The silence between us is thick.I can feel my heartbeat in my palms, everywhere.
He reaches out again, but I flinch back before his fingers touch me.
“I don’t need comfort,” I whisper.“I need help.Belinda didn’t write that note.She didn’t run away.Someone took her.I have to go after her.”
“I won’t let you go alone,” Hawk says.
“You don’tgetto let me or not let me,” I say.“You weren’there.”
He closes his eyes, breathes in through his nose.When he opens them again, the guilt is still there, but something colder sits behind it.
“I’m here now,” he says.“And I’m not leaving again.”
I fold my arms across my chest.“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
He looks around the room.“No,” he says quietly.“This one I can keep.”
I don’t answer.My throat’s too tight.He finds my wrist again.
This time, I don’t pull away.Not yet.
But I don’t lean in, either.
