Kit rolled his eyes. “No kinda sorta about it. This guy’s really just a friend.”
A friend who kidnapped Kit, held him captive for four days, and refused to sleep with him. That sort of friend.
Holden’s body was warm against the evening chill. He was so large, taking up all the space next to Kit. His slouching, lanky figure made it easy to forget how big he was until he was right next to Kit.
“Is it the guy talking to Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez?” Holden pointed. “If he doesn’t know you, then it’s pretty fucking weird that he keeps looking at you.”
Across the quad, Bishop was indeed deep in conversation with Marco’s parents, but he wasn’t looking at Kit at all.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“He looks a little old for you. Be careful about guys like that,” Holden said, though he had no idea how true that was. Bishop’s age was the least of the problems.
“He’s just a friend,” Kit repeated. For some reason, Holden looked skeptical, so Kit elaborated. “I’m actually working for him.”
“That doesn’t make it better,” Holden said, strangely serious. Which was bizarre. Holden hadn’t even seemed too bothered when Kit said he had a boyfriend. Now he was warning Kit away from Bishop based on… how old Bishop was? How much he looked at Kit, which Kit didn’t really believe anyway? Before Kit could respond to the absurdity, Holden snapped his fingers. “Wait. Soraya mentioned him. He’s the investigator Timothy’s parents hired, isn’t he?”
Damn it.
Holden shifted to face Kit, taking away the warm weight of his arm. “If you’re working for him, what does that make you? An assistant investigator or something?”
Kit slumped forward, elbows on his knees. So much for being undercover. “Yeah. Bishop’s been having trouble getting students to talk to him.”
“So, he brought you in to catch us off guard. I have to say, this Bishop is brilliant. Worked like a charm.” Holden chuckled. “Have you been interrogating me this whole time, Detective Kit?”
God fucking damn it. Kit knew he needed a better story. Scowling, Kit fiddled with one of his jacket buckles. “Sure, and failing spectacularly.”
“Fuck, sorry.” Holden touched Kit’s shoulder lightly, then more confidently when Kit didn’t pull away. “I wasn’t trying to make fun of you. I was trying to flirt again, because you make me want to be incredibly inappropriate.”
“Stop trying to make me feel better,” Kit muttered.
“Why? Are you afraid it’ll work?” Holden tugged Kit back under his arm again, pressed tightly against his side. The sudden warmth was very distracting. “Tell me why you’re here. Maybe I can help.”
The undercover thing was just so students felt comfortable talking to Kit. Holden clearly felt very comfortable, even as his easy touch scattered Kit’s thoughts. Kit found himself answering far more honestly than he intended. “Bishop wants names of people who knew the victims. People outside the basic list of roommates and teammates, who might not want to talk to the cops.”
“Someone who knows something?”
“Or they know someone who knows someone else.”
“Hm.” Holden traced aimless patterns on Kit’s arm. “You could start with Joyce Takahashi.”
Kit looked up to find Holden contemplative. “Joyce?”
“That girl you were talking to earlier.” Holden pointed at the girl from Marco’s Astronomy class. “Marco hooked up with her last semester.”
Kit straightened up. He was interested enough to look past the casual admission that Holden had been watching him earlier. “Was he already dating Soraya?”
“He and Soraya started dating freshman year.” Holden grimaced. “So, yeah. He cheated on her.”
“Does Soraya know about it?”
Holden sighed and looked down, loose strands of hair obscuring his face. “I only found out because I walked in on them making out in a fucking stairwell. I was going to tell Soraya, because she deserved to know, but then Marco… then they found him.”
Mutilated in his dorm room. Bound and gagged, the tips of his fingers missing.
Sympathy surged within Kit. So many little threads of connection cut off with a single death. “That’s tough.”
“I don’t know. Is it worse to tell her, or keep it a secret?” Holden kept his head down. “This is probably shit of me to say, but Marco wasn’t good to Soraya. I know he’s dead and all, and I hate that she’s hurt. But Marco wasn’t a good person.”
