Chapter 24

About twenty minutes after leaving the bar, we pulled up underneath a bridge across town and my earlier excitement turned to anxious nerves.

Just what were we doing in such a shady area? Were we meeting someone? Or was Meliodas on to me and what I had hidden underneath my bed?

Was this… was this it for me?

"Come on." Meliodas urged me to follow him out of the car. "He should be here any minute."

"He?" I mumbled to myself as he shut the door. Well, that eased some of my nerves as he all but confirmed we were actually meeting someone.

Though, that didn't mean things couldn't go south for me.

I stayed on guard as I climbed out of the car and walked towards Meliodas' side. "Just who are we meeting in a place like this?"

"You'll see." He told me with a mischievous grin.

About five minutes passed.

"Are you sure we're actually meeting someone here?" I prodded once again. Paitnence wasn't something I was good at to begin with, especially with my nerves already so on edge. "Maybe you got the place wrong."

"I didn't." He assured me with a flat stare. Apparently he didn't appreciate my lack of faith in him.

Just as I was going to question him about this location, a luxury SUV pulled up and I furrowed my brows.

"See." He winked at me as he gestured at the vehicle. "Whaddya I tell ya?"

I rolled my eyes, not bothering to answer him. Instead I studied the large SUV. It's a sleek black and all but screamed that the person inside was wealthy. I shifted on my feet as whoever was driving flashed their lights three times.

Meliodas waited a heartbeat before he put two fingers up and waved them like he were knocking on an invisible door - not long after, the engine turned off. I'm stuck watching him resume his usual stance. Had that been code? I'm almost positive those were tactical hand signals. Not quite the same as those used by the police, but close.

The signal meant "Two allies. All clear."

"You know tactical hand signals?" I asked him curiously, already knowing the answer, but hoping he'd give away more if I caught him of guard in his element.

"When the situation calls for it." He answered with only the slightest tug at the corner of his lips, but not giving me anything more.

And I wouldn't get a chance to try and push it as a tall, well built man stepped out of the driver seat of the SUV.

My mouth dropped as I looked up at him. He wasn't quite as tall as Ban was but he was twice as wide and even underneath the black suit and long curly dark hair, I could tell he was mostly muscle.

I expect him to speak, to give some explanation as to why we were meeting underneath a bridge at this time of night. But the man said nothing. Instead he walked around the vehicle and opened the back door.

An orange haired young man stepped out. A wide grin spread across his face as soon as he saw Meliodas. He strolled right up to us without a care in the world. The man following closely behind as he took in the surrounding area like a vigilant hawk.

A security detail, I thought to myself. He had to be, dressed like he was and given the amount of money that SUV had to cost. That was one mystery solved. The more important one being just who this kid was and why he was secretly meeting a supposed crime boss under such shady circumstances.

"Meliodas!" The orange haired man reached for the blonde's hand, shaking it vigorously. "So good to see you again! It's been far too long, my friend."

The leader of the Sins chuckled. "Good to see you too. Though," Meliodas frowned lightly as he slid his hands into his pocket, "not the kind of call I like getting."

The youth instantly deflated. "I'm sorry. I didn't know who else to call!"

"It's fine." Meliodas smiled lightly. "That is part of our deal, right?"

"Right!" The orange haired man nodded eagerly.

"Deal?" I asked out-right, not even trying to hide my curiosity at this point and Meliodas passed me a knowing grin. I didn't back down, though. This was just too strange.

And if he wanted to keep all of this from me, he wouldn't have asked if I wanted to tag along.

The guy before us was well dressed - I didn't even have to look at the tag of his suit, I knew it was worth more than a full month's rent at my apartment, and that didn't even include the real leather shoes or the platinum rolex on his wrist. Obviously, the guy came from money. He wasn't half bad looking either - a little on the young side but definitely easy on the eyes.

And speaking of eyes, as if just noticing my presence, his deep lavender gaze brightened even more in the little light we had under the bridge as he turned to me, "Oh, my apologies! I didn't see you there!" He extended his hand to me with a warm smile.

He seemed so familiar now that I'd had a good look at him… where had I seen his face before?

"No problem - I'm Princess." I introduced, taking his hand and only hesitating slightly on the name.

"Oh! Are you related to-"

"No." Both Meliodas and I confirmed, knowing exactly where he was going.

"Oh, I just assumed since-"

"It's a codename." Meliodas offered, quite willingly. Surprising, given the secrecy of this encounter. "But, don't worry about that. You can trust her. She's one of the good guys."

I couldn't help the flare of heat that suddenly erupted over my cheeks as I turned my surprise on the blonde. He had this easy smile as he said it. Not a hint of sarcasm or maliciousness to be found. It was something so small - but it made me feel validated in ways I didn't think I ever would around Meliodas.

Strange how the butterflies I suddenly felt in my stomach both made me feel tingly… and like a complete fraud.

"Good to have you on the team then!" The young man beamed, rubbing the salt in a little deeper as he shook my hand warmly. "My name is Arthur. It's a pleasure to meet you Princess."

The name and the face suddenly collided in my head and my mouth fell open, "Wait… Arthur? As in Arthur Pendragon?" I asked, finally placing where I'd seen this guy, "As in the heir to the Pendragon Conglomerate?"

Arthur gave me something of a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck, "I see my reputation precedes me," he chuckled with a genuine embarrassed air about him.

I stared at him and then Meliodas dumbfounded. Just how many connections did the sins have hidden away? "You have an arrangement with the Vice President of Pendragon Enterprises? Seriously?"

Money didn't even begin to describe the Pendragon family. They were one of the wealthiest in the country. Arthur was the second and youngest son, but he'd already proven himself more than capable of leading the conglomerate into a new age of innovation and growth - which is why his father had announced that Arthur would be taking over once the president decided to retire. I'd read all about it in the paper. There were a number of sources who thought the decision strange - undercutting his oldest son. There was even talks of a litigation because, if memory served, his promotion to President wasn't far off.

Meliodas merely shrugged.

"It's nothing as shady as what you may be thinking." Arthur commented, releasing my hand, "And really, it's the least I could do after the sins saved my life."

I'm starting to lose track of what the sins were. Vigilanties? Superheroes? One minute they were trying to dismantle the criminal underworld and saving people, the next they were blackmailing city officials and causing general mayhem. Almost like antiheroes.

"I wouldn't go that far. Arthur here got himself in a bit of trouble a while back and we stepped in before it could get any worse."

"I see…" I mumbled, giving Arthur a once over, trying to imagine what kind of trouble he could have gotten himself into that would have required the aid of the sins, "So what kind of deal do you have exactly?"

"The monetary kind." The blonde explained simply, "Arthur is the reason we have the funding to do half the things we do. He's also the financial backer to King - I mean Henry Jones' Tech Venture."

So that's where the money came from. I'd learned of the fake identities King and Diane used for the Party we'd snuck into in order to corner the Mayor's wife - but never really understood how everyone was so convinced by them. A single online search was all it would take… but I suppose given the right tech genius and the financial statements they could create as a venture-capital-backed business, it wouldn't be that difficult to believe.

Even believable enough to fool the cops...

"In return, we act as Mr. Pendragon's… fixers, if you will." He gave me that signature grin and I couldn't help remembering what he'd said to get me to come out with him. I'm going out to do something potentially illegal…

Suddenly, I was very wary of what exactly we were here to do.

"Fixers, huh?" My gaze shifted uneasily between the two men, "And what are we here to fix tonight?"

That brightness faded from Arthur's face as I reminded him why he'd met with us to begin with. "Right," He sighed heavily, pulling a series of folded papers from the innermost pocket of his suit jacket. "I'm pretty sure someone within the corporation is siphoning materials and goods from my company and selling them off illegally."

"What kind of goods?" Meliodas took the papers Arthur passed to him, flipping through them quickly before his brow rose, "Arms? You're kidding. I had no idea your company dealt in weaponry."

Meliodas passed the papers to me as Arthur spoke, "We have several focus verticals within the technology industry. Government contracts and acquisitions happens to be one of them."

I only half listened to him explain the company's place in the development and prototyping of new and improved technologies for all manner of military and government use while flipping through the papers in my hands. The first few were a series of patents and government contracts for different weapons - a specialty sighted assault rifle was at the top of the list. The next set of papers were a detailed account of inventory with an indiscernible number of "batches" being re-routed for testing.

The last page was a flagged email - a single line and no other indications of who sent it, or where it was being sent.

Piety pays off.

Pacifism

"Do you know who sent this?" I asked, without thinking - interrupting the conversation the men were having.

The young man careened his head before shaking it, "No. It was filtered to our security team after setting off a couple of internal alarms in our servers. It had a virus embedded that made our system think the email was sent from over a thousand of our employee terminals all over the country. We haven't been able to track it back to the source."

I hummed, rereading the email over and over again, "And that's why you assumed it had something to do with the missing weapons."

Arthur nodded. "We've been quiet about all of this so far, so I don't think the sender is aware that we're on to them yet."

"You brought the data, right?" Meliodas asked, and Arthur quickly produced a flash drive, handing it over to him, "Great. I'll get this to Gowther as soon as possible and we can work on figuring out who sent it."

Something about all of this was eating at me. A couple of things that didn't quite make sense. It was obvious this email was sent on purpose - to not only the intended recipient, but also to set off the server alarms. Why else would someone embed a virus like that - other than just covering their tracks? There were a million other ways they could have gotten the message out without involving the company server - ways that would have been far less... conspicuous.

The other was the strange wording in the email.

"What's wrong?"

I looked up from the email to find Meliodas watching me curiously, "You look troubled."

My teeth worried my bottom lip as I returned to my stare-off with the page in my hands - like staring at it long enough would produce the answers I was looking for. "Pacifism."

"What about it?"

"It's a weird way to sign off a message, don't you think?"

The blonde shrugged, "It's probably a fanatic. Someone looking to position themselves with their buyer."

Could it be that simple? No - there was something so blatantly obvious about it. Like it was meant to get someone's attention.

"I don't think that's it," I mumbed. It was a weird title to call oneself, especially given the goods being stolen. What kind of pacifist dealt in firearms? Which reminded me. I'd heard another strange title recently - what was it?

Arthur put a finger to his chin, "Well, Piety means devotion, right? As in devotion to the deal or dealer?"

"I suppose, but most people refer to piety as the devotion to religion-" I'd just looked back up to Arthur when my voice died and someone else's filled my head.

"She called him by a pet name. Love."

Why did that seem so strange to me all of a sudden?

It was the way she repeated it. If the mayor's wife was having an affair, why would she so blatantly use a pet name like that? She was just begging to be caught.

But King had been so sure the person - the man - Melascula was speaking to was involved.

"She never actually used his name. Just that damn pet name."

King's words replayed again and again. Love. Why would she use that one pet name with someone she was supposed to be deeply involved with? Someone she was trying to keep hidden.

Unless, of course, she wasn't speaking with her lover. By itself, it hadn't stood out. But now...

"Love… Piety… Pacifism…" I mumbled, then repeated, staring hard at the email printed on the papers in my hands. These three words had something in common - what was it? It was right there on the tip of my tongue... "Love - relationships, feelings, lover? Piety - devotion, godliness. Pacifism -"

"Do no harm?" Meliodas finished for me, confused by my train of thought, and it suddenly clicked for me.

"No - not harm." I clarified as the pieces slowly began to fit together. It was so genius, it was scary. Suddenly, the papers in my hand felt like two-ton bricks, "Kill. Thou shall not kill."

"Thou shall not kill?" He mimicked the phrase, a brow raised at me, "What's that?"

Arthur let out a soft chuckle before I could answer, "Have you never heard of the Ten Commandments, Meliodas?"

A pin dropping would have sounded like an explosion in the sudden hush that fell between us. I swallowed, flicking my gaze over to watch the color drain from the blonde's face and his emeralds went wide, turning to the young man, "What did you just say?"

"The Ten Commandments - one of them is the commandment of Pacifism. Thou shall not kill. I'm positive that Love and Piety are commandments as well."

There wasn't even a heartbeat before the blonde turned quickly, intent on getting back to the car, "We have to get this to Gowther. Now." His tone was urgent.

"Meliodas wait!"

"We can't wait! This is exactly what we were waiting for! We have to analyze the data - Gowther will be able to trace it back to the sender. I'm sure of it."

No, this was wrong. This raised all the red flags in my head. And now, I was almost positive I knew whose attention this was supposed to catch - it was so obvious.

I ran to get in his way before he could get any further out of my reach, "Don't you get it? That's exactly what they want!"

His eyes darted back and forth as he searched my face, "What are you talking about?"

"Just listen, alright - the Commandments, if that's who this actually is, have been extremely careful up to this point, right? Why would they send out an email that leads right to them?"

"They're getting sloppy. Desperate because they know we're on to them," He answered quickly and confidently - the same answer I expected him to give.

Unfortunately, in my gut, I could feel he was wrong.

I shook my head, "No - I think this is a red herring. It's too easy. They know we're getting close so they used their own dealings to throw us off the scent." I took a breath, waiting for any indication that he understood what I was implying, but the way he kept glancing to the car behind me said he wasn't sure yet. "Look, something tells me that you'll find someone at the end of these digital breadcrumbs - but its not going to be the Commandments."

The tension building in the space between us was palpable and heavy. It certainly didn't help that he was giving me a look like I was betraying him by keeping him from rushing off. For once I needed him to listen to me - he was too involved. He couldn't see the forest from the trees anymore.

I growled under my breath as the frustration mounted, "Damnit, Meliodas, I get that I haven't been working this case nearly as long as you have, but I'm telling you something doesn't feel right! It's too obvious - even you have to realize that!"

His expression started to change as he finally began to process and consider what I was telling him - even if it was reluctantly at first, "You think the stolen goods are just a patsy, meant to distract us and Arthur while they go after their true objective?"

I nodded as he conveyed my own suspicions, before turning back to look at Arthur - who'd been silent this whole time, "Arthur, is there anything big happening today or tomorrow? Have you noticed anything strange? Anything at all?"

He appeared startled by his sudden inclusion in the conversation and shook his head, "No, nothing, I -" Then he paused. "The only thing I can think of is that we had an emergency team switch for a shipment of classified materials."

"That has to be it, then." A mixture of anticipation and apprehension coursed through my veins. God help me If I was wrong about this... "Where? What time?" I fired of the questions in short bursts. Desperate to move.

Arthur scowled, glancing down at his watch. "Twenty minutes. Down at the docks."

My eyes widened. "We need to move. Now!"

I spun toward Meliodas, anxiously awaiting his decision. Hell, if he wanted he could go chase his wild goose... If he was really in so deep that he couldn't see what was right in front of his face… I'd go to the docks myself.

The blonde stayed silent. Probably weighing the options. I could see it in the way he studied me. Not really looking at me, but at all the pieces I'd laid before him.

"Meliodas," Arthur broke the silence, his voice unsure, "It's your call, but… I think Princess is on to something here. And, well, if she's right, we should probably go."

Another thirty seconds passed before the blonde's face finally set to resolute.

"Alright, Princess." Meliodas finally spoke. His emerald eyes bore into mine, a fire behind them. "We go with your gut on this."

I smile at the small victory.

"Hope you're right." He passed me quickly on his way to climb into the car we'd driven in.

I only nod to myself, not trusting myself to speak as I too climbed in to the car and fastened in.

Because I was hoping for the same thing.

Luv: *walks into the room looking like a zombie and moans* Cooofffeeeee….. Neeeds it…

Dom: *Looks up from her spot on the floor in front of the TV, where she's sat playing the newest Kingdom Hearts game since she bought it, sporting some serious baggage under her eyes* Cooofffffeeeeee? Coffee.

Luv: *turns head slightly towards Dom's direction* …. Co… coffee…?

Dom:*stands slowly, shuffling for the kitchen* …..Coff. Cofffffeee. *Nods head*

Luv: Coooffeee *drags feet as she follows Dom to the kitchen*

Dom: *Pulls multiple bags of grinds from the cabinet, with the energy of a sloth* Coffee? Coff...Coffee?

Luv: *examines the bags and pokes one, nodding sluggishly* C-cof..fe...fe… *goes and collapses on kitchen chair*

Dom: *Uses entire body to nodd, making a pot of coffee so delightful, it fills the whole house with the joy of life* C-C-Coff… Coffee?

Luv: *perks head up* Coffee? *struggles to find a mug in the cupboards. Fills it and doesn't speak until it's half way gone. A heavy sigh of satisfaction leaving her lips* Coffee.

Dom: *Follows suit, filling a mug and downing a cup before it cools.* Coffee.

Luv: *finishes cup and refills.* Thank god for coffee. *tears began to fall from her eyes* It's so beautiful. *rubs cheek affectionately against cup*

Dom:*Nods in agreement* Welp, now that we're not the living dead anymore, I guess I should give a preview of the next chapter. Next Time on Don't Trust Me: The Commandments have finally reared their head and made a move and Elizabeth, Meliodas, and Arthur have a shipment to catch before it's too late - at least that's what Elizabeth hopes. Will her hunch be right, and what kind of dangers lurk around the docks?

Luv: *refills her third cup* Was that Kingdom Hearts I saw in there? *begins shuffling back to the other room* I've been dying to play.

Dom: YYYAAASSSS! *Dashes back to the living room, and starting a new save file for Luv and thrusting the controller in her hand* PLAY PLAY PLAY! *Waves haphazardly at the readers* See you guys next time!