Page 182 of Only Be Mine

My hands didn’t shake this time.

I opened my messages, scrolled to Seth’s name, and typed.

Me: Can you send me Marshal’s direct line? And… can you stay close tomorrow? Just in case

I stared at the text for a heartbeat, then hit send.

In the kitchen, Trevor opened a drawer. Metal clicked softly.

I didn’t move, didn’t announce what I’d done.

Not because I was hiding, but because I was learning, slowly, what honesty cost inside this house.

Chapter 66

Cate

Present

Itold myself I was looking for a pen.

That was the story I let my brain settle on as I walked down the hallway toward Trevor’s office.

Marshal had agreed to meet tomorrow instead. Someplace public, neutral ground. My choice.

That felt like something.

Small. But mine.

I needed to write things down. Names. Dates. Questions.

If I didn’t put structure around this, it was going to swallow me whole.

Trevor’s office door was half open.

He hated that.

The room always smelled faintly of leather and toner and something sharper. Order, maybe. Everything had a place. Everything returned to it.

I stepped inside carefully, like I was borrowing space.

His desk sat centered beneath the window. Clean. Minimal. Not a single paper out of place.

Of course.

I crossed to it and opened the top drawer.

Empty except for neatly stacked legal pads and a row of identical black pens lined up like soldiers.

I almost laughed.

It was too neat, almost ridiculously so.

I closed it and pulled the second drawer open.

Paper clips. Stamps. A small flashlight. A measuring tape.

The third drawer stuck slightly before sliding free.