Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter
Thirty-Four
It all happened more slowly than Mark had
anticipated. After the panic outdoors and the sudden passion within
he’d somehow expected the police intervention to be more dramatic.
Instead, Constable Parker had trudged through his inquiries,
nodding patiently but without understanding as Mark had given his
statement about Lucas’s heroics.
It was all so prosaic that Mark started to
feel foolish about his instinct to help Lucas hide. There had been
no need for that. Lucas must think he was insane, or at least
melodramatic. Mark looked over to where Lucas was slouched on the
sofa, staring impassively at the ceiling as if bored by the
proceedings. It was hard to reconcile this sullen creature with the
man who had fought so savagely outside, or kissed so
passionately…but Mark couldn’t think about that. It was too
confusing, and he needed to keep his head clear until this
situation was resolved. “So everything’s okay, now,” he told the
constable. “But I’m worried that it took you so long to get here. I
was told there would be a patrol paying extra attention to the
building as a precaution, but it turns out that even when you were
directly called to come, it took you a quarter of an hour?”
The constable snorted, the first expression
of emotion he’d made since he arrived. “We have other priorities,
Mr. Webber. We don’t have the resources to provide you with private
security.”
“So Lucas was right to come over,” Mark said,
pressing his advantage. “He knew you were stretched too thin and he
needed to help out.”
The constable looked scornfully in Lucas’s
direction, but didn’t respond directly to Mark. Instead he stood
and flipped the cover of his notebook shut. “Mr. Cain,” he said,
his voice too loud for the small space. “I’d like to ask you some
more questions. I think it would be best if you came down to the
station with me.”
“Is he under arrest?” Mark asked quickly.
“Does he need a lawyer?”
Parker squinted in Mark’s direction, then
turned back to Lucas. “Mr. Cain, we can go through all that if you
want. But it would be simpler if you just came with me and answered
a few questions.”
“About what? He’s told you everything!” Mark
wasn’t sure what he was doing, but it felt wrong to sit back and
let Lucas get in trouble.
The constable’s squint was fiercer this time.
“Mr. Webber, please. Let me handle this.”
“He saved me,” Mark said. It wasn’t really an
argument, but it seemed important.
“But he won’t tell us how he knew the attack
was about to happen, and he won’t tell us who was involved.” The
constable shook his head. “Combined with the parole violations? He
needs to come to the station.”
“He said it was an anonymous call!” Mark
didn’t want to think about the constable’s words. The men in the
alley had clearly recognized Lucas, and he’d seemed familiar with
them as well. But for some reason he hadn’t given their names to
the police. What did that mean? It wasn’t quite as confusing as the
kiss, but it certainly wasn’t as clear as Mark would have
liked.
“Sure it was,” the constable agreed snidely.
He jerked his chin at Lucas. “Ready to go?”
Lucas stood slowly. He hadn’t looked Mark in
the eyes since the constable had arrived and he still didn’t. And
he didn’t look directly at Parker, either, just started for the
door.
“You’re forgetting something,” the constable
said, and there was a gleeful edge to his voice that made Mark
realize there was a new undercurrent in the room.
“Not here,” Lucas said quietly.
“Downstairs.”
“I’m not negotiating with you, Cain!”
“But I’m not under arrest. Right? So it’s my
choice about coming with you.” Whatever this was about, it seemed
to have jarred Lucas out of his apathy. His voice now was calm but
firm.
The officer didn’t seem impressed. “With your
record? You know it’d take me no time to get an arrest
warrant.”
“So do it.” Lucas took another step toward
the door. “Or you can keep it simple and I’ll come with you now.
But we do it downstairs.”
The constable clearly noticed Mark’s
confusion and frowned thoughtfully. “He doesn’t want to get cuffed
up here. In front of you.” Parker shook his head. “Like he thinks
he’s fooling you, or something. Like you, of all people, don’t know
that he’s a criminal!” Apparently the officer thought Mark would
join him in ridiculing Lucas’s hesitation.
Instead, Mark stood. “I don’t see why you’d
want to cuff him at all. If he’s going with you voluntarily.”
“Safety. If I’m going to transport a known
felon, solo? He’s going to be cuffed.”
Mark had no idea if this was standard or not,
and wasn’t sure how to argue against it when Lucas didn’t seem to
be objecting. Well, Mark could do something about being a witness
to Lucas’s degradation. “I’m going to go in the other room and call
a lawyer,” he said firmly. “Lucas, thank you very much for your
help tonight. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure that you don’t
get punished for it.”
Finally, Lucas looked at him. “It’s fine,” he
said quietly. “You probably don’t want to get involved. You have
enough to worry about.”
“You have enough to worry about too. But you
got involved. You came over here, knowing that even if you didn’t
get hurt in the fight you could get in trouble with the police. You
did that for me, and I owe you.”
Lucas squinted at him in disbelief but it was
the police officer who said, “After what he did? After your
brother? You don’t owe him a thing, Mr. Webber.”
“That’s in the past.” As soon as he said the
words, Mark realized that they were true. He’d loved his brother,
and Lucas Cain had killed him. But it felt distant now. A different
Lucas, part of a situation more complicated than Mark had wanted to
admit, had made a horrible mistake. But he’d accepted
responsibility, done what he could to make amends, and… “I’ve
forgiven him. And today, he risked himself to save me. I owe
him.”
“You don’t,” Lucas said fervently. He stared
at Mark for a moment, then turned to Constable Parker and held his
hands out, wrists together. “Okay. Do it. Let’s go.”
Parker paused, looking for a trap, then
nodded. “Turn around. Hands on the wall. If I frisk you, am I going
to find anything sharp? Any weapons, or needles?”
There was more to the routine and Mark forgot
his resolution to leave the room. Instead, he stood and watched.
Lucas now wanted Mark to see him being treated like a
criminal? He thought something like that would change Mark’s mind
about him? Mark waited patiently until Lucas was cuffed and being
prodded toward the door, then he said, “Lucas?”
Lucas didn’t turn around, but he stopped
walking, so Mark continued. “Thank you for saving me, Lucas. I’m
going to do what I can to help you out. I owe you.”
Lucas didn’t respond. He just lowered his
head a little farther. When the officer shoved him gently, he
started walking, stepping aside to let the constable open the door,
never looking back at Mark.
The door shut firmly behind them and Mark was
left alone in an apartment that seemed too quiet. Constable Parker
had said they’d keep the heightened patrols up but Mark had already
seen how effective those were, so he kept away from the windows. He
took a moment to try to collect himself. So much had happened, and
he wasn’t sure how he felt about any of it. The attack, the kiss,
the police…it was all too much.
He realized that his hand had drifted to his
face, his fingers gently playing over his lips. He’d never been
kissed like that before. This hadn’t been the respectful, safe
explorations he’d experienced with his few other partners. It had
been wild, almost frightening, but…
He pushed a little harder, his fingers
pressing his lips against his teeth, and his breath caught. It had
felt like Lucas was being swept along in a powerful river and he’d
reached out to grab hold of Mark, standing safely on the bank. But
Lucas hadn’t wanted to be rescued, he’d wanted to pull Mark into
the current with him. Maybe they’d have drowned or maybe they’d
have ridden the rapids together. Mark had been too stunned to react
at the time and even now he wasn’t sure what he should have done.
If the constable hadn’t knocked on the door, would Mark have let
go? Would he have let himself be swept away? He thought of the heat
that had burned in Lucas’s green eyes and felt his body reacting to
just the thought of it. To have let that kiss continue, to have let
more happen…
He took a deep, shuddering breath. He didn’t
have time for this. He’d promised to call a lawyer, and despite
Lucas’s protestations, that was what he was going to do. There was
no doubt in his mind that the three men in the alley had intended
to attack him, and no doubt that without Lucas’s intervention, he
would have been seriously hurt. He couldn’t allow Lucas to face
punishment for being a hero. That was clear and straightforward, at
least compared to the complications of the kiss.
He turned off all the lights except for one
desk lamp far back from the windows and found Daniel Cohen’s card
in his wallet. He had no idea if the lawyer handled criminal cases,
but he was somewhere to start, at least. And he’d seemed discrete
in his earlier conversation with Mark, seemed to understand that it
was important to keep things as quiet as possible. Mark didn’t want
to think about how his mother would react if she heard that he was
actually helping Lucas Cain. She was still as angry as Mark had
been months earlier, and he couldn’t really imagine how he’d have
felt if he’d heard then that someone was trying to help his
brother’s killer avoid punishment for anything, no matter how
removed it was from the original crime. No, there was no point in
involving her in any of this.
He pushed the doubts out of his mind and
picked up the phone. He would do what he knew was right. He’d worry
about the rest of it when he had time.