NO ORDINARY STALKER

ELIJAH STONE POV

   We failed.

My eyes widen. The bottom drops out of my stomach as I watch him smirk, that infuriating, familiar, smirk–– before he flips the visor down on his helmet and kicks the pedal of his oversized bike. The engine growls loud enough to turn heads.

And then he’s gone.

He did it.

He was no ordinary stalker, he wasn’t lurking around to check his painting. He came to figure out our plan, and he intercepted it, beating us to the item we were hired to steal.

 My blood turns fire.

I climb into my car, slam the door, and tear after hum, teammates forgotten.

How dare he?

How didn’t I see this coming?

He told the truth, manipulated me with it, how do you suspect someone who has only spoken the truth? You don’t.

 A cleaver bastard is what he is.

 He is in front of me, weaving through traffic. I turn on the police sirens, and he peeks at me over his shoulder, somehow I can already tell he is amused by it, a cheat code. A cop chasing him just cleared the road.

But he cheated first.

 My foot pushes the gas pedal, going faster. But he has more than a few tricks up his shoulder, one you wouldn’t expect from an art curator. I scoff.

 I dial Mave, he answers on first ring, cussing as he did. I wince, still not used to hearing him cuss, even when that’s all he did.

“He isn’t working alone, he couldn’t be. Find everyone he is working with, they couldn’t have gone far.” I bark my orders, staying on his tail. He is trying to shake me, he wouldn’t be able to, I aced driving through obstacles back at the training academy.

 “Yes, captain.”

I disconnect the call, concentrating on the mission. He drove through pedestrian trails, making people jump out of the way for fear of their lives.

I grit my teeth, this is whom my body reacted to?

To someone who had no concern for the lives of others?

 I feel the disgust coming back up, I shake it away, now is not the time.

 Where did everything go wrong? Was it when we had to tighten the plan? Since we were on a shorter time limit? I shake my head just as I close in on him.

It was from when we arrested that man, we were never going to win after letting the enemy in. Right through our doors.

 He isn’t looking forward so much anymore, he is getting rattled. He thought to have lost me by now, or at least, I would have given up.

He thought wrong.

 Jesse Harding.

His name hits me like a flash grenade, ad with it, a reckless idea comes to mind, if my calculations were correct, i would have him in handcuffs, again. If wrong… I can’t afford to be.

 I ease off the gas, let the distance grow. I don’t reverse, that would spook him. Just fall back enough to unsettle him.

 My car slams into his bike from the side.

 The momentum rocks me, but I had braced for it, he hasn’t. He falls from the bike and his saving grace is his helmet. When I reach him, the bike is in the middle of the road, and he is by the side.

 He is alive, wheezing, visor cracked. I kneel beside him, yank off the helmet. That face again. Bloodied, dazed, still beautifl.

And still, still, my body reacts.

 The item we were supposed to steal, the one he stole from us, gone.

“Where is it?” I growl

He coughs, lips curling into that damn smirk.

 “Wow, pretty boy, well played, but we really have to stop meeting like this.”

I want to ram my fist and lips on his face.

 None of them are a good idea, he is a criminal, this time I am sure of it.

 “Play time is over, hand it over.”

He chuckles and it turns into a coughing fit.

“Hand what over? you know where to find my dick…”

I don’t let him finish the statement, my fist lands squarely on his rock hard stomach, and quite frankly it hurt, but he is wheezing again so it feels better.

 “Pretty boy, you know how much I love a good payback right?”

“Hand over the item you stole, you thief!”

He chuckles, trying to get up. He can only get as far as his knees before he bends over with pain again.

 “Thief? I don’t know what you are talking about, you have to be specific.”

This guy has to be the most infuriating guy on the planet. I feel like bashing his head in, at the same time I want to kiss him, put my hands under his shirt, feel his muscles directly under my finger tips.

 Focus.

 “You went to the prime minister’s house because of this right? You wanted to steal the item, how did I miss it?”

He cracks a smile, his teeth starting to get bloody, now I worry he has a concussion.

“Don’t be so self righteous, pretty boy. You too came here to steal, you are just mad I am a better thief than you.”

 I almost punch him again, but his mouth is already bleeding from the accident. So I cuff him again, ignoring the sparks I get from touching his hands.

“Really, you want me in hand cuffs, I might consider it.” he grunts in pain, I try to make it hurt less, his shoulder must be dislocated…

Talking to him was obviously a waste of time. Jake picks up on the first ring.

 “I caught him, I will be bringing him in, just get someone to help clear this mess.” I say rubbing my forehead.

“Okay, captain. We uh couldn’t find anybody else, it looks like he came alone.”

I frown, the operation was more work than a person could carry out alone, he had to have help. I checked the plan twice, three times, four times to be sure, because not all of us could be at the site at once, it would bring suspicion if we all left our duty posts.

 “Check again… he isn’t… the item is not on him.” I say looking at him, kneeling in the debris, he is already looking at me, smiling like he knows I just received news that would vindicate him.

 “You would either cough it up, or I take it from you by force.” I tell him when I return. Roughly pulling him up, I shove him into my car, and he still has that annoying, confident smile on his face.

 “Unless you want to fuck it out of me, if I had it, I don’t see how else you would get it.” He says, breathing hard.

My jaw tightens.

 He says these things so easily, like a joke, a dare, yet I am rock hard already.

 Why couldn’t it be with sweet Viv?

 I start the car as the clean up crew arrive on the scene. I go over what I saw before the chase, he was with it, I saw it, and I never lost sight of him once, there was no way he dropped it off. Where was it then?

 “I prefer doing the fucking actually, so how would you ever find it?” he tuts, shaking his head like it’s an actual dilemma.

I ignore him. He didn’t have to know his words are the reason my grip on the steering wheel is so hard. He doesn’t have to know that I want to him to do it…

 Someone else would interrogate him, I wouldn’t last a minute before breaking in every way, if I did it myself.

Another option blooms in my head. Risky. Dangerous. Personal.

I keep my eyes on the road, but my voice is steady when I speak.

“What if, I keep you by my side until I find it?”

He meets my eyes with a confident smile,

 “Then I look forward to it,” He says, eyes burning into mine, “to spending my entire life with you.”