To Tell a Tale (Season One)

“What the hell was that?!”

Detective Nash Jackman looked up when his partner yelled over the noise of the room.

“What was what?” Nash asked, looking around the room.

“Didn’t you see that?” Detective Remington Smitt—Smitty to his friends—stared at his partner of five years.

Nash shook his head. “My eyes are almost as annoyed as my ears. There’s too much noise!”

Nash followed his partner’s eyes as Smitty looked back to where he had seen something Nash hadn’t noticed.

“There it is again!” Smitty yelled over the noise.

Nash watched as a white blur moved through the area, slamming open doors and entering rooms. What was it, and what was it doing?

“It’s a woman,” Smitty whispered.

Nash looked at his partner. Was he serious? How could a woman move that fast and not be affected by the noise coming from the rooms? If it wasn’t for the earpieces they’d shoved into their ears the moment the noise had started, he was sure they would both be deaf by now.

“What the fuck is she doing?” Nash hissed as he watched the blur move into another room.

“I think she’s disabling whatever is making that God-awful noise.”

Nash watched as the blur slammed into the last room, and everything went eerily quiet.

“Holy shit,” Smitty whispered when the room settled around them.

The blur didn’t come out of the room, and Nash moved to find out who or what she was.

“Don’t move,” a voice whispered to his right.

Nash stopped and turned to find piercing grey eyes staring at him. She tapped the watch on her wrist.

“You can move in five minutes, no sooner than that,” she said, then disappeared.

“What the fuck?” Smitty asked as he moved closer to Nash. “Should we heed her warning?”

“She did just turn off the noise that had us disabled,” Nash grumbled.

“But should we trust her?” Smitty asked, moving to stand next to his partner.

Nash shrugged, “fuck if I know. Maybe she’s making us wait so she can escape….”

“True.” Smitty nodded.

“Well, lookie here,” a tall, thin man said as he came into view across from the two detectives. “Well, well, well. Looks like I have me a couple detectives in my clutches.”

Nash looked from the man to his partner and back again. Where did this fucker come from? When they’d first arrived, there was no one there, then the noise started, and they were trapped until the blurry woman disabled the noise and told them to stay there for five minutes.

Was it a trap all along? Did she want him to stay here so this asshole could capture him and his partner? But then why would she disable the noise?

“I think she set us up,” Smitty whispered.

Nash didn’t look at his partner. He’d been thinking the same thing. He looked at his watch and saw they had less than a minute left of her five-minute warning.

“I knew my trap would catch me a big prize, but two?” The tall man snorted a laugh.

“What’s your plan now?” Smitty hissed.

Nash shrugged. He had no clue what their next move was. He hadn’t counted on a woman showing up, let alone being trapped for someone to come and take them out.

“Now, who goes first?” the tall man asked as he approached the two detectives.

Nash heard a squeal and looked at his watch. Five minutes were up. He and Smitty looked up when they heard metal on metal.

“Holy fuck,” Smitty cursed as they watched a ten-ton crate fall from the sky.

“What the….” The man didn’t finish as the crate landed on him, smashing him to the floor.

Nash and Smitty jumped back, narrowly missing getting smacked in the head, when the crate opened on impact.

“How did she know that was going to happen?” Smitty hissed.

“No fucking clue,” Nash growled.

“Shit, if we’d continued, we would have been the ones standing there when it fell. Because that dick would have stopped us there and….”

Smitty didn’t finish, and Nash didn’t blame him. He didn’t want to think of their near-death either.

“Are you okay?”

They both turned to the soft voice in the shadows. She hadn’t gone anywhere after all.

“Who are you?” Nash asked, trying to see any sign of her eyes again.

He didn’t understand the pull to her, but he wanted to see her in full view.

“I must go now. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Hey!” Smitty hollered as he took off toward where they had heard her. “Shit, she’s gone.” Smitty turned to Nash, shaking his head.

Nash took in a deep breath. Who is she, and how did she know about the crate?

Sirens sounded outside, and Smitty grunted. “Great timing for backup,” he grumbled as he headed to the exit.

Nash looked at the crate that had almost ended his life.

“Who are you?” he whispered, shaking his head in bewilderment.

~🔮~

Airianna sighed with relief as she walked to her car—a block from the building the two detectives had entered less than thirty minutes before. She’d almost been too late saving them. Airianna wished she could have heard his voice. She knew he’d talked to her, but she couldn’t hear anything he said. She’d read his lips a couple of times.

Who are you? How did you know?

Those were the frequent questions on people’s lips.

Airianna opened her car door and pulled herself into her seat. She reached into her glove compartment and pulled out the box which held her hearing aids. She’d gotten them when she was twelve. It had taken the doctors five years to find the perfect match for her. Though she still didn’t hear everything, they were good enough for her to have a driver’s license—just barely.

She started the car and listened to the purr of the engine. That’s one of her favorite sounds. It’s one of the few she can hear over the ocean still crashing behind the hearing aids. She felt music more than she heard it, but sometimes she could catch the beat of a drum or the tone of a voice.

Honking horns was her least favorite. They were irritating and the only reason she was able to drive. She wouldn’t be on the road if she couldn’t hear a horn.

It also helped that her father was best friends with a judge who deemed her driving worthy, or whatever he called it.

With a sigh, she pulled away from the curb. She slammed on the brake with a shriek when a figure stepped out in front of her. The look on his face told her he knew. And her blood turned to liquid ice when he yelled at her to get out of the car.

Airianna turned off the motor with shaking hands and slowly slipped out of the car. She had waited too long to leave. She should be halfway home by now. But she had to see if he listened to her and survived the night.

“Who are you? How did you turn off the noise without it knocking you out, and how the fuck did you know the crate was going to kill us if we moved?”

She only caught half of what he asked of her and shrugged her shoulders.

“I just knew….” She squealed when he moved in front of her, his face in hers.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Airianna swallowed. Who is she? Uhm, well…

“I….”

He placed his hand over her mouth and turned to her left when he heard a sound she didn’t hear.

“Get in the car.” Nash pushed the woman toward the passenger side.

Shaking, the woman obeyed, though he could tell she didn’t want to. Too fucking bad.

He pulled himself into the driver’s seat and watched her through the corner of his eye as she buckled her seat belt. With a smirk, he started the car and pulled onto the road. He will get answers from her if he has to kidnap and threaten her.

A stabbing pain sliced through his gut at the thought of hurting the woman who saved him and his partner.

The drive was quick. Nash drove them to the nearest park and pulled into the parking lot. He shut off the motor and turned to her.

“Now. You are going to answer my questions, or I’m going to take you in,” Nash threatened.

She wasn’t looking at him. She was looking down at her hands as they fidgeted with the hem of her white shirt. Why the hell did she wear white when she was sneaking around dangerous areas where she could get herself killed?

“Answer me!” he growled, yanking her by the arm to face him.

She screamed and blocked her face with both hands.

“What the fuck?” He let go of her arm, and she stared at him over her hands. “I’m sorry,” he said, catching his breath. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Airianna stared at the man, her heart beating out of control. He’d scared her, alright. Too many times, people have yanked on her when she didn’t answer—not realizing she couldn’t hear them.

Once, a man hit her for ignoring him. It always brought back the memories of the man who had beaten and killed her mother. The man she had shot and killed when she was only seven. The reason for her being deaf and an easy target. Because how can she hear them sneak up behind her?

She’d almost been raped more than once because she didn’t hear them. But somehow, she always got out of it.

Fearing her safety, her father sent her to his friend. The man taught her to defend herself and listen with her body rather than her ears.

“I won’t hurt you,” he assured her as he watched her.

Airianna lowered her hands and watched him. She knew he wouldn’t, but she wasn’t going to leave herself vulnerable—never again.

“I only wanted you to answer my question.” He watched her, his eyes roaming over her face.

Airianna felt her face flush.

Nash smiled when he saw the blush on the girl’s face. He hadn’t meant to scare her. She’d annoyed him by ignoring him.

“Can you answer my questions? I don’t want to take the person who saved my life in.”

She looked out the window, then turned back to him. “Please ask again; I didn’t hear you.”

Nash’s left eyebrow raised. How did she not hear him? She’s only a few inches from him. The knowledge of how close she was—had his blood boiling beneath the skin. How did she affect him like this? He hadn’t been attracted to a woman since his ex-fiancée slept with his best friend on their wedding day.

Yeah, congratulations to him.

“Who are you? How did you know the crate was going to drop? Did you sabotage it?”

Airianna blinked. She’d heard a few words and read his lips. The only word she didn't pick up was the second to last word. What did he ask her?

“My name is Airianna Williams. And I saw the crate fall on you in a dream. Well, a daydream. One of my paintings….” She stopped talking. She can’t tell him everything in one sitting.

“Paintings?” he asked, his face wrinkling in confusion.

“Uhm….” She looked away from him. How could she explain her gift without him thinking she was a nut job?

“Nash, come in, buddy. Where the fuck are you?”

Nash grunted, put up a finger for her to wait a minute, and pulled the walkie from his pocket.

“Anyone with you?” he asked into the walkie.

“Nah, man. I escaped as the captain entered the building.”

Nash chuckled. Neither of them was ready to answer the captain’s questions.

“I’m with the girl,” he whispered into the walkie, not realizing the girl could read his lips.

“You found her? Holy fuck. What does she look like? Is she pretty? Sexy? Come on, man, don’t hold back!”

Nash grunted, “she’s nice-looking. A bit young for either of us….”

“You’ve been away from women too long,” Smitty grumbled.

Airianna couldn’t hear everything the detective’s partner said, but she could read his lips as he talked on the walkie. If only her hearing aid could let her hear more than a few words here and there. She liked the detective’s voice. It was sexy and gruff. And she felt something deep inside her she has never felt before.

Airianna watched the detective talk to his partner and wondered what they would say if she told them how she knew what was going to happen tonight. She wished she could hear in her dreams, but not even there does her hearing help guide her. She has taught herself to look for clues to help figure out the message—but she’s still learning to do that.

When she has a daydream and paints what is going to come, it helps more. Except for the noise keeping them trapped, she hadn’t counted on that—until it almost shattered her hearing aids. Luckily, she’d taken them out before she got out of the car because the noise got louder once she entered the building. She couldn’t hear it, but she had felt it vibrate across the floor. She was lucky when she found the noise source and shattered it.

She’d had two visions of this man.

The first was of his eardrums bursting, blood dripping from his ears, and he and his partner dying before anyone could come to their aid. The second vision was the crate falling on them.

She couldn’t tell what had caused the ear-bleeding until she’d parked and heard the noise coming from the building.

Why fate wanted her to save this man—was beyond her. But she was happy he was alive. Something deep inside her told her he was special.

Things were about to change for her and the detective.