“I’m going to kill him. Paul, you said? Paul Kingston, right? Another Blood Colonel?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll kill him.”
His brow crinkled with worry. “Not tonight, you won’t.”
I scowled because he was right. There was nothing I could do. “Someday, then.”
“Sure. Someday,” he said, like he was mollifying a child.
He let me cry for several minutes, and I finally squeaked out a watery, “What am I even doing here?”
“You’re trying to stop the bad guys.”
I sniffled. “It isn’t working. Things keep getting worse.”
“You’re wrong,” he said, and my blurry gaze rose to his. “It’s definitely working, Sophia. You won’t have to do this much longer.”
My tears stalled. “You think so?”
He dipped his chin in a small nod.
“What happens to you when this all ends?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a small smile, but he didn’t answer. In the silence that followed, I rose to leave, but he stood at once. “What are you doing?”
“Going…home?” I gestured to the door.
He pointed at the window. “The storm isn’t letting up.”
“I don’t care.”
His expression hardened. “It isn’t safe.”
I was beginning to hate that word.
With a sigh, I glanced around. What was I supposed to do? Wrung out and exhausted, I needed sleep. When I met his eyes once more, he offered me a hand. “Come on.”
He took me to the master bedroom and pulled back the covers on the bed, inviting me to lie down. I blinked at it, then at him. “You want me to…”
“Sleep,” he said. “The storm will pass by morning.”
Too tired to argue with him, I slipped into the bed. Intohisbed. Dressed in his clothes. Coated in his scent. Wearing the invisible tattoo of his lips against my temple.
“I’m less safe here than I would be at headquarters,” I said.
He pulled the covers over me. “No, you’re not.”
“There’s safety in numbers,” I said with a yawn.
“There’s safety with me.”
I paused in my effort of finding a comfortable position to look at him, brow raised.
“Foryou, there’s safety with me,” he corrected, rolling his eyes in thatwhy-are-you-such-an-idiotway.
“Yeah, yeah. You need me alive. Why’s that again?” I asked, already knowing he wouldn’t answer.
