Page 52 of Silent Shadows

Brilliant. Excellent recovery, Miles.

“Patterns,” she repeats, clearly trying not to smile.

“Yeah.”

“Very scientific.”

“I had more thoughts before you looked at me like that.”

Her brows lift. “Like what?”

“Like…” I squint into the dark behind her. “Attentively.”

She laughs.

And God.

That sound.

“You get nervous when people actually listen to you,” she realizes.

“No, I don’t.”

“You totally do.”

“I’m leading a case. People have to listen to me on a regular basis.”

“That’s different. You’re confident in your expertise and passions until you feel seen. No—exposed.”

I stare at her in horror because she’s right.

“What? I’m observant.”

“That’s what serial killers say.”

She grins. “Maybe I should take my talent to true crime.”

I pause. “You are talented, Daisy. That one interview you did with the women fighting that data center being built was honestly amazing. You made it accessible without dumbing anything down.”

She pauses, eyes meeting mine. “You listened to that?”

I nod.

“That was the last episode I did where I chose the narrative. It had way lower downloads than my other episodes, but it had the highest completion rate of The DL’s history. I was proud of that one.”

I swallow, looking at the ground. “You should be.”

I look back up into her brown eyes, glowing amber in the firelight, and something shifts.

I feel it the exact second she does.

Daisy goes still first. Then I do. Neither of us looks away.

And for one suspended second, everything narrows down to this tiny pocket of firelight and warm desert air and the way her mouth parts slightly like she’s about to say something.

But she doesn’t. Instead, she leans forward at the exact moment I do.

Maybe accidental. Definitely inevitable.