Page 68 of Fractured Loyalties
“I heard. I'm not sure I want you there.”
She glares. “It’s nothing. Just a team thing. Celeste will be there.”
“That’s not the point.”
“What is the point, Elias?”
I step closer. Close enough that I feel the thrum of her pulse without touching. “The point is, someone slipped a note into your office this morning. The same office Alec walked into like he had something to prove.”
Her jaw tightens. “You think he had anything to do with it?”
“No. I think people are watching. And you being out in the open makes you a better target.”
She softens, just barely. “So, what—you want me to go back to the safe house?”
I nod once.
She hesitates. “I need clothes. I’ll have to stop by my place first. Maybe I can go quickly now, come back before anyone notices my absence.”
“You don’t,” I say. “We can buy you whatever you need.”
She looks at me long. Like she’s not sure whether to be grateful or afraid of how much I mean it.
“I’ll decide about the dinner,” she says.
And it sounds like a choice.
But it isn’t.
She decides to go.
She doesn’t say it aloud. She doesn’t need to.
The way she brushes past me, eyes forward, back straight, is answer enough. She’s going to that dinner whether I like it or not.
I follow her to the car. I don’t open her door. She doesn’t wait for me to.
The drive to her apartment is silent.
She looks out the window the whole time, arms crossed, the air between us carved sharp.
I hate this part of town. The slope of the street. The way the brick buildings lean into each other like they’re conspiring.The hallway light on her floor always flickers—bad ballast or worse wiring, I don’t care. I just know I hate it.
I park across from her building. Kill the engine.
“I’ll be fast,” she says.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No. You wait.”
“Mara.”
She turns, meets my eyes, and something in her face has cooled.
“I need five minutes. Alone.”
I don’t like it. But I nod.
