I lost my bravery and didn’t respond, breath caught in my throat. He stood up, stalking over towards me. I grew a little anxious with the way he had me fixed in his gaze, leaning over me to put his hands on the mattress, forcing me to lean back away from him to be able to see his face
“That’s the difference between me and someone you should trust, Eden. I don’t regret hurting him. I didn’t hate it.I fucking loved it. Do you understand?”
His eyes were so tired. They were bloodshot and dull. It wasn’t the type of exhaustion from lack of sleep, it was more than that. It was that type of chronic fatigue that rested in your bones: a permanent erosion of his soul.
“Yes, because he hurt me. That’s why, isn’t it?” I asked, voice so quiet that it was almost lost to the sound of the air conditioner.
He sighed, looking down at the small space between us as though he couldn’t look me in the eyes when he admitted it. “Yes.”
“You need sleep,” I insisted. I reached up and put my hand on his chest, pushing him away from me, so I had room. “Please. It may be the only opportunity you get for a while.”
He didn’t move.
I kicked off my shoes and pulled the covers back, sliding under the sheets. “There’s room.”
Minutes passed as though he was considering what I had said, then he got into the other side of the bed. I reached behind me, grabbing his hand and resting it in the same place he had the night before. He didn’t resist, and when I put the hand against me, I felt him spread his fingers like he was fighting the instinct to curl them around me, but he didn’t.
“Good night, Halo.”
There were several beats of silence, and I had started drifting off to sleep. I thought he had too, but then he spoke.
“I dream about you,” he whispered.
I froze, unable to respond, voice and breath both caught somewhere in my chest.
“In my head there’s always so much blood, but you…” He took a broken inhale. “You’re always clean. You always come back. Every single time.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just put my hand over his to squeeze it gently and let my breathing be the only answer.
Chapter twenty-four
Halo
“The Body I Borrowed”
Edenwasstillasleepwhen I woke up. The morning was only a suggestion, barely bright enough to cast a glow at the edge of the curtains. I propped myself up onto my elbow to look at her, lifting my hand hesitantly to brush her hair away from her face. She rolled before I could touch her, folding into my chest. I flinched at the contact but watched her a second longer, long enough to make it hurt, then slid out of the bed.
The room was too quiet once I left her side. I was used to sleeping on the floor, propped against a wall, weapons crammed into my ribs. Sleeping in my bed at my apartment was even worse; it felt less secure, and I felt less prepared. Last night? That was the first time in a long time that I hadn’t woken up in a cold sweat, scanning my dark apartment for whoever it was that would finally catch up to me.
I didn’t want to leave. That should’ve been my first warning that things were not going according to my plan. I was failing to create distance, I was letting her get under my skin. She had a chokehold on me that I couldn’t get out of. I kept pretending I could shake it, I kept lying to myself.
I grabbed my duffel, checked my gun, and headed out the door, shutting it gently so as to not wake her. Morning had barely arrived, casting the entire parking lot in a purple and grey haze. Cicadas buzzed in the trees, screaming in some ancient tongue that civilization had forgotten. I rounded the back of the parking lot and saw Rook’s car idling as he waited for me.
I walked up, opened the passenger door, and sat down. Rook looked like hell: bloodshot eyes, jacket zipped all the way up like armor, and he was gaunt and drawn.
“Cute spot, huh?” he said.
“What do you have for me?”
He grumbled and opened a bag, pulling out a stack of folders.
“Everything you need to know is right here. Contacts, aliases, locations they frequent, family members… you name it.” Rook paused, leaning in closer like he was afraid someone might overhear them. “You’ve got three agencies and one independent contractor who will be looking for her soon. My sources tell me Matteo isn’t happy that you’ve fallen off the map. If he doesn’t have results, he’ll declare open season on her and you both.”
“I had to get her out of town first.”
“Who is this girl? I mean, Iknow. I looked into her. No record, no family, no assets… just witnessed a sloppy execution. What’s she to you?”
I looked over at him, daring him to ask me anything else about her.
