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Ignoring her attempt to goad him into seeing things her way, he reminded her why she was on his couch in the first place.

“You’re recovering from a concussion.”

“I can do both, you know.”

“Not today, you can’t.”

Devon sighed. “I hate feeling so useless.”

“You’re not useless, Dev. You just gave us a lead we didn’t have five minutes ago.”

Silence fell between them.

“Promise me one thing?”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t shut me out because you’re scared.”

Blake pictured the SUV that had nearly taken her away from him.

“I’m not shutting you out.”

“Good. Because you know we’d both be miserable if you tried.”

His shoulders shook with a chuckle. “Get some rest. I’ll call you when we know something.”

“Okay.”

“And Dev?”

“Yeah?”

“You were just kidding about you and Winslow gossiping about me, right?”

She paused. “Maybe.”

“Devon—”

The line went dead before he could finish.

Blake smiled, sliding the phone into his back pocket as he started across the room.

God, I love that woman.

He froze. Just stopped right there, in the middle of the room.

Love? Sure, he cared about her. And yeah, he’d already admitted he was falling for her.

Falling being the operative word.

But now⁠—

I love her.

As in all-consuming, making him crazy, head-over-heels in love. And the woman who owned his heart was counting on him to keep her safe.

Over the course of the next few hours, Blake had learned three things.