She turns to face me in the doorway, her apartment dark behind her. “Thank you for tonight, Alex. Even though it was...”
“A nightmare?” I finish.
A small smile touches her lips. “I was going to say 'overwhelming,' but nightmare works too.”
“I should go,” I bemoan, but my feet don't move.
Neither do hers. The space between us feels charged. There are so many things I want to say, all of them things that I shouldn’t say while I'm working this case.
“Goodnight, Liv,” I finally manage, turning to leave.
“Alex,” she calls softly.
I stop, my back to her.
“Be careful,” she says. “With... everything.”
I nod once, then force myself to walk away, down the hall, toward the elevator. Every instinct screams at me to go back, to stay with her, and to make sure she's safe. And more.
But I can't.
The elevator doors slide open, and I step inside. As they close, I see her still standing in her doorway, watching me go.
I punch the button for the ground floor, my fist clenched so tight my knuckles ache. Getting into that waiting car outside feels like one of the hardest things I've ever done, because every part of me wants to go back up there and stay with her.
But I can't. Not until this case is solved, not until I know she's safe for good.
Chapter 16
Alex
The morning after the gala feels wrong.
Not quiet, because the precinct is never quiet, but off. Like something in me didn’t reset properly after forcing myself to leave Liv alone in her apartment last night.
The precinct hums around me the way it always does; phones ringing in uneven bursts, keyboards clacking, voices overlapping in low, constant conversation. It’s familiar noise. Grounding noise.
Usually.
But today, it grates at me.
I’m standing at my desk, a file open in front of me, but I’ve been staring at the same paragraph long enough for the words to blur into meaningless shapes. My coffee has gone cold in its mug resting at my elbow. I don’t remember drinking it… or even pouring it.
This doesn’t happen, not to me.
I built my reputation on focus, on being the guy who doesn’t miss details, who doesn’t get distracted, who doesn’t let anything personal bleed into the work.
But right now, all I can see is her. I can still see her opening her apartment door, the soft light from her apartment catching in her hair, showing off the chocolate brown strands. Hermaroon dress falling over her like it was meant to be there. For a second, just a second, I’d forgotten how to breathe. Forgotten where I was, and what I was doing there. I just wanted to push her back into her apartment and take that dress off her.
That doesn’t happen to me either.
Then the way she felt in my arms on the dance floor, warm, solid, and real in a room that’s never felt real to me. The way she’d looked when my father mentioned the crash, like she wanted to disappear and stand taller at the same time. Like she didn’t know how to hold both things at once.
My jaw clenches. I shouldn’t be thinking about this. Not here, not now.
“She get in your head that bad?” Mason’s voice cuts through the noise, too close, and too accurate. I don’t look up. I don’t need to just to confirm that he’s wearing a smug grin and has a knowing look in his eyes that matches his tone.
“Don’t start.”
