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The moment Paige saw Lucien coming into view, she knew that he was in worse shape. He was breathing hard, barely managing to stay ahead of Christopher as he ran.
Paige moved to intercept him, hitting him with a tackle at knee height that slammed into him and brought him down in a heap on the ground. Lucien lashed out wildly, trying to kick Paige, but she dragged his legs to the side, clambering on top of him.
Lucien tried to buck her off, and he was strong enough to do it, but Christopher was there then, grabbing him from the other side. Lucien thrashed, trying desperately to break free, lashing out with fists and feet. Paige latched onto one of his arms as tightly as possible, dragging it around towards his back while Christopher did the same. Between the two of them, they were able to handcuff him and drag him up to his feet.
“What are you doing?” a woman’s voice demanded. She’d come out of the restaurant with the manager. She was wearing a chef’s outfit, but it was kind of disheveled as if she’d thrown it on in a hurry.
“Making an arrest, ma’am,” Paige replied.
“But Lucien hasn’t done anything!” she said. She looked a little sheepish. “Well, not exactly.” She looked kind of sheepish then.
“Wait, what exactly was happening back in the restaurant?” Paige asked. She realized then that the scream she’d heard might not have been a scream of pain.
“We were . . . we . . .” the blush on the woman’s face told its own story.
“The two of you are in a relationship?” Christopher demanded.
Paige saw the woman nod, andthathad the manager turning on her. “Him?” the manager demanded. “You’re sleeping withhim,Jess?”
“You don’t get to tell me who I sleep with, Ulf. You’re my brother, not my husband!”
“Buthim? He’s . . .”
“He’s anartist!” the chef snapped back. “A great artist. He’s had big shows and been all over the world, and—”
“He waits tables in a bar and grill!”
Paige realized that Lucien had been overstating his success as an artist in order to seduce women, using dishonesty to get what he wanted. It fit in with what Paige had seen in his file, with those elements of dishonesty and promiscuity that had been diagnosed as consistent with a personality disorder.
For the moment, Paige suspected that Lucien was probably grateful for her and Christopher pulling him back in the direction of the spot where they’d parked their car. He looked sullen about it, but he went quickly enough. Maybe he realized that this wasn’t a good moment for him to still be around the restaurant.
“You’re under arrest, Lucien.”
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Paige watched Lucien as he sat in the back of the car, looking indignant.
“You have no right to arrest me. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m anartist.”
“That’s what we want to talk to you about, Lucien,” Paige said.
“Have you arrested me? Should I have a lawyer here?”
Christopher answered that one. “We haven’t arrested youyet. If you want, we can take you down to the local police department, call you a lawyer, and do all of this formally. Of course, then we’d have to call your parole officer.”
That was a very real threat to a man like Lucien. They had the power to bring him back into the psychiatric facility he’d been held in. And if it proved that hehadbeen doing this, that would be the first thing the two of them did.
Paige didn’t entirely approve of using that threat to get Lucien talking, but she had to admit that it was effective, in its way.
“I would prefer to talk here,” Lucien said. He seemed to look out over the ocean. “Ocean swirling, thoughts unbidden, intrude upon the world within.”
Was he attempting poetry? It was hard to tell. Notgoodpoetry, in any case.
“Lucien,” Paige said. “Why did you run from us?”
“Do you know anything of art? My art is all, my art is special.”
“Lucien.” Paige tried to catch his attention. The problem with that was that his attention was so obviously wandering. “We need answers to some questions.”
