Sixteen- Truce with Amir

There was anger evident in his punches. Chloe could feel the rage he was exerting on the poor bag. She had once been in his shoes...in a way. So she could tell the punches were not enough to soothe his anger.

Slowly, she made her way into the gym which she had not visited in a while. "Amir..." she called from afar, trying to check if his area was safe to some extent.

He stopped the punching and took a quick look back before he resumed dropping blows on the hanging leather bag. "What do you want?" The hitting stopped again. "Are you here to rub some snarky words in my face?"

"I..."

"I want to be left alone." Amir's words put a stop to her approaching steps. But that was not enough to turn back a determined Chloe. So, she walked even closer even when the look on his face spelled nothing but anger.

With her hands spread out in front of her as though she were trying to create some kind of safe barrier, Chloe said cautiously, "I just want to talk to you."

"I said, I just want to be left alone." He yanked the bag aggressively.

"I believe you, okay!"

"I said..." He turned to face her. "What did you just say?"

She took in a deep breath, then accompanied it with a few steps forward that had her standing a few metres away from the perplexed man. "I said, I believe you."

"What do you mean?"

"I..."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

Chloe's head answered first as she shook it frantically. "No. Of course not. I just think that you are telling the truth and I want to help you prove your innocence."

She had his full attention. Amir rested his arm on the bag which failed him causing him to almost stagger. As he caught himself, he cleared his throat obviously trying to act cool, then he asked, "How do I know you are not trying to get revenge?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "If I wanted to get revenge, I would have ratted you out to the police. Amir, I want to help you."

A light scoff escaped his lips. "I am just finding this hard to believe."

"Do you want my help or not?" Chloe was almost groaning with impatience.

His eyes raked through the space ahead. After a few seconds of pondering, he faced her. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.

"You need to start looking for clues. And we are going to start at the scene of the crime. If someone is by chance framing you, there must be something to work with at the crime scene."

"Look at you, talking like a detective." Chloe gritted her teeth as she hoped she wasn't being too obvious. "You learned it from movies, didn't you?"

"Yes." A huge grin that hid her relief was on her face. "And from books too."

"Ugh..." he made an ugly face as he grabbed his water bottle from a nearby platform. "I hate books."

Chloe shook her head. "We are not going to get along at all."

Amir gave a light huff as he motioned towards the entrance. "You don't say."

~

Club NAG seemed to be on some kind of hiatus. It was right for it to be.

But it sure was nice to see it looking like a normal store with normal lights and a neat environment.

"So, does this mean a truce between us?" Chloe nodded to his question.

"I am guessing this is where you get laid a lot."

"I also get laid in hotels. I like to show some ladies my expensive side."

Chloe looked back at him as they walked past some stacked chairs. "You are going to get infected with some weird STD someday."

He waved off her statement. "I am always extra careful. And... you. You this girl, you never apologized for telling me that I would get STDs."

"Well, you never apologized for hitting on me."

"Why would I apologize for that? I just basically followed the rule of nature."

Chloe sneered. "The rule of nature?"

"Yes. I noticed a beautiful lady that I liked, it was only natural for me to ask her out."

"You call that asking out? You were practically using your body to beg me to have sex with you."

"Same thing."

Chloe stopped her steps abruptly and faced him. "No, it is not," she said, her arms crossing afterward.

"Uh... yes it is."

"No. At that moment, you disrespected me as a woman. You felt I would take one look at you and I would want to jump you the next second. So, no, not the same thing."

Amir eyed her carefully as he asked with a low voice, "Why again are you helping me?"

"Do you want my help or not?"

He did not miss the warning message in her eyes. So, with hands up in surrender, Amir said, "Okay, okay. I am sorry about that time, I should have done things differently."

She gave him a small smile which he returned with a grin.

Soon, they resumed their walk and made their way to their way to their destination.

"I was wondering, do you by any chance have any enemy?"

He looked on for a few seconds before he replied. "Honestly, as an institution, the three of us have our enemies, mostly business-related enemies. But I don't have any."

They had already made it to room 005. "Are you sure?" Chloe asked as she led the way to the next room. "You might have slept with someone's girlfriend in the past and for that reason, you might be in danger of being ruined."

"Is that even possible?"

"Anything," she faced him. ", is possible."

"Hmm. Let's go in."

"Don't forget the gloves. We should even put them on now."

" Gosh, you sound like a true detective."

"Well, let's say I have always wanted to be one in a way." Well, she already was one, in a way.

"Interesting." Chloe pushed open the door. "I have not even entered this room before."

There was not much difference between 005 and the room they were in. The only thing different was beside the bed and it was an unusual-looking flower vase that had a single red rose in it. Chloe had an uneasy feeling about it. "I don't even know what we are supposed to look for."

"Me neither." Amir walked to the only window in the room which faced the city ahead and looked out. "I can't even figure out how my sperm found their way into those girls."

"I heard Nathaniel mention that this is the third one."

Amir gave a pitiful chuckle as he sat manageably on the sill. "I feel so confused. I can't even tell what exactly is going on. "

Chloe released her lips from their scrunched state. "We need some kind of professional help."

Amir looked her way. "I know just the man."

"Yeah?"

"Just one thing."

"What's that?" Her eyes went to the rose again. There was just something up with it.

"We need to bribe him."

Chloe's brows cocked. "You are rich. I am sure you have that covered."

"No, he has money."

"Then what is this bribe?"

Amir walked back into the room. "Ice cream."

"Uh?"

He grabbed her by the arm. "Time to go shop for some ice cream."