Page 6 of Barinov

“Clock’s ticking, baby.”

“What?” I ask, trying to pick blood out from underneath his fingernails.

“Clock’s fucking ticking,” he repeats, louder this time. “It’s the last thing I said to her, Cade. What if? What if that’s the last—”

“Stop,” I warn, but his reasoning is long gone.

“I’m going to kill him,” Lex chokes out, his hands twitching under mine. “Zeke’s gonna fucking die for this.”

“Zeke?”

He nods. “It’s him. I swear to God, it’s him.”

“Lex,” I cut in quickly, trying to steady him the best I can. “You can’t possibly know that for sure. We can’t just jump to—”

“I’m not jumping,” he snaps, his eyes exploding with heat as he finally looks down at me. “I’ve been thinking about it since the damn masquerade. Luca is Zeke.”

I grip his wrist tighter, my hands slipping in the suds. “If he is…” My voice barely cooperates.

“He is,” he grits. “Luca is Zeke… or Zeke and Luca are partners. I-I-I don’t know. What I do know is he’s involved in this shit. Somehow.”

“If he is, then we will get him. Together. But when Roman…” I stop, swallowing hard as the realization hits me like a ton of bricks. “Wait, wait, Lex. Roman! Roman saw him.”

He raises a brow. “Yeah I know he saw him.”

“No, no.” I shake my head. “You don’t understand. Roman saw him. Physically saw him.”

“Your point?”

“Luca isn’t Zeke,” I continue.

He keeps staring at me like I’m speaking in tongues.

I scoff. “Babe, he can’t be.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Think about it. Roman saw his shooter face to face,” I say as the scent of lemongrass finally overpowers the coppery tinge in the air. “What did Roman keep saying over and over?”

“Luca.”

“Exactly.” I turn off the water and reach across Lex for a towel. “Roman knew Zeke’s parents. Hell, he knew Zeke as a child. If it were him, he would have said, Zeke. Not Luca.”

“Roman knows who Luca is,” Lex whispers, his shoulders dropping.

“Roman knows who Luca is,” I repeat, drying his palms.

“There’s only one problem now, Cade.”

“What?”

“Look at this,” he says, holding up his still faintly blood-stained hands. “No one loses this much blood and just walks away.”

♥♥♥

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Later that night.