack had been in the house, I’d had been cuffed to him instead, but Mack hadn’t show up that day. I missed Josh… ever since Matt caught us watching that movie I was never allowed to be cuffed to him ever again. It’s not like I hadn’t seen him around or talked to him, but I was never alone with him and I needed some alone time if I wanted some of my questions answered.

“How’s the investigation going?”, I asked him after a while.

“Ain’t Matt keeping you posted?”, he asked surprised.

“He doesn’t tell me much…”, I lied because Sanders didn’t tell me anything.

“Sounds like Matt… Well, Matt thinks Klaus is just a puppet behind all this and he’s been trying to prove it, but up until now he has come empty handed. If he’s right, whoever is behind this has his tracks well covered but Matt has pretty good instincts when it comes to this kind of things, he’s pretty intuitive. I’m surprised he didn’t keep you updated…”

“That’s all you’ve been doing on this case? Following Sanders’ hunch? You should try different angles. What if his hunch it’s just a dead end? You’ve been wasting weeks on a goddamned hunch, for Christ sake! It’s soo like him… Conceited son of a b***h! You guys have the perfect opportunity to bring him down, you sure have more intel than I ever did and you’re delaying this because of a hunch?”, I cried out desperately.

“He’s usually right, Adrianne! We trust him… He wouldn’t be wasting any time if he wasn’t confident. This is important for us too, Adrianne. You’re not the only one seeking revenge here.”, I flinched a little at his words.

“What do you mean ‘I’m not the only one seeking revenge’?”, I inquired.

“s**t! He didn’t tell you anything, did he? You just eluded me…”, he realized.

“What else did you expect me to do? I’m trapped here and he doesn’t tell me a thing. I deserve to know… I was leading this investigation ‘til you guys came along! Please, don’t keep me in the dark. I need to know, Josh…”, I pleaded.

“Has he ever told you about Sammy? Our friend?”, he asked.

“Sammy? Is he the one who died?”

“He didn’t just die, Adrianne. Sammy was murdered…”

“M-m-urdered? Why? Who killed him?”, I choked on my own words. That was why Sanders was so harsh to me whenever I brought that subject up to discussion. “That’s why you decided to join the FBI…”, I wasn’t asking.

“Yeah. Sammy wanted out of this life way long before he got killed, but we owed Klaus. The music business is not easy in a place like Huntington Beach, much less metal music… But somehow we always had a few gigs even though not many people showed up at first. Klaus was the one behind those gigs, he had influence on a few bar owners…I mean, he coerced them to hire us. When we first tried to get out, create some distance from Klaus and his Mob life he threatened us, claiming he would end our music career if we did so. We had our hands tied, you know? That was all we know how to do, that was all we loved doing, music was our life… so we sucked it up and stuck by Klaus. So one day Sammy called us pretty thrilled about something he had discovered, he said he had found our way out, our bargain card and asked us to meet him at his place. We gathered and got there as soon as we could, but he was already dead. They made it look like suicide, but they didn’t get rid of all evidences… Sammy had managed to scribble something and was holding on to that scribbled note for dear life. Matt was the one who found that note… All it said was ‘Klaus isn’. That was enough for us to know that Klaus was behind Sammy’s murder, so we joined the FBI to avenge our friend’s death.”, he explained.

“Ouh God! I had no idea… I’m so sorry. I can relate to what you must have felt, because I felt the exact same thing when my father disappeared. And that note… What does it mean?”, I was caressing Josh’s arm trying to comfort him when Sanders arrived with Bella on his side by the leash. Joshquickly removed his arm from my reach.

“Where’s Dean?”, Sanders asked bitterly as he crouched a little to unleash Bella who ran towards me as soon as it was free.

“He had some things to take care of.”, Josh replied quietly to which Sanders just nodded.

“Come Bella…”, he commanded the dog, but Bella was so comfortable on my lap, enjoying the fur massages I was giving her that she didn’t budge at Sanders order.

“I said: COME BELLA!”, he yelled at the dog.

“She’s comfortable here, Sanders. Let her have some fondle…”, I replied calmly as I kept petting the dog.

“Whatever…”, he turned on his heels and walked to the kitchen.

“What the f**k is wrong with him?”, I looked dumfounded to Josh.

“Don’t ask me! You should ask him…”, he uncuffed himself and encouraged me to go talk to Sanders.

“Are you f*****g out of your mind?”, I asked even more confused.

“Just go!”, he insisted.

I got up from the couch and made my way to the kitchen. Just when I stepped into the kitchen I heard the front door shut. f*****g coward!

“Hey, Sanders! Is everything okay?”, I asked sheepishly.

“Where’s Christ?”, he asked as he looked at me.

“He left… Are you okay? You seem…”, I began but he shot me a glare telling me to shut up.

“What do you want from me, Adrianne?”, he asked rudely.

“W-what? I want nothing from you.”, I managed to answer.

“Then don’t pretend like you f*****g care!”, he yelled at me.

“Why are you talking to me like that? I was just trying to help… You’re always reproaching me because I’m such a cold b***h, now that I’m being nice you act like a d**k! You know what? I don’t f*****g care… Be miserable all you want, I won’t try to be nice to you ever again!”, I yelled back and turned on my heels to leave him there by himself like he seemed to want to, but he grabbed my arm and cuffed himself to me.

“I’m sorry. I’m having a bad week…”

“Wanna talk about it?”, I asked softly. After what Josh had told me, I couldn’t be harsh to Sanders. Klaus was like a father to him, I couldn’t imagine how that must have felt, knowing that Klaus was one of the responsibles for one of his best friend’s death.

“What’s gotten into you? Why are you being so nice to me?”, he asked warily.

“I just think it’s about time we make some truces… Consider this my peace offer!”, I half smiled.

“I still think it’s a little odd…”, he was furrowing his eyebrows thoughtfully.

“Wanna talk about what’s upsetting you or what?

“Did Christ talk to you about something? What did he tell you?”, he inquired suspiciously.

“Is there something you wanted him to talk to me?”, I asked back.

“Nevermind…”

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it? I’m a good listener…”

“It’s just…”, he hesitated.

“What? Is it about the case? You can tell me, you know? The first day you brought me here, you told me you’d tell me whenever you thought it was the right time for it… I've been trapped here for almost three weeks and you still haven’t told me anything. Will you ever tell me, Sanders?”, I sighed.

“Will you ever stop calling me Sanders?”, he smiled that perfect dimpled smile of his to me.

“Should I call you Shadz instead?”

“Matt… You can call me Matt. I call you Adrianne, don’t I?”, he kept smiling.

“Seriously? Stop smiling… you’re creeping me out!”, I earned a loud laugh from him. His smile was not creeping me out, pretty much the opposite actually… Seeing him smiling like that made me wanna squeeze his cheeks and kiss him all over his face, because that was how cute he looked when he dimpled smiled me. “I can call you Matt… Wanna tell me what’s bugging you? Is it Caroline? She hasn’t forgiven yet, huh?”, I tried.

“Caroline? Hell no! She’s the least of my problems right now.”

“Then what is it?”

“Come… Let me just fix myself something to eat.”, he led us to the kitchen counter. “Take a seat…”, I sat next to him on one of the stools around the counter, as he prepared himself a bowl of cereals.

“You’re soo annoying!”, I said after he finished his cereals.

“You should be more patient…”, he scolded.

“I’ve been patient enough! You’re always eluding me! I thought you were finally going to talk to me about the goddamned case and the progresses you’ve been doing on it…”

“That’s exactly what’s bugging me! I haven’t made any progresses, Adrianne… I’m right where you left off.”, he cut me off mid-sentence as he brushed his fingers through his almost inexistent hair.

“What? What the hell have you been doing all this time?”, I asked exasperatedly.

“What have I been doing?? What have I been doing, she asks! Babysitting you… Dwelling on some stupid hunch… I don’t know!”, he snapped back.

“Talk to me, Sanders… Tell me what you’re thinking. Let me help!”, I tried.

“I just can’t shake the feeling that Klaus is not the one behind this… He raised me since I was ten, he’s not cruel enough to run this s**t. I know it in my bones that I’m right.”, he seemed like he was pleading me to believe him.

“If he’s really not behind this someone else is! Lets go from there… Let’s say Klaus is just a puppet in all this… Why? Why is he doing this then? Who is the real Mobster here? Who’s the responsible for the innumerous inexplicable deaths, for tons of drugs on the streets, for the human trafficking? Who’s bribing cops? Who’s corrupting this city? You must have someone in mind…”

“I used to suspect someone…”, he turned his gaze away from me.

“Who? Tell me!”, I pleaded.

“Your father…”, those two words alone hurt me more than anything I had heard ‘til then. How could someone suspect my father? He was an honest and caring man who had devoted his life to fight for the good and punish the bad guys.