Déjà vu.
“I was losing my mind over you,” he says. He doesn’t blink. Doesn’t break the stare.
“Oh, that’s what you meant,” I taunt.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
My fingers curl against the railing.
“So,” he asks, “you want to know how it happened? Or are you just gonna tease me again?”
I lean back against the railing, pretending the cool metal is what’s keeping me steady. I don’t think there’s a thing in the world that could.
“Go on, then.”
He rubs a thumb along his jaw, like he’s deciding how much to tell me.
“Cassian was driving himself nuts,” he says. “Nathaniel was pretending to read but really listening for any sign you were waking up in the room we had you. And me…” He gesturesloosely, as if the space between us could explain the rest. “I couldn’t sit still. So I told them we should make sure you had something decent to come back to.”
“It was your idea?”
“Yeah.” His mouth curves into that wolfish half-smile. “I figured if you woke up, you’d need stuff. Comfort stuff. You went through hell for us. The least we could do was make sure something good was waiting when you came back.”
I drop my gaze, tracing the edge of one skull on my sock with the toe of my sneaker.
“You say ‘we.’”
Talon’s smirk softens.
“Yeah, we. I pitched it, but Cassian made sure the place was actually safe before you set foot in it. Nathaniel did… whatever Nathaniel does to make a place feel like it’s been exorcised and feng-shui’d at the same time. It was a team effort. But, well, it was mostly Cassian and me. Nathaniel stayed at your bedside, being a doctor and all.”
“Ah,” I murmur. “So you had an opportunity to talk things out with him?”
“More or less.”
I can’t help but laugh. “My God, Talon.” I shake my head. “You’re really giving meallthe details, huh?”
He tilts his head, grin sharpening again.
“Do you wantallthe details, Little Grim? Because I can start with the part where Cassian threatened to break my jaw if I made any jokes about you while you were out.”
“That sounds about right. But why would you even joke about me? What did I do?”
“You see, I wouldn’t.” His grin turns sly. “Your whole hero act got me in a chokehold big enough to make me start reevaluating my life choices and shit. But Cassian thought I would.”
Can’t blame him. Cassian’s got a protective streak the size of a warpath. It’s clear by now.
Sometimes I think he’s capable of burning down everything he has with Talon and Nathaniel because of me. Pair that alpha I’ll-stand-for-my-woman energy with his one-track mind and his refusal to bend, and you’ve got a man who’d go to war over a glance.
Talon must see that thought flicker across my face, because his grin turns knowing.
“Yeah,” he says. “Exactly that. He’s not subtle about it, either. But that sexy car situation changed his mind a little.”
I freeze.
“What?” I blink at him.
