The word surprises me. I blink. “Fine?”
“You think for yourself,” he says. “You decide to walk out that door alone—” he gestures behind me, “—you won’t make it ten minutes before whoever’s out there gets what he came for.”
My stomach drops. “That’s not?—”
“It is,” he cuts in. “You’re already compromised.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means he knows your patterns,” Ethan says. “Knows where you stay. Knows when you’re alone.”
My fingers tighten. “That doesn’t mean I need you controlling every move I make.”
“It means you need someone who knows how to hunt him.”
The silence is heavy because that’s what this is.
A hunt.
And somehow, I’m in the middle of it.
“You don’t trust me,” I say.
His mouth curves slightly. “No.”
I huff out a breath. “Good. Because I don’t trust you either.”
“Smart.”
“Then why am I here?”
He watches me for a second.
Long enough that my skin starts to feel too tight.
“Because you knew I’d be better than your other options,” he says finally.
I hate that he’s right.
Again.
“I don’t like this,” I admit.
His gaze sharpens. “You’re not supposed to.”
I swallow hard, forcing my voice steady. “So what, I just—stay here? Do what you say? Wait for you to fix it?”
“For now? Yeah.”
I shake my head. “That’s not happening.”
His brow lifts. “No?”
“No.”
I step forward this time, closing the distance, pushing back into his space. “I don’t take orders,” I say. “I don’t sit around and wait. And I sure as hell don’t let some man I just met decide what I can and can’t do.”
The corner of his mouth lifts again, amused. Like he likes the fight.
