“Oh my Lord, Nicholas Ambrosius Gautier! The things that you get in your head, boy! Don’t make me hunt you down to spank you. Seriously! This has nothing to do with Bubba. Oh my Lord, boy! Really!Really?!”
“Then what?”
“The police just came here to arrest you!”
Nick froze as every bit of blood faded from his face. Bad flashbacks went through him from the last time he’d been wanted for something he hadn’t done. “W-w-what?”
“You heard me! They’re looking for a suspect to all the murders that’ve been going on.”
Yeah, but why blame him? Only thing he was guilty of was hogging covers and sneaking french fries when Kody wasn’t looking.
And one time only, he’d taken a sip of Xev’s beer by mistake ’cause he thought it was Ginger Ale. Even that, he’d confessed promptly the following Saturday to Father Jeffrey and had done every one of his Acts of Contrition. And sworn to the Heavenly Father he’d never do it again until he turned twenty-one. Even then he wouldn’t for fear his mom might not let him make it to twenty-two.
“What’s that got to do with me, Ma?”
“Two of the victims were your friends, Alan and Tyree!”
Her words slammed into him like a physical blow. No … it couldn’t be.
Nick staggered back into the wall. He wouldn’t have been more stunned had she named Acheron, and Nick’s Dark-Hunter boss, Kyrian, as victims. In fact, Alan and Tyree jumping him was what had led to him meeting Kyrian in the first place. When Kyrian had saved his life after Alan had shot him on the street.
“Someone overheard you threatening to kill them, Nick. To get back at them for beating you that night. So the police want to question you about it. They think you wanted retaliation. You’re their primary suspect.”
“I didn’t do it, Ma!”
“I know, baby. Kyrian and Acheron are talking to a lawyer about it, right now. But I didn’t want the police picking you up and hauling you to jail without warning, like you’re some kind of hoodlum. We’re going to take you in, with their lawyer, so that you won’t be booked and processed. I just need to know when you’re coming home so that we can take care of this mess and not let you spend any time in jail!”
He was truly grateful for that. Last thing he wanted was to be locked up like his father. Especially now that he was a Malachai.
That kind of anger and viciousness fed his powers. Made him ruthless and stronger. Ate away his will and left him vulnerable to the bad side of his demonic tendencies. If left too long among those kinds of people, he might lose control and become a full blown demon …
Yeah, that was a terrifying thought.
And it was the last thing anyone needed.
Nick swallowed hard. “I’m with Simi.”
“You’re safe?”
“Definitely. There’s no way the police can get to me here.”
“Okay. Stay there and I’ll call and tell you where to meet us so that we can handle this.”
Nick hung up the phone and shook his head as he tried to make sense of the insanity. But that wasn’t possible.
Alan and Tyree were dead. How? While it was true they’d been known to run with a rough crowd and get into things they shouldn’t, it was still a shock to him. They’d once been inseparable brothers who had each other’s backs, through thick and thin.
Dang …
“You okay?”
He blinked at Takeshi’s question. “Can you show me my friends on that timeline? Did Alan and Tyree die like this originally?”
“What do you mean?”
“My friends who shot me. Did they die in the first go round, before the timeline was tampered with?” He moved back to the lights and tried to read his roadmap. “I have to know what happened to them before Ambrose came back and started changing things.”
Takeshi took him over to the first weird split. “Well, you weren’t shot in the first sequence. You were stabbed.”
