Page 15 of The Devil's Embrace

Calix pressed his lips together but didn’t ordain that with a response.

“That’s enough, Paige!” Bruce’s cheeks were bright red. “Outside, now!”

She got up without another word and followed the chief into the hall, slamming the door behind herself, leaving them alone with the other two officers.

“What’s her problem?” Reed leaned over and asked the other officer at his right, a man named Saz.

“Uh,” Saz glanced at Cal and then cleared his throat, “it’s—”

“She doesn’t like me,” Calix answered for him, holding their gazes without flinching.

Reed frowned. “What? Why? Isn’t this the first time the two of you are meeting?”

“He’s an alumni of Gradient,” Troya filled in, and they both watched as the officer seemed to put the pieces together.

Those pieces, anyway.

“Oh, so you two knew each other in high school.” Reed laughed. “What? Bad breakup or something?”

Cal’s mouth quirked. “Or something.”

At least it was nice knowing he wasn’t some fucked up urban legend. Between Aidan not knowing the story, and now Reed, it seemed like Cal had a better chance of getting through this so long as he avoided anyone from back in the day.

His partner must have realized it’d be easier for them both if that were the case as well, because he remained quiet at his side. When Troya didn’t out him, he changed the subject back to the matter at hand.

“Is the head still missing?” he asked, and both officers straightened on the other side of the table, back to business instantly.

“Yes,” Saz replied. “We still haven’t been able to locate it.” He flicked the screen on Bruce’s device so the slide projected onto the wall showed a headless corpse tucked in an alleyway. “The body belonged to Williams Gorty. It’s believed he was murdered elsewhere and dumped here.”

Williams Gorty, aged fifty-five. Father of one, and the son of the late Edmund Gorty, who’d passed recently after a major surgery. According to the reports, the surgery had been a success, but a blood clot had moved to Edmund’s brain and killed him in the middle of the night.

There was no suspected foul play; the only reason his death was important to this case was because of his son's presence at the hospital.

Hopeful Heart Hospital.

“Every victim found had a family member or close friend get treatment at Hopeful Heart,” Saz continued. “But aside from that, we’ve failed to find any sort of connection between the victims. None of the illnesses are the same, so they were treated in different branches by different medical teams. Even the way the victims were killed differs.”

“Except for the last two,” Reed reminded.

“Right, that.”

“It’s just strange that it’s not even the same department,” Troya said, going over his notes with a pinched brow. “Are we sure speaking with this doctor is even going to be useful?”

Aodhan Solace. He was talking about Aodhan Solace.

The guy who’d not only seen Calix at his lowest but had also saved him and patched him up afterward.

It was going to be so fucking uncomfortable having to see him again after all of that.

Especially after having the doctors fingers shoved up his torn hole, rubbing ointment on his stinging flesh…Had he noticed the way Cal had squirmed and flattened against the table to hide when his dick had twitched and threatened to harden?

Good Light, he prayed he hadn’t. But when had he ever been lucky enough for things to go his way? In the off chance Aodhan knew exactly what Calix had been feeling while he’d been treated by a medical professional simply doing his job, he was to be avoided at all costs.

Cal liked pain.

He did not like discomfort.

“Maybe we should go straight to the director instead,” he suggested. “Surely the hospital director will be more helpful.”

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