Chapter 19

It felt like the days were passing at a snail's pace.

Mia sighed in relief and happiness as she saw her couch before plopping down on the piece of furniture with laziness. She was so tired. This case and all its drama tired her out. Not in a million years did she think that it would be so complicated.

Just a little nap, Mia thought to herself as she made herself comfortable on her dark blue sofa. As she drifted in and out of consciousness, sleep slowly took over her body. She woke up two hours later to something that smelt really good. Something she hadn't eaten in a very long time. Fried chicken.

She got up and followed the scent of the delicious food, making her way towards the medium-sized kitchen. On her way there, she came face to face with a certain annoying male, and she felt her stomach do a small flip. In his hands, he carried two plates full of fried chicken.

Her eyes immediately darted to the food on the plates, Jake following her gaze before releasing a small chuckle. "Is this okay? I tried to ask you what you wanted, but you didn't answer your phone," Jake said with an eye smile, making the girl in front of him blush.

"What? Really?" She asked before taking out her phone, only to see that Jake had called and messaged her a bunch of times.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I guess I slept deeper than I thought," Mia said shyly, as an apologetic feeling enveloped her. "That's alright, I thought you might crave fried chicken. You always do when you're stressed," Jake said, the comment catching Mia off guard as he handed her the plate of chicken.

"How did you know that?" Mia asked, dumbfounded and a little creeped out, making Jake chuckle with his deep voice once he saw her puzzled facial expression.

"I know that because we've known each other a long time. I pick up the small things you know," He said as he walked past her towards the couch before turning on the TV.

"I guess that makes sense," Mia said with a shrug before also walking towards the couch, and placing her plate on the small coffee table.

Once she placed the plate on the table, she turned around and headed towards the stairs.

"Hey! Where do you think you are going?" Jake asked with a raised brow.

"I'm just going to put on something more comfortable," Mia said with an eye roll as she made her way upstairs making Jake chuckle evilly.

As she untied her hair, letting it fall loosely down her shoulders and back, she made her way towards the drawer with all her comfortable clothes and oversized sweaters. She dragged the drawer open and started to search for her favourite oversized sweater and some loose sweatpants.

However, she found something more horrifying than she could even imagine. All her sweaters and sweatpants were missing. She couldn't find any of it. All that she found was a thin crop top shirt, with some short shorts. Her heart stopped at the sight of the skimpy clothing in her drawer and after the initial shock, her blood started to boil. Jake.

"Jake!" Mia yelled as she pulled open her bedroom door, before making her way down the hall and the stairs, towards the living room, where she had thought the idiotic male was.

But he was nowhere to be found.

She ran up the stairs in record time and make her way down the hall before pounding on his bedroom door with her clenched fist.

"Jake! Come out here you coward! Where are my clothes?!" Mia screamed in anger as she continued to bang on the poor door.

She knew the neighbours were going to complain about the noise, but she couldn't care less.

All that she cared about was getting her clothes back. Before she could register it, the door suddenly swung open, making Mia almost lose her balance.

Lo and behold, in the room, the guilty man sat on his bed, one of her oversized sweaters in one hand, and a lit lighter in his other hand.

"Are you sure you want to be mean to me right now Miaw Miaw?" Jake said with a smirk, as he brought her favourite sweater closer to the open flame.

Mia's eyes widened and she panicked.

"Jake! No! Please not my favourite sweater!", Mia pleaded. "This?", Jake said as he teased her, bringing the flame even closer to the piece of fabric. "Yes! Please! Don't do it! I'll do anything," Mia screamed at the male, a glint of mischief appearing in his eyes.

"Anything?", Jake asked as the smirk on his face grew bigger and bigger. Mia swallowed hard. What did she just get herself into?

"Y-yes," Mia said hesitantly as she tried not to sound intimidated, but failing miserably.

Jake tilted his head to the side, as she took in his bottom lips between his teeth seductively.

Mia shuddered under his intense gaze.

"Put on the clothes in your room," He simply said as he stood up before making his way towards Mia, stopping right in front of her and looking deeply into her dark brown eyes.

Mia felt her cheeks flush red, as a shiver ran down her spine when Jake took her hand in his, warmth spreading through her body, pooling in her chest and stomach. Why did this affect her so much? She had never felt this way before, so why now?

"You better hurry up, the chicken is getting cold," Jake said before pushing past Mia towards his bedroom door, her arm in his hand. He opened the door and pulled her towards her bedroom, pushing her inside before he closed the door behind her again.

She removed her work clothes and slipped on the skimpy pyjamas reluctantly. She looked at herself in the mirror and realised that she didn't look bad, she just didn't look like herself. As she looked at herself she started to panic a little. She composed herself and slightly cracked her door open to look around, to see if Jake was there, but he was nowhere to be found.

She took a blanket, wrapped herself up in it and stepped out of her room before she slowly made her way down the hall, hearing Jake's laughter downstairs in the distance. He was probably watching something on the TV.

She stopped at his bedroom door, quickly going inside before making her way downstairs.

As she shyly came into the living room, Jake's eyes widened and his breathing seemed to stop.

Before him stood an angel. Mia was clad in the nightwear he gave her but with one of his shirts over her top, however, the shirt acted more like a really short dress than a shirt.

"I was cold, so I borrowed one of your shirts," Mia said, her cheeks cherry red and she tried to cover her exposed thighs when she saw Jake's eyes wander all over her body.

"What makes you think I won't rip my shirt?" Jake asked the blushing female smugly, teasing her some more.

She didn't think of that. Crap. He wouldn't do that, right?! She heard his deep chuckle.

"I love teasing you. You always blush like crazy, which leads me to wonder if you really hate me as much as you say," Jake said with a smirk on his face.

"Shut up," Mia said as she tried to cover her cheeks. "Just sit down and eat your chicken. I didn't drive across town for nothing," Jake said as he patted the spot next to him.

Mia hesitated but decided that she wanted her chicken more. "Ugh, fine!" She said as she sat down on the piece of furniture.

Jake chuckled at the sight, which only made Mia more embarrassed, as she pulled the long shirt over her knees. She picked up the plate of chicken and dug in.

Her tastebuds exploded with the salty taste of the fried food, and soon after the plate was empty, only bones being left on the piece of ceramic.

She layed back on the couch, letting the soft cushions mould around her as she watched the show on TV. Not long after, she felt the seat next to her lower as the male made himself more comfortable.

"Thank you for dinner, I enjoyed it," Mia mumbled, as she still tried to be polite. Jake nodded his head in agreement and made himself ever more comfortable between the soft cushions.

"You're welcome. I brought something from the office that I thought you might wanna see," Jake said as he pulled a folder out of his backpack before handing it to Mia.

"What's this?" Mia asked as she took the folder from Jake. "It's the coroner's report of Mr Grey's autopsy. I must say, it's really interesting," Jake said, only intriguing her more.

Mia furrowed her brows as she read through the peculiar report. "This doesn't make sense," Mia trailed off as she went over the report.

The blue folder in her hands felt rough on her skin as she read the report out loud to herself.

"The victim was stabbed six times by a serrated knife, possibly a steak knife. A gun wound to the back of the head suggests a possible execution. However, the gun wound on the back of the head was not the cause of death. The cause of death resulted in blood loss by the victim after the violence. Some scratches were found on the victim's chest and lower abdomen suggesting a struggle took place before the death occurred. The extreme force that was used to stab the victim, might suggest someone with a vendetta against the deceased. Foreign DNA was found in the scratches, possibly left by the killer," Mia read the summary of the report aloud, as the words struggled to find the right places to click inside her mind.

"If this was a personal vendetta, it widens the suspect list by a lot of people! Ugh, this is getting so complicated. Some so many people wanted him dead," Mia ranted, a headache festering in her head.

"Calm down, okay. Let's go over the main points of the report together, maybe we can uncover some clues," Jake said as he placed his hand on her back and took the file away from the female.

"The file said that the position of the gunshot wound suggests that he had been shot execution style. Who would want to humiliate the victim like that?" Jake asked as he compiled a list of suspects in his head.

"From all that I've heard, it would be easier to list all the people who didn't want to hurt or humiliate him," Mia said with a sigh, the case feeling seemingly impossible now.

"Don't be negative, we'll solve this alright?" Jake said, comforting Mia. Mia nodded and took the file from Jake. "It says here that there were scratches all over his chest and abdomen. If someone beat him up before killing him, there might still be some DNA evidence on the clothes of the killer. We should run the foreign DNA on the system to see if there are any matches," Mia said as she scratched her head.

"You know as well as I do that anything is possible in a situation like this, so don't be blinded by your emotions, Mia," Jake warned sternly but with a worried tone.

"Don't worry, I won't. We need to be careful. With such a vicious killer on the loose, anyone could be next, even us," Mia said as she gave Jake a worried glance. "I know, so this means we have to have each other's backs. We can not keep secrets from one another, okay?" Jake said as he looked into the girl's eyes, the female nodding in understanding.

"I'll try my best, Jake," Mia said shyly.

They leaned in closer towards each other, as the distance between their faces decreased by the second.

Mia could feel the male's minty breath on her face, the warmth she felt in her stomach, spreading to the rest of her body.

She closed her eyes and expected the male's plump lips on hers at any second, but nothing came. She opened her eyes and saw that the male was sitting away from her, his back turned to her.

Why did she think this time would be any different? Why would he be any different than the last time? Why did she make a fool of herself again? Why did she keep doing this to herself?

Disappointedly, she stood up and made her way towards the stairs. "Mia? Where are you going?" She heard Jake's voice ask behind her, the regret evident in his voice.

"Why would you care?" Mia snapped at the male, her voice filled with venom. She made her way upstairs, the slam of her door the only sound in the house.

Jake grabbed his head, hair laced in between his fingers, his head between his arms as a few tears escaped his tightly shut eyes.

Why did he keep doing this? She deserved so much more. He needed to let her go. She needed to find someone who made her happy instead of sad, someone that wasn't toxic.

Someone that was not him. No matter what happened between them in the past...