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“He threatened Ella. And you. He threatened both of you. And he’ll keep doing it if we let him. I know he will.” That’s the only thing that matters. That’s my answer. “It needs to be fast, though. We can’t be caught out here or everything’s over.”

Mike nods. With his free arm he reaches for me, and it’s the sweetest relief to press myself into his side.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur against his cheek. “For everything.”

“It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.” He helps me aim, putting his hand over mine as I take hold of the gun. With the other hand, he threads his fingers into my hair. Grounding me, like he always has. “Don’t look, okay? You shouldn’t have to see this.”

Nodding, I press my forehead to his shoulder. We both flinch when I pull the trigger.

The echo of the shot chases us both out of the alley.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Michael

Dean’s quiet until we reach our building’s parking garage. Honestly, I keep worrying he’s going to stop breathing. Or come out of his shock screaming, like he used to do from a nightmare.

He’s so out of it, I’m going to have to sneak him past Ella’s babysitter like he’s a drunk teenager coming home from a party.

Before leaving downtown, we moved Dean’s car farther away from the location of his father’s body. We’ll need to go back for it later. Honestly, he was in no shape to drive.

As I park and the engine ticks and cools, I study what I can see of Dean’s profile. Out of nowhere he turns and grabs my arm.

“Mike.”

It’s difficult to assess how he’s doing when we’re sitting in shadow. Not the way I want to. “You good?”

The force of his shaky inhale and exhale answers that question to some extent.

“I will be,” he says after a while. “I think.”

“It’ll take some time.” My heart hasn’t settled, but I’m trying to sound calm. For all I know, this will make him decide he really can’t see my face again. I’ll always be the man who helped him kill his father, and that makes everything else we’ve walked through look like child’s play.

“Thank you.” It’s almost a whisper.

My mouth drops open. “For your father? Seriously?”

“You were right.” His breath shudders. “I was going to do it. I would have. For both of you.” He shakes his head. “But I’m glad I didn’t have to do it alone.”

My fingers wrap around his as I pull him towards me. “I know. You’re still not over the rabbit you accidentally ran over a few years ago.” I can still hear his pained gasp when it thumped under the wheel.

The brain fog seems to clear a little. His gaze sharpens, blue eyes going dark in the shadows. “I’ll take the blame, Mike. If anyone figures it out. If you hadn’t shown up, it would have been me alone, anyway.”

“I called Brennan on the way over. You were pretty out of it, but he said he’d handle the cleanup.”

“Shit. We’ll each owe him a kidney or something.”

No doubt. I squeeze his hand. “Worth it.”

He makes a wet noise that might almost be a laugh. “Fuck. I know we need to go upstairs, but I can’t stop shaking. Mrs. Harris is going to know something’s wrong.”

I thread my fingers through his. “We’ve got this. One foot in front of the other. Stay behind me. I’ll talk to Mrs. Harris, and you can get straight into the shower. I’ll tell her you aren’t feeling well.”

He squeezes my hand. “You’ve always been there for me.”

“Not always.”

“You have, though. Even when you hated me.”