Three shots were fired in an apartment complex. There's no way someone hasn't already called 911.
A knock on her front door makes Brigit jump. "Oh, my god," she whimpers into my chest. "Okay, you have to go."
"Go?"
She nods desperately, pushing me towards the way I came in, pointedly not looking at the body on the ground. "You can't be here. I'll... I'll tell them everything. Tell them I k-killed him."
Her sad little lips wobble, but she presses on, "Please, Cormac. They'll never believe this isn't your fault,” her voice breaks, frantic with worry.
Even though it's the absolute worst time, my chest fills with warmth. She's more concerned about me getting caught for this than she is about herself. Despite all her arguments to the contrary, she cares so deeply about what happens to me that she'll lie and take the fall for my misdeeds.
"Breathe," I tell her, pulling her back against my chest, smoothing her hair down, gently avoiding the little knots my fingers try to catch on. "It's just Skyler."
I called him the second she texted me, hauling over here even faster than I already was when I didn’t hear back from her all day.
The door handle turns, and Brigit freezes, still petrified that it won't be him.
But he appears, shutting the door and locking it behind him, "Uhh, you know it's dangerous to leave your front door unlocked. Someone could get in."
He calmly walks toward us, taking in the scene before him with that same casual, almost playful demeanor he has for everything else.
With the toe of his black sneaker, he pushes the guy onto his back.
"Huh," he says. "Hard to tell with the hole in his face, but I think I’ve seen him downstairs at Mingle.”
"You let an undercover into your fighting ring?" I ask. "How did he get around your background check and cyberstalking?"
Skyler's unimpressed eyes rove over the guy again, "He's not a fucking cop. This isn't even real." He rips the bodycam off, and it comes immediately detached, nothing on the other end of the wire.
Brigit sniffs, "But he acted like... like he had a right to come in."
Sky shrugs, “Probably hoping your allegiance to the rule of law would overtake your sense of self preservation. Looks like he was right."
"Skyler."
He glances up at me, "What?"
I subtly shake my head, gesturing with my chin to the very traumatized woman in my arms, who doesn't need his snarky comments on top of everything else.
With a roll of his eyes, he nods. "Alright. I need both of your phones and the access codes to all the cameras in here and outside in the hall."
Brigit wipes her eyes, "There's no cameras in shared spaces."
He bites back a laugh between his teeth, thankfully not mentioning the camera onlyIhave access to out there, “Right. Well, give me everything you do have. And a laptop."
"What about..." I don't finish the sentence. The elephant in the form of a dead body in the room is obvious enough for him to know what I'm getting at.
“You feeling a little slicey, Fomori?” Sky laughs.
Now that he mentions it, unfortunately, Idowant to carve a thousand cuts into his body. The need to cause him infinitely more harm bleeds into my spine, wishing he hadn’t died so easily, so I could make him suffer.
But my responsibility is Brigit. She’s the only thing that matters. My need for vengeance will never overshadow my need to protect her.
"Get her in the shower,quickly, then get me a towel and get back here to help me. We've gotmaybeten more minutes before the real police show up."
A towel? What's he going to do with a single towel?
"Come on, Bunny," I don't wait for her to agree, pulling her with me, keeping her from looking at the bleeding husk. "Let's go get you cleaned up, okay?"
