“Because she said she knew I wouldn’t just leave her behind without a word,” he answered. “A little kid with an overwhelming sense of confidence in her friend’s loyalty to her.”
“She was right.”
Darius nodded.
“Jon’s grandmother told her the direction we had headed in, and she took off running,” he continued. “She didn’t stop, noteven when she passed Jon. She just kept going until she said she heard me screaming. She broke a window with a rock and found me just as the first blade was cutting into my back.”
For all the serious bluster he had clung to during his career—and in most of his personal life too—Darius broke his own character and let the sheriff see something he wasn’t even sure Eve had seen before.
He let Liam see him as that scared little boy on the warehouse floor.
With wide eyes, still able to fill with the absolute adoration and wonder he’d had for the little girl who had come to him covered in sweat and worry, he looked at his sheriff with every wall he’d built through the years completely down.
“Eve pulled the blade off my back just far enough to slide her hand in between and, as the blade went into her hand, she used the other one to help me untie the knot. And, when we finally got it undone and I was able to move away, do you know what the first thing she said was?” Darius didn’t give him the time to answer. “She was angry she hadn’t gotten there sooner.”
Her hand bleeding, hair plastered to her face and neck from sweat, dirt pressed into her clothes, shards of glass still embedded in one of her shoes, and all she had been was angry at herself for not running faster.
“I never told her that, in that moment, all that fear and pain and panic I had been feeling just went away. Instead, what I felt was nothing but pride.” The warmth from the moment spread through Darius, just as warm as it had as a kid. “Pride in her for being so brave and selfless. And pride in myself because, for the first time in my life, I was able to feel worthy. That something I had done had earned the unwavering love of the girl from next door.”
Darius shook his head.
“That moment is the entire reason I got into law enforcement,” he admitted. “She gave me a gift, and I wanted to spread that to as many people as possible to honor it. To honor her. Even after she left town and we lost touch, I never for one second forgot her. She’s why I help people. She’s why I try to save them. She’s why, even if I can’t, I’ll make sure I bring whoever hurt them to justice in the end. Liam, sheismy why.”
The sheriff’s expression gave nothing away.
Darius waited, knowing they were already back to the present before he asked his question.
“So the point of you telling me that story is—what? That you’re not going to tell me what really is going on with you, her and the Keyses?”
Darius felt his walls rise back and settle into place again. There was no smile, no adoration in his eyes and no warmth left in his chest.
There was anger now.
“This is me telling you that there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for that woman.” Darius felt that anger rise. He lowered his voice, but the feeling behind it was still just as clear and loud as if he had been yelling. “And that’s why, if I were you, I’d break Scott Keys before it’s my turn to get to him.”
Chapter Seventeen
Scott Keys was wearing his Italian leather.
That’s how Eve knew that he had come to the department for blood.
“What the media will never tell you about Scott Keys is that he actually dislikes people calling himrich.”
Eve stepped back from her spot next to the window in the break room door, no longer able to see Scott after he disappeared into a meeting room down the hall. She had only seen a sliver of him but could have spotted that outfit from space if given a glimpse.
She explained her statement to Darius and Theo, both behind her with coffees in hand.
“You can’t earn respect if you pay for it, and he believes the same goes for any reputation worth having,” she continued. “He wants people to see him as the charming philanthropist and not the bored trust-fund baby who likes attention. So when it comes to what he wears in public, he’s always been careful to pick clothes that look nice but aren’t too flashy or too easy a reminder of his inherited wealth.”
Eve tapped the door, pointing in the direction of the meeting room where the sheriff was waiting.
“What he’s wearing right now is more expensive than the department’s salaries combined. And that’s not even factoring in the shoes. Those were custom-madeinItaly.”
“Which means he’s not trying to be humble right now,” Darius guessed.
Eve shook her head.
“No. Right now I think he’s trying to remind us that we’re not on the same page as him. Not even the same book.”
