“Can you tell me what happened, Luca?”
He could, but they’d never believe him. So he said what Nox had asked. “He made me go with him. He forced me in the car and made me go with him.”
Luca had no idea a lie could cut so deep.
He didn’t resist the call of numbness and closed his eyes. The ghost of Nox’s touch swept down Luca’s back. His taste bled over Luca’s tongue. Warmth cradled him. Velvet lips touched his. But as hard as Luca tried, he couldn’t push back the veil of fog where there was only silence.
Not even the thump of Nox’s heartbeat.
A steady beep dragged Luca into the light. Instead of Nox’s spicy scent, there was antiseptic and cleaner. A voice broke apart over an intercom. More drifted in from far enough away the words were lost.
Luca opened his eyes. White blankets covered him up to his torso. An IV dripped in his left arm. A set of handcuffs tethered his right one to the bedrail. For a moment Luca thought he dreamed, but the cop at the door hammered everything home.
The EMS, the ambulance, the police….
They might have meant no harm to Luca. But for Nox?
The uniformed officer spoke into his shoulder mic, then stepped into the hall.
A clatter rang out in the hallway and Luca twisted his hands into the blankets.
Gunfire and camphor burned his nose. With the unwanted memory came the image of Nox. Holes blossoming in his chest. Trails of blood spreading over the ground and running rivulets down his body. Luca bit back the urge to scream, but he couldn’t stop the tears from burning a path down his cheeks.
Nox was dead.
Dead because of him.
“Good to see you’re feeling better.”
Two men stood just inside the room door now. One short, older, with a paunch. The other a couple inches taller with long horselike features. Both of them wore suits. “My name is Detective Davies, and this is my partner Johnson. EMS said your name is Luca Suarez.”
Luca pressed himself against his pillow, stretching the links of the handcuff chain to their limit. Metal raked against metal. An auditory assault.
“Sorry for the cuffs.” Davies didn’t look very sorry. “But we’re not quite as trusting as the hero trucks. Especially when the person in question was caught fleeing the scene of a murder.”
Panic crept up Luca’s spine, but he wasn’t sure why.
The two men exchanged a quick look.
“Do you want to tell us what happened at the house on Brooks?” Johnson said.
Luca’s heart clawed the inside of his ribs.
“There were two bodies and a dead dog in the front yard. Do you have an explanation for that?”
Luca drew up his legs.
Davies walked closer to the bed. “Did you know the people you killed or were they just in the way?”
The air hummed, but there were only the two men.
“What about the other man you were with?”
Luca opened his mouth. More tears burned Luca’s eyes. Shivers racked his arms, and his teeth chattered.
Davies raised his hands slightly, and some hardness left his expression. “Did you know the man driving the Jeep?”
Static raced down Luca’s skin.