Page 128 of A Breath of Life
I said nothing.
Costa stared at the phone.
Kitty glanced over from her spot at the computer.
For a moment, I was certain Memphis would hang up and refuse to help. We shared a stubbornness, and if it was me in his position, I might have done exactly that, but Memphis must have sensed the tension.
He knew enough of what had happened in the past few days to understand that something was wrong.
“Fine.” He spewed Joshua’s address, and Kitty wrote it down. “You owe me an explanation.”
“I love you, babes. Thank you.”
“Whatever.” Memphis hung up without saying goodbye.
***
At half past ten, the hotel room door opened with a slam, and my cousin roughly shoved a flushed, severely pissed off—and handcuffed—Joshua through the door.
The younger man stumbled and caught his balance as he hollered, “Impersonating a police officer is a criminal offense, asshole. I want a fucking lawyer. I want to know what this is about. I want—” his words fell away when he noticed Kitty and me—particularly me—standing in the middle of the room.
Instant recognition flared in his eyes. “You.”
“Hey, Josh. Good to see you again.”
Joshua whipped his head around to face Costa as my cousin slammed the door. The rumpled jeweler scanned the room, the colordraining from his face before meeting my gaze again. “What have you done? Why am I here?”
Costa wrenched Joshua around to get at the cuffs, but the man flung himself sideways, breaking free as he screamed, “Get away from me.”
“Fucking relax.” My cousin firmed his grip to keep Joshua immobile as he freed his hands.
Unbound, Joshua plastered himself against the farthest wall. The wild-eyed terror on his face glowed raw and ripe as his gaze flicked every which way. His chest heaved.
“Christ. What the fuck did you do to him?” I asked my cousin.
“He kidnapped me.”
“I didn’t have time for him to decide if he wanted to cooperate or not. I used the element of surprise instead.”
“So you kidnapped him,” I confirmed.
Costa shrugged.
“You fucking lied to me,” Joshua snapped. To me, he said, “He told me he was a cop. He said there was a break-in at the store, and my parents couldn’t be reached. He asked me to follow him to make a report. He showed me a fake badge. The instant I was outside my house and halfway to my car, he manhandled me and put me in handcuffs.”
“I am a cop, dumbass. The badge is real.” Costa tossed his credentials at Joshua’s feet. “The situation is sensitive, and I’m working under the radar right now.”
Joshua stared at the badge on the ground, maneuvering it with the toe of his shoe, angling it the right way. He didn’t bend and pick it up, and I thought he was too afraid to unglue himself from the wall. “You’re undercover?”
Costa huffed. “Sure. We’ll go with that.”
Joshua glanced from Costa to me to Kitty. His brow creased. He didn’t seem to know what to make of the seemingly sweet elderly woman at the computer and shifted his attention back to me. “What’s going on?”
Somehow, based on the haunted look in his eyes, I had a feeling he knew it had something to do with mine and Diem’s visit the other day.
“The Royal Whispering Ace. We need a location.”
Joshua’s face crumpled. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back against the wall. A whimper left his quivering lips. “I knew it. I fucking knew it. You guys came in with that card, and I knew.”
