CHAPTER EIGHT
VIVIAN
Iwake to an empty bed and the smell of coffee.
The sheets beside me are cold, which means Deck's been up for a while. Probably did his four AM perimeter check and decided not to come back to bed. I stretch, feeling the pleasant ache in muscles I'd forgotten I had, and smile at the ceiling like an idiot.
Last night was... I don't even have words for what last night was.
I find his henley on the floor and pull it on, not bothering with pants. The shirt hits mid-thigh, and I like the way it smells like him. It’s like I'm wrapped in his presence even when he's in the other room.
He's at the kitchen table when I emerge, tablet in hand, coffee steaming beside him. He looks up when I appear, and his eyes do a slow sweep from my bare legs to my face.
"That's my shirt."
"It's mine now. You forfeited it when you left me alone in bed."
"I was letting you sleep. You needed it after last night."
"I needed you more than sleep." I pour myself coffee and slide into the chair across from him. "What are you working on?"
His expression shifts. The warmth from a moment ago fades into something more guarded. "Security review. I check the footage every morning."
"And?"
"And nothing. Everything's clear." But the way he says it makes my stomach tighten.
"Deck. What aren't you telling me?"
He sets down the tablet and meets my eyes. "Mace called while you were sleeping. The marshals have been tracking Castellano communications. There's chatter about a leak."
"Another leak?" My mind flashes back to Sacramento.
"Someone inside federal protection is still giving up information about witness locations. They don't know if it's related to you specifically, but they're treating it as a credible threat and narrowing down suspects."
The pleasant haze of the morning evaporates. I set down my coffee cup because my hands have started to shake.
"What does that mean for us?"
"It means we stay vigilant. It means I increase perimeter checks. It means we don't get complacent." He reaches across the table and covers my hand with his. "It doesn't mean they've found us. It just means we need to be prepared if they do."
"I thought we were already prepared."
"We are. But prepared and paranoid aren't the same thing. We can enjoy what we have while still staying sharp."
I turn my hand over, lacing my fingers through his. "And what do we have?"
"I don't know." He says it honestly, no pretense. "I know what I want. I know what last night meant to me. But I also know we're in an impossible situation, and making plans feels premature."
"What do you want?"
"You," he admits. "I want you to stay. I want to see what this looks like when we're not hiding from assassins. I want to wake up next to you for reasons that have nothing to do with protection details."
My chest aches. "I want that too."
"Then we make it happen. One day at a time. We get you through the trial, we put Dominic away, and then we figure out the rest."
"And if something goes wrong before then?"
