Treacherous (7 page)

His tongue forced my lips open and
pushed inside. My hands pulled his body closer to mine. I needed
him close to me. He was like a drug.

“
Frankie,” I panted.
He kissed me once more, tracing his thumb across my cheek and took
my hand in his.

“
Come on. Let’s go
back.” I nodded and walked back to the campus with him. Where was
my conscience in all this? My heart was a rebel, and my conscience,
a traitor.

Chapter
Eleven

Nathan

As soon as I opened my door, my phone
rang.

“
Officer Wright,” I
said out of habit.

“
Nathan, how’s the
case going?”

“
Oh, hey, Mark. Yeah,
it’s good. I’ve gotten closer to my subject.”

“
This totally sucks,
dude. How come you get to be out in the field seducing hot chicks,
while I get to be stuck behind a desk all day?”

“
Oh, cheer up, Buddy.
You’ll get your turn.”

“
Yeah, in my
dreams.”

“
Why’d you
call?”

“
Oh, right. I got a
hit on that name you told me to look up.”

“
Yeah? Tell me.” I sat
at my kitchen counter, taking off my cap. After seeing Charli this
morning, I had to go for a walk to ‘cool off’.

“
Your suspect, he’s on
campus.”

My eyes widened and I almost dropped
the phone.

“
Nath? You still
there?”

“
Yeah. Yeah, Mark. I’m
still here. He’s on campus?”

“
Yeah. He’s been
posing as a number of different students on the student chat
room.”

“
Different
aliases?”

“
Yeah.”

“
What are
they?”

“
Is your line
secure?”

“
Yeah, I got the
card.” It may sound stupid, but that was our code word for securing
the line here on campus. I thought it might sound like I was
talking to a relative.

“
Okay, they are A.D.
Walker, and F. J. Scott.” I mentally imprinted them in my brain for
later.

“
They don’t sound
familiar. Any Christian names?”

“
Nope, sorry man.
That’s all I have for now. Sydney University values their student’s
privacy.”

“
Okay. Keep me
posted.”

“
Will do.” I hung up
and saw my laptop poking out of my backpack. An idea struck me.
Perhaps it was time to do a little research.

Charli

Frankie led me
through an archway I hadn’t been through before. I knew it was an
older part of the campus, but it was rather beautiful. Each
building was painted a different colour. It looked like it could
have been an alleyway in Tuscany or Buenos Aires. After walking
halfway down the sloped alley, we stopped outside an emerald green
door. The paint on the door was chipped in some places giving it a
rustic look.

“
Is this your
apartment?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder. I hadn’t been
down this way before.

“
Yeah. Don’t worry.
We’re still on campus.” He unlocked the door and when we stepped
inside, we were greeted by darkness.

Nathan

I booted up my laptop
and waited. The AFP was generous enough to give me a brand new
MacBook computer, again, to give the illusion of being a college
student. The Internet connected itself, and I logged onto the chat
room using the username the AFP had set up for me. I rubbed my
hands together and waited. As an undercover officer on the fraud
squad, I was normally given two aliases—a female and a male,
depending on the suspect. But since I was working for the Jayne’s I
had only been given one. My own: N. Wright. So I had asked my
partner, Mark to make me another one. A female, since I was after a
male suspect. I logged on as
A. Deveroux.

I had a hit.

“
Are
you new?”
The user was male
by the looks of things. In order to distinguish between the
genders, all students were required to check a box stating what
gender they were to make the chat window turn blue or
pink.

“
Yeah just started.”
I
typed.

“
How are you liking
things?”

“
Very good. I love the
campus.”

“
Listen, my friends
and I have this tradition where we welcome new
students.”

“
I’m
listening.”
I had a
break.

“
Come over to the
North dorms tonight for an initiation party.”

I thought for second.
What should I do? I couldn’t go. Annika was a girl. I was clearly
not. Plus, I didn’t actually know if this person was the suspect.
Then an idea struck me.
“Is
this a plus one invitation?”

“
We don’t usually take
plus one’s, but I’ll make an exception for you. You’ve got pretty
eyes.”

“
Um…
thanks.”
I added a blushing
emoticon. For my profile picture, Mark had used a picture of one of
our female colleagues.
“Thank
you. I don’t usually go out without my
boyfriend.”

“
No
problems. See you at 9.”
The
user,
M. Blake
signed off promptly after that, and
so did I. I had a party to plan for, but first, I had to check in
on Charli.

I tried calling her,
but all I was getting was her voicemail. Damn.

Charli

I felt nothing, but
his body against mine in the darkness.

“
Why is it so dark?” I
asked, my voice an echo.

“
We don’t need light.”
Again, his voice made me shudder and my body melted into his. He
pushed me back against the wall, and his lips came crashing down on
mine, stealing my breath and my soul.

“
You’re so beautiful,
Charli,” he growled.

“
How do you know? You
can’t see me.” Okay as soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew it
had sounded stupid.

“
I don’t have to see
you to know you’re beautiful.” I reached out to find his face. His
lips met my fingers.

“
Frankie. I want to
see you,” My breath came out shaky.

“
Come on.” He took my
hand, and he began pulling me along. A light flickered above us
and, in each flicker, I saw snapshots of his face. I couldn’t pick
his expression. My conscience was trying to break through, but I
wouldn’t let it. I felt like I needed Frankie the same as I needed
air. I didn’t understand it, but hey, that’s how I felt. We climbed
a flight of stairs to the next floor and up there it was brighter.
The lights weren’t broken. We stopped outside a door mid-way down
the corridor, and Frankie pulled a key out of his pocket. He turned
to look at me before opening the door, and my heart faltered. I
couldn’t believe I was here. I was in his room.

Chapter
Twelve

Nathan

When I went to
Charli’s room a few hours later she still wasn’t there. I was
beginning to worry.
What if
the suspect had already lured her into his trap?
I shook my head. No, I couldn’t let
myself go there. Part of me didn’t want to admit the possibility,
but the cop side of me had to go there. Charli was my
responsibility. I couldn’t live with myself if she had been caught
due to my selfishness. I had let my personal feelings get in the
way of my job. How stupid could I be?

I checked my watch. It was 5pm. I still
had four hours to kill before the party. Time for plan B.

When I reached Mia’s door, a voice
startled me.

“
Looking for me?” I
turned and saw Mia coming down the hall towards me, coffee cup in
one hand and shopping bags in the other.

“
Yes,
actually.”

“
Ain’t this a nice
surprise? Come in.” Juggling her shopping bags and coffee in one
hand, she jiggled her keys in the lock and pushed the door open
with her foot.

“
I’d love to, but I
can’t stay. Have you heard from Charli recently?”

“
She’s not in her
room?”

“
No. I’ve tried
calling, too, but there’s no answer.”

“
Hmm. Then she’s
probably with Frankie.”

I shifted my weight
and stared at my feet. “Right. Thanks.” Of course, she was with
Frankie. I felt my blood begin to boil. I walked away before my
distaste started to show.

“
They really are meant
to be,” Mia said, calling after me.

“
What?” I turned back
to look at her. She was half in, half out of her door.

“
Frankie and Charli. I
set them up. They’re the perfect couple. So you should let her go,
Nathan.”

But I
can’t
. I wanted to say that,
but kept it inside my head. Before I turned the corner, I heard Mia
say one last thing.

“
See you at the party
tonight.”

Charli

Frankie’s apartment was not what I was
expecting. It was light and open and all of the furniture looked
new and expensive.

“
Wow.”

“
What?” he smirked. I
turned to see him watching me.

“
Nothing. I just
didn’t expect your room to look…”

“
Like a rich boy’s
bachelor pad?”

“
Yes.”

I took him in. “There is much I’d like
to know about you, Frankie Scott.”

“
Like? Let me know,
and I might just tell you.” He walked towards his kitchen and
reached up to open the cupboard above the stove. His shirt rode up
to give me the perfect view of his lower back and just a hint of
his underwear poking out above the waist of his jeans. When he
caught me looking, he smirked, making me blush bright
red.

“
Like where you grew
up, your hobbies. If you want to date me, I should know these
things. For all I know, you could be a serial killer.”

He chuckled at that. “I’m not a serial
killer, trust me.” He pulled down two wine glasses from the top
cupboard and closed it. “Wine?”

“
Sure.”

Before I could stop
my tongue, I blurted, “You seem kind of experienced.” Oh My God.
Why did I just say that? Luckily, Frankie didn’t seem to mind, but
his tone turned serious.

“
There’s something you
should know about me. When I said I haven’t had a girlfriend
before, that wasn’t exactly the truth.”

“
Oh? And what’s the
truth?” I asked, perching myself at the kitchen counter.

“
The truth is… I’ve
dated before, many times. But what I meant was, I’ve never had a
real, serious girlfriend.”

My heart sunk into my gut. I glanced
down at my hands and fiddled with my silver thumb ring.

“
But Charli…” his
hands joined mine and I glanced up to meet his seemingly sincere
hazel eyes. “I’m not a cheater, if that’s what you’re thinking. I
am strictly a one-woman man.”

I let out the breath I hadn’t known I
was holding. “That’s good.” I gave him a genuine smile, feeling a
bit better about the situation. “Can I trust you?”

“
Of course.” He leaned
across the table to kiss me. My lips parted, and I returned the
favour. He pulled me closer so that our bodies were touching. His
hands found my hair and automatically my thoughts went to this
morning, and my steamy moment with Nathan. I pulled
away.

“
Charli? What’s wrong?
If you want to go slow, that’s okay.”

“
No, I don’t want to
go slow. I just…” I noticed the wine glasses and decided to change
the subject— anything to detour my thoughts from Nathan. Especially
when I wasn’t kissing Nathan. “I really feel like that wine.
Where’s the bottle?” I asked, stepping around Frankie into the
kitchen.

Frankie sighed,
thankfully not noticing my subject change. “In the wine rack.” If
he did notice it, he was an excellent actor.

Chapter
Thirteen

Nathan

What did Mia mean about seeing me at
the party? Was she referring to the same party as I was thinking
of? Her actions were certainly beginning to make me question
things. And Charli… Was Mia lying to me about Charli’s whereabouts?
As much as I wanted to be a normal, civilian guy, I had to be a
cop. I had a job to do. If Charli’s parents called me, I had to
have an answer.

Once back at my apartment, I tried
calling Charli once more, but there was still no answer.

But there was a text.

My heart raced as I opened the
message.

“
What do you want, Nathan? I’m busy.”
It was Charli. I breathed a sigh of relief. At
least she wasn’t missing, or worse.

“
Just checking
to see
if you’re okay,”
I texted
back.
“Call me when you
can.”

I wanted to ask her
where she was, but an incoming text stopped me.
“I’m fine. I’m with Frankie. It’s none of your
business what I do.”