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He didn’t show his discomfort, though.
Not to mention the lights were so bright and harsh that there wasn’t a single shadow to be had in
the entire room.
Meaning his scars were on full display for all to see.
I felt my belly clench when I looked down at his hands that were under the table to find them
fisted so hard that his skin was turning a pale, sickly white.
I pressed my knee against him, and he softened.
Infinitesimally.
“What’s this about?” Riel finally said, sounding mad and annoyed.
That was when the door opened across the room, and another man filed in.
“Sorry I’m late,” the man said. “I’m slower than I usually am.”
Nobody said anything until he finally took his seat across from us, next to Tim.
Commander Mooney was still standing beside the table looking pissed.
“Have a seat, Hayes,” Tim said, pushing a chair out.
Hayes’ head turned to survey the man sitting beside me once he’d taken his seat.
“Shit,” he said once he got his first good look at Riel. “I was there five months longer than you,
and you can’t even tell.”
Riel didn’t know what to say to that, so he stayed silent.
“Time to explain, Tim,” Mooney ordered, voice full of authority and something else that I couldn’t
quite decipher.
“You’re not Malachi,” Hayes said softly. “You’re Luca.”
Those five words dropped like a bomb.
The room exploded.
“What?”
My shout of surprise was the loudest.
I’d wondered why the commander had allowed me to stay.
At first, I could see his absolute abhorrence at me being there in the first place. But then Tim had introduced me, and something had changed.
That unreadable emotion that had passed over his face had been pity.
And now I knew.
Hayes’ eyes went all around the room, his face closed off as he remembered something, then
