Page 78 of Holy Sinner

“Good morning, Mr. Stone. We’re sorry to hear about the recent events surrounding your stay at Elysium Sol but we will get to the bottom of this.” We shake hands and her eyes go over my shoulder and into the cabin. The curtains are all pulled and we’ve got as many lights on as we can to try and give it less of a depressive feel as possible.

“It’s cozy, stop worrying,” Kit had said that morning over our coffee but it didn’t change the fact that I hated having to shut my girl up because of some fucker running rampant.

I step back from the door and open it wider. “Please come on in.”

“Thank you.” Detective Torrence leads the way in and points with a pen at the living room. “Cozy,” she says in an echo of Kit’s words, but Detective Torrence’s wasn’t reassuring me. She’s pointing out the closed curtain situation without so many words. It’s a beautiful day out, sun bright and the birds singing. We should have the windows open—any normal person would, but we aren’t normal. Not by a long shot.

“Cozy is the added benefit of keeping stalkers from getting a clear shot at Kit,” I tell her as I shut the door behind the detectives. “We’ve been doing what we can to give them as little access as possible to her.”

“Odd that they’re interested in her and not you, isn’t it?” she asks and I keep my smile benign. She’s pulling on a thread, one that I can already tell has her zeroing in on Kit. My girl is a saint but that doesn’t mean I want her being looked at by the fucking cops.

“There’s nothing much interesting about me. She’s the talented one.”

Detective Torrence taps her pen on the notepad she’s just pulled out and nods. “Yeah, she even went to Harvard. That’s quite impressive.”

“It is. Harvard was lucky to have her. We’re proud of her,” I say and it’s true. Rafe and I know our girl is brilliant.

“Not a lot of family, though,” Detective Lawrence adds.

“We’re all the family she needs,” Rafe declares as he strides into the room and looks at both of the detectives with a frosty smile. “I didn’t quite catch your names.”

“Detective Torrence and Detective Lawrence,” I tell him and nod to the pair. “They’re here to do some questioning.”

“We never said we were here for that,” Detective Torrence corrects and I nod.

“My mistake.” I tell them and make for the kitchen. “I’m going to get a cup of coffee. Would either of you like some?”

“No thank you,” Detective Torrence says, cutting off her partner who had started to speak. I file that away. Torrence wears the badge when it comes to the pair of them.

“If you’re not here for questioning and you’re not here for coffee then what are you here for?” Rafe asks. I smirk as I leave the room but the second I enter the kitchen, I stop short. Kit is there. She already has a cup of coffee in hand and is staring past me to the living room with wide eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing, I-I just thought I would feel different once the cops were here,” she tells me. Kit takes a quick sip from her coffee mug and leans back against the counter. “I should go meet them.”

I fill up my cup of coffee and get one ready for Rafe. “You don’t have to do a thing you don’t want to do. Nobody likes cops.”

‘They said they’re detectives.”

“Same thing. They suck ass, so don’t worry about not feeling happy to see them. You can stay here if you want. They can’t say anything about it.”

“But what if they ask to talk to me?” Kit asks. There’s worry on her perfect face. Her brow is pinched and her hands are shaking. I hate that she looks so concerned. I reach out and smooth my finger across her brow, my touch chasing away the worry. When she looks at me, I see the trust in her eyes.

She’s looking to me for answers. She needs me to tell her what to do next.

“They can’t force you to talk to them without a warrant. They just said some bullshit about not being here for questioning. If you don’t want to talk to them, you don’t have to. Rafe and I can handle them.”

Kit nods, but she doesn’t look away from me. “I’ll talk to them.”

“Y’sure?”

“Yes. I can do it. I’m ready to talk to them.” She moves past me and she looks like she’s going to war. There’s a hard edge to her eyes that I haven’t seen before but I catch her by her shoulder and turn her to look at me.

“If you want the conversation to end, it ends. Remember, that’s all it is.”

“A conversation. I like that.” She gives me a small smile. “I can do that.”

“You can.”

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