I don’t answer. I don’t trust myself to. The firehouse feels emptier without Mason in it. Emptier still when the detectives leave a few minutes later.
The crew drifts back to work, disappointment faintly visible now that the entertainment is over. Aiden and I stand facing each other in the sudden quiet, neither of us willing to be the first to move.
“Harper,” he starts.
“Don’t. Not here.”
He nods, restrained but clearly unhappy about it. By the time we leave the firehouse, the sun is lower in the sky, the day slipping toward evening whether I’m ready for it or not. And the truth presses in, unwelcome and unavoidable.
Being alone with Aiden is going to be harder than talking to the police ever was.
The penthouse feels different without Mason.
It’s quieter, obviously, but it’s more than that. There’s no buffer anymore. No reason to keep my voice calm or my reactions measured. Just me and Aiden and raw honesty, standing in a space that’s been charged since the night before, pretending we don’t both feel it.
I set my keys on the counter with more force than necessary and shrug out of my jacket. My body is tired in that deep,vibrating way that comes from adrenaline finally draining out. My mind, unfortunately, is wide awake.
“We should talk,” Aiden says.
I let out a short breath that’s almost a laugh. “That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
“I’m serious,” he replies. “About earlier. About what I said.”
I turn to face him, crossing my arms automatically. “About you deciding I need security?”
“About you acting like this is just another problem you can muscle through alone,” he says. “Someone tried to burn down your business, Harper. That changes things.”
“It doesn’t change who I am,” I snap. “Or how I make decisions.”
“It changes the stakes.”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “Not really.”
He looks like I smacked him in the face. “Marcus tried to kill you!”
“He didn’t know when that leak would be a problem?—”
“He didn’t care when it would be a problem!”
“Sure, but Aiden, it’s all the same for me.”
His brow lines in confusion. “How can you say that?”
“The stakes are always the same for me now. I’m a single mom, with an ex-husband across the country. Our lives are on my shoulders. So, the math is always the same—willthisdecision be the end of me and my son? Willthatrisk be what does us in?” I shrug. “The stakes never change for me. I do what I can to be smart about it, but it’s all on me. Do you get that?”
His stormy blue eyes narrow. “All the more reason to be extra careful right now.”
I can’t tell if he understands me yet. “I have spent six years rebuilding my life. Making careful choices. Thinking things through. David was one of those choices that didn’t pan out, and now, I’m a divorced mom, so I have to be even more choosy.” Igrit my teeth to say the cruel thing out loud. “I cannot afford to make bad decisions again just because something feels familiar.”
His face goes blank. Empty. “You think I’m a bad decision.”
“I think you’re a temptation,” I shoot back. “And that makes you dangerous.”
He exhales slowly, running a hand through his hair. “I’m not asking you to give up control. I’m asking you to accept help.”
“That’s what David used to say,” I reply before I can stop myself.
The name lands between us like a dropped plate.
