Page 83 of Ruin

“Okay…” I say, still feeling a tad confused by his ramblings.

Rich exhales a relieved sound. And my bat signal ramps up to speedy flashes.

“Great. Well, I’m glad we had this little chat. I’ll see you around, Cam.”

He makes to move past me, and I stop him with my hand on his arm.

“Rich, before you go…why did you ask me if I’d spoken to Zeus?”

“Did I?”

“Yes.”

He doesn’t say anything, but I can see his brain working behind his eyes. He’s weighing up the situation, figuring out what to do next, like any good cop would.

But I was raised by a badass cop who never stops digging until she gets the answer she was looking for.

“Rich…” I press, using my mom voice, the one I use on Gigi to get her to fess up when I know she’s done something wrong.

He lifts a hand to his head and runs his fingers through his hair, scratching at his head. “Look, I wasn’t going to say anything because I didn’t want to be that guy.”

“Honestly, I’ll settle for you being the guy who tells me what the heck is going on.”

He pauses for the longest time, and I’m getting close to tapping my foot with impatience when he says, “I had a visitor last night.”

“And?”

“It was Zeus.”

Oh.

Fuck.

“What did he say? And how the hell does he know where you live?”

“That was the first question I asked him. Not that I got an answer,” he huffs, sounding aggrieved.

Classic Zeus. Doesn’t like the question, doesn’t give an answer.

“What did he do?”

“Nothing.”

My eyes scan his face, looking for any signs of injury. I can’t see a mark on him, but that doesn’t mean Zeus didn’t do anything.

“He didn’t hit you, did he?”

“No.” Rich laughs loudly, but it sounds too pitchy to be real. “If the guy had hit me, he would’ve spent the night in a cell here and would’ve been on his way to a court hearing first thing this morning.”

Well, actually, you’d probably still be unconscious right now if he had hit you.

But, of course, I don’t say that.

Even still, I am relieved. The last thing I want is Zeus getting arrested for hitting a police officer. And, of course, I don’t want Rich getting hit by a guy who could bench-press him using just one arm.

“Did he…threaten you?” I ask, half-closing my eyes as I wait for the answer.

“No…the guy’s not stupid. He’s not going to threaten a police officer.”