“We saved his life.” Nick stood up. “I don’t care if we have to pay him everything we have. We saved his life. If that was the choice we made—between saving his life and letting him die? I’m okay with doing what we did.”
Parker crossed the room, putting his hands on Nick’s shoulders when he reached him. “I should have kept you out of it.”
“No.” Nick shook his head. “You couldn’t have. Areyouokay?”
Parker looked the same as he always did when Nick asked that. His expression went smaller, his mouth slightly open. He looked like it wasn’t fair that Nick had asked because he didn’t have an answer for him.
Then the mask dropped over his face, and his smile was just this side of plastic. “I’m fine. Go shower. I’ll get something ready to eat.”
The light outside the window said it was late afternoon, but Nick’s body was still running so hot with adrenaline and tension that he wasn’t sure he could eat anything. Still, he nodded.
Pressing a kiss to Parker’s lips, he went to the bathroom. After turning on the water, he loosened his tie and stared athimself in the mirror. There was a brown spot of dried blood on his collar, and he looked exhausted.
Shaking his head, he took off his shirt and tossed it into the laundry. He emptied his pockets onto the countertop and tossed the rest of his clothes in after his shirt. He got into the shower, even though the water was still only lukewarm. As he rubbed his washcloth over himself, he felt himself considering all the information they had, his mind twisting each fact, making connections he hadn’t been able to in the moment.
When he got out, the smell of melted butter and sugar hit him. He smiled, pulling on a pair of comfortable pants and a shirt. He went downstairs to find Parker serving steamed carrots topped with brown sugar and butter onto plates already filled with enchilada and rice leftovers from the last time that Laurel had come over.
“Wow,” Sugar said. “And I thought my day was busy. I was booking hotel rooms for the orgy convention later this month.”
“Wait, is it an orgy that’s large enough to be a convention or a convention about orgies?” Parker asked.
“A little of both!” Sugar gushed. “It started because this sex researcher was interested in incubus mating habits and contacted me!I’ma person that people contact now!”
Parker grinned. “I mean, you are the leader of the largest organization of succubae and incubi on the West Coast. Who else should they contact?”
As Sugar discussed the logistics of scheduling an orgy (complicated by local ordinances) and meeting rooms for presentations (complicated because of the topic of the convention), Nick picked at his food. When Sugar ran out of steam and retreated to her room with the promise that both Nick and Parker were okay and weren’t going anywhere anytime soon, they were left to their thoughts again.
“You feeling any better?” Nick asked.
“Not really,” Parker said. Then he shook his head. “Maybe.”
“Yeah.” Nick shook his head. “I know what you mean.”
“We need to figure out where the other victims are,” Parker said. “And what this actually is.”
“You still think it’s something from the thousand realms?” Nick asked.
“It has to be.” Parker frowned down at his empty plate, stirring his fork through leftover sauce. “Why these people? Why theselocations?”
“You said Durkavic wouldn’t have any reason to go into a smoke shop.” Nick leaned back before sliding off his stool and heading into the office. They kept a handful of local maps for just the purpose he had in mind.
He spread open the map and grabbed a pen. Parker came in as he was marking three dots on the map.
“Durkavic.” Nick pointed. “Buford—the CSI tech. The escape room.”
“What are you looking for?” Parker frowned.
“A spiral,” Nick said, remembering the shape that had been carved into the notebook at the escape room. He dragged his pen along the map, connecting the dots. “If it’s an even spiral, we should have a better idea of where the next victims are, especially because”—he finished his spiral—“the first victims are all evenly spaced along the spiral.”
With the line, it was easy to see the general locations of the next location on the spiral. Parker was nodding. “You’re right. So now we know where the other two victims are. We head there—” At Nick’s expression, Parker amended, “We call Captain Tate and tell him what we suspect? Because you’re on leave.”
Parker’s voice dropped, and his face fell. “Because of me.”
“Not because of you,” Nick said. “Because they’re doing a thorough investigation, and they want to make sure that I’m clean.”
“Because ofme,” Parker insisted. Before Nick could argue, Parker turned back to the map. “So we need to do the spell again. The spell that leaves someone without a hand or a foot.”
Nick looked at his husband and, not for the first time, thought that for all of Parker’s misdirection and fronts, if you knew where to look, you could see inside him, you could see the heart of him.
