Liar Liar Billionaires

16. Truce with Amir

Moments later, as the night grew older, Chloe found Amir in the gym. His anger was evident in the way he hit the punching bag before him. But no matter how he punched, it was obvious that his fury was refusing to melt.

“Amir,” she called to confirm if he would allow her presence.

He briefly paused the punching. When he saw it was her, he resumed dropping blows on the hanging leather bag. “What do you want?” The hitting stopped again. “Are you here to rub snarky words in my wounds?”

"I..."

"I want to be left alone." Amir's words put a stop to her approaching steps. But that was not enough to derail a determined Chloe.

She did not leave.

With her hands spread out in front of her as though she were trying to create some kind of safe barrier, Chloe said cautiously, "I just want to talk to you."

"I said, I want to be left alone." He yanked the bag aggressively.

"Amir… I… I believe you."

"I said..." He turned to face her, his frown turning into disbelief. "What did you just say?"

She took in a deep breath, then accompanied it with a few steps forward that had her standing closer to the perplexed man. "I said, I believe you."

"What do you mean?"

"I..."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

Chloe's head answered first as she shook it frantically. "No. Of course not. I just think that you are telling the truth, and I want to help you prove your innocence."

She had his full attention now.

Amir rested his arm on the bag, which failed him, causing him to almost stagger. As he caught himself, he cleared his throat, obviously trying to act cool. Then he asked, "How do I know you are not trying to get revenge?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "If I wanted to get revenge, I would have ratted you out to the police. Amir, I am not playing games. I want to help you."

A light scoff escaped his lips. "I am finding this hard to believe."

"Do you want my help or not?" Chloe was almost groaning with impatience.

After a few seconds of pondering, his wandering eyes fixed on hers. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.

"We have to start looking for clues. Checking the crime scene would be a great start. If someone is really framing you, we might find something incriminating.”

"Look at you, talking like a detective." Chloe gritted her teeth as she hoped she wasn't being too obvious about her spy nature. "You learned from movies, didn't you?"

"Yes." A huge grin that hid her relief was on her face. "And from books too."

"Ugh..." He made an ugly face as he grabbed his water bottle from the floor. "I hate books."

Chloe shook her head. "We are not going to get along at all."

Amir gave a light huff as he gestured towards the entrance. "You don't say."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About an hour later, they reached Club NAG, which was quiet and looking like a normal place.

“Since you’re helping me,” Amir broke the silence between them, “does this mean we have a truce?”

Chloe nodded as she observed the rooms they walked past. “I’m guessing you get laid a lot here.”

“No. It’s too tacky. I prefer hotels. They are the best way to show the ladies my nice taste.”

Chloe glanced at him. “You’re going to get infected by some weird alien disease someday.”

He scoffed. “I am always careful. And… you. You, this girl, you never apologised for insinuating that I have STDs.”

“You never apologised for hitting on me.”

"Why would I apologise for that? I was following the rule of nature."

Chloe sneered. "The rule of nature?"

"Yes. I noticed a beautiful lady I liked. It was only natural for me to ask her out."

"You call that asking out? You were practically using your body to beg me to have s*x with you."

"Same thing."

Chloe abruptly stopped her steps and faced him. "No, it is not," she said, her arms crossing afterwards.

"Uh... Yes, it is."

"No. At that moment, you disrespected me as a person. You were so confident that I would take one look at you and jump into bed with you after. So, no, not the same thing.”

With caution, Amir eyed her. Then, he asked with a low voice, "Why again are you helping me?"

"Do you want my help or not?"

He did not miss the warning message in her eyes. So, with hands up in surrender, Amir said, "Okay, okay. I am sorry about that time. I should have approached you better."

She flashed him a small smile, which he returned with a grin.

Soon, they resumed their walk and reached room 005, where Amir was questioned that night.

"I was wondering,” Chloe continued, “do you by any chance have any enemies?"

“Uh… Honestly, as an institution, the three of us have our enemies. Mostly business-related enemies. But personally, I don't have any."

"Are you sure?" Chloe asked as she led the way to room 006. Since that was where the molested woman was found, starting the investigation there would provide some insights. "You might have slept with someone's girlfriend in the past. Maybe that is the reason you’re going through this.”

"Is that even possible?"

"Anything is possible."

"Hmm. Let's go in."

"Don't forget the gloves. We should even put them on now."

"Gosh, you sound like a true detective."

"Well, let's say I have always wanted to be one." Well, she already was one, in a way.

"Interesting."

Once the gloves were worn, Chloe opened the door.

Amir commented, "This is my first time in this room.”

There was not much difference between 005 and the room they were in. The only difference was found beside the bed, and it was an unusual-looking flower vase that had a single red rose in it. Chloe had an uneasy feeling about that, so she took a mental note of it.

"I don't even know what we are supposed to look for,” she said after a few seconds had passed.

"Me neither." Amir walked to the only window in the room. Through the wide partition, he looked out at the city ahead. "I can't even figure out how my sperm was found in those girls."

"Nathaniel said this was the third incident."

Amir gave a pitiful chuckle as he managed to sit on the windowsill. "I am so confused. I don’t know where to start analysing this s**t from.”

Chloe released her lips from their scrunched state. "We need professional help."

Amir looked at her. "I know just the man."

"Yeah?"

"Just one thing."

"What's that?" As she waited for his reply, her gaze travelled to the rose again. There was just something about it.

"We have to bribe this person."

Chloe's brows c****d. "You are rich. I am sure you have that covered."

"No, he has money."

"Then what are you bribing him with?”

"Ice cream."

"Uh?"

Amir walked back into the room and gently grabbed her arm. "Time to go shopping for some ice cream."