Chapter 14

The One Where He’s A Snoop

“Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.” — Hunter S. Thompson

A/N: leave lots of comments please? I had a HELL of a time writing this chapter but I know you guys wanted an update! I’d appreciate a little love x

Z A Y N

After leaving Sara’s bedroom, I tiptoe myself down the hallway. It’s rather dark and I don’t know my way through the house and so I nearly stumble into the wall, but catch myself at the last second.

Cursing under my breath, I steady myself on my feet and look up at what I nearly collided with.

“Shit.”

I realize that the closed door I’m standing inches away from is her father’s bedroom door and I fucking pray that he didn’t hear me. I release a stressed breath and carefully navigate my way to the end of the hallway. I open the last doorway, hoping it’ll be an office but it’s just a spare bedroom.

Entering the main part of the house, I walk silently through the living and dining room while opening any doors I see. However, all of them are only closets. When I round the kitchen corner, I find basement stairs.

Without thinking twice about it, I quickly take a glance around the house and head down the stairs. Once I hit the final step, I spot what I’m looking for. There’s a small area in the corner of the basement with file cabinets, a desk, and a large cork board.

My feet carry me straight for the cork board where Sanders has laid out a map of a case he’s working on. It’s a hierarchy of sorts with several faces I don’t recognize. But it’s clearly a tier where there’s a top man and some men who are underneath him and so on until it gets larger.

The thing that piques my interest is the fact that a photo of me is plastered in the lower right corner ... right next to Arielle’s.

Photos of us that appear as if they were taken by someone who was following us. Someone lurking in the shadows snapping photos of a rather unsuspecting Nate and Arielle. There’s even a photo of us together—the same picture that he threatened me with. The one where I have Arielle arched against the hood of my car with her wrists in my hand.

I smirk at the reminder of that moment.

I study the photos a little longer before turning to the desk. I inspect the notepad he has placed on the top.

1967 blue Pontiac Firebird.

Red Nissan Skyline

Year unknown

I see that he’s been doing his research but not very well. I own a 1969 Camaro SS. It’s been sitting in my garage for years. I haven’t had a chance to bring her out much, which means that little to no one even knows of her existence. So it doesn’t surprise me that Sanders isn’t aware of it.

That just means I’ve got the leg up.

I open the top drawer but I’m not sure what I was expecting because there’s nothing inside except some pads of paper and pens. When I check the second drawer, it’s filled with files. Rifling through them, I spot a single one that seems out of the ordinary. It has no label on it and it’s seems awfully full.

I set it open on the desktop and hold the first page in front of my eyes. It’s a photocopy of my driver’s license and when I pick up the next piece of paper, it’s a photocopy of Arielle’s license. The next two pages are copies of our vehicle registrations.

Slowly, I investigate all of the documents stashed in the file. Among the paperwork is information about my friends Colt and Cam, and shit on Arielle’s friends. There’s also shit on my family as well as hers which I don’t have a chance to delve much deeper into because I hear a suspicious noise and stuff the papers back into the folder and return it to the drawer.

I hurry over to the light switch and flick it off. I then hide in the shadows near the staircase and wait to see if someone has awoken. I expect to hear another noise from someone walking around the house but as I wait and wait, there’s nothing.

When I glance around to see if I’m being watched, I hear the noise again and that’s when I realize I’m being foolish. It’s their air conditioner just outside the basement window that’s making a shitload of noise as it’s started itself up and began running.

I breathe a sigh of relief and decide it’s best to keep the light off. Heading back to the desk, I use the flashlight on my phone and take a peek at the other drawers on the desk. In the top right one, I find an address and a time written down.

Immediately, I recognize the words written before me. The date is two days from now when there’s supposed to be a street race. One that I know a lot of people are attending and I was planning on going to. That is, until I read this.

When I don’t find much else, I get annoyed. Sure, there’s a shit ton of paperwork here that I can steal, but I doubt that these are his only copies. It’s likely he has all of this at his office as well, so what’s the point in taking any of it?

About the only thing I’ve gained from this recon is the fact that I can inform people that the cops will be at the race two days from now. This just means that I’ll have to spend more time with Sara in order to catch Sanders off guard. Maybe sometime over the next little while he’ll slip up.

This way, he’s always near me. Like keeping an enemy close. I’ve got his daughter wrapped around my finger and I think, if given a little time, she’d do anything for me. Which can definitely be used to my advantage.

I put everything back where it belongs before taking a quick photo of his cork board and heading up the stairs. When I’m back on the main floor, I carefully step out into the moonlit kitchen. I check that no one’s around and then saunter over to the door.

As I’m about to grab onto the front door handle, I sense something’s off.