Page 53 of The Devil's Embrace

Amory’s brow furrowed. “…Everyone except for apparently you. Wait, you’re joking, right?”

“I…” What was he supposed to say? He sort of had an idea because he’d let the guy dick him down and slice him up? They’d spent time together since, sure, but it hadn’t been anything serious, nothing outside of the hospital even.

No more late-night visits that included food deliveries.

Not that Cal was upset about that.

He wasn’t.

Because it’d been one casual and fun night, and he was leaving soon.

Period.

“It’s not like that,” he ended up telling her. “We just get along, that’s all.”

“Do I look like I was born yesterday?”

“You look very pretty today, actually. Did you get a new haircut?”

“Ha ha.” She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, tell me how you do it. What’s the big secret?”

His frown returned.

“How are you getting all the Emergence men to fall head over heels for you?” She punched him on the arm—and not lightly. “I just don’t see it, no offense. I mean, I see it,” she waved a hand from his face down to his toes, “You’ve got a great body and your face is hot.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, you’ve got that cute, corruptible vibe going for you. You’re standoffish and quiet, but that only makes you seem mysterious and secretly a closet freak.”

Calix blinked at her. “Iwhat?”

“Hey, it’s not a bad thing. Who doesn’t love tying people up and having their way with them every now and again?” She cocked her head and tapped her chin. “Or, is it the other way around for you? Like to take instead of—”

“This is sexual harassment in the workforce.”

She sighed. “Don’t be like that. I’m trying to be friends here.”

“Why? Because Nero can walk again and suddenly you and the rest of the people who treated me like shit want to believe me?” It was harsh, harsher than she deserved, considering she’d been nice to him ever since that first meeting.

Another thing Titus Mercer had been right about.

“I’m sorry.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and feigned a migraine. “I get defensive when I’m embarrassed.”

“No, you’re right. Just because I feel shitty for misjudging you in the past, that doesn’t give me a pass. Not everyone is comfortable talking about sex, and I just tried to steamroll you into the conversation.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “For the record, I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of when it comes to enjoying sex.”

That wasn’t exactly what he’d been embarrassed about but…okay.

“Anyway, I’m glad Nero came to your defense. Everyone feels really awful about back then,” Amory added.

“I’d like it if we just discussed the case.” So they could take this far, far away from the topic of kinky sex before he had another slip of the tongue and he asked her what she thought about blood play and sadism.

“Of course,” she seemed disappointed, but didn’t push things further. They started walking down the hall again, weaving their way between patients and nurses as they went. This wing wasn’t as busy as some of the others, but they still needed to keep their voices down and avoid saying anything classified out loud. “I may have uncovered something, but I’m not sure how much it has to do with your case.”

“Tell me, I’ll decide.”

“Well, apparently, there have been a lot of domestic abuse cases involving patients of this hospital and their family members, dating all the way back for around eight or ten years. They’re sporadic enough that no one noticed. Hell, I wouldn’t have noticed either if I wasn’t specifically trying to find a pattern.”

“If it’s been going on that long, Rhett can’t be the only one involved.” Rhett was too young and had only been on the job for a couple of years.

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