Chapter 12: Cecilia Warren
Roy hated the idea of proving Cecilia right and the last thing he wanted was to come out looking like a creep, but that was what happened when he'd approached Riza Hawkeye, his stalwart and trusted bodyguard, and asked her to find all the information she could on Cecilia Warren.
Hawkeye stared at him blankly after the request left his lips and he knew he couldn't get back the words he had spoken. "I don't remember hearing that name in the case."
"I want to confirm something," he excused.
She eyed him suspiciously and it was obvious that she had figured him out, but he would deny it. "Are you sure, coronel?"
He leaned forward on his desk. He felt like a creep. "Yes."
"Very well, sir."
Hawkeye vacated the office to see to retrieving the information and he could do nothing more to put an end to what he just put in motion. He sent Hawkeye to investigate Cecilia and lied about it being pertinent to their current workload. He wasn't the sort to mix personal and professional, at least not in this manner. He never experienced the sort of difficulty he had with Cecilia. That woman was an iron tomb of secrets, her exterior covered in millions of inter-connected lies that fell from her lips with the easiness of a breath.
Women he dated—not that he was ever dating Cecilia—previously were open. They liked to talk about themselves to the point that by the time it came to break it off with them, he knew so much about their lives that he didn't know what to do with the information. One could say that Cecilia was a breath of fresh air. That was certainly how he viewed her. She didn't ask too many questions and didn't expect to know anything about him. The same went for him.
They had made that deal. He got to sleep with her when he wanted and vice versa. There wasn't any promise for commitment. She made it clear that she didn't want it. The arrangement they made was incredible. He didn't need to worry about having to relieve his pent-up sexual desires with whatever woman he found, risking that it'd lead to them asking for a relationship or that it wouldn't be enough to satisfy him because Cecilia was everything he needed. She was always willing. She matched his stamina. In fact, there were times that she challenged his stamina.
He denied having developed any feelings towards her, but there were days he couldn't remove her from his mind. Lately, he thought about her and regretted how things ended. He never apologized to her for leaving her in tears and he wanted to do it. He found himself actively seeking her out in her occasional haunts—all the bars within a two-mile radius of her apartment complex. He thought that if he'd run into her it'd be easier to say sorry, but he wasn't fortunate enough to find her. He couldn't bring himself to go to her apartment either. He couldn't face her. He wouldn't know what to say apart from offer an apology. He didn't know where they stood.
Roy had begun feeling odd after they had gone to that kid's christening so she could show off to her ex, which she had apologized for when he had been brought up in conversation. He had been distracted by the idea that that married man had his eyes set on Cecilia though he had been introduced as her cousin. When she had excused herself to the bathroom, he had found it odd to hear George Perkins make up an excuse to follow her inside the house. Irritated by it, Roy had followed them after trying to convince himself not to because they hadn't agreed to be exclusive. He'd agreed to be insulted if he found out that Cecilia slept with the man pretending to be her cousin, but only because she had dragged him along to the party. He had found them in a curious position against the wall. Their bodies had been melded into one and their eyes had held a forlorn intensity towards one another. He had eavesdropped on the conversation and pretended not to when Cecilia had finished kneeing George to find him when she turned the corner of the hallway.
It had annoyed him to think Cecilia had been using him as a replacement. The idea had played in his mind all night long, disrupting his sleep cycle. He hadn't stopped thinking about it the entire time he had debated whether to stay in uniform or change his clothes. He had tried not to think too deeply into the implications a dinner brought on. He had decided to treat it as a casual thing, though he had been full of anxious energy, and after he had seen Cecilia dressed up, he had known that she hadn't been able to separate the romantic ambience that came with the dinner invitation.
He hadn't minded it. They had proven to be more compatible as they had engaged in flirty conversation that had taken them to practice waltzing in her living room. Kissing her on the couch had felt different. He had wanted to kiss her for the rest of the night in the same manner. But it had gone to shit. She had realized that she had no interest in pursuing whatever that chaste kiss had made them feel and she had offered herself willingly—for him to do with as he wanted.
Roy should have left as he had considered, but he had seen her there and had grown frustrated beyond his control. He had ravaged her until she had been trembling and whimpering in pain. He had completely lost it. She had turned the tables on him during the second round. She had tied his wrists to the headboard securely and had sucked him dry, leaving small bite marks around his crotch and thighs. He had regretted treating her in such a cold manner because he had hated the sex they had—passionless.
He blamed his morbid curiosity for having asked Hawkeye to bring back information on her for the rest of his workday. Hawkeye found him on his way home and handed him a blue folder labeled "Cecilia Warren." He had thanked her and taken it home.
Roy dropped his keys off in a bowl on his kitchen counter and took Hawkeye's findings to his couch, unbuttoning his jacket. Cecilia told him a bit about herself. She claimed it to be true. He wanted to prove that it was even if it made him a creep to have gone about it by abusing his own power to investigate a civilian. It sounded silly to admit it, but he wanted to know that he held onto at least a little truth about her.
He wanted to hold onto her. They were all wrong for each other. Their pieces didn't fit right, but they were magnetically drawn to one another. He wanted the physical relationship to continue so that he could have an excuse to drink coffee with her every morning.
Stop being an idiot.
Roy opened the folder and the first thing he found was a registry of her…death certificate. "What the hell?"
He double-checked the name was correct and it was. It said Cecilia Warren. He didn't think to blame Hawkeye for bringing the wrong information because she never made mistakes. Year of death had been dated eleven years ago. He checked the year of birth and calculated that the woman spoken about in the papers had been in her late fifties when she died. He continued to read into the information and discovered two familiar names: Wyatt and Silas Marshall. Cecilia had told him that Silas Marshall was her father and Wyatt her grandfather, which would make the older Cecilia her grandmother.
He even found the old woman's last residence. It was Cecilia's current address and apartment.
"What the hell is this?"
It made absolutely no sense that a civilian like Cecilia would need to use a dead woman's identity. Was she some kind of fugitive? Was that why she was so guarded around him? He threw the papers across the floor in a sudden fit of anger and watched them scatter.
He would get to the bottom of this. He wanted answers and he knew who to go to for them.
According to Cecilia, Silas Marshall was hanging around East City on business.
xl: Oh my, someone is in trouble...
And 'cause I love y'all, I thought it'd be super rude to leave you hangin' like this. Go on to the next chapter.
Thank you starrat and Kimono Kay for your reviews. :)
