15
His scent was still heavy, still potent in my mind. After a few seconds of silence, I slowly leaned back and looked up to see Rafael slowly opening his eyes, attempting to blink away the sleep. I slowly shrugged from his hold and sat up. I looked around his room listening to him stretch and then groan.
"Morning." he said. I feel his hand gently press to my back rubbing it gently.
"Good morning." I replied running my fingers through my hair for a second. "Oh no, I never set my alarm for school." I could hear shuffling around.
"Well you're in luck, we both are. It seems your school and my job are closed due to not having power." he said. I turned to him to see him on his side holding up his phone to me. I took it and read the news article that stated the list of schools that were closed. He must have gotten an email from his job. I looked at my apple watch to see I had emails from my professors telling me their classes were canceled. I slowly smiled.
"This is wonderful." I said before looking at Rafael who was just stared up at me with a warm gaze, but he started to look unsure.
"Hey um, are you okay after last night? I know it was the heat of the moment and we both just gave in to passion. I just want to make sure you are okay with everything that happened." he said. I tilted my head some at him.
"You want to make sure I have no regrets." I said and he shrugged and nodded.
"Yes." he said. I nodded slowly looking down before shrugging.
"It's fine." I replied and his eyes flexed as he sat up some.
"Fine as you and I are okay, fine like it was just nice but I want to wait before we do it again, fine as in-"
"Fine as in I enjoyed myself and that we will probably do it again… soon." I purred smiling at him and his eyes sparkled some and he smirked and sat up leaning in to me and gently kissing me. I responded leaning in to him now letting my lips linger against his for a moment. After a few minutes of being lazy in bed, we got up and made breakfast together.
"I'll be in my office working for a bit to stay caught up in work. You gonna do anything today?" he asked and I shrugged.
"Probably a spin class at the gym if it's open and then study. You know keep it simple." I replied and he nodded.
"Your legs are going to look tremendous." he said and I smirked.
"That's what I'm going for." I said. Within the next hour I had my gym bag packed and ready. I stuck my head into Rafael's office and saw him on the phone. I wasn't going to disturb him but when he saw me, he quickly waved me inside and so I entered.
"Alright. When the power is back on I'll be in. Good bye." he said and looked at me. "You heading out?" I nodded.
"Yes. Was gonna see if you needed anything." I replied and he shook his head.
"No thank you, mami. But tonight around seven. I am attending a small get together for work. People I work with will be there and I wanted to know if you'd like to go as my date." he said. I thought about it.
"Is it like some alpha's club or something?" I asked. He gave a soft look as he shook his head approaching me and placing his hands on my hips.
"No, nothing like that. Just some associates have invited me over. Olivia and some of the other detectives will be there. There will be food, entertainment, you get to meet some pretty powerful people." he offered. I could hear how genuine his tone was and knew that he did want me to go. I nodded smiling up at him.
"Okay." I replied, and he smiled.
"Wonderful. I know you'll have a good time." he said.
"I hope so." I teased and he pecked my lips.
"Have a good work out." he said, and I smiled and left his office.
"Don't work too hard!" I called out.
"Never!" he replied. I grabbed his keys off the island and left the house. It ended up being a wasted drive, because the gym was closed due to the weather. I could have driven around to pass the time, but this wasn't my car to use for boredom. So I headed back to Rafael's, did a major jog, and now was stepping out of my shower fully clean, hair wet and in long waves. I used to miss the cork screw curls I used to have, but seeing as my hair is way more manageable, I liked it this way. I started my hair routine, wrapping it up and sitting under my hair dryer in the kitchen. I played on my phone during most of the time. When that was done, I unwrapped my hair and used my hatchet blow dryer to comb through the rest of my hair to dry it and now I was sitting on a stool in the bathroom using my curling iron to curl my hair.
Rafael was watching me in the doorway of the bathroom.
"It literally took you almost two hours to do your hair." he said and I nodded.
"That's the price of having long thick hair." I replied. I glanced at him to see he was dressed in one of his suits.
"Work call you in?" I assumed and he shook his head.
"Yes Liv wanted to see me about some important business one a case she's working on." he said. I nodded and continued to curl my hair.
"Okay well be careful there is a lot of debris in the road." I said. He nodded.
"Want me to bring you any lunch?" he asked and I shook my head.
"I'll be fine." I replied and he nodded.
"Alright. I'll be back in an hour or so." he said and I nodded.
"Okay." I replied as he left from the room.
Rafael's POV
My stomach was tight as I looked at the images before me. It honestly made me sick. Picture after picture was of a dead woman. Liv looked at me with firm eyes.
"I felt we needed to speak in person about this." she said. I had met her at Java's Café. I smiled at her, but when she didn't smile back, I knew something had happened. Ten pictures, all of dead women, African American between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six.
"All betas. We have ten distraught alphas wanting justice, some even wanting to take matters into their own hands." she said. I observed the strangulation marks around their necks.
"So we have a serial killer killing young African American women in New York." I said stiffly. Liv nodded.
"We have no idea if there is more, but each of their patterns are the same. Each one is sexually assaulted, then strangled. And these are just of the ten cases we know of." she informed. I shook my head confused.
"Why weren't these women being watched by their alphas, what do their alphas say?" I asked. Liv looked at me stunned.
"Barba, you know that nothing could have prevented these deaths. All of the women are different. Some go to school and others are working. They could have been tricked or just attacked during their day to day lives." she said. I looked from the pictures to her.
"But what do their alphas say?" I asked once more. She sighed gently.
"Mostly that their betas were at work or school or running an errand when they suddenly disappeared." she said.
"How long are they missing for?" I asked.
"Twenty-four, sometimes forty-eight hours." she told. I nodded slowly.
"Did all ten of these betas have good relationships with their alphas?" I asked. She shrugged.
"Some did, some were still new to the bond. We spoke with family and friends and they told us mostly that the relationship was good. Some pairs were taking it slow." she told. "But nothing to indicate that there was rejection in any of the pairs." I nodded slowly looking back at the pictures. These girls… they were all just starting their lives. They all had hobbies and interests… and they all looked like Amara. I felt I would be sick.
"Have you got any leads?" I asked.
"Only one: they had all left AntiDom one point in their lives." she said. My eyes hardened at her words.
"Someone in AntiDom is going after members who willingly chose to leave the group." I said.
"We have spoken to Albert Nottingham. He said he's fully prepared to cooperate with anything we want to show he and his members aren't responsible." she said. I looked at the pictures in thought.
"Maybe someone is killing in the name of AntiDom, but they are for the defense of betas. They wouldn't kill betas, it'd go against everything they think they stand for." I said. Liv nodded.
"Which leaves us back to square one." she said. My jaw clenched and I looked around with utter irritation. And here I was here while my beta was home alone.
"Keep me updated on this case. Let me know what you find out. You going to be at Munoz's tonight?" I asked. She nodded.
"Yeah, we'll be there." she said. "Just… be careful. Talk to Amara, tell her to be mindful of her surroundings." I nodded as I got up and swung my jacket over my arm before a thought hit me.
"Talk to Amara's father, Johnathon O'Neal, he's a deception researcher who specializes in alpha/beta cases. Maybe he can tell you if our attacker is an alpha… or someone's beta." I said and turned and left the café swiftly.
Amara's POV
Now that my hair was done, I decided to go over the material for my classes in case I had to go in tomorrow. I had the TV on in my room for back ground noise. As I listened to the TV, I heard a loud thud coming from down stairs. At first I tried to ignore it, until I heard another thud. I looked up and got up wondering what was going on. The thudding continued of which it sounded like the front door. I quietly left the room and went down stairs and toward the front door. I looked through the peephole and saw it was a few women standing there. They were neighbors, that much I knew. I opened the door and smiled politely.
"Hi there, I'm Jill and these are Lisa, Megan and Hailey. We are a part of the neighborhood watch. We are just going door to door informing everyone of a possible… serial killer in New York. The news stated already that ten women have been found and we noticed they were young, African American girls and we just want to make sure everyone is safe and aware of what's going on." Jill said.
"Please be careful when you're out by yourself and if you notice any strange people in the neighborhood maybe stalking around, please inform the police." Lisa said. I nodded swiftly feeling knots form in my stomach as I looked at each and every one of the women's faces.
"Yes. I'll keep an eye out. Thank you." I replied and they ladies nodded and stepped down the porch. I bit my lip in nervousness as I made sure the door was locked. I knew this was something Rafael and I would have to discuss when he comes back. I'm sure he's going to be paranoid and I am sure his security on me is going to tighten. Now I made sure all the windows and doors around the house were secure as they should be.
