🗝️Detective Ryker Viltarin must uncover dark secrets before he loses not only his heart but also his life.🗝️
You're on your own, far from home
The wind is blowing in the top of the pines
A gloomy sky where the sun never shines
Deep...
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The little woman's delicate fingers tickled Ryker's skin over his dark beard. A tiny spark of warmth that, together with the small, gentle gestures, poured over him like a balm. It was a tiny touch ... and yet a bright light for him, softening the shadows and the fog that had fallen over him unprepared.
He felt like a ship lost in the vast sea, seeing the glow of the saving lighthouse. Although the thick fog and darkness had not yet lifted and still hung over him, he felt a deep gratitude that could not be put into words.
What had happened?
The question caught him as unawares as the seizure while his eyes still lingered in hers. The wooden stick still in his mouth, his jaw suddenly stopped grinding. The sweet taste that had soothed his senses was lost on his tongue alone while his heartbeat quickened involuntarily.
Flickering images reappeared in his mind. Scenes of bloodied hands on a dusty floor. Mixed with dirt and so much pain...
The tension returned to his body as if Eve had suddenly turned into one of his countless nightmares. His shoulders shook as he forced himself to take a shuddering breath.
Slowly, his eyelids lowered, almost in sync with his head, and hesitantly, he broke away from the gentle touch lest she see the fog of a dark past filling his thoughts again.
"Would you like some?" he offered instead in a rough voice and, without looking up, handed her some of the sweet caramel. He needed time. It wasn't easy for him to take her up on her offer, which he sensed she only meant well.
Eve probably sensed that she was treading on thin ice. Because she gave him the time he needed and simply kept quiet. Patient with him... and he thanked her for that, even if he couldn't express it.
The silence descended over the room and weighed heavily on their shoulders.
He hadn't shared these... events with anyone. The only ones who knew about it were his old comrades who had been there. Among them was Dylan, whom he had always trusted beyond measure, like most of his comrades in arms from the war. But now ... so much of his previously rock-solid world had crumbled in the last few weeks that he no longer knew how stable this wall between him and the outside world could still be.
