I’d been right. It didn’t matter logic or reason. There was no excuse. Bottomline was that I failed her.
Steel put his hand on my shoulder. His touch felt like he stabbed me, but I ignored it. Ideservedthe pain. “I’m sure you did all you could, son.”
He had no idea. None of them did. I’d donenothing. For all my training, all my years of advanced weaponry and tactics, it had all come down to this moment and I’d failed her. The woman I loved wasdying, and I hadn’t done a damn thing to help her.
Carlos walked up, standing shoulder to shoulder with Steel. “Are you up for answering some questions?”
“Is he dead? Did I kill him?”
“Yes,” Carlos answered evenly. “Unfortunately, that brings us to a problem. Do you know him?”
I shook my head, biting my tongue against the fact that I don’t even know what the man looked like to be able to attempt to identify him.
“He’s a cop with the Cottonville PD.”
A cop? Something started clicking inside my brain, but the cogs weren’t working at full capacity. Why had a cop from Cottonville broken into Calliope’s shop?
“His name was Kurt Brewer. He’s Kora’s ex-husband.”
When Kora and I had first started hooking up, I knew she was recently divorced. It had been a quick one-night stand turned drunken elopement that went from being romantic to disastrous in the span of a few months. She filed for divorce and he fought it, but in the end, signed the paperwork. Until this week, I thought that was the end of it. In fact, her being divorced was one of the reasons I’d been good with being repeat fuck buddies, as crass as that sounded. She wasn’t looking for anything serious and neither was I. In, out—quite literally—until the next time one of us wanted to scratch an itch.
It made no sense to me that Kora’s ex-husband had attacked Calliope in her shop. Why go after Calliope? He should have been going after me. I was the one sleeping with his ex-wife—orhad beensleeping with his ex-wife. I’d been the one she’d hinted was the father of her non-existent child.
Carlos continued, though I was only half paying attention. “I’ve been in contact with his captain. They’re trying to put forward the argument thatyouattacked Calliope andBrewerwas the one who pulled you off. The two of you fought and you killed him too.”
Too.Too. It was such a small word, but the impact it had on me was catastrophic. I turned and vomited onto the floor.
I wasn’t allowedto clean up without someone from the police present to claim the evidence. Carlos said I wasn’t a murder suspect in his eyes, but be prepared for pushback from the Cottonville PD. They were not going to let the death of one of their own go unavenged.
At least, until Calliope could wake up and tell them who had actually attacked her. And even then, they might not believe it, thinking she was just protecting her boyfriend.
I couldn’t even look at her parents. Dosia tried to talk to me, but that was even worse. The two were best friends, sisters. They were so much more than niece and aunt. It hurt to see the torment in Dosia’s eyes and I know I was the cause.
Keys was looking into Kurt Brewer. He hadn’t been involved yet because neither Ghost nor I had thought to do so. Carlos had spoken to Kora, and that was supposed to be that. I wasn’t supposed to be involved anymore. There was nothing between Kora and me. I hadn’t thought about or spoken to her since Tuesday night at the bar.
Calliope had taken over my entire world, and I wanted it no other way.
I was given scrubs to change into. While in the men’s room, it was discovered I had a nasty wound on my right shoulder. No wonder it had felt like Steel had stabbed me with a knife when he touched my arm. I refused to be put in an exam room, though. I wasn’t going anywhere until there was news about Calliope.
The waiting room was cleaned up by the time I got back. I was sure my vomit had hit some unsuspecting shoes, but I couldn’t find it in me to be sorry. The implication that Calliope would also die today was not something I could just move past.
I had no idea how long it had been since the attack or us arriving at the hospital. It could have been minutes, hours, or days at this point. What did time matter when my heart and soul were in the other room with her throat crushed? I was nothing more than a body, a shell.
Tessa finally came into the waiting room. Bear went right to her, taking her into his arms. Others stood up. Tessa’s eyes met mine, but I had no idea what her expression meant. Was it good news? Bad? The worst? I couldn’t feel my heart beating inside my chest. Had it stopped? WasIdead too?
Tessa’s eyes shifted from mine and turned to Calliope’s parents. I realized in that moment that my relationship withCalliope meant nothing in the eyes of the law. She wasn’t my wife. I was not her husband. I wasn’t even her fiancé. I was no one. No connection, no power. If a choice had to be made, it wasn’t mine to make it.
It was a humbling, horrifying realization. And one I was helpless to change under the current circumstances.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins, I’m Dr. Collins,” Tessa started.
“Wait,” Solstice said, putting her hand up. Then she turned to me at the back of the room and indicated for me to come towards her.
I felt like I had lead in my feet. I didn’t know why she was asking me to come forward. Did she want to slap me, punish me, for failing her daughter? I’d promised to keep her safe, that I would always be with her, and I’d failed. I’d lied. I hadn’t been with her. I hadn’t kept her safe. She was lying in a hospital bed because ofme.
But Solstice did none of those things. Instead, she took my hand and held it as she faced Tessa again.
“Continue, Dr. Collins. How is my daughter?”
