Chapter Twelve
Aurelian
FOG. HE was trying to move his head through fog that clung to his eyes, to his face. Aurelian struggled to put the pieces together. He had been…in his office? Sitting at his desk, sure, typing away at his computer when…
He tried to remember what he had been typing, tried to picture it in his head, but everything was fuzzy and out of focus. He had held a phone in his hand, was trying to text…
Kait!
His surroundings sharpened as the adrenaline hit. He had been trying to warn Kait their enemies had discovered their investigation, that a retaliation was coming…where am I?
He was sitting in a chair, but he couldn’t move his hands or feet.I’m tied to a chair?
“The drugs should be wearing off, Mr. Reynard.” A woman’s voice. “Perhaps you would like some water?”
The clouds lifted from his mind as he narrowed his eyes to focus on the person in front of him. Slim, wearing a pencil skirt, white blouse, black jacket. Silvery-grey hair came down to frame an elegant if severe face. Eyes diamond hard, with no sympathy whatsoever.
Rachel Gentry.
She smiled. “Ah, I see you recognize me! Good. Now, how about that water? It will help, you know.”
“Sure.” Aurelian spoke with a little bit of difficulty, like he had sand packed in his mouth.
There was the click of heels as Gentry walked toward him.
She placed her hand on his forehead and tipped his head back. “Open,” she said pleasantly. He did so and was rewarded with the delightful coolness of the fresh water in his parched mouth. She rubbed the back of his head affectionately and returned to her seat, facing him.
“We’ve been a bit of a naughty boy, haven’t we, Mr. Reynard?” She smiled. “Or may I call you Aurelian?”
“Whatever…you want.” As more of his senses returned, all Aurelian could think was,Please, let Kait be safe. Don’t let them get her.
“Well, Aurelian, you’ve been digging around in affairs that do not concern you. Would that be fair to say?” she inquired gently.
“What do you want to know…Rachel?”
She frowned slightly. “I prefer Miss Gentry, thank you. Aurelian, you’ve been looking into a murder that has already been solved.”
“Solved?”
Rachel Gentry looked at him brightly. “Why,youdid it, my dear!”
His brain must still not be working properly. “I was…found innocent.”
“In the first investigation, of course! But when thesecondinvestigation occurs, with all thenewevidence… Poor dear, that’s why the police will find you in the back of a bar, dead of an overdose.”
“Hmph…I’m dead already, then,” he managed.
“Yes you are, dear boy. The only thing keeping you alive right now is I want to know exactly whatyouknow.”
“Pfft…no reason to tell you shit.”
“Oh, but there is!” Gentry’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Tell me what you know, and we’ll ship Kait Pyne off planet instead of killing her.”
Everything momentarily sharpened into focus as he thought of Kait. He tried to run through the possibilities, to assess what he should do next, but he just couldn’t seem to maintain his focus. With a huge effort, he did his best to line things up in his head.
They made Colin Turner’s death look like a mugging gone wrong. They’re going to make me look like a suicide/overdose. They can’t just kill Kait. It’s too many bodies. They can bury me, they can bury Colin, but they can’t just explain away an investigative journalist.
They might torture me.He wasn’t sure if he could hold himself together under torture.
