Mostly because he hadn’t been down to the docks in that much time. Between figuring out his job situation, how to handle the attention of a Devil of Vitality, and managing his own feelings, Nate simply hadn’t had the time. He’d removed his name from the roster and asked for some time off, much to Madden’s chagrin. It left the other racer scrambling for replacements but that was unavoidable.
Nate enjoyed racing, but it was a pastime that had given him something to do and a means to get out of his head. He tried his best to win, yes, but aside from that, there was no pleasing anyone else involved when he rode a hoverbike. It’d been the one thing he’d done for himself.
Then Kaz had come along, and suddenly, there’d been another option. Something else to occupy his time and help him focus on a singular thing instead of getting caught up in all of the possible ways he could screw up and disappoint those around him.
Maybe he’d never fully get over being a people pleaser, but at least with Kaz, Nate had been able to be more himself. He’d been able to recognize that he didn’t always have to cater to others' whims.
Including the Devil’s.
He’d come to the realization that the emotions he felt toward Kaz were very real. Nate wanted to make things work between them, but in order for that to happen, they had to be on the same page, and if the other night was any indicator…They weren’t. At the time, breaking up had seemed like the best solution, but his talk with Silver and his brother had given him a fresh perspective.
What Kaz had tried to do to him was wrong, but Nate wasn’t entirely blameless. He’d gone along with everything else all this time, had he not? He’d allowed the coercion knowing full well what it was. Had given in and rolled with the punches fairly easily, not because Kazimir had actually worn him down, but because he’d been sick of struggling in general.
Sick of fighting against himself and his own hopelessness. At least having Kaz gave him someone else to place the blame on, someone else to turn to when the voices got too much. In the beginning, he’d figured it’d be perfect since he hadn’t cared about displeasing Kazimir the same way he did everyone else. So what if he pissed him off or disappointed him? He’d owed the Hotshot nothing.
It was blurry, the moment those lines had crossed and merged. He couldn’t pinpoint when exactly it’d happened, but somewhere along the way, he’d started caring after all. When it came to his siblings, everything he said and did was carefully thought out beforehand, but with Kaz, it was different. He cared about causing him trouble, but not with the same urgency.
With Kaz, the world didn’t feel like it would end if Nate made a mistake. Maybe that was why he hadn’t noticed the change until it was too late.
And now might really be, because if he didn’t find a way out of this, it was looking likely he’d die here.
“Racing? What’s that got to do with anything?” the man asked then, cutting through Nate’s thoughts. He’d been carefully reloading his blaster, most likely hoping to intimidate Nate with the action, completely unaware that he’d spaced out for the whole thing. “Forget it. Doesn’t matter. I’m going to ask you some questions, and if you’re honest with me, we both get to leave here on our own two feet. If you’re not…” He turned and aimed the gun at the spot between Nate’s brow.
“If you’re intent on starting, just get it over with already, Martyr,” the larger man called from the doorway, leaning against it so that he could easily turn his head to view the room and down the hall.
“Someone was at your place last month,” the man with the gun, Martyr, said to Nate. “Big guy. You couldn’t have missed him. Well, if he’d come to the door, in any case.”
That clarified they were definitely looking for the person Kaz had killed. Nate tried his best not to let that show, frowning as he pretended to think it over.
“I had a couple of my friends visit,” he tentatively began, “but there were never any strangers.”
“He’s lying,” the one by the door chimed in dully. When Nate gave him a questioning look, he tapped the side of his skull and grinned. “Ever heard of a Mendax?”
“Basically, they’re walking lie detectors,” Martyr helpfully stated. “Lucky you, Hernan is one of them.”
“Yes,” Nate drawled, “I’m feeling very fortunate to have met you both.”
His eyes narrowed. “You aren’t as innocent as you appear, are you, kid?”
“Okay, I did see him, your friend. I think, anyway.” If they could tell when he was lying, he was going to need a new strategy. Nate had never heard of the Mendax before, but it wouldn’t surprise him that species like that existed in the universe. “But it was only briefly.”
Martyr glanced over his shoulder toward Hernan, who gave a single curt nod of his head. “That’s more like it. You talk, and we’ll get through this just fine. Neither of us wants to deal with a body on a foreign planet, isn’t that right, Hernan?”
“Why would you ask me that?” he replied, and Martyr snapped his fingers.
“Oh, that’s right. The drawback with being a Mendax is they’re also unable to tell any lies of their own.” He shrugged like he hadn’t just subtly threatened Nate. “So, you saw him? Did the two of you speak?”
How exactly did this lie detection work? Technically, they’d sort of had a conversation—
The blaster went off next to Nate’s left ear and he jolted in his chair. The ringing lasted for a long time, rivaling the sound of his speeding heart. Reality crashed in on him hard, and he felt the fear within him grow.
“Don’t think,” Martyr growled, pressing the tip of the blaster against Nate’s thigh. “Just answer.”
“Yes,” Nate said. “We spoke, sort of. It was only a couple of sentences, though.”
“What’d he ask you?”
“Something about a target.” Nate licked his lips and shook his head slightly, mind scrambling to sort through the panic.
