11 Days

THE AIR YOU BREATHE

The next morning Joey's diner did not open on the orders of Police Chief, Bob Tyler. All Quiet Gate residents had been ordered to stay in our homes until further notice and to cooperate with the police to answer questions. Echo decided to stay with me because he didn't want to leave me alone. He told me that on the night he accompanied me back home, he thought he saw someone in my apartment, not something, someone. He said he could make out the silhouette of a tall man in the dark but when I turned on the light, the silhouette had disappeared. I didn't even want to think that someone could have entered my home, I couldn't, I would die if that happened.

I have to go back and shower.

“You can go for a change of clothes and shower here, it’s alright. I promise my bathroom is very clean.”

Come with me?

I could let that one go and went for it. “I’m dying to.”

Echo rolled his eyes but kept a smile on his handsome face. He crawled over me and pinned me on the bed. After Lola left yesterday, both Echo and I were too shocked to do anything else. We spent much of the day curled up in bed watching movies and falling asleep all the time that we did not have time to continue what we had started in the kitchen. Echo slid between my legs and rolled his hips against me so deliciously that I couldn't help but moaning loudly. Apparently, he preferred my hands out of the way, so I held on my pillow as he continued to grind against me. When I felt his erection against my opening, I began to move in synch with him; soon we were both panting and kissing and nipping at each other’s lips. Without warning, Echo flipped me on the bed as if I was nothing but a rag doll and slid my sweats and panties just right below my ass. After a beat I felt his length throbbing against one cheek. So, he is an ass man. When he spread my cheeks I immediately tensed, hoping for the worst but he simply slid his c**k between them and teased me that way. To my relief, he reached underneath me and began playing with my clit as he used me from behind. The guys I’ve slept with only knew the basics and anything else was not necessary, but Echo… this guy was creative. He’d done everything right and he surely haven’t disappointed me yet, sexually at least. Suddenly he bit down on my shoulder so hard it shocked me but also spurred me on and I cried out against the pillow, soon after I felt him come right on the small of my back- he had really come with me after all.

I sighed happily against the pillow, content but not fully satisfied. He pushed against my back, letting me know to stay still. After he cleaned me with a damp face towel, he threw it on the floor, letting it land deftly near the bathroom’s door. Slowly I turned to lay once more on my back, my sweats were still low. “Would you mind?” I said as I wiggled my hips to him- he understood right away and slid the sweats all the way down my legs, leaving my lower body completely exposed to him. “Stay here, you don’t need your clothes anyway.”

The police will come later.

“So?”

He raised a brow at me. I will be right back

“Fine, but with one condition.”

What?

“Get naked as soon as you come back.”

Yes, Aviana.

I let Echo go and I got out of bed in the mood to remain lazy, but I also wanted to contact Joey, ask him what exactly had happened. It was rare to have a crime of this magnitude in Quiet Gate, at most, people received tickets for parking where they should not or for exceeding the speed limit but I had never heard of a murder here. The people in town were very peaceful and everyone was friendly - well, most of them were. When I entered the bathroom, I gazed at myself in the mirror and I looked different. Something about me that wasn't there before was now beginning to emerge, I just wasn't sure what it was. As I reached for the toothpaste, I realized something, the red lipstick that I had been looking for was right next to the glass where I kept my toothbrush. I clearly remember that that night before going to Echo's department I looked for him like crazy and he was nowhere to be found. But there it was, the navy-blue glossy tube with gold lining and a red gem on top of the cap was there, ready to go. Could it be that I was going insane over something so small? Had I dreamed it being gone?

“f**k!” I screamed at the top of my lungs when I felt something graze at my back. I turned around and Echo was standing there, gloriously naked staring at me as if I had gone mad. And because I didn’t know what to do after, I smacked at his pec and went to sit on the toilet with my eyes still set on the lipstick. Echo’s soft tread barely made a sound on the tile as he made his way towards me, he then raised my chin up with the tip of his fingers. “I think I’m going insane.” I confessed. Echo tilted his head in question. “The other night, before I went to your place, I was looking for a lipstick and it wasn’t here, turns out it just randomly appeared next to my toothbrush.” Echo's expression remained stoic, void of any emotion to tell me what was going through his head. When I pointed my finger at the lipstick, he turned his head to see it but did nothing else. I did not want to believe that someone had actually entered my home and inspected my things, so I decided to fall into a state of absolute denial where I refuted the supposed silhouette that Echo had seen that night.

“Maybe I was so nervous I didn’t see it.” I offered by a way of explanation, but his expression only hardened further. “It happens, like when you’re looking for your keys and turns out you have them in your hand.”

He shook his head stiffly; he wasn’t having any of my theories.

“I can’t believe you saw someone in here.”

He sighed, reached for the lipstick, tore the cap off and began writing on the oval mirror. Not lying.

“I never said you were lying, I said I can’t believe it. I just can’t.” He did not need to know the reasons why I refused to believe in the possibility that a stranger had entered my home when I was not there and if that was the case that meant that the same person had entered when I was here. Probably watching me sleep, shower, relaxed in bed. Someone had seen me without my noticing. What were the chances of having two stalkers in your entire life?

Before either of us could explode I heard a knock on the door and then a man calling my name. "One minute!" I raised my voice and stood up, Echo handed me a bathrobe that was hanging next to the bathtub, I thanked him and asked him to get dressed before I took off running out of the bathroom to hurry and open the door. When I snapped it open I ran into Marcus King, one of the town's detectives and last but not least ... my ex. Marcus's brown skin contrasted with his honey-colored eyes, his black hair curling close to his skull. He smiled at me, but I knew he was not very happy to see me. "Chief sent you, huh?”

“I guess I’m the only one willing to do the job.”

“Of interviewing me in particular?”

“Maybe.” I wanted to punch the smugness out of his skull when he licked the inside of his cheeks. “I heard you’re quite fast into welcoming the new guy.” Yeah, I was about to punch him alright when the air rustled behind me and Echo hooked his arm around me, letting it hang freely against my neck. “Oh, so he got the full care package.” To that, Echo tensed which pushed me into cutting off short Marcus’s venom shots.

“Can you like… do your job? Or should I go tell the Chief you’re stalling because you can’t help being a d**k?”

“Let me remind you that you’re speaking to the law.”

“No, I am speaking to my ex who is being a dick.”

“Fine, I will let it slide this one time but if you- “

“Jesus!” I groaned out of frustration; this guy would be the death of me one day. “Just spit it out! What do you want to know? Where I was last night? I was with him in his apartment having great dinner, great beer and great making out sessions.” The last part wasn’t true, but I meant to add salt to the wound. When his jaw ticked, I knew I had won. “Anything else?”

“Yes, Pedro Herrera’s dead body was discovered floating on the lake with no clothes on and his lungs missing.”

“There’s no way… Marcus! That’s two people from my building already.” I never really got to know Pedro, but he seemed like a good man. “Who would do such a thing?”

Marcus looked pained all of a sudden, his eyes darted to Echo for a moment and then he paled right before my eyes. “I don’t know, but the Chief will have men patrolling for a few days and also outside Joey’s diner.” One last venomous glance at me and he left.