As much as I miss her, I know I am no longer the man who loved her. I am no longer the man she loved.
Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog
Ivy arrived at the warehouse about twenty minutes after Roman hung up with her. Thankfully, she’d left Willow and Rose behind. Tempest wasn’t sure Aiden could have dealt with them in his current mood.
Roman remained calm as he made calls arranging to have Justin at his home to check Tempest as soon as they could make it back. She’d also overheard him asking Justin to check on the other patient since there had been some changes.
Aiden had reluctantly put Tempest on the ground and put his t-shirt on her. Even in her confused state she was able to appreciate how nice he looked shirtless with a leather jacket on.
Ivy nearly knocked her over with a hug when she rushed into the room. “What happened?” she asked. “Is that Brian?”
Tempest nodded. “Apparently, the victims who looked like me weren’t a coincidence. I’m not sure how many other victims there have been, but I got the impression this has been going on a long time.”
Ivy swallowed several times. “How did Aiden find you?”
“I guess I didn’t mention that when I came back,” Tempest began. “For some reason, I can project my thoughts directly at Aiden. I wasn’t really sure it would work with him so far away. It happened after he found me at the ceremony.”
“It likely has something to do with his ability to track you,” Roman explained.
Aiden nodded. “That actually makes sense. I track your energy. Since you’re so in tune with your energy and the energy around you, I probably opened a path between us.”
“I knew you were coming to the ceremony,” Tempest admitted. “I could feel you every step of the way.”
“So, you used your mind link to call him for help, and he has some crazy tracking skill?” Ivy asked.
“Exactly!” Tempest agreed.
Roman stood silently and watched Ivy. Tempest wouldn’t say he looked uncomfortable, but he seemed unsure of how to act.
Ivy walked over and hugged Roman. “I’m not sure how we’ll explain your relationship when the police get here,” she admitted.
Roman gave her an awkward hug. “I believe it would be best to introduce Aiden as Tempest’s boyfriend and me as his cousin,” he suggested. “Any other explanation will probably confuse matters.”
At the sound of the sirens, Ivy moved away from Roman and sighed. “I called Carlos, Detective Ramirez.”
Tempest wasn’t sure how a San Francisco police officer was going to walk in on a Union City crime scene, but she’d let him worry about that.
Detective Ramirez entered the room and immediately began barking orders at the crime scene unit. Another detective who Tempest didn’t recognize was with him. “Thanks for letting me tag along, Jer,” he told the other detective. “This is related to a case I’ve been working for about a year.”
The other detective nodded. “Try not to order my people around too much,” he said with a scowl before walking over to give the same orders to his team that they’d already gotten from Detective Ramirez.
That seemed to work out well for Detective Ramirez who made his way over to them with an angry scowl on his face.
He wasn’t at all what Aiden had pictured. He’d expected a young detective in a crisp suit. Detective Ramirez was probably in his late thirties, perhaps early forties, based on the lines around his eyes and the sprinkling of gray in his hair. He wore jeans and a t-shirt that read Dial 911 Make a Cop Come. Aiden figured he’d been off duty when he got the call from Ivy. He stalked toward them, his gaze shifting between Ivy and Tempest.
Ivy smiled brightly at him. “I’m sorry about calling you on your day off,” she told him.
“Cut the crap, Ivy,” he snapped, careful to keep his voice low so the other officers wouldn’t hear him. “I knew one of you was going to get hurt. I blame myself for not putting your cute butts in jail for risking your lives years ago. Now, look what’s happened.”
“Detective Ramirez,” Tempest began, but he cut her off.
“I’m calling an ambulance to take you to the hospital,” he told her in a no nonsense voice.
“We will have a physician check her injuries after we leave here,” Roman insisted.
“And you are?”
“Roman Draksel.”
Detective Ramirez was taking notes. He looked at Aiden expectantly.
“Aiden Draksel.”
“How are the two of you involved in this situation?”
“They tracked me down using the GPS on my phone,” Tempest explained. “I’ve recently started seeing Aiden. Roman is his cousin.”
Detective Ramirez looked skeptical but didn’t push it. He merely began asking Tempest about the details of what had happened. Occasionally, her answer made him curse under his breath.
“I’m going to need to keep the crossbow,” he told Roman.
Roman nodded. “Of course. I want to do whatever I can to help with your investigation.”
“Who the hell carries a crossbow?” he asked.
“It’s a collector’s piece,” Roman explained. “I was transporting it from one home to another when Aiden called to get my assistance in locating Tempest. Originally, we’d planned to locate her and call the police. When we heard her scream, we couldn’t delay. I had no other weapons, so we had to make due.” He gave a shrug.
Detective Ramirez looked over at Brian’s body again. “Not many people can fire a crossbow that well.”
Roman gave what was meant to pass as an innocent smile. “I was aiming for his hand. Naturally, I wouldn’t have killed him intentionally.”
Detective Ramirez laughed and coughed to cover it up. “Naturally,” he murmured.
“Carlos,” Ivy interrupted with a hand on his arm, “I know you want to get as much information as possible, but Tempest has been through a lot today. One of Aiden’s cousins is a doctor, and he’s going to check Tempest as soon as we get back home. Can we please arrange to give our statements later?” When he hesitated, she continued. “You can trust us. Besides, nothing we say can help at this point. You aren’t planning to arrest this poor man for saving Tempest’s life, are you?”
He sighed and shook his head. “Don’t think I don’t know you’re trying to use those pretty brown eyes to get me to do what you want.” There was no real censure in his voice, and Aiden wondered what his relationship was with Ivy.
She shrugged and smiled prettily at him.
“Fine,” he agreed before turning to Tempest. “I’ll expect all of you to call me to arrange a time to fill out statements within the next twenty-four hours. It won’t be easy to convince the local department to let you leave before we get all the details.”
“Of course,” Roman assured him. “I will do whatever I can to assist the police in this unpleasant matter.”
Brian took my blood, Tempest said into Aiden’s mind.
Aiden leaned in and whispered to his uncle. “He took some of Tempest’s blood.”
Roman nodded before speaking to the detective. “You will turn over the blood samples to us before we leave.”
The detective blinked and nodded. Aiden told the technicians how much they wanted to give him the blood samples. Thanks to the compulsions, all the law enforcement personnel in the room agreed the blood samples should be handed over. Before leaving they added a compulsion to make them forget there had ever been any blood samples.