Page 14 of The Devil’s Bargain (A Devil to Die for #3)

“We’ve placed him in a medically induced coma,” Dr. Rose, one of the top surgeons who worked with them at the hospital, explained solemnly, glancing between Calix and Mercy.

“I assure you, Director, we’ll be monitoring him closely.

While it’s too soon to say for certain he’s completely in the clear, the surgery went well. We’re all extremely hopeful.”

Mercy said something to her—or maybe he didn’t. Cal didn’t really know, wasn’t really paying attention.

He couldn’t tear his gaze off Aodhan, lying in bed, hooked up to several machines. If not for the bandages on his head and the slightly pale pallor to his skin, he might look like he was sleeping. But he wasn’t.

He’d almost died.

Had died, if the paramedics were to be believed, which of course they were.

Aodhan had been found unresponsive at the scene, but they’d managed to resuscitate him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

There was no telling how long he’d gone without breathing, but an onlooker who’d witnessed the crash had called it in almost immediately, and the ambulance had arrived within five minutes.

“What about the truck?” Calix registered that he was talking, but his voice sounded foreign and distant to his ears.

The witness claimed a freight truck ran a red light, crashed into Aodhan’s car, and then drove off without even stopping to check if the driver they’d just hit was all right.

Since it had been late in the evening, there weren’t any other eyewitnesses, but Calix had somehow had the foresight to order an investigation and have his team collect any CCTV footage they could find in the area.

He didn’t know why he was bringing that up now, though, when it was just Mercy, him, and the doctor. As if Rose may have somehow heard something he hadn’t on her way from cleaning up after surgery to here.

“Detective,” Mercy called to him, and that one word was weighted. He was seated on the couch, tense, and clearly just as concerned as Cal was, but he’d barely spoken this whole time.

“I’ll find out who did this,” Calix swore, hands clenching into tight fists at his sides as he watched the steady rhythm of Aodhan’s chest moving. “They won’t get away with it. I’ll find them and—”

The sound of the door to the private room opening cut him off, which was a good thing, because he’d most likely been about to say something incriminating in front of Dr. Rose.

Saz entered with Reed hot on his heels, giving a curt nod to the doctor as she excused herself.

“How’s he holding up?” Reed asked. “We’ve got someone at the station talking with the witness. The CCTV footage we’ve gathered so far is also being looked over.”

“Should we hand this case to someone else?” Saz ignored Reed’s surprised look. “There’s a conflict of interest here, Calix, and besides, won’t you be busy staying by his side?”

“No.” Cal shook his head. “No one else is covering this. I’m going to find out who’s responsible.”

“What conflict of interest?” Reed glanced between the two of them.

“They’re in a relationship,” Saz announced, seemingly apologetic toward Cal for doing so. He had a sense of principle that Calix had always appreciated. “Mitri let slip that Aodhan told him about it a few months ago. Unless things have ended between you?”

“Nothing has ended,” Mercy clipped, getting to his feet. He didn’t approach, placing his hands into his pockets as he stared the officer down. “I don’t like it when my men are gossiped about. I would appreciate it if you didn’t go around talking about my pod, Mr. Laurier.”

“Your—” Reed slapped a hand over his mouth almost comically. “Holy shit.”

Saz seemed just as shocked, bowing his head and holding the position. “I apologize. If that’s the case, I doubt there will be a problem with Calix leading this even if it does break protocol.”

“You are correct.” Mercy stepped up to Cal then, gently resting a hand on his lower back. “Azi, don’t worry. Go with them. I’ll be here. Our Second won’t be alone.”

Calix nibbled on his bottom lip, torn between the urge to rush off and find who did this, and the fear of going and something happening to Aodhan in his absence.

The bolt of fear he’d felt sweeping down their connection had been the single most terrifying experience of his life.

Nothing in his past even came close to it.

Aodhan Solace wasn’t meant to be afraid. Wasn’t meant to know that emotion in any way other than as a definition written on a piece of paper. He was never supposed to get intimate with the word.

But he had. And the level of fear he’d felt the moment the crash had happened…

A strange sound slipped up his throat and past his lips and Calix hung his head and squeezed his eyes shut to fight off the wave of panic that threatened to swallow him whole.

Mercy hushed him and pulled him in close, uncaring that they had an audience.

He cradled the back of Cal’s skull and urged him to hide his face against the curve of his neck.

“He’s fine, Azi. I promise. I’m a Connect, remember?

Once you go, I’ll push more energy into him.

He’ll be awake by the time you return tonight.

Nothing more is going to happen to him.”

“I can’t lose him,” Calix whispered. “I can’t lose either of you.”

“You won’t.”

He exhaled slowly. “You really mean it, right? This isn’t just a trick to placate me and get me to leave?”

“I don’t need you to do dirty work for me,” Mercy reminded.

True. If he wanted, he could go out and get revenge all on his own.

Connects and their chosen pod could live for hundreds of years.

But that didn’t mean they were invincible. They could die, just like everyone else.

“Aodhan survived the crash,” Mercy reminded, seemingly understanding here his thoughts were leading him. “And you heard the doctor. His surgery went well. So long as he still has a pulse, I’m able to fix him. You know this, Detective. You’ve studied my kind at the Academy.”

Barely. But Cal didn’t bother correcting him. He was trying to comfort him, after all.

“When he was dead…” He couldn’t finish that sentence, shaking his head.

“Three minutes and sixteen seconds,” Mercy said, able to come up with the exact timeframe due to his familiarity with the bond, something Calix still didn’t have.

What if he never got the chance to? What if—

“Enough,” Mercy’s tone firmed slightly. “I have to stabilize him, and I can’t do that with your teammates hovering like this.”

Oh.

That made sense.

Calix took one last deep breath and then untangled himself from Mercy’s hold and stepped back. He straightened his spine and squared his shoulders, allowing himself one last lingering look at Aodhan before he turned on his heels and addressed the other two in the room. “Let’s go.”

He’d head to the station, find out who did this, and then come back to a conscious Aodhan, because that’s what Mercy said would happen.

And Titus Mercer always kept his word where Calix was concerned.