Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“What?” I said. “I didn’t take anything from the crime scene.”
“A tech saw you, Parker. He told me because he thought you and I were friends, and he didn’t want to get you in trouble. If he’d told the captain, you’d already be arrested. Don’t lie to me, okay?”
Nick rubbed a hand over his head, and looked at me again, his eyes sharp and narrow. Gesturing to the couch, I said, “Let’s sit down.”
Stalking over, Nick sat, his eyes following me until I took a seat on the other side. I rested my forearms on my knees. “I don’t know what they saw, but I didn’t do anything.”
Nick snapped, “You’re lying. Try again.”
“Hey, I’m not. Why are you so convinced?”
“Because I knew, Parker.” He shook his head, covering his face with his hands.
He had a fresh bandage on his arm; clearly he’d been to the hospital while we were apart.
“I knew you had to have found something, why else would you leave so fast? I just thought you’d follow the lead and then rope me in, but I’ve been calling you for hours, and you’re avoiding me. What did you find?”
His tone was cracked, the words made of broken glass.
Nick, the guy who was the only cop I knew who was honest and true, had been willing to let me get away with stealing from a crime scene.
I’d taken someone who actually had ethics and, in three days, I’d turned him into someone who would give them up for me.
“Are you involved in this? Was that whole show at the morgue just to throw me off, make you less of a suspect?” Nick asked, pulling his hands from his face. He looked at me, his expression raw and hurt. What he wanted was reassurance, but the questioning irked me.
“I’m a suspect now? Because some tech thinks he saw me take something from the scene?” Crossing my arms, I rolled my eyes. “Give me a break.”
“Just tell me what’s going on,” Nick begged. “Tell me what you took and we can make it right.”
“Yeah, because the police are going to look really fondly on me,” I said. “If you think I’m a suspect, they’re going to take you off the case. And the next guy is going to want to pin it on someone. Might as well be me.”
Nick was silent, and I laughed. “Oh, that’s great. You already told them, didn’t you? You’re already off the case?”
Shaking his head, Nick said, “I wanted to give you a chance to explain first. Just... talk to me, Parker.”
Lacing my fingers, I clenched my hands together until my knuckles went white. My chest ached. Nick was the only decent guy I’d ever dated, and we were so new. He was upstanding and honest, and all I was going to do was drag him down with me into the muck.
But he was the one asking. And no matter what our differences, I liked him.
“Timothy was fae.” The words were heavy in my mouth. It felt like adding to my burden, more stones on my shoulders. “I found a pendant that belonged to the Autumn King, and I knew I had to tell the fae as soon as possible.”
“Who’s the Autumn King?” Nick asked. “Is he the Summer Queen’s husband?”
I shook my head. “No. There are four monarchs in the Far Realm. They each have their kingdoms, but their individual power waxes and wanes with the seasons.”
After a beat, Nick nodded. “Why did you have to tell them before telling me?”
“If the Autumn King came looking for Timothy, he’d tear the city apart looking for his killer. I thought if I went to the… if I went to them, I could keep them in check long enough for us to find the killer,” I said. “That’s why you couldn’t reach me.”
“You were in the Far Realm?” Nick asked.
“Kind of. I left my cellphone behind. I didn’t know you were worried. I’m sorry.”
The words were out before I thought them through, but I meant them. I was sorry. Maybe it was just sorry Nick was so invested in me when I had to struggle to tell him even a hint of the truth.
“Where’s the pendant?” Nick asked.
“I gave it back to the King,” I said.
“Crap,” Nick swore, and I felt both my eyebrows go up. I wanted to make a joke at how vanilla it was compared to the more colorful language he’d used earlier, but at his dark look, I pinched my lips together.
“We still have to go in, you need to make a statement,” Nick said.
“Fine.”
The silence stretched between us, crackling with all the things unsaid. Staring at his hands, Nick said, “Okay, so you saw a pendant at the scene and gave it to a fae. What did he say? Are the fae coming to San Amaro?”
When the Franciscan monks traveling California reached San Amaro, they gave it its name because, like the eponymous saint, they thought they had sight of paradise.
There was a reason that, unlike everywhere else in California where they forcibly converted and enslaved Native Americans, there were no villages or tribes living near San Amaro.
What the monks had actually seen was the Far Realm, and a couple of them were foolish enough to enter it.
Their companions never heard from them again.
The monks, unwilling to recognize this meant they shouldn’t mess with the fae, built a Mission here.
And despite the fact that the fae razed it to the ground, built another one, this one fully stocked with Spanish soldiers.
The history from there was a mess of violence and fae trickery, with humans at the losing end of most of it.
Sometime towards the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one quite knows why, the fae backed off.
They were still around. The fae still liked to snatch particularly pretty or talented kids with some regularity.
Changelings like me are still a regular occurrence.
But, overall, nineteen out of twenty San Amaro natives have never had an interaction with an actual fae.
So, the threat of the fae coming back loomed large for residents of the city.
“No,” I answered. “I made a deal with them.”
“What did you do?”
“I promised them I’d find whoever was killing the fae here,” I said. “And I’d bring him to justice.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed. “Fae, plural. Who else got killed?”
I winced. That slip of the tongue was going to cost me.
“I don’t know, maybe they count the incubus, too. They’re from the Far Realm,” I lied. He’d know it was a lie, and he’d leave. Maybe send someone to arrest me.
With a heavy sigh, Nick said, “I don’t know why you keep trying to convince me you’re a bad person. I’ve been inside you, I know you’re not.”
“What? Hey, just because we had sex—”
“When I healed you,” Nick said. “We were inside each other, and I know you sensed me. I could sense you, too.”
“Whoa.” I pointed at him. “You were inside my head?”
“No,” Nick said. “You know. You felt it.”
“That’s not okay, you didn’t tell me—”
“Would you have rather I let you die—”
For a moment we were talking over each other and then Nick said, “Enough. No, I didn’t read your mind. You know how it was, though. I could sense you. And I know you’re a good person.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I spat. “I’ve been lying to you since the moment we met. I’m not good.”
“Right, the first moment we met. You think I didn’t know you weren’t a tourist?
Or, when you broke into Derek McCallum’s house.
You think I believed you were just looking to rent the place?
That your realtor gave you a key, and you decided the best time to look around was at nine o’clock at night?
” Nick snorted. “I know you were lying about that. But just because you were looking into McCallum for a case doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. ”
I shook my head. “Oh, it wasn’t for a case. I wasn’t looking into him for a case. I was working for him.”
Nick pulled back like I’d hit him. “No. McCallum isn’t the kind of person you work for. I’ve looked into you.”
“Well, I was,” I said.
“Then why were you breaking into his house? He forget to pay his bill?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Maybe he stiffed me and I was there to get what was mine. See? Not a good guy.”
“Was it illegal? What he hired you to do?” Nick’s eyes were focused on mine.
“No,” I admitted. “It wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t know better taking a job from him.”
And oh, how that decision had cost me.
“So you got screwed by McCallum,” Nick said. “Are you afraid if you let me get close, I’ll screw you, too?”
The words hit me because I knew how true they were.
When Jeffrey Jenkins showed up with papers evicting me from my apartment, I already had a bag packed in the back of the closet with everything I needed to survive.
I could leave everything else here and walk away, because that’s what they had forced me to do my whole life.
McCallum was going to pay, not because I needed the money he stole back, or because I wasn’t used to getting screwed, but because he’d broken a contract, and now that I understood my fae heritage better, I understood why it rankled.
Why everything in my blood screamed he had to pay for such a violation.
“You want to know the truth?” I looked at Nick through narrowed eyes. My lips twisted into a smirk. “I can prove you will screw me.”
Settling forward, Nick watched my face. I could tell he was on his guard just in the way his shoulders were tight. “I’m not going to hurt you, Parker.”
“I’m fae.” I dropped the words like high tech precision bombs.
Nick went still, and I watched the realization hit, his eyes widening, his hand grabbing for his alchemy pen. It was automatic, and I shook my head tsking at him. He looked down at his hand like he was just seeing it and put the pen back into his pocket. His warm brown skin had gone gray.
“See? You can’t trust me.”
“I healed you. There wasn’t anything that wasn’t human,” he said.
“Changeling,” I said. “You could send me to Rictor, and when he cut me open, I’d be one hundred percent human.”
“But I’ve seen your file,” Nick said. “The fae took you. Someone filed a missing persons report on you!”
“My foster parents. Probably the only ones who missed me.”
“So, you’re fae.” The words seemed to drag themselves out of his mouth.
He licked his lower lip, a tic I’d seen before, but this time only increased my stress rather than my arousal.
For the first time in our relationship, he was nervous.
I’d gotten him on his back foot and it was rotten fruit in my stomach.
“Am I still a good person?” I said, the words laced with every venomous thing I’d heard about fae my entire life. Can’t trust a fae, they’re snakes. Don’t let them look at you or they’ll steal your soul. Be careful or the fae will take your children like the Pied Piper.
“I don’t know.” Nick’s voice was quiet. “Are you? You tell me. You’re so intent on proving I don’t know you, that you aren’t good... I came here because I knew you wouldn’t just steal from my crime scene when you knew it could hurt me.”
I watched as he swallowed.
“But you did. I want to be mad and think it was wrong, but department regulations would have us lock up that amulet. If the Autumn King or whoever came looking for it, he’d assume it was our fault Timothy was dead.
” Rubbing a hand over his head, the short hair making a soft rasping sound against his palm, he squeezed his eyes closed.
“You’re fae, and that means if I were on the job, I’d have to report you. ..”
“What do you mean, if you were on the job?” I said when he trailed off.
“It’s almost ten o’clock at night, Parker,” Nick said. “I got off work hours ago.”
“What about me having to come down to the station and all?” I watched as he looked down. “Was that just to scare me?”
“No,” Nick said. “You do need to go in. Just not right now. I can’t believe you’re fae. You don’t act like it.”
Both my eyebrows shot up. “Oh, really? You’ve met a lot of us, have you?”
Nick laughed, which felt so weird that I joined in. It was like gas being let out of a balloon, and we both began gasping for air. He shook his head and his laughter faded out.
After a beat of silence, he said, “Thanks for telling me. I should go. This is a lot to process. Come to the station tomorrow and make a statement.”
“What about the amulet?”
“He just said he thought he saw you take something, that you were acting suspicious,” Nick said. “It’s not enough that he’d take it to anyone higher up.”
“Are you going to tell anyone?”
“That I’ve been sleeping with a fae?” Nick said. “No. It’s off the clock, you aren’t doing anything wrong.”
“You don’t know—”
“Stop,” Nick said, firmly. “Living your life isn’t a crime. You aren’t a bad person and I don’t know how to convince you of that.”
Rolling his shoulders, he said, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I just need to figure out what this means to me.”
I watched as he stood and glanced back at me. His lips tightened into an expression halfway between a grimace and a smile.
“Oh,” he said. “Acacia’s work called. The manager found a video he wanted us to see. I figured you might go check it out before the officer on the case takes it.”
“You’re breaking all sorts of rules for me.”
“Look.” Nick gave me a steady look. “If the tape is missing, then I will arrest you, Parker.”
“There’s the Nicholas King I know.”
“I’ll check in with you tomorrow,” he said, opening the door. He pulled it shut behind him and I pushed myself to my feet to lock it.
“That could have gone worse,” Shannon said. She was standing in the doorway to the bedroom and she was wearing a different outfit. I’d barely noticed the first time, but she’d been in the same dress she wore at her facility.
Now, she was wearing jeans and a white tank top, an oversized flannel shirt completing the outfit. Her sleeves were rolled up, and I half expected her to have her spell book handy because it was the same outfit she used when training me and Laurel. She gave me a sympathetic look.
“How do you feel?”
I waved off the question. “Were you here for the whole thing?”
“Some,” she said. “I heard you tell him the truth. I’ve never heard you tell anyone you’re fae before.”
Letting that observation slide, I headed to my restocked fridge, staring at the vegetables and wholesome ingredients I’d bought hoping Nick would make me something with them.
Shutting the fridge, I opened the freezer and pulled out a TV dinner.
As it spun in the microwave, Shannon moved towards the kitchen.
“I need you to call Laurel. I think the facility is trying to kill me.”