“The virago talking on the phone’s my twin, Kiki. Pretty sure we had an older triplet, but he got in her way, and she ate him in the womb. Me, she finds beneath her notice.” Riley scoffed at her uplifted middle finger, then dropped his voice to a loud whisper that was practically impossible to ignore. “I think you’ve met her already. I can see you wincing when she comes near you.”
“Yeah. Kind of met her. A little bit,” Forest replied, taking a deep breath. Riley was handsome, a clean-cut pirate of sorts compared to his larger, craggier brother. He had the same freckle spray as his mother, but the rest of his face was a more-defined echo of Connor’s. He’d spoken to Kane for a moment before going to poke around the remains of his shop, trying to avoid the whole meeting-the-family thing until Connor was around to run interference.
Kiki swore softly and came up to nudge her brother. The affable charmer turned hard, and Forest saw the cop in Riley Morgan emerge. The twins huddled and held a private conference, with Riley motioning to Kiki’s phone. Nodding, she pulled back and called out to her partner, who’d somehow found his way through the maze of damage without a speck of dirt on his tailored tweed jacket.
“What’s up? Everything okay up there, Keeks?” Duarte approached the twins, and they immediately walled Forest off from their conversation, standing as close to shoulder to shoulder as their disparate heights would allow. They muttered among themselves, a cardinal and two crows chattering about something obviously involving Forest, if the glances over their shoulders were any indication. When Duarte glanced at Kiki’s phone, he uttered a succinct, hot curse. “Fucking mother of God.”
“Yeah,” Kiki agreed. “Let me see if Ackerman can ID the body. That’ll give us a jump start on things. If not, we’re going to have to wait for the lab to process him out.”
“Body?” Forest stumbled back, and Brigid was there, her hands on his sides to hold him up. “What body?”
Kiki closed the small distance between them. “Is there any reason someone else would have been up in your apartment? Did you send anyone to get you something?”
“No, shit. Jules was the only one who knew I’d gone into the hospital, and she went home. They looked her over, and her mom took her home after they redid her cast. Con got them to wash my clothes, and he picked me up a toothbrush and stuff from the market. No one should have been up there. Shit, I’m barely up there,” he replied. “Why? Did they find someone? Shit, you said body. Is there someone dead up there? Jesus fucking Christ.”
He knew his voice was going hysterical. Either the fracture in his skull was deeper than they’d told him, and his brains were leaking out, or Forest was just getting tired of being dragged through life’s sudden dramas. Soft hands patted him, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist.
“Listen to what Kiki’s got to say, honey.” Brigid rolled her comfort over his panic. “She’ll tell you what she can, all right? And then we’ll go from there. Keeks darling, do you need something from him?”
“I’ve got a picture, Mum, but if you’re not up to it, Forest, then I don’t want you to be looking. We can have the lab people try to track him down through fingerprints and the like.” Kiki kept her phone down, out of Forest’s view.
“If it’s someone I know… fuck,” he groaned, suddenly sick to his stomach. “Goddamn it.”
The woman holding him—Connor’s mother, for God’s sake—stroked at his hair, refusing to let him be alone in his drowning. He couldn’t remember a time when his own mother’d held him like that. Even after some of her guests were done with him, and he’d sobbed from the pain, she’d patted his head and told him he’d better learn to like it because that’s pretty much all he was good for. If anything, Forest wanted to yank himself clear of Brigid’s arms, feeling like he’d somehow stain her, but it just felt too damned good to be held. Another moment more, then he’d pull away. But that moment never came, and when she gave him a tight squeeze and another pat, the tears he’d banished from his eyes swept back down to wet his lashes.
“You’re not a suspect, Forest.” Duarte raised his eyebrows at Kiki, and she filled in, “DB is too new. Maybe even right before we got here.”
“Do you feel up to it, Forest dear?” Brigid asked softly. “Because you don’t need to—if you don’t want to.”
“If I don’t—I can do this. Fucking hell. Shit, sorry. I keep swearing—”
“If you’re calling that swearing, Mum will teach you to do it proper,” Riley drawled. “You’re not even close to what she taught me in kindergarten so I could shock the nuns.”
“Hush, they deserve to be shocked. Tight asses, all of them.” Brigid waved away her son. “Are you sure?”
“Only if you’re certain, Forest,” Kiki murmured. “You’ve already taken a couple of shots to the head. You keel over, and Con’ll have my ass carved up for Christmas dinner.”