The key that he gave back to me sits proudly around my neck, back where it belongs. Intertwining it between my fingers at the breakfast table, my father watches me with interest. His eyes fall on the necklace, and he freezes the spoon he was using to stir his coffee as he continues to stare at it. “Where did you get that?” he asks, only looking up at me briefly before he glances back to it.

“It was hers...” I’m careful to not say mother’s name around him.

“Have you always had it?”

I nod my head, and he stands to knock his chair back then walks away. Tucking the necklace back into my shirt, I sit there confused, then I hear his footsteps coming back. I stand up, and he walks straight up to me with a box in his hand. It’s a carved wooden box, and on the top are my initials. My finger touches it, trailing a pattern over it.

“I’ve never been able to open it, now I know why.” He nods his head to the necklace that holds the key. It’s a distinctive key, one that stands out from your basic everyday design. Pulling it from my neck, I place it to the keyhole of the box and look up at my father. He nods his head while sitting down in his chair next to me like he can’t bear to stand. The key slides in a little further with a click, I turn it, and the box unlocks with a snap. His breath expels heavily as I lift the lid, and my hands shake as I gaze inside. I don’t know much about my mother, only what I can remember. He never speaks of her at all.

What’s she hiding?

Will this tell me more about who she was?

Lifting up a delicate piece of paper, I see a picture of New York underneath it, followed by other pictures of different locations, then there’s another piece of paper right at the bottom. Opening it, I read it out loud so he can hear me.

“My dearest Jaya. This is now your treasure travel box. It was my treasure travel box, and it’s full of all the places I wanted to see in this world, the places I wanted to discover. I’m hoping you will, too. I added a few I’ve been to, and where I believe you must see. Like New York in the winter, go ice skating at Central Park, or go see the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. There’s nothing like it in this world. Steal pieces of each location for yourself, and I promise you will grow even more for it. I love you, so much. Go and play with your soul, baby, it’s waiting to be found.” A tear leaves my eye, and my father is also crying when I look up at him. He shakes his head, and I pull the last piece of paper from the box. It’s a check, and it’s for thousands of dollars. I smile, and when I show my father, he smiles as well.

“I was wondering what she was doing with all that money. She told me to never touch it, and I never have. I’m sure the account is double what’s written on that check.” My hands shake as I look up to my father, a person who I’d never seen emotion from before, and now he’s showing me everything. “She loved to travel, I was happy you never did.”

His words surprise me.

“I want to, I don’t want this anymore.”

He wipes his eyes. “I know, you only stayed because you were lost. She looked just like you did before we traveled, too. So lost.”

“I’m going to do it.”

“You should,” he agrees with me. “Forget about everything here and just go, Jaya.”

I know he’s referring to them. I haven’t even told him much about them, yet he seems to know everything I’m not telling him.

“They’re under investigation for murder right now. She’s our lead suspect in a crime where a man was found dead in a pool a year ago.” My eyes go wide. “Your DNA was found there, Jaya. Tell me you didn’t—”

“Why now?” I ask him.

“A witness came forward.”

My eyes close then reopen, locking onto him. “Did you have any suspects before that?”

“Jaya, what are you not telling me?”

Standing and grabbing my box, I ignore him, walking off to my room. I hear his steps following behind me.

“I know you were there. I found your DNA, Jaya. It’s what I do. Why were they there?”

“It was just a party we went to. We did that often, Dad. It wasn’t unusual to go to a party with them.”

“I can’t protect you if I don’t know the truth.”

“I know, Dad, I know.” Reaching for my keys, I push past him going for my door.

He stops me with his hand on my arm. “Cash that check, and leave.”

Taking a cursory glance back to the box that holds the check, I nod my head, pulling my arm free and walking out of that house.

***

ONCE YOU ASK, YOU SHALL receive. That’s what they say, right? That’s what happened I asked for Taj’s address and I received it. He wasn’t at his first place, the one where there have been two murders. He was nowhere to be seen there. I was told this is his weekend home. Now here I sit out front of his way-too-large home wondering why I really came.

The large black gates that separates his house from the road begin to open. Putting my car in gear, I drive up Taj’s driveway to find him with his arms crossed over his chest as he watches me with sunglasses covering his eyes. My hands shake as I pull the car to a stop to step out, only to find him already at my door pulling it open.

“Jaya.” My name leaves his lips, and I suppress a shiver that wants to take over my entire body just from his presence. “I told you to leave, Jaya. So why are you sitting out front of my house like a stalker?”

My voice seems to leave me as I step out and press my back against the car as he stands directly in front of me not giving me any room to move.

He. Is. Everywhere.

“I plan to.”

“But you haven’t done what you want to do.”

I shake my head. Taj steps back, removing his sunglasses. His eyes pierce me as he stares at me then glances back behind him. He turns and starts walking to his overly large black doors that lead inside his house.

“Are you coming, Jaya?”

I nod and walk up the massive marble steps behind him. The cold air hits me first, followed by loud music playing through some sort of speaker system in the house.

“I thought you lived at...” I don’t say it. Instead, I trail off. I don’t even know how to describe it—the killing house? He stops, but I miss it because I’m too busy checking around at the exquisiteness that is that house and slam straight into his chest.

He smells like sex.

Can a man smell like that naturally? Because he does.

Syler smells of the ocean, and I get lost in him.

Taj smells of all things bad. Mainly sex.

“I own a lot of property. That house has been deemed a crime scene, and it’s not smart for me to be there.”

“You didn’t hand them over?” I ask, referring to that night. He could have told the police what happened because he seemed to know everything. He touches my chin, stroking it. My breathing hitches at his rough, calloused fingers touching me. Syler’s aren’t as rough, only slightly from training with his hatchet. But Taj’s are harsh against my skin, and it makes me wonder what kind of work he does to get such rough hands considering I’ve seen everyone else do his bidding.

“That would include handing you over, and that I couldn’t do. You, Jaya... you interest me.”

“I seem to attract the crazy ones.”

His hand drops, and he laughs. Taj turns and ushers for me to follow him further into the house.

The fucked and deluded, that’s what I seem to attract. Just my fucking luck.

Walking through his house, his walls are white and bare apart from the winding wooden and steel staircase that meanders up to another level, but we don’t go that way. Instead, we walk past and into a large dining area where he goes straight to, what seems to be, a comprehensively stocked bar. He steps behind the long black counter, which is lit up underneath in blue neon lighting. Behind the bar, there are bottles of what appears to be very expensive alcohol all stacked neatly in rows. He pours himself a bourbon then pours another, pushing it to me on the other side where I’ve taken a seat on the stool.

“You’ve spoken to your father, I take it?” I nod my head, assessing him. “So he told you that he found your DNA at the crime scene.”

“He did.”

He smirks, putting the glass to his lips, tasting his drink then putting it down. “He could have been in big trouble for that. Lost his career. Got thrown in jail. You’re lucky to have him. I also think that’s one of the reasons she chose you. What better way to get away with any crimes she chooses, if you bring the daughter of the CSI detective that examines the evidence. She didn’t pick you because of your looks, Jaya, even though they are excellent in every way.” I blush even though I shouldn’t, but his words shock me more.

“She didn’t know who my father was, though.”

He laughs at my words. “Of course she did. You have met Syler, right? He was my secret weapon for years. That man can get into anything, and I mean anything. He was the one that helped me expunge any record of you, by request of your father.”

Picking up the bourbon, I drink the whole glass in one go and set it back down, slamming the glass onto the counter.

“So... this is your place! Where you, what? Fuck heaps of woman?”

He pours me another drink and I down it just as fast as the first.

“No, Jaya. No woman are allowed in my house.”

With a glance around, I see no one is there. Nor does it look like any woman had been there before. This is a man’s home in every way, right down to the color schemes and the furniture.

“I’m a woman,” I say touching my breasts to demonstrate I have all the parts I need to be a woman.

Shit! This is why I don’t drink.

His eyes are dark when I look back up at him.

“That you are, but you also love him. Even when you shouldn’t. Syler is a black hole, just like his sister.”

Collapsing down on his bar stool, my head touches the coldness of the countertop. “I know. I shouldn’t have given it to him. He did warn me. I tried. Took me years to realize it, though.”

He pushes another glass of the brown stuff my way, and I sit up to drink it then lay my head back down again. The coldness helping with a raging headache that’s developing.

“Her plan was flawed... you cracked it. Try to remember that night, Jaya.”

Looking up, I go to ask him what he knows of that night, the night I don’t recall, but my eyes become heavy, and I don’t feel like talking. Instead, I fall asleep with the faint recognition of Taj picking me up and carrying me somewhere. I even feel his lips on my forehead, or maybe I was dreaming that.