Page 113 of My Killer Blind Date

‘I can’t believe you dove off the gurney with both your extremities zip tied,’ I say.

‘I couldn’t let you die.’

‘You could have seriously injured yourself.’

He laughs, wincing, and lifts his arm. ‘Pretty sure I did that.’

I start to laugh too, then my throat catches. ‘When I woke up here, I wasn’t even sure if you were alive.’

We fall silent again, our eyes locked together, somehow saying things our words couldn’t.

Finally, Liam speaks.

‘I wanted to come to your room earlier, but they had to take my statement. It took a minute.’

‘They took mine too. I guess my apartment is a crime scene now. They’re going through Zoe’s stuff.’

‘You can stay with me, if you want.’

I nod slowly. ‘Barnett told me that Devin is MIA.’

‘Yeah, I heard.’

‘He was so dedicated to Zoe.’ It hits me, how much he did for her. The ransacked studio makes sense now – it was Devin, getting her art things. And that was the most benign of the horrible things he helped her do. And they said I was codependent …

‘I looked into him months ago, after Zoe didn’t show for our meet-up,’ says Liam. ‘Good thing, or I wouldn’t have recognized him in that picture. Lonely guy. Loyal guy.’

‘It’s hard to believe he’d leave her at the last moment.’

‘Maybe his self-preservation finally kicked in?’ Liam pauses. ‘How did you find me, by the way?’

‘The photo book, same as you. You left it open. Also, this is so random, but I had this documentary on about dragonfish, which just so happens to be the fish I’d assigned to Devin, and they had this bit about the females actually being the ones with teeth …’ I cringe, realizing how ridiculous this sounds.

Liam’s mouth turns up in a crooked grin. ‘Sounds like someone upstairs was trying to tell you something.’

I hesitate, then shake my head. ‘I don’t even believe in that. But what are the odds, right?’

‘What I’m hearing is, your obsession with assigning fish to people is causing you to reevaluate your entire philosophical paradigm.’

I laugh. ‘No comment. I’m going to need my lawyer present for this one.’ I pause to take a sip of water. ‘But fill me in on what happened with you.’

‘After I recognized Devin in photo with Zoe, I figured I’d stake out his house and look around while he was at work. I watched him leave. Then I let myself in. It was stupid not to let you know where I was – but you’d have insisted on coming, and I didn’t want you in danger. At that point I was imagining he’d killed Zoe. I thought I was alone in the house, but—’

‘Zoe.’

He nods tersely. ‘She caught me by surprise. By all accounts, I should be dead right now. I don’t know why she didn’t kill me right away. All I can say is, I believe there are forces beyond us that intervened last night. I can’t explain it. It’s not logical, but …’ He looks contemplative. ‘I guess I’m grateful, is what I’m saying.’

‘I can get behind the gratitude part.’ I raise a brow. ‘The higher-purpose stuff, we’ll have to argue about later.’

His smile returns. ‘Yeah. Arguing later. I like the sound of that.’

‘Or now. Since we’re kind of on a date.’ I pluck at my hospital gown and floof my hair. ‘Obviously.’

Liam releases a huge laugh, the sound of his baritone rolling through the room, making the sterile space feel rich and warm and cozy, and given what’s happened, maybe laughter should feel strange, but it doesn’t, it actually feels great, like really fucking great.

After he’s stopped laughing, he winces. ‘Ah – don’t make me laugh. My ribs.’

And that’s when I remember, with a rush, what he said last night, right before he passed out, his nose gushing blood.