“Are you in love with him, Quill?”
“I told you to stop calling me Quill,” she snapped, roughly circling her shoulder to make her stop touching her.
“And I told you to stop calling me Seri,” she stated. “Besides, I like Quill. Quill is the strongest part of a bird’s feather. A bird couldn’t fly without a strong quill.”
“It’s also the part of the bird plucked from its body to make an ink pen,” she reminded her of the cruel fact.
Seri stood and pulled her dark blue FBI t-shirt from her pants. She turned around and showed Quill the tattoo of a quill along her lower back. It was a beautifully detailed quill with the words ‘Vengeance’ coming from the tip. The feathers were very well articulated and flowed like it had caught a gust of wind, Aquilla loved it.
“Damn, you are a tough bitch,” she decided. Seri smiled down at her and tucked her shirt back inside her pants. “How did you make it through the application process with that?” Aquilla couldn’t imagine Julius letting her in with a tattoo.
“If that other guy Latium would have done the inspection, I’m sure I wouldn’t have. However, Julius liked it.”
“Did you fuck him more than that one time?” Aquilla wanted to know, for whatever reason. Seri smiled a crooked smile and sat across the room on the bench. Aquilla knew she had without any words, her body language was enough to answer the question.
“What’s going to happen to me Seri?” She asked.
“You’re going to go home to your family, they love you, Quill. You’re going to be fine, and if not, you can just kick some ass. You’re pretty good at it,” she teased, trying to lighten her trepidation.
“I’m not going to be called Shelby. That’s a really stupid name,” she assured her.
Seri snickered a little, looking down at the new text message.
“Are you getting anywhere with her?”
“She doesn’t know anything. I’m sure of it. She’s not going to be any help in locating Julius,” Seri texted back. “But this girl is fucking amazing, I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Bullshit, she knows something. What about family? Where did they visit? Friends of the family? Give me something, Goddamnit!!!”
“Just order us some food and let me deal with Quill.”
“Bring her downstairs.”
“No, we’ll never get anywhere by doing that, she can’t stand you.”
“What? Are you like her best friend or something now…. SERI?”
“Fuck you! Get us some food.”
Aquilla continued to read as much as she could on Seri’s laptop. They read the articles of the unknown family all the way up until December 17th, and then nothing. The family was forgotten, probably sitting in some box in some storeroom. She was reading the updates of her disappearance when Agent Malone came in with two Styrofoam containers of food. Aquilla could smell the grease as soon as he entered, gross.
“What the fuck is she doing? Get her off of there,” Malone demanded, seeing Aquilla on the laptop.
“She’s not hurting anything, leave her alone. It’s about her life and she has a right to know.”
Seri took the food and nodded for him to leave. She could tell that Aquilla didn’t want him there.
“Galveston wants you to call him as soon as possible.”
“Fine, but did you tell him that we know nothing?”
“It’s not about that.”
“What’s it about?”
“Just call him. I will stay with the girl.”
“The girl has a name,” Aquilla smartly reminded him.
“Yes, Shelby, we Know.”
Aquilla was off the bed in a split second. She wasn’t fucking Shelby.
Seri jumped between them, screaming at Malone. “Put the fucking gun away, you stupid fucking idiot!” She couldn’t believe he pulled his gun on her.
“She needs a fucking straight jacket, I wouldn’t trust her for a second,” Malone said, replacing his gun.
“That’s very smart of you Agent Dick Face. If I were you, I wouldn’t close my eyes tonight, especially if you’re planning on sleeping in MY house,” Aquilla warned, with a vengeful glare and gritted teeth.
“Quill!” Seri scolded. “Get out Malone.”
“She can’t threaten me like that.”
“GET OUT!” Seri screamed.
“You need to chill out on the temper,” Seri said, handing her the container of food.
“It’s not a temper, more like the Chavez way of saying don’t fuck with me,” Aquilla replied, taking the food.
Seri wanted to remind her that she wasn’t a Chavez. She didn’t, she didn’t need to. Aquilla knew that fact, she was just having a hard time accepting it. Recapping that wasn’t going to help one bit.
“What a stupid idiot,” Seri said out loud when she opened her food with the cheeseburger and fries.
“You don’t like cheeseburgers?” Aquilla asked.
“I don’t eat red meat, Agent Dick Face knows that.”
Aquilla laughed at her using her nick name for Malone. “I don’t either.”
“What do you like? We’ll order our own damn food,” Seri decided, pulling up some local restaurants on her phone.
“Do you like seafood? There’s a little seafood bar not far from here. They deliver, Julius and I used to order from there when my father was out of town.”
Seri smiled a warm smile at her. She loved the man that kidnapped her. There was no question about it. “Seafood’s good. What should I order?”
“The lobster and crawfish platter is good,” Aquilla offered.
The seafood was good. Agent Dick Face brought it up and took their unwanted red meat away. He’d eat it. He wasn’t biased.
“Quill, you have to go downstairs with me so that I can call my boss,” Seri explained, cleaning up their trash.
“I kind of wanted to take a shower. I’m not going anywhere, Seri. Where would I go?”
“I don’t trust you.”
“You can trust me. You’re partner’s the one that shouldn’t turn his back on me.”
“You stop that. I’ll just go out into the hall and call while you shower.”
Aquilla took her clothes and walked to the bathroom while Seri walked out to the hall.
“Hey, Galveston. It’s Seri, I mean Sarah.”
“Forget your name?”
“No, this girl calls me Seri. What’s up?”
“You’re going home with her.”
“What do you mean I’m going home with her? To New York?”
“No, actually, her parents no longer live in New York. They divorced two years after Shelby was taken. Her father still lives there. She is going home to her mother, who lives in Connecticut.”
“Why the hell am I going home with her? Shouldn’t she be with her family without an intruder?”
“From what Malone has told me, she trusts you. He thinks Julius is going to come for her.”
“He’s not going to venture into the states,” she assured him. How the hell would he even do that? He was on a high wanted list. He wouldn’t make it out of the airport. The guy isn’t stupid.
“I still think the girl knows something. I want you with her until further notice.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know that. I’m trying to get Monica to go to Connecticut too. Keep me posted on any information you obtain from her.”
“She doesn’t know anything.”
“I beg to differ, keep me posted.”
“Do her parents know yet?”
“I’ve got two agents on the road as we speak. The mother will know very soon.”
Seri was still on the phone when Aquilla walked out of the bathroom. She quietly opened her door to see Seri sitting on the top step down the long hallway. She turned back to her purple computer debating on whether or not to chance it. She only needed a minute. What did she have to lose? She had to try.