The Story of Blood and Roses

I opened the unread mail and jotted down the cell phone number that Jake had sent. Surprisingly, there was also information about where Ethan lived and his bio-data. I left the data alone to speculate later and dialed Ethan\'s number.

It took a few rings for him to pick it up.

"McCarthy speaking," his voice sounded extremely formal; something that I had not personally expected of Ethan. It made me wonder about the type of work he did for Anthony, or if he had his own little business set up.

"Mia, here. I have a favor to ask of you." My voice sounded apprehensive. And here I thought that I could handle to hide the hesitation if I felt it.

"Oh, it\'s you! Yes. Go on. What do you need?"

"Actually, I\'m going to be shameless and demand that you inform me about the important people that work for Anthony."

"Ah, I wasn\'t expecting that." I stiffened up at that. Was he suspicious? "When do you want to do this? I\'ll be happy to help." I blew out a breath of relief and shook my head. Only Ethan would be so willing to divulge information without asking too many questions. Or he would bring on the inquisition when we next met.

"How about, now? It\'s not that late, and I\'ll bribe you with some takeout!" Yes, that sounded appealing.

"You\'re not going to cook for me?"

"You don\'t want to die of food poisoning or something do you?" I teased and he let out a chuckle.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yup. Now, come over to my apartment and we\'ll go over things."

"You\'re a demanding little thing, aren\'t you?" I expected that he had a smile on his face as he said that.

"Eh, I guess. I\'m sending you the address, okay?"

"Yeah, I\'ll be there in a few." And I thanked God for it. We hung up after saying our goodbye\'s—which was probably a first for both of us. I texted him my address and dialed the number of a Chinese restaurant that did home deliveries. I ordered a sufficient amount of food, keeping in mind that Ethan was a grown man who worked hard and possibly had the appetite of a horse.

I didn\'t bother to hide away anything to keep my identity secret. I had nothing personal in my apartment, anyways. I didn\'t have any knick-knacks or family pictures. I only had those black files that were hidden away with my secret stash of ammunition where no one could find them. In my job, my apartment was my only soft spot and I needed to make sure that nothing gave away any personal information.

The doorbell rang about twenty minutes later. I bounced up to get the door. Ethan was standing on the other side with a grin plastered on his face. He was hunching so that he was fully visible, and what a hunch it was.

"Come on in!" I ushered him in, sounding a bit too exciting. I would\'ve been embarrassed if he\'d not been as excited as well.

"Damn, I feel extremely lucky. I get to see the apartment of the mysterious Mia who does not have a surname and she invited me herself." He helped himself inside and he looked around the apartment. Then he turned with an appreciative look in his eyes. "Nice place you\'ve got here, but it doesn\'t say much about you." He huffed. "I was hoping to find something that would explain those superpowers of yours." I broke out into laughter.

"Well, I wouldn\'t want you to think I was boring, so I hid away my superwoman costume and my pictures with my husband," I joked, lightly. He snorted and then slumped down on the couch. Well, at least he was comfortable.

"Do you wear any of Victoria\'s Secret stuff under your suit or is it just grandma panties for you?" he played along with a goofy smile on his face. Like that, he didn\'t even seem to be as scary as he came off in the line of duty. He was like a big... stuffed bear with those red colored oversized hearts plastered to their body.

That was as creative as I could get to compare him to any stuffed bear. Okay, maybe he looked like the wise, yet goofy monkey from The Lion King. That sounded better. I wished I could give those cat faced expressions, that smug, triumphant ones.

I was sure by then that Ethan McCarthy brought out my childish side; one I hadn\'t visited for a very long time.

"I actually wear dominatrix gear, because I look sexy in it. I don\'t think anyone complains when I fly overhead in the sexy lingerie."

"Nice!" He shook with laughter. "Now, give me something to drink before I rush to the washroom and lick the water from your toilet," he threatened. I recoiled in disgust.

"Ew! I\'ll bring you some soft drink. Which flavor of RC do you prefer?" I asked him, disgruntled. I shivered in disgust when the image of him doing as he said flashes through my head.

"Anything black works," he shouted behind me as I walked over to the kitchen to get him the whole bottle of RC Cola. I put it in front of him and sat across from him in the living room. He seemed satisfied with the bottle in his hand so I thought that it would be the right time to get down to business.

"Now, I think we should go over the details about the people." He shook his head.

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