Kael’s POV
"Anything else besides this?" I asked Rafe, my eyes narrowing slightly as I studied him. I knew how skilled he was when it ca to digging for the truth.
"I recovered all the physical evidence," he said, his tone calm but sharp. "That includes Eira and Alice’s cellphones. They’re in bad condition, but I’ll try to extract whatever data I can. If both Alice and Eira ended up there, it wasn’t by chance. Soone arranged it. Any suspicious call or ssage might lead us to the one pulling the strings."
He paused for a mont before adding, "And the gun she used. We need to track down who it belongs to, and how she got it."
As expected, Rafe was thorough. His expertise with tech would prove invaluable now.
"Grimhaze," I muttered, reading the na printed across the toxicology report. "It causes hallucinations."
"Yes," Rafe confird. "But Lucian’s the better one to explain its full effects. Once he’s back, I’ll show him the report."
I closed the file with a low hum of acknowledgnt. "If Jason and Lucian find out that Alice was drugged too, they might lose control. They’ll chase their leads recklessly, desperate for revenge. Make sure they don’t act on impulse. Let know the mont anything changes."
"Don’t worry," Rafe said, his voice steady with assurance.
He was quiet by nature, detached even, but I never doubted his sense of duty. He understood what needed to be done, and he never hesitated.
"How is she?" he asked after a beat, his gaze shifting toward the closed door of Eira’s hospital room.
I sighed softly. "We’re taking her ho at noon. We’ll speak then."
Rafe gave a small nod, and together we stepped into the room.
Eira was asleep, her figure lying still under the pale sheets. The nurse stood as we entered, offered a polite nod, and quietly excused herself.
I made my way to the couch, ready to sit, but sothing unexpected caught my eye—Rafe didn’t follow. Instead, he walked to her bedside.
He stood there, silently watching her. If anyone else had been here, they would have teased him, throwing jabs about how her scent should have driven him away by now. But I didn’t say a word.
Because I knew better.
Her scent wasn’t unpleasant to him. Quite the opposite, in fact. If he had found it repulsive, he wouldn’t have stayed in the sa room for even a second. That was how Rafe was—he either liked sothing or he didn’t. There was no middle ground. No tolerance. No compromise.
But for his sake, we chose to believe what he said.
His voice, low and quiet, broke the silence. "Was she crying?"
I humd softly in response to his question.
For the first ti, I saw him express his concern for her openly. Not through his usual savage manner, where he masked his care behind disdain and coldness towards her. But behind that disdain, there had always been hints, subtle signs of a buried tenderness.
He didn’t speak again, yet I caught the slight movent of his hand as he reached out and gently wiped the still moist corner of her eye with his thumb. His red eyes, typically devoid of feeling, there was a tenderness in them I had never seen before.
"Now that we know she might be completely innocent," he said, still gazing at her, "do you regret it now, Kael?"
He didn’t even glance at when he asked.
"I indeed regret not looking deeper into the matter back then," I replied quietly. "She shouldn’t have suffered this way."
He turned to face , his eyes locking with mine. "Is that the only regret you have?"
The intensity of his gaze caught off guard.
I paused, uncertain. "What do you an?"
He stared at for a mont more before saying, "Nothing," with a dismissive shake of his head.
His eyes lingered on her a mont longer before he told , "I’m leaving."
Without another word, he turned and walked out, leaving behind a strange silence... and a gnawing question in my mind.
Does he know? No... there’s no way he does. I never told anyone.
---
By afternoon, I brought Eira back ho.
She had been silent ever since she woke up—retreating once again into that quiet world of hers. There was no trace of her pain and how she cried a few hours ago.
The doctor was right, we needed to unlock what’s keeping her trapped. She couldn’t go like this forever. And dying? Not even in her dream. I won’t let her.
On the drive back, she sat beside in the car, her gaze distant, fixed outside the window as the trees and sky passed by unnoticed.
When we reached the house, I stepped out first and opened her door, reaching to help her. But she brushed my hand away and got out on her own.
"You’re not allowed to walk for long," I said as I scooped her into my arms. "Be patient for a day or two."
She struggled briefly, instinctively resisting, but soon gave in and let carry her.
Roman was already waiting in the drawing room. It seed he had left the office early today, just to be here before she returned.
Rafe was already ho, seated in the drawing room, working intently with a set of tools laid out in front of him. He was focused on extracting data from the physical evidence he had recovered.
"You’re ho?" Roman said as he walked toward us.
Eira didn’t spare him so much as a glance. Her eyes flicked around the room, searching—not for him, but for sothing else.
Of course. Her pets.
Miao!
At Vixen’s familiar cry, Eira imdiately began to squirm in my arms. I sighed and set her down as the cat ca bounding toward us.
Before Eira could even take a step, Vixen leapt into her arms, and she caught her with practiced ease. Without acknowledging either of us, she turned and made her way to her usual corner, cradling her precious companion.
Damn cat. Always craving Eira’s attention like she fucking owned her. What an eyesore.
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