Page 12 of The Devil's Embrace

He winced. “How much did you, uh, see, exactly? Not here, obviously. I mean…”

“When I found you?” The doctor thought it over, clearly picturing the events from earlier.

Cal had to drop his gaze, uncomfortable knowing that the other man was literally thinking about him lying on the floor with his clothes torn off and—

“There was a lot of blood and other fluids,” Aodhan said matter-of-factly. “Your asshole was torn, and he’d left you on your back with your legs spread wide. Considering all the bruises and the fresh and dried tears on your face, anyone would have been able to guess what’d happened to you.”

“You said he was still there?” Cal tried to focus on that detail instead of the rest of it.

“Yes, he was adjusting his pants. I tried to stop him, but he left before I could and, frankly, I was more interested in you anyway. I assessed the damage and tried to wake you, but you were unresponsive for a long time.”

“And how did you get me out of there?” He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of asking sooner.

“An ambulance, of course.”

He groaned. “Tell me the entire party didn’t see me like that?”

“I made sure your unmentionables were covered,” Aodhan stated. “They didn’t get to see anything they didn’t have a right to see. As far as what was done to you, all that was said was you were assaulted and found unconscious.”

That was something at least. Calix had long since learned to be grateful for the little things. He might not be ashamed because a man had overpowered him, but he wasn’t naïve. He’d come here for a job, and if word got out that he’d become a victim of a sexual crime on his very first night back, he’d lose face in front of the rest of the department. He had to spend however long it took to solve this thing, working with the local police force. He couldn’t afford to elicit doubts right out the gate.

Though, now anyone who did hear of it might think he was to weak to hold his own in a fight…

Shit.

Damage control. That’s what he needed. He’d worry about that later and come up with a plan before his arrival at the office tomorrow.

“Why did he do that to you, Calix?” Aodhan said his name and a shiver ran down Cal’s spine at the rich sound of it passing his rosy lips.

It shouldn’t affect him that much, didn’t make any sense that it did, but any thoughts of refusing to answer fled his mind, and before he knew it, he was telling a virtual stranger his biggest shame.

“In the twelfth grade, I made a mistake,” Calix began. “I hit another kid with my hovercar. He came out of nowhere. It happened in the student parking lot, so there was video footage of him leaping in front of my vehicle, trying to get a rise out of me. I was startled, and while moving for the break, my foot slipped and ended up hitting the gas instead.”

There were several cameras that had captured the incident, and while they obviously hadn’t been able to film Calix’s feet, the black box inside his car had also provided proof that he’d panicked. It could be heard in his voice during and after, and it’d captured him immediately darting from the car to go check on the student.

“I didn’t run or anything like that, I took responsibility. Unfortunately for me, even though the law believed me, the rest of the student body refused to.”

“Why?” Aodhan asked.

“Because it was Nero Quentin.” He swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. “Do you know him?”

“I do not.”

“You probably would have, if not for that day. He already had a full-ride scholarship to Greatly Academy. His future was all set, he was going to go pro.”

“What sport?”

“Fly Ball.”

Aodhan hummed. “Lots of running in that. What, did you break one of his legs?”

“I paralyzed him from the neck down,” Calix confessed. “For life.”

Chapter 4:

“This is the only video footage taken around the area and time the body was presumably dumped.” Bruce, the police chief of Emergence Emerald Precinct, hit play on the fuzzy black and white video footage they’d all already seen a dozen times over.

The one that gave them nothing.

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