A week soon went by. Heather had been locking herself in her house and refused to come out even when Matthias came looking for her.
On this day, Heather was sitting at the dining table and her gaze intermittently landed on Everly. It was so obvious to the point that even the latter took notice of her gaze.
Everly tried to muster her courage multiple times to ask Heather the reason for looking at her so often but in the end, her courage dissipated and no words escaped her lips.
In the past week, the kidnapper had not contacted them, but Zayne had made a breakthrough in the investigation—he managed to discover the identity of the man whom Everly had met that day.
Heather was at Zayne’s temporary residence. In her hand was a photo of a man with an unfamiliar face; she couldn’t recognize him at all.
“You don’t know this person?” Zayne got straight to the point and asked.
“I have never met him before.” Heather had never thought that it would be a man that she did not know of. She had made many speculations before this, but she couldn’t figure out how Everly got in touch with a stranger.
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Everly doesn’t know him,” he replied as he stood off to one side. Zayne had yet to find out Everly’s relationship with this man, but he believed that he would soon make progress.
However, Heather disliked anybody badmouthing her family. “What do you mean?”
“Everly is a much more complicated person than you imagine—her social circle is quite bizarre.” Zayne couldn’t think of a better way to describe it other than the word ‘bizarre’.
“What do you mean?” Heather had never expected Everly would turn out to be a girl like this, which was totally different from what she imagined.
He took the photo from her hand. “Stop staring at the photo—this man is behind the new mysterious force in Bradfort City.” He directly revealed the truth to her to save her the effort of racking her brain to figure out his identity.
“As expected,” she muttered and scoffed.
“Looks like you are able to guess it right.” Zayne was glad because it showed that Heather’s brain was still working, at least.
“I can’t seem to figure out how Everly got herself involved with this force.” She was still clueless about it despite trying hard to understand the situation.
Zayne smiled and said nothing, which puzzled Heather even more. His attitude was so ambiguous and she found it rather irritating. In short, it made her want to punch his face.
“You are becoming more violent these days. Ever consider seeing a doctor?” Zayne muttered, able to guess her thoughts. As expected from the Great Detective—a mere glance was enough for him to tell what she was thinking.
“Shut up!” she roared. “You didn’t manage to find out Everly’s relationship with that man, did you?” There can be only two reasons for his attitude now—either he has everything in his hand or he has nothing at all.
“Ah, you figured it out,” he exaggerated.
Heather looked at him with a complex expression. After all that drama, it turned out that he knew nothing, yet he made her anxious for no reason.
“You tricked me again,” she snarled. He would probably give her a heart attack from extreme anger before the kidnappers managed to do so.
However, Zayne continued to tease her. “I almost can’t remember how cold and elegant you were before.”
“Shut up! Find out their relationship as soon as possible,” an angry Heather instructed. As she was Zayne’s client now, she felt that he had to listen to her orders.
“I believe that this matter is irrelevant, so why are you so concerned about it?” He played with the photo in his hand while looking at the handsome young man on it—he seemed quite young.
“I have a feeling that this matter has something to do with Everly.” It was merely a gut feeling, so Heather wasn’t sure if Everly really had anything to do with the case.
“It’s only a guess and you could be wrong,” he teased. After he had gotten used to how calm and composed Heather usually had been, he found the current ‘lively and vibrant’ Heather rather interesting.
“I trust my gut feeling. Anyway, follow up with this finding and I believe that you will find something about the kidnapping case.” She strongly believed in her intuition because it had helped her a great deal for many times.
“Okay, the customer is always right. Since you have given me an order, I will surely look into it,” he responded with a large grin.
“Don’t give me such a fake smile,” Heather muttered in disgust as she disliked his fake grin.
She knew that Zayne was a hypocrite and he would always wear a fake smile to mask his real thoughts. Truth be told, he was even worse than Matthias. Although he seemed harmless on the surface, he was actually full of wicked thoughts.
One shouldn’t be fooled by his identity as a renown detective and think that he wouldn’t do bad deeds. Back when he was young, he had been a man who never did anything good and all he did was evil deeds. If it wasn’t for the girl who had appeared in his life, he would have been sentenced to life in prison.
“Hattie, saying that makes me sad. Can’t you treat me more gently?” Zayne joked without any fear toward Heather.
“If you continue to speak like this, you will be dead soon.” Heather took out the dagger that she always carried with her, and it had a cold gleam to it as it reflected the sunlight that fell on it.
“Wow, Hattie, you really are violent,” he exaggerated.
“Stop calling me that,” she growled through gritted teeth, fully hating the way he addressed her. His attitude gave her a headache.
“Okay, I will stop calling you this way, Hattie.” Zayne had always been a person who never feared to test the limits of others, so he surely would not watch his mouth.
The dagger suddenly slashed through the air by his face as she glared at him with cold eyes. “You won’t lose only your beard next time.” On top of her dagger was his beard, which showed the dagger’s sharpness.
“Alright, alright. Let’s not be so violent. Put down your dagger and maybe we can talk over a cup of coffee, yes?” A helpless Zayne tried to comfort her. He never expected that Heather had become so terrifying.
He remembered that he met Heather for the first time at a ball when he went to Europe to investigate a murder case. The scenes at that night remained vivid in his memories, even until now. The moment Heather made an appearance, everyone’s gaze was locked on her—she shined brightly, much like a moon surrounded by stars.
Back then, she wore a red gown. Zayne had never seen anyone looking so gorgeous in a red gown and at that time, he thought that he saw an angel. The angel was wearing a red gown, looking as enchanting as clouds that were dyed red in the evening.
As she put her dagger away, his gaze became creepier and it gave her goosebumps.
“Don’t look at me with such a perverted gaze,” she warned him.
Heather knew that Zayne was attracted to her and liked her a little but she had given her heart to Matthias, so it would be impossible for her to like anyone else.
“Okay, are there any other instructions?” He averted his gaze. Love is a b*tch that never goes the way I want; I don’t need that kind of thing.
“Did you manage to find out where Myra is?” Heather asked as she was anxious to know about this.
“Is this really important?” He looked at her, feeling a headache coming on. In all honesty, he had no idea how to provide an answer to this question.
Although he was a well-known detective who was an expert in cracking cases, investigating a person’s whereabouts was never his strength. This time, he had come to Bradfort City on his own and left his partner behind, so there were certain areas which he faced trouble.
“This is my utmost priority. I have to know where Myra is no matter what you say.” Heather, on the other hand, would not be dismissed so easily with only a few words by him.
“I’m sorry. Investigating a person’s whereabouts is not my strength,” he replied helplessly. He had never confessed this to anyone but he did so to Heather now.
“What? Then what’s your strength?” Baffled, she glanced at him, thinking that he must be joking.
He suddenly grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look into his eyes as he enunciated, “Look into my eyes and tell me if what I’m going to say is true or not. Investigating a person’s whereabouts is not my strength, so I have a partner in secret and nobody knows about his existence.”
Heather looked at him in disbelief and even forgot to free herself from his grasp. Why is he only telling me this secret now?
After a while, she quietly asked, “Where’s your partner, then?” Now, she had a sense of foreboding.
“He didn’t come here with me. We were working on a case but you asked me to come over urgently. I had a fight with him because I chose to come to you, so I’m now on my own,” Zayne explained in a nonchalant voice, as if he was talking about the weather.
“What?” Upon hearing that, she looked at him, baffled. On one hand, she couldn’t process the fact that Zayne had a partner in secret but on the other hand, she never thought that he actually took her so seriously.
“Don’t feel touched—it was because I couldn’t resist your beauty.” He let go of her as he spoke and raised her chin with his index finger, much like a thug.
However, a loud wail was soon heard when Heather bent his finger. “Don’t touch me.” Her eyes seemed to be burning with flames of anger.
Zayne was someone who would take a mile once he was given an inch, but Heather would not allow him to have his own way.
“Ouch! I know my mistake, alright? Now let go of me. You are going to break my finger,” he pleaded.
“Do you still dare to touch me after this?” She was determined to let him remember his lesson this time.
“Of course not, so please let go of me. If you break my finger, who will help you to investigate the case?” Zayne instantly gave in. Although he had good martial art skills, he refused to use his skills on a stunning woman like Heather.
Fortunately for him, she let go of him and coldly snorted. “Don’t ever make the same mistake again.” She had warned him before this, but he never learnt from his mistake.
“Why is my life so tough? I forsook my partner for you, but how could you treat me this way?” the drama king sobbed.
“Don’t mix things up. Although I’m grateful that you are willing to go to such lengths for me, that doesn’t mean that you can touch me as you please. You know that I hate men who don’t respect women.” Heather stated her grounds sternly. She refused to give an inch when it came to pride-related matters.
“I understand. Heather, you really are becoming more of a feminist,” he remarked helplessly as he wondered if it was a right choice to abandon so much to rush over to her.
Upon hearing that, Heather found her expression easing a little. Then, she patted his shoulder and assured, “Don’t worry; I will make it up to you.”
Upon hearing that, he instantly felt alive. Heather knew what he had in mind when she saw his reaction, so she explained herself before Zayne managed to say anything, “I meant that I will make it up to you financially. Don’t take it the other way.”
