Page 42 of Closer Than You Think
We normally never work here at my place, but I don’t want to leave Hallie any more than I have to. And since I built this war room with everything we’d need for situations like this, it makes sense to use it occasionally.
“Anything?” My voice slices through the quiet, demanding an answer.
“Nothing concrete yet, Si.” Cain's response is terse, his focus unwavering as he scrutinizes lines of financial transactions scrolling down his screen.
“Keep digging.” I'm prowling now, the predator within clawing beneath my skin. “We're looking for a needle in a haystack, but it’s there.”
“Si, what are we hoping to find exactly?” asks Jet, his tone threaded with exhaustion. “We've been at this for hours.”
“Connections, patterns, anything that ties Teddy to these bastards.” The words are like shards of glass in my throat. I pause behind Cain's chair, leaning down to study his screen more closely.
“Here.” I point to a series of offshore accounts. “Cross-reference these with Teddy's known associates.”
“Got it,” he confirms, her fingers flying across the keyboard.
“Jet's right,” I say to the room, steel in my tone. “We've combed through this data all night, but we haven't drilled deep enough.”
“Silas.” Hallie's voice, a gentle touch against the harshness of my own, pulls me back. She stands in the doorway, her eyes seeking mine.
“Hey,” I say softly, crossing the room to where she waits, out of place amidst the cold tech and hard edges. Her presence is a vivid reminder of what's at stake—of why we cannot fail.
“You almost done for the night?” She wraps her arms around herself, a shield against the chill of the room or perhaps the darkness of our task.
“Getting closer.” It's all I can offer her, a slender thread of hope.
“Okay.” Her nod is slight, but I know she wants to say more.
“I’ll be right back, guys.”
Grabbing Hallie’s hand, I pull her down the hall and through the penthouse to my bedroom. We’ve been sleeping in the room I gave to her, mostly because I wanted her to have her own space. Only when it came down to it, I couldn’t leave her the fuck alone and ended up with her almost every night anyway.
This is the first time she’s been in my room. I shut the door behind us and lock it.
My eyes flick over every inch of her as she stands there, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. Her large doe-like eyes drift from the king-sized canopy bed with its black sheets,through the shutters that blocked out the city street lights, and finally rested on me.
I take Hallie's hands in mine, drawing her close. Our eyes meet and an unspoken understanding passes between us. This waiting, this uncertainty, is slowly unraveling us both.
“Talk to me,” I say gently.
She hesitates, chewing her bottom lip. “I just . . . I need you to promise me something.”
My chest tightens. “Anything.”
“When you find out who did this, who . . . who killed Teddy.” Her voice breaks over his name. She takes a shuddering breath before continuing. “Promise me you won't do anything reckless. No retaliation, no vengeance. Not until we know everything.”
Her words sink like stones in my gut. She knows me too well, knows the savage instinct that lives within, straining against its leash.
But there’s still so much she doesn’t know.
“Hallie . . . ”
“What is it?” she asks, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
I take her hand in mine, intertwining our fingers together as I lead her back to the bed.
“Silas, what's going on?”
I take a deep breath, my chest heaving as I struggled to find the right words. “There's something I need to tell you, Hallie.”
