Page 5 of Hunting for Acceptance

“We should follow them, see where he’s planning on taking her. As much as I wanna shut this down, I think we need more information.”

“You’re right. I wanna stop him, but there’s still way too many variables. Jeff wouldn’t want us to shoot and ask questions later.”

Jeff is our unspoken leader. His past with hunting is one filled with mistakes and hurt. He hunts via a code and has taught us all to do the same. You shootonlywhen necessary. You investigate and scout and learn everything there is to learn before you come to any conclusions. This might be our guy but my gut is telling me there’s more to the story and I learned a long time ago that trusting your gut is sometimes the difference between life or death.

“Dorian’s on the move,” Martin murmurs and my stomach flips.Dorian. Our blue haired beauty has a name and it oddly fits him.

Martin and I stick to the shadows, careful to be completely unnoticed. The woman holding onto Dorian’s arm is jovial. She laughs and she chats, acting as if nothing is wrong. It helps soothe some of my worries a little bit. If Dorian is our guy, at least his victims aren’t terrified as he takes them.

Dorian keeps up a casual stroll. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he really is just picking up a date from the bar.

Eventually, Dorian and the woman make their way to a hotel. They step inside and Martin and I stay outside, watching as the automatic door closes behind them.

“So,” Martin says slowly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I’m not sure if we should follow them inside. I think that would be way too suspicious.”

“I agree,” Martin says, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. “We still don’t even know if this is our guy. Are we just seeing this as suspicious because we want a break in the casethatbadly?”

I adjust my glasses, really thinking things over. “I think we really, really want a lead. But I also think this is real. We’re not seeing things. That guy was suspicious as hell from the get go. For some reason, you avoided his charms and he picked up someone easier.”

“I think we should wait out here for a bit. There’s a chance he comes back out.”

Luckily for us, there’s a cafe right beside the hotel. Martin goes inside, ordering us both coffees as I find a seat at their outside patio. In my experience, most cafes close at this time of night so we’re lucky that this one is still open. This must be a tourist trap of a town.

“Here,” Martin grits out, sliding over my coffee.

“Is there a reason you’re extra grumpy?”

Martin lets out a frustrated noise, his eyes darting up to meet mine. “I’m not grumpy.”

“Right. And I have perfect vision.”

“Just stop, Cooper. I don’t feel like fighting tonight. We’resoclose to a break in this case. Let’s just stay focused.”

“Fine,” I breathe out, taking a sip of my coffee and letting it warm me. Gods, I wish I could find a break in this case so fucking badly but I would also love to break that hard exterior that Martin has up in place.

“Cooper,” Martin says, letting out a deep sigh. I stare down at the table.

“It’s fine, Martin.”

“It’s not.” I look up, finding his eyes on me. They’re soft. Softer than I’ve seen them in a really long time. “I’m sorry, I’m being an ass. This whole case has my head in a terrible place. I shouldn’t be taking that out on you.”

I do my best to keep the shock off my features. I nod my head, giving him a soft smile. “It’s alright, Martin. I’m in the same boat as you. I just really wanna figure out what the hell is going on here.”

“Me too,” he says right away, finally looking away. I watch his profile for a moment, taking in the stubble across his strong jaw, wishing I could reach out and touch it. His features change to surprise and I look over, checking out what’s caused that look.

“He looks like a cartoon bad guy,” I whisper as a man gets out of his car and walks towards the hotel doors. He’s short and wearing a suit that’s about two sizes too big and a top hat. Like an actual, real life, top hat.

Before he gets to the doors, they slide open and out walks Dorian. My brows wrinkle, doing my best to figure out what the fuck is going on. They have a hushed conversation and it’s easy to see that Dorian is not the mastermind of this operation. His body is tense and his eyes sad as the shorter guy talks to him.

“This just took a weird turn,” I whisper. From the corner of my eye I see Martin nod. “I think we need to sit down and have a chat with Dorian.”

“I should have asked for his number.”For the case, I remind myself. Even so my stomach clenches painfully.

“Why don’t you go ask for it right now?”

“What?”

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