Page 40 of The Devil's Embrace

She grunted. “Yeah.”

“Turned in by his own family,” Mitri let out a low whistle. “Cold.”

“Not as cold as Molly Fern currently is.”

Calix shouldn’t laugh. It would be wrong to. Inappropriate.

He covered his mouth and pretended to need to clear his throat, turning to take in the crowd that hadn’t yet dispersed. “What are you planning on doing about them?”

“We’ll ask around for witnesses and then tell them to go home. Obviously the diner is closed for the foreseeable future.” She didn’t sound pleased about that. “Anyway, I’m sorry I pulled you away from the case. I just remember seeing you and Heathe talking at the reunion the other night and figured you’d want to know.”

“Weren’t you attacked that night?” Mitri’s brow furrowed in what appeared to be general concern.

Amory glanced away sheepishly. “I’ve been meaning to apologize for that too, actually. I lost sight of you two and didn’t think anything of it. Maybe if I had, I could have prevented you from getting jumped.”

“There was no reason for you to do that,” Calix reassured. “You and I didn’t really know each other, and I’m sure from the looks of it, Heathe and I seemed like friends.”

She stared at him a moment. “So it was him, huh? The guy who beat you up that night?”

“Yeah.” He sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her the truth of what was done to him, but there was no reason to deny that Heathe had been the perpetrator against him. “I’m not looking to press—” Cal’s breath caught in his throat when his eyes locked on a familiar pair of hazel ones.

Nero Quentin was standing off to the side of the crowd, close to the road. He must have just arrived because he seemed confused until his eyes found Calix’s.

For a tense moment, the two of them merely stared at one another, a mix of emotions tumbling through Cal one after the other, too fast for him to catch and hold onto. Amidst all the chaos, however, there was one thought that managed to stand out among the rest.

Sort of like how Nero was.

Standing.

“Good Light,” Amory followed his gaze to see what he was looking at and appeared just as caught off guard as he was. “Is he seriously walking?!”

He was.

Nero Quentin, the guy Calix had hit with his car and permanently paralyzed, was walking toward them without so much as a limp in his step. The only sign he’d ever been in a life-altering accident were the gray hairs mixed in with his brown ones, no doubt caused from severe stress and anxiety.

Two things Cal realized he was currently experiencing as well.

“When did this happen?!” Amory rushed to meet him partway, grabbing onto Nero’s arm as she took him in. “This is amazing, Que!”

Internally, Calix winced at her use of the guy’s old nickname. Those three letters had been stamped on the back of Nero’s jersey, chanted from the bleachers whenever he took the field.

But if it bothered Nero the same way it did Cal, he didn’t show it. He smiled at Amory instead and gave her a big hug, grinning from ear to ear as the two turned and strode the rest of the way together.

“Hey,” Nero greeted him first. “I didn’t know you were back.”

“I didn’t know you were walking,” it came out harsher than he’d meant for it to, and they all fell silent for an awkward second. Knowing that he had to be the one to break it, Cal forced himself to run a hand through the short hairs at the base of his skull and sent the guy an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, that was way out of line.”

“No,” he surprised him by disagreeing. “No, if anyone deserved to know about this, it’s you. It’s my fault. I should have contacted you sooner; it’s just…” He laughed uncomfortably. “I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. But since you’re here, can we maybe go somewhere for a drink? I’d really like to talk it out with you, man.”

Was this a trap?

Cal hated that his first thought was this was another setup, and yet…

“Hold up,” Mitri said, shockingly having the exact same doubts. “Didn’t you just have your boys beat the shit out of him?”

Nero frowned. “My boys?” He shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“It happened at the reunion,” Amory told him. “…Everyone said it was because of you.”

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