Edited by WhiteHeart 💞💞💞
I got my lazy ass of the bed I had been lounging about in all day and headed to shuffle around in the closet to try to find something to wear. After what seemed like ages in my sleepy state I finally pulled a simple navy blue overhead abaya somewhere from the depths of my closet and headed to the bathroom to get changed.
Halfway across the landing I stopped and looked down. It took me a good few seconds for my brain to catch up and realise that I was still in my PJ's and probably needed leggings and a t-shirt to wear underneath the abaya.
I stood there for awhile longer in a state of limbo honestly contemplating whether I should just wear them underneath since most likely nobody would know. But thinking of all the possibilities meant that before I knew it my decision had been made for me and I headed back to grab the rest of my outfit.
Before long I was at the front door with my laptop case putting on the pullover hoodie I had borrowed for forever from my little brother Adam the last time I was at my parents' house on and checking my Hijab in the mirror knowing full well that most likely two-thirds of my outfit that day was most likely not mine.
Hanaan, one of my closest friends since high school, my sister-in-law and now roommate was sat in the TV room so before I headed out, I made sure to let her know that I was headed to 'The Muslim Place' for some late night coffee.
Letting people know where I was going was something that I still felt strange with despite being back for five months already. I had decided to go to college in a different state to experience something new and had just recently moved back and was getting reacquainted with social expectations. So far it had been a mess as Hanaan had to always nag at me to let her know my plans for the day.
'The Muslim Place' was the latest 'it' place for the Muslim youngsters in our neighbourhood at the moment. It was founded by two Muslim women to help people understand what Islam really is as well as just a friendly place you could meet people. Besides their matchmaking nights, I loved the place and its atmosphere. I would dare to describe it as my ultimate hangout spot. They had decent coffee but their cakes were to die for. I wish I was here in town when they had first opened the place.
Sadly, it had been the death of my older brother that had brought me back to this town.
I took off the comfy house slippers, that I had also borrowed for the long term from my parent's house at the door and slipped into my trainers and tried to wipe my thoughts so as to not think about Zubair. I could already feel my eyes getting wet.
I grabbed my keys from the mantle case and headed outside, thoughts of Zubair and Hanaan still swirling through my thoughts. I can't imagine how hard it must be for Hanaan if it was this hard for me. Especially with her impending motherhood as well.
As I was walking towards the blue Denali car parked at the end of the block, my thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing.
"Hello, Maria. Janine is off sick and we were hoping you could come in?"
"Y'all need to stop taking advantage of my love of your equipment" I replied in jest as I agreed to come in once he had explained the situation.
I pulled on my seatbelt and set off towards the opposite direction of TMP. I mentally noted that I'd have to let Hanaan know at some point tonight that I'd headed to the police department instead.
Between growing up with five siblings. Yes, five; Sarina, Seth, Zubair, Talha and my little brother Adam and being a full-time college student on a full ride at one of the best universities in the country it's always hard to find a day to just lay around. So imagine my frustration at having my day off be ruined because I had to go to work to cover for a sick colleague.
As I drove towards the police department I thought all being said I couldn't complain much since I was doing the job wholly for selfish reasons. Seriously how else would I legally get my hands on the type of equipment that would get a geek like me excited? Being an analyst at the department had been one of the best decisions I had ever made.
Though I try to avoid doing illegal things being on your computer most of the time and learning new tricks you want to try out its hard to. This was even harder when you wanted specialised equipment to play around with.
Although I have since backed off and keep my hands clean and off the dark net back in my early college years I had been a little too eager to try new things. One time, Ian my mentor dared me to hack and wirelessly rob a bank and then transfer the money to a bogus account I made up while playing a game with him.
I did eventually return all the money though sadly 10 billion would have set me for life but then I had to wipe and totally fry my laptop beyond repair and ditch it when Feds started closing in. They even found out the cafe's Wi-Fi I had used back then. It was a close call I was an amateur back then and didn't know how to cover my tracks yet. Ian had helped with that and I've since learnt how to cover my tracks so my IP address wouldn't be traced and a whole bunch of other things I would never have learnt without him.
After college, Ian went AWOL. I know that if I wanted to track him down I could find him, but I never really had the need to. I had moved back to the town I grew up in and moved in with my very pregnant sister in law and was trying so hard to put on a facade that I was a good oblivious citizen. So keeping in touch with him hadn't been the best of ideas anyway.
That was one of the main reasons why I had applied for a job at the police department once I accidentally found out my brother Seth became an CIA Agent. No one else in our family knows except me, at least I think. He doesn't even know that I know. Which is a good thing because Those guy have been after me for a very long time so have the Feds and NASA.
I might have taken advantage of the fact that I have a sibling who works for the CIA to seem more trustworthy, but I mean come on, who would ever expect me to be the hacker by the name the Tracer.
No one except Ian that is. And that's because he already knew. He keeps my secret and I keep his.
My jaw dropped in surprise because just as those exact words went through my mind and I walked in through the department doors the scene that greeted me was one of Ian being brought in.
We made eye contact and he glared at me with the full force of his grey eyes as though to tell me not to interfere. 'Like hell, I wouldn't' I thought and he knew that to which is most likely why he was glaring his soul out at me.
So I went up to Adrian desk and chit chatted about nonsense before I asked him who they'd brought in tonight acting like I was just curious. After naming and explain about a few he got around to Ian.
'They caught him driving under the influence.' Adrian told me as he watched Ian being put behind the bars.
I watched as Ian sat down on the cold floor in chains, pretending to merely be curious while wondering how the hell it was possible.
Ian might have a lot of moral issues but he takes some of his Mormon beliefs seriously especially so when it comes to some stuff like drinking alcohol and girls.
As I watched him try to get comfortable on what I knew from talks with Isabel were impossibly cold floors, I wanted to bail him out.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to think rationally. Bailing Ian out now would blow my cover and considering Ian is on a lot of people's kill list it would be a matter of time before his fingerprints are found in the system and people start wondering who the hijabi girl who bailed him out was.
I went into the bathroom and splashed some water on my face to calm down before heading into one of the many empty stalls and blocking his files from being viewed within this department almost making it seem like he was working undercover.
Just as I was about to go to my desk I saw him.
Toby Connors.
The Toby Connors.
I knew he was trouble from the moment he knocked on my parents' door and had quite literally brought trouble to my front door. He had been carrying Isabel half passed. I had to nurse her all night getting little to no sleep and had resented him for a long time for bringing someone so beloved to me in a state where they might have had to say their last shahada.
I'm not saying I'm slightly biased against him. I'm saying I am completely biased against him. I don't trust him. He is bad news. He was the reason why I almost lost a sibling and why I almost lost Isabel forever.
He looked different from the last time I saw him. He had very thick black eyebrows and his dark brown eyes that would often be mistaken as black.
He had twinkling stud silver earrings on both sides of his unattached earlobes and a butch haircut contrary to the curly semi-Afro that he had had before. Like before it was neatly tapered around the ears and at the back of his head but the short length definitely made him look more sinister then. It was almost as if he had cut his hair with the sole purpose of emphasising that you should stay away from him.
God blessed him with a perfect set of straight teeth as well as a sharp chiselled jawline that stood out whenever he clutched his jaw. Even as every single one of his physical features confused you of his heritage, his warm bronze skin tone emphasised and reminded you of his African ancestry. Something he had always been proud of.
Allah, glory be to him had blessed him with physical beauty and I would never be the one to deny his attractiveness. He could have most girls he wanted but the forbidden, dark, mysterious aura around him made everyone think twice before even staring at him too long let alone starting a conversation with him.
"Ian what have you gotten yourself into" I whispered mostly to myself as I saw him leave with Toby.
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