"so are you going to turn them in?" I ask Mal as we settle in bed for the night.
He shrugs. "if that's what you want. I'll release them and then they'll go turn their selves in."
"what if they run off?"
"I'll catch them, and by then, I won't be as merciful as I am now." He says coldly and I believe him.
We lie in silence for a while. "do you own the building?"
He turns to his side to look at me. "yes I do."
I bite my lower lip as I consider if I should as the question I've been itching to ask.
As if reading my mind, he taunts. "Say it."
My eyes widen "there's nothing to say."
He laughs, his voice deep and rich. "come on, you can ask. I know you're dying to ask."
Well, since he is giving me go ahead. "have you…. killed before this?" I whisper, scared of the answer he might give. Will it change anything?
He goes quiet for a bit, probably thinking of the best answer to give me.
"no I haven't." I sigh in relief. "But I almost did the day I found out my sister's ex beat her up. I ended up paralyzing him."
I suck in a breath.
"That was the first time I knew how dangerous I could get when really angry." He moves closer till we're sharing the same breathing air. "but no matter how dangerous I am when angry, I will never hurt you. I will never let us get to the point of exchanging blows because I love you."
First time officially hearing the words from his mouth and the uncomfortable feeling in my chest melts away, leaving me feeling elated.
"I love you baby." He kiss my forehead. "I love your carefree attitude, your bluntness, your strength,your stubborness, your beauty I love every single thing about you" a kiss on my nose, then my eyes and my lips and my heart swell with affection, relief fills me, knowing he feels the same way I do.
"oh God, I love you too Mal." I greedily kiss his pliant lips. After sucking on each others lips a bit, we pull apart.
"I went to the police station today." I tell Mal.
"what for?" he questions.
"well, for the little girl I was searching for that led to this."
"oh, how did it go then?"
I chuckle. "I had to fucking pay the DPO to do his job."
"jeez. I'm not even surprised."
"I would be surprised if they agreed without an incentive." I adjust myself to position my head on his chest. "they said they are still searching for my attackers. It's been almost a whole month. How did you find them so quickly."
"I paid people to find them. Funny enough, the guys were known to always hang around there, that building, sometimes, causing problems. They had been reported several times to the police in that precinct but no serious action has ever been taken against them."
"my God. To think that they might have been paid several times to roughen people up."
He hums in agreement. "I guess this is the right time to tell you that I hired a private investigator to look into the case of this little girl you're concerned about."
My heart skips a bit. "what?" I ask in bewilderment as I get up to see his face.
"I hired someone to search for the girl for you. I don't know how you came to care so deeply for the little girl, all I know is that is that you're concerned about her and want to see her safe, so, I want to help you with it. I care about your interests and I want to see you happy."
"thank you thank you so much Malachi. You don't know how happy I am to hear this. I don't know how I managed to have someone like you in my life."
I move down to hug him tightly. Tears fill my eyes as I think about all the steps he's taken to show how much he cares about me. Can someone ask for anything more than this? I pull back, a little smile tugs his cheeks up.
"I love you Mal."
"I hope so." He teases and I laugh, punching his shoulder lightly.
"Wow, I still can't believe it. Have they found anything yet?"
He huffs. "I had wanted to gather enough information before letting you know but anyway, the child seems to be among many others that are victims of children trafficking." He moves his fingers on my back in an up down motion since I've tucked my body back on his side. "a woman seems to be the owner of the organization. From what we found out, she uses some for social media baiting, some for prostitution, some as maids and the list goes on."
"Jesus Christ. I always knew there was something off about the way the kid acted."
"too much abuse can do that to a person."
"have they been able to track her down?"
"sadly, no. We don't even know what she looks like yet. We're still doing our digging."
"That is a lot more than I know. Thank you for doing this. I'm really really grateful." I say to him again. "I just hate that I didn't think of doing this since. I could have hired a private investigator since to look into this. I was just going at it the wrong way."
"hey, it's not your fault. You didn't know better. No one would have thought the case would be as big as child trafficking. If you knew, you wouldn't have risked your life like that." Mal argues. "you did well, even if it almost cost you your life."
I sigh, feeling his heart beat a steady rhythm, somehow setting me at peace.
"I think I'll be going back to work on Monday."
"are you sure you're ready for it?" He asks. I know he's still concerned about my health. But honestly, I'm fine now. I'm already over staying at home.
"Yeah I am. I miss work."
"okay then." He says as he runs my back. In no time, I dozed off.
The next morning, I was in the gym when I received a call from my mom that herself and my dad wants to drop by. I told them not to, that I wanted to go visit them anyway. So here I am getting ready to go see my parents. I put on a blue and black stripe matching set that I made myself. A short sleeve button down shirt and shorts just above my knee, pairing it with a black sturdy leather sandals. My mom always loves it when I dress nicely when I go to visit her. Since it's been a while since she's seen me fully functioning, I did my best to look really good.
I pull all my hair back in a low ponytail before grabbing my keys and heading out the door.
The drive to my parents was smooth and quick. The moment I enter our living room, my mom rush to my side, fussing all over me.
"my son, how are you?" she pulls my face left and right. "have you been eating well?" she pinches my cheeks, searching for fat. "you haven't added up oh, it seems you'll have to come back home so I can feed-"
"no!" I refuse.
"Oh come on, you grew up here Tobi. It's not like you have an wife or girlfriend living with you."
Someone laughs and I look away from my mom to see Gabe seated on one of the couch. I roll my eyes. Of course he's here. "What's so funny?" I glare at him.
"Yes Tobi, why don't you want to come live with mommy? Not as if you have a girlfriend at home." He laughs loudly.
Mom looks between us, trying to understand what is going on.
"Oh mind your business." I turn to my mom. "I promise I'm fine. I eat really well, I just need to grow muscles then I'll be back to how I was before. It's not like I'm even lean."
"okay if you say so. But since you're here, I need to feed you properly before you go."
"thanks mom."
"thanks mom." Gabe mocks with an awfully whiny voice. I leave mom and turn to the couch to sit down, beside Gabe.
I punch his shoulder hard immediately I'm close to him.
"What the fuck man, what was that for?" he grumbles.
"you know what."
He huffs in faux annoyance. "what about your broody boyfriend?" he whispers as he massages the spot.
"he's perfect thank."
"no where near perfect."
I scoff. "Are you blind? Thant man is literally perfection."
"mmhmm, so perfect he turned you bi."
I laugh. "can't deny that."