It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Eamon!”
“Yes! Okay? He and Silas were infected at the same time. In the same incident.”
“And you didn’t think that was relevant information, back when we were hunting Silas?”
“No.” Eamon’s shields were up. His sword was the sharp edge in his voice. “Youtold us there was only one bad guy. So we hunted one bad guy, and it didn’t seem fair of me to throw an innocent kid under the bus, just because his dad was a criminal. They’d have buried him right next to his father, Charley. On suspicion alone. Guilt by association.”
“That wouldn’t have happened.”
“Yes, it would have! Youknowit would have. Titus was out for blood, to prove to the fucking council that he could handle his shit. He was worried that if they thought there was someone out there killing human women, they’d use that as an excuse to take the Pride away from him. He was one vote away from losing the whole goddamn territory.”
“He wasnotout for blood.” But I couldn’t argue with the rest, because it was still true. And Titus’s fear was not unreasonable. Thereweremembers of the council who’d use any excuse to strip him of his position and impose the werecat version of martial law in our territory, to control the “stray population.” Jace had told me that himself.
But I couldnotbelieve that Titus would have executed an innocent boy.
“What I do know…” I said, my voice deep with anger as I paced across my living room floor, “…is that you kept information to yourself. Information that was relevant to what happened to me, both personally and professionally, and might have prevented what’s happening now.”
“And you’ve never kept a secret?” he demanded, his voice so soft, so angry, that I could hardly hear it.
“I’ve never put an investigation at risk.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“You lost the right to ask me personal questions,” I growled. “This isn’t about me.”
“Really? You don’t feel like this is about you? Not even a little bit?”
My teeth ground together so hard that I could hear my jaw creak. He’d always been able to do that. To flip the switch so that his charming laugh became biting sarcasm in an instant.
“Is there anything else you know about Silas Morelock that could be helpful for us?” The question ground like grit between my teeth. “Any other relatives or close friends? Someone he might have confided in? Anything you know about his son, Denny?”
“Not that I—”
“What was the mother’s name?”
“I don’t know. I never met her.”
“Think!” I practically shouted into the phone. “You told me back then that Silas used to stay with his girlfriend. Was that Denny’s mother?”
“No. I don’t think so. The way I remember it, he wasn’t on good terms with the boy’s mom.”
“Okay, so what was her name? The one he stayed with. Cammie? Something like that?”
“Connie,” Eamon said. “Don’t remember her last name. That won’t help you, though. She died several years back. Before all this. Before he took you. I think that’s maybe what set him off. What kind of…unmoored him from commonly accepted…limits.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I took a deep breath, trying to slow my pulse. To calm myself. “Anything else? Seriously, the smallest detail might help.”
Eamon sighed. “I can’t think of anything else I can say or do to help you, Char. We were just following your lead. Even back then.”
My temper spiked. “You’re saying this is my fault?”
“No. Not in the least. What I’m saying is that you’re coming to me with questions and accusations about kid I had—and still have—every reason to believe was innocent, and it’salmostlike you’re doing that to avoid questioning the one witness you still have. The person who survived Silas Morelock and might still have details of the attack locked away in memories she’s afraid to examine…”
“Fuck. You.” Rage simmered inside me, roiling along the surface of a deep dark well of fear and anger. “You want me to relive the most traumatic moment of my life,just in casethere’s something I didn’t remember when that trauma was fresh?” My words were short and sharp. I was practically firing them at him like bullets, because that was the only way I could get them out. “Because memoriesalwaysget sharper as they age, right?”
“More pain is the last thing I want for you, Charley. I want nothing but the best for you.”
