Page 104 of Vega

Instead, I blew out a breath and leaned my shoulder against the wall because my leg was starting to throb like a bitch. “I understand your confusion.”

She rolled her eyes, pouting.

“I do,” I insisted. “That’s why I opened the door.”

She looked down at the things in her lap.

“It fucks with me watching you like this,” I admitted. “Seeing you so confused. So unsure of yourself. One minute, you’re laughing with me. The next, you’re wondering if I’m grooming you for some worse shit. I hate that.”

“I didn’t say it to hurt you.”

“I know.” I swallowed against the irritation still sitting in my throat. “That’s why I keep stopping when things get too close between us.”

Her eyes lifted to mine.

“If you don’t know whether I’m your protector or your captor, then you damn sure don’t need to be in my bed trying to figure that out with your body.”

She went quiet.

“I want you,” I said. “Badly. Worse than I’ve ever wanted anything I didn’t already own. I don’t want you giving me pieces of yourself because you’re confused or scared.”

Her fingers tightened around her keys. “Thank you,” she said softly.

I nodded once, even though the words hit harder than they should have.

I didn’t understand myself anymore. I was used to problems that made sense, problems I could aim at, threaten, buy, bury, or outthink. But Sonnet wasn’t that. She made every decision feel personal. Every risk felt tied to her existence.

I had heard the alarm chime when she left. That single sound had ripped me out of the bathroom so fast I barely grabbed shoes before I ran after her.

Then I saw those men chasing her. Fear hit me so hard it made everything else disappear. I wasn’t using any caution or strategy. I felt fear, the kind I wasn’t used to feeling, the kind that made me understand I wasn’t protecting an assignment anymore.

I pushed off the wall and walked toward the couch, trying not to show how much my leg hurt. Sonnet noticed anyway because of course she did.

I lowered myself beside her carefully.

“Does this mean that he knows where we are?” she asked reluctantly.

I shook my head. “No. He would have been here by now.”

“But they were just a few blocks away.”

“Meaning he probably was able to trace my ride to the area, but he doesn’t know exactly where you are. Otherwise, he would have been here by now. But I will have to relocate you ASAP.”

Her eyes dropped to my thigh. “What are you going to do about your leg?”

“Bullet went straight through. It didn’t hit an artery. I’m not bleeding out. I’ll have somebody look at it.”

“Somebody?”

“Somebody I trust to be quiet.”

She nodded, and I studied her for a moment. “What made you come back? When they were shooting at me, you had a real chance to keep running. Nobody was looking at you. You could’ve been gone.”

She looked away first before admitting, “I couldn’t leave you.”

My heart beat stilled.

She sounded annoyed with herself. “I tried. I took steps away. Then I saw him coming toward you with the gun, and I just…” She shook her head. “I couldn’t keep going.”