“You are?” she asked, doubtful.
I swallowed, suddenly unsure of myself in a way that I was not used to. The truth was complicated. I was glad she had come back, relieved as if something inside me had been clenched and finally loosened the second I saw her step out of that SUV.
But underneath that relief was something darker, something colder that refused to let go—fear.
I looked at her hands, freshly wrapped in clean white gauze. My throat worked before I forced the words out. “You should be somewhere safe.”
Her fingers curled into her sweater. “I thought I was safe with you,” she whispered.
I lifted my gaze to hers, and she was watching me the way she always did—open and honest, like she trusted me completely.
“You are,” I said, softer now.
Her breath hitched, and the sound went straight through me. For a second, I thought about closing the distance between us, about pulling her into my chest and keeping her there.
Instead, she leaned forward until her forehead touched mine. “And I want to keep you safe, too,” she said.
My body hummed at her proximity, at the scent of her. Her words were like a balm on my ravaged heart. She would never need to take the burden of protecting me, but the fact that she wanted to meant everything.
Yet shame burned in my chest like a hot coal, scorching away those soothing sentiments before they could settle. A small voice whispered that I had failed Jess, and I didn’t deserve the happiness that Palmer offered.
“You need sleep,” I murmured.
She frowned, but neither of us moved.
After a moment that stretched too long, I forced myself to step back. “I’ll be downstairs,” I said. “If you need anything.”
Her eyes never left mine, but the disappointment on her face was unmistakable this time.
“Okay,” she breathed.
I turned before I could change my mind, before I could do something reckless…like admitting how badly I wanted to kiss her.
I closed the door softly behind me and stood there in the hallway for a long moment, staring at my boots, trying to steady my breathing and convince myself I still had control.
30
Roman
August’sentirebodyvibratedwith rage as he stared at the hollow shell that Hearthstone Security had become. We all stood out in the freezing cold, snow crunching under our boots, the air sharp enough to sting my lungs.
The building looked wrong. It was gutted and blackened. The windows were blown out, and the roof sagged in places where the fire had chewed through beams that had taken years to putup. August was a few feet behind the wreckage, his arms folded across his chest, jaw locked like he held himself together by sheer force.
Fox was at his side, with his hands shoved deep into his coat pockets, but even he, usually so controlled and unreadable, had fury burning in his eyes. Reid and Graham were there too, though they seemed more exhausted than angry, like this was one more thing piled onto too many others.
I tried not to shift uncomfortably at all their reactions to what was left of Hearthstone. They had trusted me to watch over the place while they were gone, and I’d let them down. The loss devastated me as well.
They might be the ones who had worked there every day, the ones who had built the business from the ground up. But I had helped Dad fix up the old outbuilding when they first decided to turn it into office space. I might not have worked here the way they did, but I’d bled into these walls too.
“We think the structure might be salvageable,” I told August, thankful that my voice was steady.
He looked away from the building, making a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. “We are going to end that goddamn monster,” he muttered, talking about Amos.
I hadn’t wanted to bring them out here to see it like this, but they’d insisted. They wanted to see the damage before we talked about the plan going forward. Maybe they were right. Maybe standing in the ruins made it real in a way no report ever could.
I stepped forward and clapped a hand on August’s shoulder, feeling the tension wound tight under my palm. “We will make him pay,” I assured him. “In time. For now, let’s get inside and talk this through.”
August didn’t move at first. He kept staring at the building like he could will it back into existence.
