“Why me?” I ask quietly.
He stops in his tracks, his expression shifting. “What do you mean?”
“Why are they watching me?” I press. “Why am I suddenly… part of this?”
His jaw ticks. “They think you’ve seen something,” he repeats what he’d said in my apartment.
“Ihaveseen something,” I reply. “That’s my job.”
“It’s more than that.”
I hold his gaze. “Then tell me.”
He hesitates, which tells me everything. The hallway feels smaller suddenly, ridiculous actually.
“You went inside,” I say. Not a question.
His expression confirms it anyway.
“And now they’re looking for who did it,” I continue.
“Yeah.”
“And that leads to me.”
His silence is answer enough. I exhale slowly, processing it. “This isn’t random.”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
But he pauses longer this time. When he finally speaks, it sounds like he’s trying to comfort me. “Liv-”
“Don’t,” I chime. “Don’t soften it. Don’t you dare. I need to know what I’m standing in.”
His gaze refines slightly. “They’re organized,” he points out. “And careful. They don’t make moves unless they have a reason.”
“And I’m the reason.”
“No,” he says immediately. But there’s something in it, something not fully convincing.
I cross my arms, suddenly cold in a place that shouldn’t feel cold. “Then what?” I press.
He steps closer, not enough to crowd me but enough to ground me. “They’re reacting. To something they think is a threat.”
“And that threat is connected to me.”
“Yes.”
I nod once. “Okay.” Not okay but understood. At least he told me.
“Does it have something to do with the situation outside my apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you let me help EMS? What if they needed another set of hands? Was it an officer?”
“You couldn’t have helped, Liv,” his voice goes low, too low.
