Page 6 of Dangerous Rhythm

“I know who he was.” Curtis put the cup down on the counter and gripped the edge of the stone counter.

He’s dead?

His stomach churned.

“You okay?” Lina asked.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

four

Lina noted Curtis’ reaction with a frown. His face had turned to ash at the mention of Rocco Stiletto’s death. She watched him move to the sink and splash his face with cold water. He stood there, hunched over the sink, dripping with his fists hard on the stone surface. She could tell he was channeling some potent emotion through those fists from the tensed muscles in his arms and shoulders.

She wondered what was going through his head. Was it shock? Relief? Or anger?

Say something, Lina.

She never knew what to say when someone might need emotional support. In need of recon, protection, a bail-out strategy? She’d be your girl, but this?

What would Marcus say if she was out of sorts?

He’d probably tell Lina to snap out of it, but he’d also show her he was there for her but not in so many words.

Grabbing a dish towel that was hanging on the dishwasher handle, she went to Curtis and offered it to him. He looked atthe towel, then at her. She just waited until he took it. While he was drying himself, she looked for a glass and filled it with cool water.

“You have enough caffeine. Try this,” she urged.

Curtis drank half of the water and took a deep breath. He leaned against the island, looking a bit more settled, but his eyes were still troubled.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

“It means there’s no trial. You don’t have to testify anymore,” she answered plainly.

He released a heavy sigh. “What a waste.”

Lina tilted her head in question. “What is?”

“These deaths. They were so young, Lina,” he said. “Do you know what I was doing at their age? I was working a job I hated, but I was full of dreams. I just wanted to play music. These kids…”

Looking thoughtful, he said their names, “Sean, Rocco…they had a whole life in front of them, wasted over a girl.”

“Is that what happened?” Lina probed, feeling he needed to get it off his chest.

“Rocco was screaming about Sean touching some girl,” he said. “I’ve seen what an actual monster could do to a person, but those guys were practically kids. What the fuck happened to them that their first impulse was to impale someone?”

Lina couldn’t respond. She’d seen what humans—regular men and women—were capable of when they were desperate enough. She looked at her own hands and saw the invisible dirt and blood on them. She knew she was capable of taking a life when someone she loved was in danger.

“Sorry,” Curtis suddenly said, straightening to his full height. “You didn’t come here to hear me break down over two people killing each other. You must be thinking,What a pussy.”

He turned abruptly to walk away, but Lina quickly stopped him. “I don’t think that at all. I think it’s admirable that you can feel this much empathy toward a couple of strangers whose deaths most people would consider as good riddance.

“If more people had your outlook, perhaps kids like Rocco Stiletto and Sean Murphy wouldn’t feel they were stuck in the families they were born into and only had one path to live,” she finished.

“It doesn’t matter, though, does it? Even if Rocco was still alive, my testimony would’ve led him to a life in prison. It would’ve been justice—he had to pay for what he did—but still another life wasted.”

Curtis looked at her with such regret in his eyes. It’d been a couple of years since she’d seen him, but he’d always been the type of man who didn’t let life bring him down. This Curtis Bisset wasn’t a pussy, but he wasn’t the man she’d gotten to know, either. She didn’t know why she felt the need to chase that cloud away from his eyes, but again, she didn’t know what else to say.

“Curtis—” Lina tried to come up with something when a whiff of something unpleasant tickled her nose. She scrunched her nose and felt a prickle at her nape.

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