Page 51 of The Devil's Embrace

“I apologize.” Wait, what? Why’d he just say that? Shit. Now he couldn’t continue to deny it. “Let’s use one of the conference rooms.”

Calix frowned at himself as he led the director to an empty room in another part of the station. The walk over gave him time to collect himself, though he wasn’t entirely sure why he’d reacted so strongly to Titus’s tone. It had to be because of the first time he’d seen the older man when he’d been a teen. A lot had gone on back then, but obviously Cal hadn’t forgotten his instant attraction to the director like he’d thought.

In the past, once he’d managed to clear his name and make it off the planet, a large part of his fantasies had featured Titus Mercer.

And they’d been black from the start.

Fantasies of him using that same clipped voice he’d used in the courtroom to order Cal to do all sorts of deplorable and depraved things. Really, he either owed a lot to the older man, or he needed to find a way to get back at him, because it was Titus’s fault that Calix had realized what he was into in the bedroom.

He’d been a sexual awakening for him of sorts, one that had haunted him all throughout his training at the Academy and his time working as a detective. Cal may not have thought specifically about Titus in years, but that didn’t change the fact that he was at the heart of his problems.

All of them.

“I’d like to request you not bring up the past like that again,” Calix stated as soon as the door shut behind them. Titus had already moved to take a seat at the long table, and he did the same, choosing the corner while the other man had taken the head.

He chose not to point out how their spots should probably be reversed, given their roles here. As the detective in charge,Cal was in charge of leading this discussion, not the other way around.

“I wasn’t sure you remembered me when we ran into each other at the hospital,” Titus said smoothly, crossing his legs and resting his folded hands in his lap. “I see my fears were for nought.”

“That was a different time,” he told him. “I was a different person back then.”

“Were you?”

“Yes.” Pointedly, he opened a new page in the notebook app on his multi-slate. “You mentioned there was something you needed to tell me? What is it?”

“Very well, we’ll do things your way, Detective.” Titus licked his lips and got down to business. “I recalled something recently that may be of interest. There’ve been…problems with one of the orderlies in the past.”

“What kind of problems?”

“Behavioral. Rhett Elliot has been reprimanded more than a few times for the way he speaks to patients' families. He tends to find fault in the way they’re treating their sick loved one. On more than one occasion, he’s even taken it as far as to file reports against them for endangerment and abuse. Since I’ve never worked with him personally, it completely slipped my mind, but I went over the names of the victims and at least two of them are people I recall Rhett having a problem with.”

Cal entered his name, typing as the director spoke.

“Here’s a signed recount of events from the doctor who’s been working closely with Rhett for the past year.” Titus brought his multi-slate close to Cal’s and synced them long enough to send over the document. “I had him write down everything he remembered about those two incidents with the family members.”

He scrolled through, wondering why they hadn’t been told any of this before. Cal supposed it was probably minor enough that people had forgotten all about it. The issues Rhett had supposedly taken problem with were serious, though, like accusing the daughter of a man for never getting off her device, leaving her mute father lying in his own filth for hours, even though she was seated right next to him.

The daughter wasn’t one of the victims who’d lost their head, but her boyfriend was.

“This could be something,” Calix said. “I’ll look into it.”

“I’m glad to be of service.”

Cal finished writing his notes and then paused, glancing up to find Titus watching him closely. “Is there something else, Director?”

“I was curious if you still have that scar,” Titus asked, and for a split second, Cal’s mind went straight to the A carved into his ass before he clarified, “The one behind your right ear? How did you say you got it again?”

Absently, he reached up to the spot in question. “One of the other kids at the orphanage.”

“Right,” he hummed. “He hit you with…?”

“A rock.” Calix bristled. “Is there something you’re getting at?”

“Still as paranoid as ever, Detective. You were like that when you were eighteen as well. And here I thought you’d claimed you were no longer the same person.”

A tingle of dread coursed through him and Cal struggled to maintain his composure. “You’re playing with me,” he blurted, the accusation springing forth even though he knew better than to allow it to. “Just like you did back then.”

Titus smiled at him, but it lacked any sort of kindness or warmth. “I had a feeling you felt that way.”

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