Page 21 of Merciful Lies

He ignores me. His phone rings as he answers it.

“Bring him down.”

“Nico?” I interrupt, not understanding what is happening.

He hasn’t even given me a chance to explain.

“I only want to hear two words from you. I and do,” he growls, and I gasp.

“What? You’re crazy.” I shake my head.

“You have no fucking idea. But I guarantee you no kid of mine is coming into this world a bastard.”

What the heck is going on? Is he serious?

“Nico, that’s not why I’m here. You can’t just?—”

“You telling me that baby isn’t mine?” he asks, and he is so mad.

I tremble. But I’m not afraid. In fact, I think I’m turned on. Inside his office, I can hardly hear the music from the bar.

But I feel something in the air between us. An electrical charge. An energy. A vibrance I have never felt with anyone else.

I’m just as sick as him.

“No,” I say honestly, because I can’t lie to him.

I just can’t.

“I’m not saying that, but I’m here cause, well, Sammy’s dead.”

“What? How?”

“Someone dumped him outside my apartment earlier tonight. He was beaten, stabbed, and h-he didn’t make it,” I say, grief hitting me all over again.

“Fuck.”

I feel Nico’s hands on my shoulders as he guides me to a chair.

“When did you get back to town?”

“This afternoon. How did you know I was gone?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Do you know the name of the cop working the case? Or what hospital he was taken to? Never mind. I’ll find out.”

“I-I, I mean, they threw this through my window.”

I take the rock out of my pocket and hand it to him. I don’t know why I didn’t give it to the cops, but here I am now, so my reasons don’t matter.

Nico takes it from me. At first, it looks like an ordinary rock. About four inches long and half as wide. Nothing special.

But then he turns it over and sees it. Drawn right on top is the unmistakable image of a snake with a knife stabbing it through the head.

A dangerous energy sizzles in the air. It’s raw and unbridled, purely masculine in its tone and demeanor.

It takes me a moment to realize it’s him. That feeling of heaviness is simply Nico.

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