He couldn’t think straight. Claire was hurt. He was hurt. She’d hurt him. But she didn’t know it. And he had to take care of her, because she was hurt.
He ended the kiss and leaned back to study her in the bright security lights of the parking garage. He couldn’t talk about thecyclone in his chest. He tried to, and instead he said, “What you’re doing…I’m behind you.”
Claire cocked one eyebrow at him. “Really?”
“It’s risky, and it’s smart, and it’s protective. And it’s you.”
“It’s also a little angry.”
“The things that make you angry should anger more people.”
Claire made a neat jump down from his arms. She reached up to stroke his cheekbones with her thumbs. “Thank you.”
Was that the end of it? Maybe it should be. Maybe he should move forward in support, find ways to join this cause. Talk to Laurence and others from the Levine consortium; there must be more he could do to help. But he couldn’t shake the off-balance feeling when he thought of how many nights she had presented herself as bait to potentially violent men while he’d gone about his evening clueless to her risks. He tried to regain his footing on his own, but he couldn’t.
“Twice a month?” He gestured to her dress, her makeup, and tried not to focus on the wound below her neck.
“Yeah. Every other Saturday.”
The Saturdays she hadn’t been able to go out. There had been more than a few over the months. “Who else knows?”
“Just Nova. I didn’ttellher exactly. She found out.”
Maybe he shouldn’t feel shut out, if she’d treated her closest friends with the same secrecy. Except…he did. “Claire, we’ve been dating for almost five months.”
Slowly she nodded, and there it was. The source of the earlier tension. The gritting of her teeth, the tightening of her shoulders. She knew she’d been wrong. She’d been waiting for him to call her on it.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Of course.”
He stepped in close and set his hands on her shoulders. She was rigid now. On guard against him. “When?”
She said, “Suppose I did get picked up by the police? You’d need plausible deniability.”
“And that’s why you didn’t tell me.”
“You’re a respected person—your work, your place at Laurence’s secret think tank. You don’t need to get tangled up in this.”
Not an answer. She was trying not to lie to him. Slowly he said again, giving her another chance not to lie by omission either, “And that’s why you didn’t tell me.”
Claire reached out and grasped his hands, stared up at him with a hint of battle in her eyes. “Tai. Stop. I had reasons, and they’re moot now. Okay?”
“I need the truth,” he said. “Whatever it is, I need it.”
“I just told you the truth.”
“You didn’t answer me.”
“I don’t even know what the question is anymore.”
“When were you going to tell me?”
“When I was ready.”
“And when would that have been?”
“When we’re bloodbound!” Claire stepped back as if surprised by her own voice. Her eyes flashed with purple sparks. Quiet now, she said it again. “I would’ve told you once we’re bloodbound.”
