“She was pressured,” Angelica said, “Cai says she’s terrified of jail. But, Peter, they have evidence he went to the hospital and requested Cambivric.”
“What’s that?” He and Darryl asked nearly at the same time.
“It’s a drug they give rape victims to reduce the risk of exposure to HIV,” I said, leaning against the wall. Dammit.
“Oh God,” Peter whispered pressing his hands against his forehead. “Fucking stupid. How did I not know?”
“Let’s get through this, and then we can help him. His mother is here now,” Angelica soothed with a hesitant pat to his arm. “This works in our favor. But you’re no longer his legal guardian, you’re a suspect in your father’s murder at worst. And at best, you’re complicit in Cai’s flight. There’s only one person the courts would even consider releasing Cai to…”
Her pause made my brows rise while my brain went through every person that could have a single—
“Austin?” Angelica smiled.
“Say what now?” I said, doing my best Wile-E-Coyote-plan-backfired blink.
Chapter Thirteen
Three Against One—And Not in the Fun Way
I grasped for the nearest metaphorical branch to avoid being pulled over the edge. “I’m not approved for foster care. They’re not just going to release him to me.”
“You don’t need to be,” Angelica informed me. “His mother was flown in. You just need to have her staying with you.”
My thoughts flat-lined. Peter stared at the floor with his fucking typical unreadable expression. Darryl glared under perfectly arched and plucked brows, as if anticipating my negative response. And Angelica’s attack was double-barreled: her damn kitten eyes and her placid smile.
Fuck!
“Austin, he’s a good kid. I’d take them myself but with his case and my others, the work hours for the next few months are going to be ridiculous."
“There’s an entire fucking world out there and you pick me?”
“You have a stable home—”
“I’m a single man very recently outed. He’s a sixteen-year-old boy!”
“You’re a decorated police officer—”
“Working on the guy he killed’s case!”
“Allegedly.”
“No, I’m pretty sure I’m working on the case. No alleged about it.” Only, I wasn’t. When I got back to work, I’d be off this case.
“Why do you have to be a smartass about everything?”
“Because everyone else thinks I’m a fucking dumbass. I have to do something to prove them wrong.” No one was making an argument about this arrangement but me. If Luis were here he’d suggest they just shoot me and get it over with. This was just a slow, cruel, torturous death of my meticulously planned future. “What you’re asking me to do is literally toss my career away. Much as I despise Delmonico and think Marco is an idiot, I can’t take their chief suspect into my house. What kind of message would that send?”
“That you think he’s innocent, and they should start hunting for the real suspect. They’re not even looking anymore, Austin. They’re sitting on their complacent—”
“I wouldn’t look either!” I yelled, catching the attention of various whispering passersby as my voice echoed in the halls. “There’s a fucking witness, he was at the scene, he’s done it before. Who the fuck could possibly believe he’s innocent besides these two dipshits,” I hiked a thumb at Darryl and Peter, “who apparently think he’s the next coming of Christ. But not me. I am not joining the Cult of Cai.”
“I believe he’s innocent,” Angelica said.
“Did he tell you that?”
“You know I can’t reveal anything he said. But I think I’ve made myself clear.”
Damn her gentle smile. Damn her calm, rational voice. And damn her reproachful, guilt-laden eyes. And damn Peter, too, while I was at it. And his fucking bunny slippers that made me interested enough to pay attention to him in the first place. I was burning those fuzzy fuckers the moment I saw them again. Which reminded me, he was suspiciously silent.
He didn’t make his usual plea with his eyes, or use his body and my feelings for him, he didn’t even raise his gaze from the marble tile. Despite all of Angelica’s cajoling, what finally had me considering agreeing to do this was Peter’s lack of comment.
Maybe he understood the gravity of my situation. I needed to believe that. I needed to believe he comprehended the fact that, should I go back to work, taking Cai in would make me a pariah amongst other cops who would already have enough trouble dealing with my being gay. Even Luis would probably distance himself from me.