Not even close.
I slip out of bed and pull on jeans, moving quietly.
I need a minute to get my head straight before I confront her.
Need to figure out what I'm going to say that isn't just pure, unfiltered rage.
Need to remember that I love this woman, even when she does something so monumentally stupid that it makes me want to strangle her.
I take the coffee cup with me.
The basement common area is dark and empty, the only light coming from the small window well near the ceiling.
Dawn is just starting to break, painting the sky in shades of pink and gray.
I sink onto the couch and turn the cup over in my hands, studying it like it might give me answers.
The café's name is printed on the side in cheerful green letters.
There's a handwritten note on the cup—VL, for vanilla latte.
Her usual order.
The timestamp on the receipt stuck to the bottom says 10:01PM.
She didn't just step outside for air.
She walked—or drove—a mile down the road, after dark, ordered coffee, and came back.
While I slept not twenty feet away, completely oblivious.
Some fecking bodyguard I am.
The door to the bedroom opens, and Dalla appears in the doorway, wrapped in one of my t-shirts.
Her hair is mussed from sleep, her eyes still heavy-lidded.
She looks soft and beautiful and completely unaware of the storm that's about to break.
"Hey." She yawns, padding toward me on bare feet. "What are you doing up? Come back to bed."
I hold up the coffee cup.
She freezes.
"Want to explain this?" My voice is calm. Too calm.
I can hear the danger in it, and from the way her face pales, so can she.
"RJ—"
"You left." I set the cup down on the coffee table, carefully, deliberately. "You left the compound. Alone. In the middle of the night. After I told you there was a threat. After I asked you to trust me to keep you safe."
"I just went to get coffee. It was fifteen minutes, maybe twenty?—"
"I don't care if it was five minutes." I stand, and she takes a step back. "Do you haveanyidea what could have happened? Do you have any idea what I felt when I woke up and realized you'd been gone?"
"You were asleep. You didn't even know?—"
