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Then there was the lighthouse. Thiago. The stranger. Me.
Thiago going over the edge.
I rub my eyes shut to clear the image. My head hurts. “Thiago?” I ask, looking up at him.
Now Santos is the one who looks confused. “What about him?”
Someone knocks on the door, then opens it. It’s Caius. He peers inside, glances at me, then at his brother. “Want me to come back?”
“No, come on in,” Santos says, slipping a hand into his pocket, his expression unchanging, not relaxing, as he watches his brother enter.
A hand spanned across a chest. A grunt. A scream.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as Caius traps me with his gaze.
“What about Thiago?” Santos repeats the question.
Caius tucks his hands into his pockets and watches me, his head tilting slightly to one side.
“He went over the edge. He…”
Santos steps toward me, that look of worry intensifying, deepening the line between his eyebrows. “Thiago wasn’t there.”
I shake my head, which is a mistake. The room blurs, and I squeeze my eyes shut when it threatens to spin.
“Based on the size of the bump on the back of her head, I’d say she hit it pretty hard. Not sure how reliable her memory is,” Caius offers.
“No,” I say. “I remember. I know what happened.”
“You’re saying Thiago was at the lighthouse?” Santos asks.
I nod.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Brother—”
“Tell me the whole story. From the beginning.”
“After…” I point to where I’d inadvertently stabbed him. “I went to the lighthouse. Thiago was already there. Out on the catwalk.”
Santos glances at his brother, who shrugs.
“I didn’t realize it at first, and when I saw him, I was already outside. I got scared and wanted to get away from him, but the railing broke and I…” I trail off because my stomach lurches with the memory of slipping over the edge. “He caught me and pulled me back up. But then… Then there was someone else.” I look down and push my hands into my hair and for a brief moment, I have a vision of the hands on Thiago’s chest. Of his body going over. I look up at Santos. “The other man pushed him.”
Santos’s jaw tightens. It’s an infinitesimal muscle that works, but I see it.
“What would Thiago Avery be doing out at the lighthouse? What business would he have there? Particularly last night of all nights?” Caius asks.
“I swear. I remember right,” I plead with Santos. “You have to go look for him. If he survived, he’ll be injured.”
“No one could survive that fall. If there was a fall,” Caius says.
I look at him, then at Santos, who is still watching me. “Water was high. If he was there, if he went over, his body would have washed out to sea anyway,” Santos says to his brother.
“You want me to go check it out?” Caius asks.
