Page 18 of The Devil’s Bargain (A Devil to Die for #3)

Calix hadn’t visited the mortuary at the hospital since Bruce’s murder, but he’d been around enough death and destruction lately that the smells of embalming fluid and the sudden drop in temperature didn’t do anything to him.

He found Mitri in the back, in a little alcove area with a sink and a single door leading into a small private room.

“Is that where you usually work?” Cal asked, motioning with his chin toward the door as Mitri continued washing his hands.

“That’s it,” the forensic scientist said. “You came quickly.”

“I was just upstairs.”

“How is Aodhan doing?”

“Better.” Calix tried glancing through the window cut in the door but couldn’t make out much aside from something metallic within the room. “Is the body of the driver in there? What did you find?”

“It’s badly burnt,” Mitri began, drying off his hands before pressing on the censor on the side of the wall to automatically open the door for them.

“So I won’t be able to tell for certain if he was drugged beforehand until the toxicology report comes back, but from what I can find, and going off of pictures from the crime scene, it doesn’t appear as though foul play was involved. ”

“Have we been able to identify the body?”

There was a single table set in the center of the room, the charred remains laid out over it.

some clothing had survived, patches of red material, and maybe what had once been part of the man’s jeans, as well as some brown hair.

Calix didn’t pay much attention to the face though, certain he wouldn’t recognize him even if more than half of it hadn’t been burned away.

“It’s Nero Quinten,” Mitri said, and when Calix gasped, shrugged. He pulled on a pair of latex gloves as he spoke. “His multi-slate was discovered on the ground nearby. Either he dropped it while dousing the truck in gasoline, or he tossed it on purpose before lighting the match is yet to be seen.”

“They found his device?” Calix checked his messages, but he hadn’t missed anything from the rest of the team.

“Maybe they figured I’d tell you. I mentioned I was going to ask you to stop by.”

“Thanks. I just…I can’t believe it was Nero.” He tried to think of the last time the two of them had spoken. The night they’d gone to the bar was the same night Aodhan had gotten into the accident, but Nero had messaged Cal the next day, to give his condolences and send his best wishes.

Why would Nero have been in a truck that night at all? He’d dropped Calix off at home, and Aodhan’s accident had happened around an hour and a half after that…Would Nero have even had the time to switch vehicles? He’d been drunk too, had been the one to call the driver for that very reason.

Had he faked it?

To what end?

“Something about this isn’t adding up,” he murmured to himself, staring at the body more closely now.

“It makes sense to me,” Mitri replied, having heard him. “Gives us a motive, too.”

Cal glanced at him over his shoulder and frowned.

“He was driving Titus Mercer’s car that night, remember?”

“So?”

“It’s pretty safe to assume Titus was the actual target.”

His spine stiffened. “You think whoever rammed into Aodhan was actually trying to kill Mercy?”

Mitri’s brow furrowed at the nickname, but he didn’t call him out on it. “I think, since it was Nero, that makes the most sense. Who else would have it in for Titus?”

“Why would Nero want to kill him?”

“Because of the trial, of course,” he said it like he thought Calix was stupid.

“Amory used to talk to me about it all the time. How Titus and Bruce both sided with you at the trial, which was why you were able to have all of the charges brought against you dropped. I mean, of course, you were innocent, but without their advocacy, things could have gone very differently for you.”

Well, sure, but…

“Nero said he forgave me for our past.” Cal searched his memory, but there were no hints of even potential animosity from Nero that last night they hung out together.

Then another fact occurred to him. Even if it were possible for Nero to sober up—Calix had watched him down those drinks, he couldn’t have been faking his inebriation—and get a truck, the rest of the scenario wouldn’t be possible.

For one, he’d known Titus didn’t have his car. Mercy had been there to receive Cal, after all, and Nero had spoken with him.

“Do you really believe that?” Mitri asked, then seemed to consider it. “Anything is possible. I’m only telling you what I can surmise based on the evidence provided to me.”

Calix turned back to the body. “Has anyone contacted his relatives yet?”

“No, I haven’t reported his confirmed identity to anyone. I was waiting for you.”

It was odd, but Cal actually felt sort of bad. Was it because he didn’t believe Nero was responsible? But then how did he explain the guy’s corpse?

He opened his mouth to voice his doubts, but his multi-slate chimed, interrupting him.

Titus Mercer: Come get your friend. He’s disturbing our Second’s peace, and I won’t have it.

He frowned at the message and typed back a quick reply.

Calix: Who?

Zane had been with Aodhan when Cal had left.

Had someone else arrived? Maybe Saz or Reed?

They could have stopped by to talk about the case or come find answers from Mitri themselves.

But they definitely would have called before doing something like that.

He didn’t have any other friends. Especially now that Nero was—

Titus Mercer: Who else, little monster? First he’s dropping you off at home, and now he’s making hospital visits? This guy is bold, I’ll give him that. Perhaps it's because he’s already skirted death once.

Dropping him off…Calix stared down at the screen for a while, mind struggling to comprehend what he thought he was seeing. There was only one person who’d ever escorted Cal home, and that person was supposedly currently barbecue.

Calix: Are you saying Nero is there right now?

He’d only just hit send when there was a sharp prick at the side of his arm. He leapt back, cursing and slapping whatever it was away, confused when he spun around to find Mitri standing there with a needle in his right hand.

“What the hell was that?” A sense of foreboding swept through him a second before a wave of dizziness had him careening to the left. He caught himself on the edge of the table, shaking his head in a poor attempt to clear it, to no avail.

His stomach clenched, and he threw the connection between him and his pod wide open while he still could, instinct taking over.

“I’m sorry,” Mitri didn’t sound sorry. “I really like you, Cal. A lot, actually. I was even kind of honored when Bruce suggested the two of us give it a try, despite knowing how much pain you’ve caused Amory.”

“Amory?” Did he know that Mercy had shot her? No. No, because he was also talking about Bruce trying to hook them up. That had happened long before Amory ended up in Mercy’s kitchen.

It was kind of funny though, because Cal understood where Mitri was coming from. He’d liked Amory too. They’d been getting along, seemed to have come to an understanding. He hadn’t wanted anything bad to happen to her.

But he hadn’t tried to avenge her death either.

He must have laughed out loud, because some of Mitri’s calm facade cracked.

“You think that’s an appropriate reaction?” the forensic scientist demanded.

“No, I’m just struggling to understand what’s going on here.” It wasn’t a complete lie. He pointed a shaky finger at the needle. “What did you just inject me with?”

“109-FS,” he stated, as though that meant anything other than an assortment of random numbers and letters to Cal. He realized with a derisive snort a moment later. “It’s a poison that will give you symptoms mimicking heart failure. You’re going to have a cardiac arrest.”

“Okay.” Not okay, but fine. “And you’re trying to kill me because?”

“Amory.”

Shit. He did know.

“Look,” Calix blinked past another wave of dizziness as his breathing became more labored, “I didn’t mean—”

“I wanted it to be Titus,” Mitri interrupted. “I was going to kill him and use his death as bait to lure her out, but he’s on guard now that I accidentally injured Aodhan instead.”

He froze. “What did you just say?”

“I—”

It took all of his strength, but Calix unholstered his blaster and fired off three rounds in Mitri’s direction.

Unfortunately, he missed.

The room spun, black spots winking in and out of his vision for a moment before he lost his footing and crashed to the ground. His weapon went skittering across the linoleum, ending up somewhere on the other side of the room, out of either of their reach.

Cal didn’t know much about heart attacks, but he didn’t think the symptoms were quite like this.

Mitri must have dumbed it down for him so they could move on to the more important parts of the conversation before Calix lost the ability to converse at all.

Fantastic.

Was the bond still open?

He internally felt for it, but he couldn’t get a grasp on anything other than the wooziness and the cramping that had started in his chest.

If it was open, they’d be feeling this. Mercy and Aodhan would know he was in trouble. They’d know. And they’d come.

They would.

He just needed to buy as much time as he could…Was that even possible?

“How long does this take?” Calix forced himself to ask.

Mitri straightened from where he’d crouched behind the table to avoid the shots. “Truthfully, you should be dead by now. Aren’t you an Emergent?”

Oh good. The connection must still be open then. That must be what was keeping him alive. But for how long?

At least if he died, he’d die knowing he really had made a couple true friends. Saz and Reed must have been telling the truth when they’d said they hadn’t shared that Calix was a part of a pod with anyone. Clearly that included other people at the station, like Mitri.

The dots were starting to connect finally.

Not knowing that they were together, that Cal was bonded to a Connect, Mitri had chosen a drug that didn’t result in an instant death.

The energy between them, the same force that had kept Aodhan alive, was also keeping Calix breathing now.

It would burn through the poison, but Cal didn’t know if it’d be enough to save him, or if he’d need Mercy here to control it to ensure his survival.

“That’s not Nero,” he indicated the body.

“If I involved him, Amory would be even more upset with me when she returns,” Mitri stated.

“I’m genuinely curious.” Calix had to hold on a little longer. He had to. If he succumbed, he’d die, and that would leave Mercy open to this lunatic's attacks. They’d never see him coming. Like how Cal hadn’t seen it. “Have you always been this crazy, or is this a new development?”