He—
He was talking again. What had he said?
“Are you okay?” Exasperation sharpened his features. It should have been off-putting, but instead, it flipped the pole of his magnet. Where once I’d been repelled, now I was lured closer.
“I’m just tired!”
“Fine. Why don’t you go home before you black out, and Uncle Theo comes at me like a rabid dog?”
I sighed. “Please don’t call him Uncle Theo. He’d kill me if he knew I told you that.”
“Pretty sure he tried to kill you by sending you here to me.”
“I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
He huffed. “Only by the grace of some phenomenal luck.”
If I could have scorched him with my gaze alone, I would have done it.
His head jerked back. “Damn, girl. What th’fuck did I do to you?”
Hatred burned in my chest—for him, for myself, for this ache low in my belly that shouldn’t belong to him, but somehow did. “You started by existing, and it’s only gotten worse from there.”
“I did warn you that would be the case.”
“Do you have to be so—so—” I threw my arms up.
Face a mask of bewilderment, he raised his brows. “Sowhat?”
“Argh!” I marched from the room.
He followed me. “Did you just stomp away like a child?”
I whirled on him, my voice a high-pitched screech. “Do you have a death wish?”
He looked at me like I was stupid. “Yes, obviously.”
That stopped me in my tracks. “Wait. You do?”
He rolled his eyes. A particularly stubborn curl flung itself above his left eyebrow.
My fury exploded as I fought the desire to touch it. “You’re impossible!”
“I’m not the one making zero sense.”
“Why am I here if you have no information today, Lucas?”
“Not every week will be a goldmine,” he said. “We’ve been fairly successful so f?—”
“If you have no information, why didn’t you page me? I didn’t have to come tonight. I look at that damn pager every day, and it hasn’t once gone off.”
“I—”
I threw up a hand. “I don’t want to hear your excuses.”
“You asked?—”
“Ah! What did I just say?”
