He froze,then gave her a wary look. “I’m fine.”
“Nice try.”She forced herself to meet his eyes—raw, bloodshot, rimmed with pain he refused to admit. “I should never have?—”
“You should have,”he cut in gently. “If I’d been the wrong guy, you’d be alive, and he wouldn’t. That’s the right call, Sarah.”
Her throat tightened.“Still. I hate that I hurt you.”
“You’d besurprised what I’ve lived through.”
"This is what you do, isn't it?" she asked. "Take care of people after... after things like this."
They sat in silence for a moment. Sarah could feel the weight of everything waiting to crash down on her—the attack, the chase, the mine, the reality that her life as she knew it was over. But for now, in this stolen moment in a criminal's bunker, she held it at bay.
"I should call someone," she said finally. "My supervisor, or?—"
"With what?" Griff's voice was gentle. "I ditched your phone at the mine. It was compromised."
The last piece of her normal life, gone. "I can't call anyone?"
"Not until we know who we can trust."
That was going to be a while.
As if he knew what she was thinking, Griff smiled, the merest tilt of his lips, but it made him even more handsome. Which totally didn’t help the situation.
At this point, she wasn’t sure anything but prayer would do.
9
Griff watchedSarah fight against the crash, trying to stay functional through sheer determination.
Sarah's fingers had finally stopped trembling around the mug, but the exhaustion was winning. Her eyes kept drifting shut before snapping open, as if she was afraid of what would happen if she let her guard down.
"You need sleep," he said.
"Can't. Need to analyze what we know. Create a timeline. The Chechens, Stillwater, whoever's behind this—there's a pattern. There's always a pattern."
"The pattern will still be there in the morning."
"You don't understand." She set the mug down too hard, tea sloshing. "This is what I do. Financial crimes, conspiracy, fraud—I find the threads and pull them until everything unravels. But this... someone knows exactly how I work. They knew I'd found something."
"What did you find?"
"I don't know." The frustration in her voice was palpable. "I flagged some anomalies in defense contracts, some moneymoving in ways it shouldn't. But nothing that should have triggered..." She gestured vaguely at everything.
"Unless you found something you didn't realize was important."
"Or someone thought I was close to finding something." She pulled her laptop toward her, managed to open it this time. "I need to?—"
Griff closed the laptop gently but firmly. "What you need is rest. Your body's been through trauma. Your mind needs time to process."
"I can't just?—"
"Yes, you can." He moved the laptop out of reach. "You're no good to anyone if you collapse. Trust me on this."
"Trust you?" A bitter laugh escaped her. "I don't even know you."
"I’m the guy you blasted in the face. The guy who saved you anyway. You know enough.” He gave her a look that could probably penetrate steel.
