Even Ant looks at her funny. “It’s not?”
She turns to him, cupping his face in her hands. “Most people feel awful the first time they kill someone. Many will even throw up. Did you want to throw up when you saved Erik’s life?”
He chews on his lower lip, looking at her expectantly as he shakes his head.
“This guy you killed in the hotel room. Was it difficult to draw the blade? Did it make you sad?”
He shakes his head again. “I didn’t have enough time to do what I wanted to do.”
Delicately, with full acceptance in her features, Anja then asks a question I’m not sure I want the answer to.
“Tell me the truth, Ant. Have you killed other people?”
16
JAVIER
This is, perhaps, the most surreal moment of my life. My nephew is being gently encouraged to talk about the men he’s killed. Levy—and therefore Anders—was right. This is who he is.
I don’t know how I feel about the way Anja and Georg are handling this. Whether or not theirs is the right course of action…and I don’t know if it’s even my place to have an opinion.
I watch as Ant grimaces by way of an answer to Anja’s delicately worded question.
Erik’s eyes go the size of dinner plates, and Georg gestures at him to cut it. Erik swallows his lips and his hands curl into fists as he paces the living room. Ant’s eyes track him the entire time.
“Ant, darling, I asked you a question.”
Ant snaps his attention to Anja. “Yes. I have killed someone else.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Who did you kill?”
“Remember the jogger who was found by Lady Bird Lake with a needle in his arm?”
“No, I didn’t hear about that.”
“I did,” Erik says, struggling to contain himself. “It was an early Sunday morning, right?”
Ant nods. “He’d been befriending old folks who were lonely, convincing them to sign over their property to him. The older folks would then die soon after.”
“Because they were old?” Erik asks, sarcasm on high.
Frustrated, Levy speaks up before the Bashes can. “Erik, if you’re not gonna let him speak freely, then you can go.”
Erik steps up to him, forcing him to tilt his head back. “You do understand he’s talking freely aboutmurder, right?”
I growl my displeasure, despite having recently had a similar reaction to the idea of Ant being allowed to kill. But Levy is already on it, using a single finger to push Erik back an appropriate distance.
“We are all very clear on that, Erik,” Levy says, and I can tell he’s struggling to keep his tone light. “We are taking him seriously. By the way, we are also taking you seriously. This is disturbing information. However, given what we do and his history, none of this is surprising information. If you cannot put a lid on it, totally valid, but take that shit somewhere else.”
Seeing Levy stand up for Ant makes my heart thump so hard it rattles my ribs. I step beside him, kissing his temple, whispering a softgraciasin his ear. Erik and Charlie look between Levy and me, and Charlie covers his mouth, appearing to hold back laughter. Erik, on the other hand, is livid.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Addressing Levy, he lays into him. “I thought you were supposed to be this world-class equine therapist who has this, like, amazing ability to help us with our victims. Now you’re—what?—sleeping with theuncleof one of our victims?”
The room practically explodes, and it takes every ounce of self-control for me not to introduce my fist to his face. Levy squeezes my hand and juts his chin toward Ant, who’s taken Levy’s place in front of Erik.
