LOVE AND MURDER DON'T MIX

Carmen woke up with a start.

‘Had it all been a dream?’ She started to wonder, but the ropes that burned into her skin told her otherwise. As her eyes adjusted to the bright concrete room, she found Lorenzo sharpening a knife near a table full of weapons. His back was towards her.

‘Remember your training; assess the room, trick the host, and grab a weapon.’

Okay, that wasn’t actually her training, but it was what she thought was necessary right now.

The first thing she did was look around the room. There was a huge wooden door on the right, which was slightly open, telling her it wasn’t locked. The faint smell of Clorox, with no laundry machines in sight, set Carmen on edge.

Lastly, the table of weapons didn’t have any guns, only knives, whips, and other torture devices.

She shuddered.

Other than the chair she was sitting on, there was nothing else in the room.

Just as she finished assessing the room, Lorenzo turned around. She quickly put her head down, pretending she was still sleeping.

“Strange,” He said in a deep voice that sent shivers down her spine. She found it revolting how, just a few days ago, she was dying to kiss this man.

Now, she was dying to get away from him.

“The methyl propyl ether should’ve worn off by now.” he said.

She could feel his hot breath on her, and it took all of her self-control not to curse at him for doing this to her heart. She believed him, his lies, his love. And he stomped on it, leaving her broken, and tied up.

“Pity. I really wanted her to be awake, so I could torment her more.”

When she heard him pick up an object, probably from the table, she opened her eyes.

“Torment me more? How could you do that if I never gave you the time of day?” She said, proud of herself for the levelness in her voice.

It wasn’t going to last long, though. He had a sickly, sadistic smile on his face as he stepped closer, holding an incredibly sharp knife.

“Nonsense. You desired me, remember? The way your breath caught every time I looked at you, or the way your body reacted to every touch. You needed me.”

She spat on his shoe, earning a look of disgust from him.

‘Ironic how he’s the one disgusted right now.'

“Who’s to say that it was real? I told you how I used to work undercover when I was in college. I could’ve easily fooled you into thinking that I was into you, knowing all along who you really were.”

Lorenzo tried to mask it, but Carmen could see the fear and confusion that flashed through his eyes, and that encouraged her to continue,

“Remember that time when we went through security in the airport to gather those documents? And how we were stopped because my phone was in my pocket? Well, what if it wasn’t my phone? What if it was a tracking device I had put on me?” She smiled smugly.

‘Fall for it! Search me!’ She screamed inside her head. She knew he had to drop the knife and partially untie her for him to search her properly. And while she didn’t want his hands all over her, —especially near the curve of her breasts and hips—she knew it was the only way to get him unarmed and her untied, even if it was by a long shot.

But he just stood there, smiling.

“You know, Carmen, my love,” He started. She flinched.

“I’ve always had a thing for deceitful women. I usually only cut off their legs, and their lips. But, for you, I’ll cut out your eyes too. They glisten with pure hatred, something I’ve seen before, but not quite like yours. They’ll do nicely in my collection.”

Her breathing stopped. He saw right through her trickery, and was ready to cut off her body parts without hesitation.

“However, since you are not like the others, I’ll grant you one question before I cut you up.”

Carmen knew for a fact that this wasn’t his first time “granting” a question to his victims; however, she would be the first one to ask this question.

“Why?”

He stopped smiling.

‘Score!’

“Why, what?”

“Why is a general question, Lorenzo. You should know, as per training, that asking the simple question of why leads to a million descriptive questions, all starting with why. Asking why is like asking twenty questions at once. But, lucky for you, I have less than twenty ‘why’ questions.”

It was her turn to smile sickly,

“Why pretend to enamour me for six months, lead me on a wild goose chase, and trust you more than a partner should? Why go to such lengths of earning more trust, when we are already partners in the law force? Why set up a life or death scene to whisk me away?”

Carmen could see the tense lines forming above his eyebrows.

“Why me? Why do I remind you of someone? Why do you like tricking deceitful women?”

Lorenzo’s face flashed from anger to confusion to fear to… guilt?

He was feeling guilty?

Carmen’s anger bubbled.

‘He does not get to feel guilty for this.‘

“Well? Answer!” she demanded, her rage and impatience stirring within her, ready to explode at any given time.

He turned around and continued sharpening the knife in his hand. Clearly, he wasn’t going to answer her question (or questions), and that fuelled her determination to get a rise from him.

“Weren’t you the one who granted me a question? Why aren’t you answering!”

Suddenly, as if by magic (or anger), the tip of a blade was just micrometres away from the space between her eyes. So close, she was seeing double.

“Don’t act all high and mighty. Who’s on the chair, Carmen? Who’s tied up?” He shook the blade as he spoke, making it poke her in the nose a few times.

The reaction he gave shut her up. She had finally stepped over the line.

‘He’s messed up,’ She thought, grinning to herself.

‘He’s finally let me see him.

Finally given me a chance.’

Six months Prior

“She’s been missing for six days.” Winston stated, placing the file on Carmen’s desk, making a bundle of papers fall to the floor.

She loved him like a brother, but sometimes, the Head Detective got on her nerves.

“What does this have to do with me?” she asked, bluntly annoyed and focused on another task.

“Simple. I’m assigning you and your new partner to the case.”

Carmen jumped out of her seat.

In all her years working with the force, she hated, hated having a partner. She worked better alone, did better alone, and focused better alone.

“Partner?!” She screamed, “Why give me one now? We all know I’ll work better by myself.” She argued, hating how desperate she sounded.

She loathed feeling anything but 100% confident. Unfortunately, it was still, while rare, a feeling for her.

“Simple, the Chief’s coming to visit, and you know how he is, ‘woman can’t succeed without a man’ and all that crap. He’ll demote you, or worse, fire you on the spot if he learns you don’t have a partner. He’s accepted two female partners, after many lawsuits about sexual assault, but with your history, I think we should just play it safe.”

With each word Winston said, Carmen felt her shoulder sag in defeat. She knew all about the Chief and his sexist mindset, and she knew that he surely knew about her history in Italy all those years ago.

Knowing how she must’ve felt, Winston softened, “I know how much you hate having a partner, Carmen, but it’s only temporary. As soon as the Chief leaves, you can go back to working on this case by yourself.”

At that, Carmen sighed, she had all but forgotten about the case Winston had put on her desk before giving her the dreaded news of a partner.

‘A missing woman.’ She thought, ‘Can’t be too hard to work with someone on a little case. Maybe they’ll be helpful instead of useless.’

Something told her in the back of her mind that this was going to be a mistake, but she boxed that thought and moved it to the back, away from all other thoughts.

Winston broke her thoughts, “Here, I brought this to at least make you feel better about a partner.” He said, placing another file on her desk, much gentler this time. She only stared at it, even long after he left, and throughout the rest of the workday.

The next time she thought about it was when she was about to leave, clearing up her desk. She briefly skimmed through it, and realized it was a file on her new partner.

With a heavy sigh, she shoved it into her bag, deciding to go through it when she got home.

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