Toxic Delights: Part 2

It'd be easy to blame her behavior on her daddy issues, her miscommunication with her mother, the unhealthy environment they both created for her. The truth settled within the darkest corners of her mind and shone as bright as the neon city she was currently in. It illuminated within every confident step she took across an empty parking lot, or a quiet alley, even the satisfied sighs that came out of the strangers she slept with.

Danger didn't scare her away. It excited her to the point of addiction. It was in her blood, the fuel to the gas tank that was her heart.

She could adjust her behavior around other people, blend into any environment, whether shady or pleasant. Elle was known for being the chameleon among her colleagues. But that all changed when Dante Jones, her best friend's first love, came into the picture. Somehow, he managed to see right through her, and slowly began to remind her she still had darkness roaming around inside of her, lying in wait.

The fact that they had fucked on top of his desk on the night of Hazel's birthday celebration was proof enough.

"You mean to tell me someone was busy putting a dead body outside your door and you didn't hear a thing?" Camilla Nieves, the lead detective on this case asked, with her skeptical and plucked eyebrows raised in suspicion. She'd been sitting in the interrogation room for three hours now, and she was getting antsy. But she never let it show. She thought about what she wanted to do to this animal when she finally caught up to him. That in itself was enough motivation to keep her cool.

"I'm a heavy sleeper," Elle sassed with a smile, which of course annoyed the detective enough to slam her hands onto the table in front of her. It was an intimidation tactic, the same one they had taught her at the FBI academy, to make the suspect nervous, shake them out of their secrets.

"You want to know what I think? I think that body was a message for you, Agent Dubois. I'm sure you understand what that means."

"Of course, detective. You're about to comb through my entire life in order to find this asshole. Let me save you the trouble and tell you myself," Elle argued, sliding back into her chair, as she closed her eyes, to give herself the cognitive interview. "My parents were the epitome of dysfunctional. My mother was a high school teacher by day and a hooker by night. My father worked for the mob, which explains my comfort with the deceased and mutilated. I'm an only child as far as I know. Not that my mother would tell me. She likes keeping secrets. And I guess that's why I love having a few of my own. I think that about covers it. Did I miss anything?" she finished smugly and exhaled deeply before she opened her eyes and found the detective glancing down at her lips instead of listening to her story.

Ah, so she was one of those. Elle didn't mind the company of women. She enjoyed using her tongue on them to make them scream into her pillows. But the detective wasn't her type. There was no innocence in her brown eyes, nothing her own inner demons could corrupt. It was her favorite part.

"Did any of your secrets help end the life of that innocent woman?" Camilla continued her questioning.

"If I find any proof of that, I'll be sure to call you first, detective," Elle replied with a wolfish grin. The detective sighed in frustration as she picked up her file and pretended to go over it again.

"Your work is remarkable, Ms. Dubois. You even helped bring down the infamous Skull Man in Minnesota. They found the bodies of all those dead kids and their parents, you know? They were rotting behind Hazel Nash's childhood home."

"What?" Elle exclaimed. It made no sense. Hazel had renovated that place from top to bottom. Surely if there had been any bodies there, she would've been notified by the contractors. "You're lying."

"Or maybe you helped her cover it up. After all, you two are close friends," the detective instigated, which only made her roll her eyes.

"If there were bodies buried in her backyard, she didn't do it. Hazel is alot of things, but stupid is not one of them."

"You defend her like she's more than a friend to you."

"She is. She's family and if there's one thing my piece of shit of a father taught me, it's that family comes before anything."

"Didn't make him stop working for the mob, or your mother from taking the streets at night, did it?" she countered and Elle was seconds away from punching this woman in the face if she didn't back off.

"That's enough. You can stop harassing my client now, detective," the man, who she could only assume was a defense lawyer judging from the expensive suit and watch on his wrist, barged into the interrogation room and placed his briefcase onto the table in front of her.

"Don't leave town just yet, Ms. Dubois. We may need you to come in for more questioning," Detective Nieves reminded her, as she glared at the arrogant man winking towards her, and left the room.

"Trevor Lee, Dante mentioned you might need my help," the lawyer introduced himself, reaching to shake her hand. When she shook it, she couldn't help but notice the dark circles underneath his eyes and the slight yellowing of his bottom teeth, indicating he was a coffee fiend and his loneliness was wearing him down at night.

"Sorry he made you come all the way down here. I think I've got this under control," Elle said reassuredly as she pulled her hand back.

"If you'll let me buy you a cup of coffee at my hotel, I can show you why you're wrong, Ms. Dubois." His words had definitely caught her attention, and she simply nodded as she followed him out towards the front desk, so they could return her badge and credentials. Once she was signed out, she followed the lawyer out onto the precinct parking lot and marveled at the expensive model of car he had decided to show off on his way here.

"Nice car," she complimented as he opened the door for her and she entered. The dashboard and seats were all black leather, detailings in silver with electrical settings. His success rate must've been over the roof at his law firm if he could afford such a masterpiece.

"It was a gift," Trevor mentioned humbly, as he settled into his own seat and pushed the ignition button, bringing the entire car to life. The vibration made her shiver with delight and she wished her job would pay her enough to get one of those babies.

"You have some very wealthy friends, Mr. Lee," Elle observed, as he backed out of the parking space and zoomed out of the lot in one swift motion. He left the cops there, with their donuts and their coffee in the scorching Miami heat, reveling with envy as they drove off.

No more than fifteen minutes later, they arrived at his hotel. It was more on the luxurious side than the one she was renting a room at currently. But she still appreciated how a man this rich could still be a gentleman. He'd opened doors for her, and sent a smile to any stranger who managed to pass them by. The coffee shop in the lobby of his hotel was more on the snobby side than she preferred and way overpriced, but she ordered herself a cookie anyway. She was trying to quit coffee since she was no longer able to drink the one Hazel made at her own shop. She was spoiled in Minnesota, to say the least. And she honestly just missed her best friend more than the coffee she blessed her with on a daily basis.

"I managed to get a hold of the security footage of the hotel. It erases every five days. We were lucky last night was the beginning of the fourth day and it captured something on video I think you should see," Trevor explained as he retrieved his laptop from his briefcase and placed it on the table in the private corner booth of the coffee shop. When he opened it, he pressed play on the footage and Elle began to watch.

It started with her making out heatedly outside of her door with the man she brought with her from the club last night. She never asked for his name, but he'd been the only one who looked out of place at the club, which to her meant he was a tourist, no one permanent she could possibly run into daily. It worked for the both of them. He was looking for a good time and Elle was seeking the thrills that came with bedding someone she didn't know.

She needed to feel safe in her own mind again, after Dante completely shattered it by making her face her truth.

And she began to rebuild her safety net with this stranger the moment she blindfolded him in the cab. He'd placed his hands in between her legs as soon as they had entered the room, getting her ready for what was to come. She licked her lips as she recalled how long his tongue must've been to reach all the way inside of her, to toy with her g-spot. She'd ordered him to lay on the floor shortly after, so she could ride his tongue in comfort. Thinking about it now made Elle's clit throb with need.

"Wait, what happened?" Elle panicked when the screen went dark, but then the footage resumed, two hours later according to the time stamp, right to the still image of her door. Only this time, the body of the dead woman she had found earlier that day was laying in front of it.

"The security cameras went through a glitch. I talked to the hotel manager. He claimed the cameras glitch between the hours of midnight and two in the morning, which means that whoever did this, knew when the security cameras would go out," Trevor explained.

"I figured as much. But there's no way he could've carried a body down the hallway and nobody saw or heard anything," she added. Trevor nodded in agreement, but something twinkled in his eyes as he stared at the video. He must've come to the same conclusion her thoughts had been pulling towards all day.

"I believe your suspect works at your hotel."