He shakes his head. “No. What if you fuck up? What if your blood is on him? What if Jesse’s blood is on him? Dammit, Liam, this is so risky. This is how you’re going to get us on Whitaker’s trail?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t like this. Jesse knows too much.”
“Jesse’s in too deep to pull himself out alone and he knows it. Even if he hands over all of the information he has right now, it’ll just mean we have one less talented person on the case and things will come to a grinding halt. I’ll be removed from the case since Whitaker seems to be focused on me as well, especially if we alert others that I killed Tate. I need Jesse, and I just need one more night before everyone will know that it’s Whitaker.”
“I don’t like this,” Gabriel says. “But we need to end it before anyone else dies.”
I run the medical glue along the cut and Gabriel looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“What the hell are you?—”
And I squeeze the slice shut.
“Fuck,” I hiss through gritted teeth. “Fuck, that hurt.”
“I bet it did! What the hell are you doing?”
“I can’t get blood on anything, and I don’t have time to get it stitched,” I say as I smack gauze over it and start taping it. I’m tempted to tape it down with duct tape to make sure nothing leaks out, but the glue seems to have slowed its bleeding.
“I’m cringing over here and this didn’t even happen to me. Let me help.”
“Well, I’m done now.”
“I… I see that, but I was so flabbergasted that I forgot to help,” he says as he examines the rest of my arm and notices all of the cuts from Jesse’s nails. “Liam, how did we get sucked in this deep?”
I don’t know. I let it spiral and never meant for it to get this far. This is why I never should have let my darkness win out. I just didn’t realize how risky it would become.
But I’m afraid to admit that to Gabriel, so instead, I say, “Just think about all of the people we’re saving because he’ll never kill again.”
“But if we’d have just reported it at the beginning?—”
“He might never have shown himself if we had. He’s eluded the police for this many years. Avoided even beingnoticed. But he’s being sloppy because I’m egging him on. He’s throwing himself into the limelight because he wants to get under Jesse’s skin. He thinks he’s invincible. I’m about to show him that he’s not.”
Gabriel grabs my face. “Let me go with you.”
“No, I need you to keep Jesse safe. When he’s feeling better, the two of you need to pick up Michaels’ car that I left there without being seen,” I say as I put the keys in his hand. “Jesse can show you where it is. Then be ready to destroy Whitaker’s miserable life.”
“I am.”
He pulls me in for a kiss, his lips pressing gently against mine, so gently that it’s almost just a brush against them. “You’re going to be so fucking careful, you hear me?” he whispers in my ear, and it almost sounds like a threat. It makes me shiver, and when his hand slides around my back, holding me tight so I can’t step away, I find that I only want to step into him.
“Of course I will.”
“I’m not joking around. If you fuck up, all of this, all of our lives together… it’s all gone.”
“I can’t live without you.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Gabriel says as he draws me in for another kiss. “Just don’t make a single mistake.”
I want to taste his lips again, but his eyes are boring into mine. It’s like he wants something but doesn’t believe the words that come out of my lips.
“I’m always careful. It’s others like your drowning buddy over there who mess things up.”
“Thank you for saving him.”
“Yeah… I did it so I can blackmail Jesse,” I inform Gabriel.
