I sit back, absorbing it. “And your brothers are looking anyway?”
“Yes.”
“How many brothers?” I ask.
“Six,” he says. “Nash is the oldest. Banks is the tech. Crewe is the strategist. Jace and Colt are the muscle. Mack is…” His mouth tightens slightly. “Mack’s the one who looks calm but feels everything.”
I blink. “And you’re what?”
His eyes meet mine, steady. “The one who does what needs doing.”
That should not make me feel something. But itsodoes. It makes my chest ache in a way I don’t like. Because I recognize that kind of person. The one who carries weight so no one else has to. I’ve been that person for myself for a long time.
Sin watches me, like he can tell I’m putting pieces together. “This mission matters,” he says, voice firm, as if reminding himself as much as me. “Your case matters. If we can’t figure it out, it could get worse.”
“Worse than attempted vehicular homicide?” I ask weakly.
He doesn’t smile. “Yes.”
A silence settles between us, heavy and intimate in the worst way.
I glance at the window again, at the trees outside, the quiet, the isolation. Safety feels different when you realize how far you are from help. I feel safe with him. But safety is a strange thing. It can make you brave, or it can make you realize how alone you’ve been.
I clear my throat and look down at my coffee. “I haven’t dated in almost a year.”
Sin’s eyes flick to me.
I shrug, forcing a laugh that doesn’t land. “Not that you asked. But it’s relevant. Kind of. Maybe. My brain is… spiraling.”
He stays quiet, so I keep going because silence is my enemy.
“My last boyfriend was a joke,” I say. “Not like funny ha-ha. Like, funny in a tragic way. He called himself an entrepreneur. Turned out he was selling motivational PDFs and using my Netflix account.”
Sin’s mouth twitches.
“Anyway,” I continue, heat rising in my cheeks. “I dumped him, and then I threw myself into work. Investigations, deadlines, digging through financial records at two in the morning. I toldmyself I didn’t have time to date.” I glance up at him, and my voice goes softer. “The truth is, I didn’t want to risk being distracted.”
His gaze holds mine, intense in that quiet way that makes my skin feel too tight.
“And now,” I add, because my mouth has no self-preservation instinct, “I’m sitting in a safe house with you, and I can’t stop thinking about… things that are very much a distraction.”
His eyes darken slightly. My pulse jumps. I should stop. But I can’t.
I gesture vaguely between us. “This is a terrible time to notice you’re gorgeous.”
Sin’s voice is low. “Rowan.”
There it is. The warning.
I swallow, my heart banging against my ribs. “I know. I know. You’re here to protect me. You don’t do feelings. You probably have a rulebook.”
“I do,” he says.
I nod slowly. “And I’m probably breaking all of it by even saying this.”
“Yes.”
The bluntness should offend me. Instead it makes me laugh, shaky and real. “You’re not exactly reassuring.”
