Page 5 of The Devil's Mercy

“We’ll start from the beginning, so listen carefully, all right?” Titus said in a tone that left no room for argument. “You were drugged and out of it, your heart was racing, there was a sense of fear and danger spiking your adrenaline levels, and you were getting physical stimulation to your sexual organs.”

Cal grimaced.

“You became aroused because of all of those factors. Your body mistook the heightened sensations you were feeling and turned them into something it understood. Attraction.”

“Some people just like pain in the bedroom. You don’t—” Calix clamped his mouth shut, realizing his mistake. He had feltguilty and gross all this while because of how he’d reacted that night, but not for the reasons Titus seemed to believe.

Should he set him straight? That seemed risky with no real payoff…

But…

“I didn’t report it to the police, who I’ve been working with these past few months, because I didn’t care enough to bother,” Cal told him.

“You thought you deserved to have bad things happen to you because of Nero.”

Bad things like the events at the reunion had always happened to him. Nero had nothing to do with it.

Cal grunted. “The only thing I considered bad about that night was the fact it’d been Heathe who’d gotten the better of me.”

He was definitely being too honest, but the admission poured off his lips almost haughtily.

Titus seemed to think so too, because he chuckled, the sound rich and dark, instantly sending a shiver down Calix’s spine that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. “Are you trying to one-up me by proving how much I don’t understand you, little monster? I’m almost tempted to allow you to believe it’s working, but that would defeat the purpose of why we’re here.”

“Right, that whole having me bullshit,” Cal refused to backdown. “The way I see it, you two are just psychos who happened to catch me while I was vulnerable. Aodhan planned on doing more that night? So, what? He was going to kill me? Can’t really blame him since, as you put things earlier, it would have been a great cover. Heathe was spotted leading me upstairs. Aodhan happened to pass by and take advantage—”

Titus made a sound of frustration that instantly had Cal quieting. “You’re smarter than this. You can’t honestly still believe Heathe was the mastermind behind that night, can you?That moron was just doing as he was told. Aodhan paid him to bring you there.”

“Okay. But why? What’d I ever do to him?”

“I may have,” he took another step closer, but Cal was too engrossed in his words to notice, “accidentallyleft an old newspaper clipping of the trial out on my desk for him to find.”

If the way he’d saidaccidentallyhadn’t given him away, the fact he was talking about printed newspaper articles would have. Even eight years ago, finding a printed newspaper was nearly impossible. People still enjoyed physical magazines and books, but news was consumed through delivery directly to everyone’s devices.

Forget about why the doctor had targeted him.

“Why would you do that?” Calix didn’t get it. He tried, but no matter how many times he spun it around in his brain, he couldn’t fathom why, after eight years, a man like Titus Mercer would go through that sort of trouble.

“So the two of you would meet, of course.”

He shook his head. “We were going to meet anyway. Aodhan was the hospital's contact for the case.You’rethe one who assigned him.”

“That would have been different. He would have viewed you as a work assignment and nothing more. I needed him to be interested in you, Calix.”

He blinked at him. “And if he hadn’t grown interested and really had killed me that night?”

Titus’s expression never altered. “Then you wouldn’t have been the one.”

“Wow.”

“It’s all right. I knew you were. I’ve known you were a good match since that day eight years ago when I saw what you’d done to your classmate.”

“It was anaccident.”

“Was it?”

“You testified as much!” Cal tugged on his bindings, stilling when Titus rested a hand on his right shoulder. The touch was gentle, yet he felt as though the weight of the entire universe was suddenly pinning him down to the chair, keeping him immobile while the terrifying man in front of him bent to make them eye level.

“Want to know a not-so-secret secret?” Titus asked in a quiet voice. He smiled. “I lied on the stand. I’m rather good at it. You and I have that in common.”

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