"You’re right." He gripped her waist, pulling her closer, and stared into her eyes.
She tilted her chin up, and this time, when her lips met his, it wasn't the barely there brush from the forest. It was urgent and hard. Her fingers slid into his hair, and everything that had been building since he’d met her landed right here, in this room, in this kiss.
She tasted like sunshine and rain.
His hand came up to cradle the back of her neck, and she made a sound against his mouth, soft, barely there. It decimated whatever was left of the wall he'd been maintaining.
"Am I interrupting?" a deep voice asked.
Zadie jerked back and gasped.
Gideon straightened and turned toward the door.
Darwin stood in the frame. One hand in his jeans pocket, the other holding a small box. He wore a white button-down, sleeves rolled to the elbows, glasses crooked—because some things never changed. There was a hint of playfulness mixed with an air of seriousness in his expression.
"Jesus," Zadie mumbled as she smoothed back the hair from her braid that had fallen around her face. "You scared the crap out of me."
"I cleared my throat three times. You didn’t hear me." Darwin arched a brow. "It's good to see you, Gideon." Darwin stretched out his hand.
Gideon looked at it.
Not long. A second, maybe two, before he took Darwin’s hand.
The grip was firm. Neither of them let go right away.
"Two months," Gideon said.
"I know."
That was enough for now. Just two men standing in a room full of screens and secrets, holding onto a handshake that meant they were both willing to try.
Chapter Seven
Gideon stood in the middle of the comms room and faced the man who’d changed his life once. Darwin had handed Gideon the blueprint to the one thing that mattered most to Gideon.
Saving lives.
Darwin hadn’t taken that away. That had been Finch. But Gideon had blamed Darwin for two long, lonely months, aiming every angry thought he had at this man. If something went wrong with dismantling a node, Gideon blamed it on Darwin instead of the person who’d actually betrayed Gideon.
"I’ll leave you two gentlemen alone." Zadie touched his arm. A brush of fingers against his elbow, nothing more, and yet it was everything. She smiled, turned, and headed out the door. Her footsteps faded down the corridor.
Now, it was just him and Darwin standing in a room full of screens, salvaged equipment, and seven years of history that could never be erased.
Darwin set the small box he'd been holding on the desk next to Zadie's keyboard. He didn't open it. Didn't explain it. Just placed it there with the same delicate touch he did everything. Gideon recalled an incident a few years prior where a colleague sustained an injury during an accident in the pharmaceutical lab. The way Darwin had handled the young woman, her wounds, and everyone else in the wing, had gone beyond what Gideon had seen most doctors do.
"I owe you more than a simple apology." Darwin pulled the chair from behind the second desk and sat down. His glasses slid forward, and he pushed them back with one finger. "I should have fought for you that day. I should have walked into Finch's office and?—"
"We don’t have to go through it all." Gideon dropped into Zadie's chair and leaned back until the springs protested. The monitor behind him hummed. "You didn't know. I didn't know. The only person who knew anything was the guy signing both our paychecks, and he was counting on us not talking to each other."
Darwin leaned forward with his hands clasped between his knees. His white button-down shirt had wrinkles at the elbows from where he had rolled the sleeves, and a coffee stain near the second button that had likely gone unnoticed. Some things really didn't change. Darwin had always been the kind of man who could hold a room's attention while looking like he'd dressed in the dark.
He had the same five outfits. Different color shirts. Different worn jeans. All the same style. He and Gideon shared that.
"The past is behind us," Gideon said. "We're here. Whatever comes next, that's what matters."
Darwin did that little head nod with a brief smile he was notorious for when he agreed, even though he clearly wanted to continue the conversation because Darwin liked to beat a dead horse sometimes. "Thank you for coming. I know the circumstances were... unconventional."
"I had a lot going on, actually. Very full social calendar. Had to cancel brunch with the squirrels. Reschedule a couple of staring-at-the-sky sessions. And of course, there was avoiding getting arrested and killed. But I made it work."
