"I hate that he has to be in a coffin at all."
"Trust me. I wasn't comfortable with it either, but it was his choice and I accepted it. Lucien's a big boy; he knows what he's doing."
"So I keep hearing." He sighed and looked back at the desk. "You busy?"
"No, not really. I keep looking at the file on Donald, going over the pictures and the reports, and I think I'm more confused now than ever."
"You don't think he killed himself, do you?"
I shook my head. "Nope."
Sabaan picked up the file and frowned as he flipped through the pictures. I watched those black nails go through page after page, wondering when he'd shudder in disgust and close the file. We'd been through this same routine several times now where Donald was concerned. He finally sighed and closed it, resting his hand on the top of the file. "Odd for a happy vamp like him to just suddenly decide to throw open the curtains one morning."
"Exactly."
"What are you going to do?"
"Well, for one thing&" I took the file from his hands and put it back on the desk. "I'm not marking his cause of death as suicide. There's something else going on here, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to find out what."
"Good." His approving smile disappeared suddenly and he gasped. "Oh, shit! I knew I was coming down here for something!"
"What?"
"No time to explain." He kissed me and frowned in&sympathy? "Sorry!"
Sabaan was gone in an instant, dematerializing right out of my arms. The sudden shift in weight slammed me back upright in the chair. I was just getting situated when there was a sharp series of knocks on the door. It opened before I had formed an answer.
"I'm so glad I found you." Rhys stormed in and shut the door behind him, albeit loudly. His dark brown hair was a mess, as if he'd been running his fingers through it repeatedly.
I raised an eyebrow. "Rhys?"
"You've got to tell me. If I hear one more excuse why I can't know this or that, I swear, I'm gonna."
"Going to what?" I rose to my feet, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
"What the hell do you think I'm talking about? I swear. No one gives a straight answer around here." I watched him pace the floor, back and forth, his face getting redder and his arms flying this way and that the more he spoke. "It's talk to so-and-so and he can tell you, but it's not my place. But so-and-so says to talk to this person or that person. Blah, blah, blah. Same fucking thing, over and over again, and I'm sick of it. Sick of it!"
Oh, crap.
I had a feeling I knew exactly what he was talking about. There was no easy way to explain the things he wanted to know, and it certainly wasn't our place to fill him in. No matter how much he ranted and raved.
"Rhys."
"Just tell me!"
"It's not my place."
"Yeah? Well, fuck you and your place."
He plopped into a chair on the other side of the desk and just sort of sagged, frustrated and broken-hearted. I didn't have the heart to reprimand him for his disrespect; he'd been patient longer than was expected of any man. He glared at me for a few long moments, then finally tilted his face toward the ceiling and sighed.
"Are you finished?"
He sighed again. "I guess."
"Okay, then." I sat back down in my chair and covered up the file on Donald. "Look, I&" This was such a fucked up situation. "What is it that you think I can tell you that you don't already know?"
"Oh, gee, where should I start?" Rhys rolled those pretty, blue-green eyes that were now full of such pain and confusion. "To start with, I want to know why Simon won't open up to me."
"That sounds like something that needs to be discussed between the two of you."
"Which I would be fine with, if he'd just talk to me!" He shook his head. "Maybe I should have listened to that nagging voice in the back of my mind, warning me that coming back here would just be a mistake. After what happened between us last time."
"You know, I wasn't here back then. What did happen between you?"
"I fell in love with him the very first time I laid eyes on him." He stood and walked to one of the side tables and picked up a bottle of Scotch. "May I?"
"You don't drink, Rhys."
"Tonight I do," he said softly. The drink was poured quietly. He took a long sip and then let his gaze roam to the window and beyond. "Lucien was a client of my father's law firm. When my father died, it was left to me to get his business affairs and his estate in order. Part of that was meeting with Lucien to settle what was left of their affairs."