Cetta awoke in her own apartment, own bed and with no naked Kimbel lying next to her. She was ecstatic. Kimbel Davis was a college boyfriend who went off to California to make it big as a stunt double. She hadn’t seen him in quite some time until one day he called to say he’s coming to visit her; not that she would mind seeing him. They were a couple in college while she was studying Visual Arts and he was the nude model in one of her art classes. The short story is it didn’t work out. Kimbel is a great guy but settling down is the furthest thing from his mind. While they stayed friends, they went their separate ways until he turned up last year; in her apartment.

After Cetta dealt with Kimbel’s visit and got him squared away, he went back to California. Cetta was enjoying a quiet Sunday morning with Tony lying next to her. She smiled and cuddled up to him. He groaned and pulled her close to him. Cetta’s phone chirped. She reached to grab it from the nightstand. There was a frantic text from Kimbel.

Hearing the chirp Tony sat up in bed, opened his eyes and asked, “What’s going on?”

Cetta read the text to him. “Cetta, it’s Kimbel. I need your help. Can you come to California as soon as possible? My girlfriend is missing. I think she may have been kidnapped. The police here don’t believe it’s anything more than a missing person.”

Tony thought Kimbel was a pretty good guy, other than he was a walking disaster. Having met him for the first time this past summer he couldn’t believe Cetta ever dated him. Yeah, the guy’s good looking, I guess if you’re a woman; but he thought Cetta was light years ahead of him intellectually. Now he’s back in her life. Again.

Tony is Cetta’s on-again, off-again boyfriend. He’s a six-foot hunk of testosterone with black hair and blue eyes that sparkle whenever she walks in the room. Cetta, as she known to her friends, lives in Orchard Hill, a suburb of Buffalo, New York to be precise. She works as an assistant to Tony, who is a private investigator.

Cetta did a mental eye roll after reading the text. So much for a quiet Sunday morning snooze. Cetta dragged herself to the shower. She may as well get her shower in before who knew what could happen next. A plane could fall from the sky and smash into her apartment.

Drying her hair, she pulled it into her standard ponytail. Donning a pair of jeans, a turtleneck and her Mickey Mouse sweatshirt she made her way to the kitchen. Tony was already in there hunting for some healthy food. All he found was sugary cereal, an over-ripe banana and coffee.

Tony owns AG Investigative Services. Coming from a long line of police enforcement it seemed only natural he should be a police officer. That wasn’t Tony’s bag so he did the next best thing and worked for a PI for a while, eventually getting his license and opening his own business. Besides his own investigative work Tony does consultations for the Orchard Hill Police Department. Currently, he has expanded to cases for other police departments in the area. Cetta met Tony at a concert, where he was working on a case. About a year ago Cetta was involved with mobsters and hidden money when their paths crossed again. Tony helped her, or actually protected her from dying as he likes to put it. Deciding afterwards the only way to keep her from danger was to hire Cetta to work for him. The rest is history. Except for a former boyfriend, Paul, who pops up in her life from time to time, Cetta’s pretty happy being with Tony.

          She waltzed into the kitchen and asked Tony, “Do you have time to take this on and go to California?”

          “Cetta. I’m up to my eyeballs in work. Tell you what, your parents live there now so why don’t you go. You could visit with them and see what’s going on with Kimbel and his missing girlfriend at the same time. She probably dumped him and moved on to greener pastures. I’ll even let you take one of my guys along.”

          “I’d really like you to go with me, but I understand. I’ll be miserable without you.” Cetta’s voice was dripping with disappointment thinking she would have Tony feeling sorry for her. He didn’t bite. Cetta tried another tactic. “Instead of one of your guys can Angie come with me? I think my parents would prefer a girl in their house rather than a guy.” She didn’t think Tony would want Angie tagging along. After all, the two of them had people shooting at them twice already. Well, once, but there were guns drawn both times. When Tony spoke Cetta thought, he isn’t even listening to me.

“Cetta when are you going to buy any edible food? Look at this banana. If it had legs, it would walk itself to the garbage.” Tony really wanted one of his guys to go along. This way he would be assured no harm would come to Cetta. Although she was his employee, she was also his girlfriend. Sometimes he wondered why he decided to hire her. Forget that, he knew very well why he hired her. He liked having her close to him; as a girlfriend and to protect her from harm. Yet he was placing her in harm’s way too many times lately. Angie going with her was an even worse idea. Those two always managed to get into some mischief. Although Cetta said they would be staying with her parents. A thought came to him. Her parents could keep an eye on Cetta and Angie. They’d probably do a better job than his guy could. He might as well get this over with. She would hound him all day if he didn’t answer her. “Yeah sure. If Angie wants to go with you, she can. I’ll have one of the other girls take over for her. When do you think you’ll leave?”

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