Shiver(93)

“Fuck.” Aidan shut his eyes hoping the man was a figment of his imagination. He peeked. Nope, still there.

Garrett’s hard mouth tilted at the corners. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” He cocked his head. “Trouble likes you, doesn’t it?”

So did heartache it seemed. “What the hell are you doing here?” His sluggish mind connected the dots. “Peter?”

Garrett nodded.

“Where is he?”

“Hiding in the kitchen with the women.”

The ache in chest, thumped. Women? “Sonya’s here?”

Garrett nodded again and folded his arms across his muscled chest. “Want to fill me in on what happened this morning?”

“Not really.”

“You understand that wasn’t a question?”

“Yeah, yeah. I remember the drill.” Aidan moved to sit up. Hell, he hurt. He had to give it up to Roland. The old man could sure land a punch.

“Do you need to do this now?” Eva asked, moving around Garrett.

Garrett’s imposing frame had blocked Aidan from seeing Eva enter the room. But now that she was here, Aidan started to sweat.

Eva’s pinched pixie face leaned over him from the other side of the bed. “Glad to see you’re back with us.”

“Go away,” he mumbled. Great. Damn fish cop on one side and the demon nurse on the other. Next time they ran into each other Roland was going to answer for this too.

“Did you hear that? He told me to go away.” Eva’s voice was more concerned than outraged.

“He’s been like that since we found him,” Lynx spoke from the shadows, sitting in the rocking chair in the corner. “Damn fool had to be the hero and go off on his own. Do you think he was hit on the head? That would explain a lot.”

Eva probed carefully around Aidan’s neck and head with gentle fingers.

“I can answer for myself,” Aidan said, moving away from Eva. Any minute now her soothing hands were going to dig in and make him hurt.

“Start talking then.” Garrett leaned against the dresser, crossing his legs at the ankles. He looked relaxed as though he had all damn day to interrogate.

Aidan glanced between Eva—pulling a pair of scissors out of her black bag of torment—and Lynx who slowly rocked back and forth in the chair.

There was no way he was going to get out of reliving this morning’s nightmare.

He addressed Garrett and tried to ignore Eva cutting another bloody, torn piece of clothing off of him. “How much do you already know?”

“Peter filled me in on everything up to the events of today.”

“I went to find Roland. I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt over Harte business.”

Garrett tightened his jaw, obviously remembering the nightmare the Hartes had put him and Sonya through last summer. “I take it you found him.”

“He was at Earl’s, tearing the place apart looking for gold. I surprised him.” And then Raven had surprised them both.

“Blast it, Aidan, you tore my stitches.” Eva shook her head in disgust. “You have any idea how careful I was to keep the stitching even and neat so you wouldn’t end up with a nasty scar?” She didn’t seem to need an answer as she continued to swear under her breath, grabbing gauze and disinfectant.

He flinched when she went to work cleaning and repairing the wound.

“What happened?” Garrett asked, the corner of his mouth lifted in amusement as Eva worked on him. Lynx continued to rock silently in the corner, watching.

“The usual. Insults, punches, and then Roland pulled a knife.”

“Weren’t you armed?”

“We both were. Turned out we preferred to end it personally.”

“What broke it up?” Lynx asked, quietly from his chair.

“Raven.”

“Your sister, Raven?” Garrett clarified with Lynx, putting names and faces to all the players. Then he addressed Aidan. “Peter said you and her have history. A son together?”

He nodded. No way was he going into all this with Garrett. The man could arrest him for all he cared. He was not baring his soul, laying his dreams out for the damn fish cop to trample over again.

Garrett nodded as though understanding the past was off limits.

“What happened when Raven showed up?” Lynx asked, stopping the motions of the rocking chair.

Eva poked and pinched as she re-stitched his wound, but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as answering Lynx’s questions were going to be.

Aidan met Lynx’s stare. “She overheard Roland egging me on. He brought up your dad’s death.” He paused to swallow. “Lynx, I was the one who bought the explosives for the bomb that caused the rockslide that killed your dad.” Eva gasped, her movements stilled. Aidan gave that a moment to sink in before he continued, “I was also the one who planted the charges. But you’ve got to believe me, I had no idea what Earl was up to until it was too late. I’d bought explosives for him many times. If I’d known…”