Page 28 of Code Violation

Nero perked up. “’True. What about your sister? Where did her name come from?”

“No idea. Our mother’s twisted imagination?” He did not want to talk about his mother. “Maybe she let Witt name her.”

“And Witt was your father?”

Forrest was pretty sure Nero knew the answer to that, but he’d play along, sort of. He wanted to trust Nero Vik now, but years of ingrained suspicion of humanity at large was hard to fight.

“Yes, but remember the deal. You help get to the bottom of Ned’s murder first.”

Forrest could tell Nero wanted to ask more questions, but if they went down this road, it might be hard to get back to their true purpose.

Nero rolled his eyes and sighed. “So, Archie, what’s the plan?”

Forrest tried not to grin. “You’re the hotshot investigator.”

“Then sorry, but we start with you. Tell me about that bracelet. Why would someone leave it on my doorstep? Also, I need to get dressed. It’s hard for me to take myself seriously while naked.”

Nero rolled off the bed and beelined for a three-drawer dresser against the wall. Forrest did not avert his eyes. Nero Vik was incredibly sexy. While the other man dug out fresh clothing, Forrest snatched his jeans up off the floor and forced his legs back into the damp denim, then pulled his long-sleeved t-shirt back over his head.

“Ready?” Nero asked. “Sorry, I don’t have a clothes dryer here.”

“Meh, they’ll warm up in a minute.” He sat back down on the messy covers and leaned back on his hands.

“Spit it out, Cooper. What’s with the bracelet?”

Nero came over to stand next to the bed. The expression on his face told Forrest he wasn’t letting him bluff his way out of answering.

He tried anyway. “Why start with that?”

Nero already thought Forrest was weird; if he shared his suspicions, Nero was going to think he’d been watching too many reruns of X-Files or Twilight Zone. Forrest didn’t watch TV though. He could just replay the crazy shit in his head.

“Because if we’re doing this, I need to know everything. That”—Nero pointed at the seemingly innocuous hoop—“freaked you out. Investigative reporter, remember? So what is it?”

Forrest glanced at the grass circlet again, hating its existence. “It can’t be important.” He didn’t want it to be important. He needed it to be a fluke.

“You don’t get to decide what is important and what isn’t,” Nero said with more than a tinge of exasperation. “If you want to try and bring Ned Barker justice, we need to look at everything. Every angle. All the facts. No stone unturned.”

“I get the point, no need to pummel me with it.”

Nero ignored his attempt at humor. “Who were Ned’s other friends? What were his hobbies? In my opinion, it’s unlikely that some random stranger attacked him.”

Forrest let out a groan and flopped all the way down onto the mattress.

“Start by explaining that bracelet.”

“Ugh, fine. It’s something Dina used to do. She’d make grass things like that and leave them for us to find. She said they were secret messages. Dina was odd, to put it lightly, and not in an endearing way. But honestly, Vi—Nero, it’s something a kid would make.”

Nero narrowed his eyes, clearly mulling over what Forrest had shared. “If that’s the case, why does it scare you?”

Sitting up again, Forrest raked one hand through his hair and tried not to shout in the confines of the tiny cabin. “Because I have a ridiculous fear that my crazy-ass mother is still alive and living in the woods, okay? And I’m not okay with that.”

Forrest tried to take a deep breath but failed. Instead, he was covered with sweat and it felt like his heart was trying to fight its way out of his chest.

“I have recurring nightmares that she’s still out there. My dreams are memories, I think, things that I can’t remember when I’m awake. They scare the crap out of me. I have to keep telling myself that she can’t be out there any longer. It’s been decades, for godsakes.”

Fuck. His hand was shaking slightly, so he clenched it into a fist.

Nero grabbed it, holding the fist in a tight grip. “Sorry for pushing—it’s a bad habit. We’ll set the whatever it is aside for now.”

---