Laughing under my breath, I curled up next to him and smoothed his messy hair out of his eyes back into something resembling his typically neat style.
“I’m not an idiot. That wasn’t the number you used to contact Logan and the others. Plus, I’m pretty sure you never had any intention of actually calling the number. So, what’s so important about it that you’d spend your time brooding in the dark staring at it right after we’ve had just a pleasant night.”
Maybe it was our intimate position, or maybe it was the reminder of what we’d just shared, but when Kitt looked over at me his expression softened, and I watched as his arguments died on his lips.
“I... I’ve told you about the previous case I worked that involved the bell ringers, right?”
Of all the things he could have said, that wasn’t what I expected. It probably would have been less shocking if he’d just slapped me across the face, and I actually had to shake my head for a moment to get my thoughts back in order.
“Your previous case? Oh, right. You mean the kidnapping one where you advised your client to drop the case.”
Kitt wrapped an arm around me, letting me settle in against his side like it was the most natural thing in the world as he ran his fingers through my sweat-stiffened hair.
“Yeah, that one. There was an attempted kidnapping on my client’s kid, but all the evidence pointed toward her recent ex-husband who was unhappy about the custody arrangement. I advised my client to drop the case so that things could besettled in mediation. I thought I was doing a good thing. That it would be better for the child involved if things could be handled peacefully. It wasn’t until later, when it was too late, that I learned the husband wasn’t the culprit at all. The child was actually being targeted by the bell ringers.”
“Okay,” I agreed, nodding along.
The more he spoke, the more familiar it sounded. This was the reason Kitt had volunteered to take our case after the previous lawyer had suddenly quit. He had a personal bone to pick with the bell ringers after failing a past client. It made sense, but it didn’t explain why he was bringing it up now, or why it caused him to stare at his phone in the dark hours of the morning.
“You told us about this before,” I reminded him. “But why’s it important now?”
As he took a deep breath, Kitt’s fingers tangled a little deeper into my hair.
“When I explained before, I left something out. The client that I failed wasn’t just anyone. They were my cousin.”
My brain stalled for a second, and it took me a few tries to realize what he’d said.
“Your cousin?”
“Yeah. My family came to me for help with the case. I only accepted it because I thought it would be simple. But then, my cousin and her ex-husband turned up dead, and their son was nearly kidnapped. I was?—”
His voice cracked, and I felt the hand in my hair tremble. The only light in the room came from the city lights sneaking in through the open window. It was an unnaturally white light, lacking the soft edges of moonlight, and made his expression look like it had been carved directly onto his face.
Sometimes people needed encouragement when dealing with difficult emotions, but sometimes they didn’t need you to sayanything at all. This was one of those times. As much as I wanted to comfort Kitt, I kept my mouth shut and just let my presence do the talking for me.
After clearing his throat, he managed to find his voice again.
“I was there when it happened. My cousin and her ex-husband’s bodies had just been discovered. Luckily, their son was staying with my sister at the time, or he probably would have been taken when his parents were killed. I immediately visited my sister to check up on them, and that’s when the bell ringers tried again. I was right there when they snatched the kid, and I couldn’t do anything. I was... useless.”
A memory came to mind of Kitt protecting me as we ran across the underground safe house while bullets flew past us. As usual, I could remember everything with perfect clarity. I still recalled how warm his body had felt as he kept me safely tucked against his side the whole time. I could still hear the whizzing sound one bullet had made when it came precariously close to my ear, only inches from striking us, but Kitt hadn’t even flinched. His steps never faltered as he continued to run us both toward safety. That didn’t feel useless to me.
“Maybe it’s presumptuous of me, but I know you, Kitt. I’ve literally been through a life and death situation with you. You’re not useless. If there was nothing you could have done, then I doubt there’s anything anyone could have done.”
My words were meant to be reassuring, but to my surprise, they made Kitt laugh.
It didn’t sound like a humorous reaction.
“Oh, you know me now, but I’m not the same now as I was back then. I’ve made sure of that. Back then, I was much more of a cliché lawyer. The kind of man who spent all day sitting behind a desk doing paperwork and had never even set foot in a gym. Trust me. I was useless. Luckily, my sister’s husband was much more of a “man of action” than I was back then, and he managedto act in time and stop my cousin’s kid from being snatched. Otherwise, the bell ringers would have claimed another victim that day.”
From my position at his side, I could just see the silent phone sitting on the nightstand. Kitt hadn’t been paying much attention when he tossed it aside, and the little black rectangle balanced precariously on the edge, millimeters away from falling to the floor. I had an unbearable urge to reach out and push it more securely onto the nightstand, but that would mean letting go of Kitt, and I couldn’t bear to do that either.
“So, the kid was saved. That’s a good thing, right?”
Kitt nodded, and although his head didn’t move, I noticed his eyes twitch in the phone’s direction. “It is. He was adopted by my sister, and from what I know, he seems to be doing okay.”
A heavy pause followed this statement. I didn’t even have to ask; I just waited for the inevitable follow up.
“My family blames me. They think that if I hadn’t downplayed the severity of the situation and convinced my cousin to drop the case, that she and her ex might still be alive. My sister has been especially adamant about keeping me out of their kid’s life, so I haven’t spoken to any of them since then. I keep my sister’s number because I hope that someday I’ll be able to call and tell her that I’ve finally made up for my mistake.”
