Page 40 of Be Still My Unbeating Heart

De Luca held his gaze for a moment longer, and Bastian felt like the inspector was taking in every inch of him. He felt naked under that discerning stare, but he removed his Wayfarers brieflyto return the stare without flinching, even though staring at De Luca caused him to notice those long lashes again, the way they caught the sunlight, which Bastian obviously found not in the least bit appealing.

Finally, De Luca blinked. He removed the handcuffs from his belt and said, “Give me your wrists.”

Bastian frowned. “Inspector, now isn’t the time for kinky afternoon delight—”

“I can help you,” De Luca interrupted. “But we have to be quick.”

“You’re not going to cuff himagain, are you, Inspector?” Whitby said from the wall.

Bastian almost laughed, but something in the man’s earnest expression told him it wasn’t a trick. De Luca wanted Bastian to trust him, and even though the thought of being cuffed again made Bastian’s gut squirm, he knew that trust went both ways. Putting his Wayfarers back on, he clasped his hands behind his back, turning so that De Luca could fasten the cuffs. He tensed in anticipation of the silver fire around his wrists, but none came.

De Luca hadn’t used silver restraints.

“Oh wonderful, look who it is now,” Whitby muttered, and Bastian saw Commissario Zappa stomping toward them from the beach. His eyes burned with fury, and he was bigger than Bastian remembered, every muscle straining to burst through the fabric of his uniform. A heart attack on legs if Bastian ever saw one.

“Should’ve known,” Zappa growled as he reached the trio. “De Luca, how did this happen? What are you doing out of the apartment?”

De Luca held on to Bastian’s arm. Bastian tried to ignore the delicious warmth of his touch, the way it seeped up into his shoulder, causing a glow in his own cool flesh.

“Commissario, I have been with the vampire since his arrestlast night,” De Luca said. “We left the apartment when we heard the screams from the beach. I was concerned that my help was needed.”

Zappa’s nose wrinkled in a sneer. “That is not your job. Yourjobwas to keep the vampire under house arrest and in your sight at all times.”

“But the killer—”

“We have the killer right here!” Zappa roared. “And he’s killed again!Incompetente!” He said something else in Italian, which Bastian only just understood.

You disgrace the memory of your father.

De Luca looked like he’d been punched. His cheeks flushed.

Anger seized Bastian’s chest.

“De Luca’s the one trying to find the killer,” he told Zappa. “What have you been doing all this time, darling? Getting your eyebrows waxed? They certainly need it.”

Zappa’s mouth flapped in outrage.

“Is there another infinity pin? On the body?” Bastian continued. “There is, isn’t there? I’m telling you, this is the same person that killed Luna.”

“I shall conjure a distraction to help us escape this babbling buffoon,” Whitby said. She began muttering an incantation, the breeze ruffling her fur, and Bastian wished desperately for it to work. Zappa looked like he was about to produce a stake.

“Silenzio,” Zappa ordered the cat, eyes bulging. “Whatever devil creature you are!”

“She’smydevil creature,” Bastian said. “Listen,I’m being set up, Commissario. Somebody must have known I’d be down by the harbor to find the body.”

“Preposterous! How could anybody have known—”

“Matteo,” Bastian said. “When we left the apartment, Matteocame at me with a gang. He practically forced me down to the harbor. I mean, us. He forcedusdown to the harbor.”

De Luca’s eyebrows rose but he said nothing.

Zappa looked like he was on the verge of cracking a tooth, his jaw was clenched so tight. He really didn’t like Bastian talking about his son.

“Matteo couldn’t have known that,” Zappa spat. “Besides, he is nowhere near the harbor. He is currently being treated for a broken arm at the hospital.”

“Broken arm?”

Bastian remembered the snapping sound that came when he fought free from Matteo during their fight. It hadn’t registered at the time because he had been too busy trying to save his unlife. Had he hurt the kid?