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My brows furrowed as I tried to understand what he was saying. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that someone a little above my pay grade has sent us a helping hand. I know you’ve seen him around if you haven’t already met him.” Chief Matthews let out a deep sigh before waving his hand toward his door. It opened, and a man I would have never pegged as an investigator entered the room.
He rivaled my size, and I fucking hated the fact that he had situated himself in my city.
“Merchant, meet Tyrone. He’s going to be helping with these cases as we move forward. If you have any information, please hand it over and collaborate with him on anything you find. I’ve set him up beside you.” Chief Matthews sounded drained in that moment, as if this was the end of the line for him. I could see that he cared for Killian in some part, just enough to accept this kind of overhaul of his job. “His father owns a little café at the edge of town. Tyrone here makes a mean meat pie.”
I stuck my hand out and clasped his, showing as much professionalism as I could muster before leaving the room before I blew a gasket.
Tyrone becoming my partner wasn’t just a problem because I knew him but because of his connections to my family.
Killian and Aeron had dates there when they had been in college.
Tyrone had fucked Slash.
And now he was going to partner with me on this case to find the culprit for not only Jenny but also for the Three Terrors.
He knew all of us.
This was officially too close to home.
AERON
I was ready to return to civilization, but first, I needed to see Killian. I needed to know that he was okay and didn’t hate me. As I walked into the hospital, I realized nothing about me anymore boasted one of the top ten bachelors.
I hadn’t shaved in three days, my eyes were tired from lack of sleep, and the usual confidence radiating from my form was absent. The nurse led me to a table resembling the kind at inmate visits, minus the glass insert in the middle.
Someone led Killian to the other side of the table. He was dressed in gray garb, the same as the other patients, but there was almost a skip in his step. He plopped into his seat and thanked the nurse before turning his attention to me. His eyes glittered with amusement as he tilted his head, a sly smile spreading across his lips.
“Fuck, you look good. I’ve fucking missed you.” I reached across the table to grab his hand, but he avoided my touch, pulling back at the last moment. His eyes darted around the room, a constant fight in his eyes, staring at things like they were mere prey. I had seen that look a few times before sex, but never with Killian. I had no idea who I was talking to, and it terrified me.
“You look like shit. Why are you here?” he asked, his gaze dropping to the scars on his arm as if he were showcasing them. They seemed to be a point of pride for him, which was odd.
“I wanted to see if you were okay. I didn’t want to have you admitted… but Killian, it was bad. You ate something in my fridge. Raw. Sweetheart—”
His nose scrunched up and he shook his head. “I don’t think I like that nickname. You promised. Promised to not be like my father. And yet, I’m here.”
“Kitten—”
“Nah, I’m not really your Kitten anymore, either. You made sure of that when you put me in here. What did you think was going to happen? That I would just give in? Aeron, baby, when have I ever just given in?” He blinked, and that’s when I noticed what was off.
The kid in front of me wasn’t the one that I had fallen in love with. I didn’t know the kid in front of me. And his eyes weren’t full of that innocence that had first caught me. In fact, his eyes were the same color – that honey-gold that reminded me strangely of someone else who had tortured Killian. Twice.
I opened my mouth to ask, but Killian threw his head back and laughed. “You want to know who I am? Well, when I get out of here, you’ll see. They can’t keep me here. The beauty of a 72-hour hold.”
I stared and stared some more because that’s all I could fucking do. Confusion didn’t even begin to cut it. Killian leaned forward, threading his fingers through mine, but now I wanted to pull away. There was no love or passion in his touch. It was calculated, and that terrified me.
“You can’t just walk out, Killian. That’s not how it works.”
He bowed his head a little, his voice barely above a whisper. To anyone else, it looked like we were long-lost lovers. This was anything but that. “You don’t think I can keep it in my pants long enough to fool these fucktards? I think I’m doing fan-fucking-tastic. They’re all confused why y’all walked me in here in the first place.”
That didn’t make sense. They hadn’t even put him on pills, and he was this coherent? Three days was enough time for one of his other personalities to pop in, but they hadn’t found an issue? Not to mention his eyes. “Why are you wearing contacts, Killian?”
The kid froze, pulling his hands back as he smiled. The smile spread across his lips, mirroring something out of a horror movie, something that scratched at the edge of my soul, demanding my darkness take a step back.
That was the kind of evil that rivaled Slash’s.
“You’re not Killian. Or Dark. Or Daemon.” A fourth personality? I had known for a while that a different type of darkness loomed beneath the surface, but this was not the addition I had been hoping for.
