Page 32 of Cruel Salvation

“Gotta go. See you soon.” She hung up knowing he’d give her shit for it and not caring. She didn’t have it in her right now to fight him too.

She was done.

“You gonna tell me what that was about?”

She turned to study Damon. He looked tired and she wished she could go back a few hours and redo it all, but it was too late now.

“Simon Dorsey just walked back into the facility and can’t remember a single thing from the past few days. Bás is picking him up now because he wants to talk to me.”

“That all?”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Yes, but it felt like something more at the end there.”

“Just Bás and the long talk I have due when I get back.”

“You sure that’s it?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, we’ll talk later.”

“No, we won’t.”

“I don’t want to leave this like this, Naz. You’re not running away.”

“I’m not running. There’s nothing left to say or do. We had our fun, that’s it.”

Something dark flared in his eyes. “If you think that, then you truly are deluded.”

“If you don’t want to leave it like this, then fine, but I don’t want to talk about it now. I have a job to do, so let’s talk later.”

“No, you’ll just run away again.”

A growl of frustration left her throat at his annoying tenacity and his ability to read her so well. She knew she was running; she was self-aware enough to know she had issues, and denial was one of them. “I’m not running. I’m moving on and doing my job.”

“By running away?”

“No. This was temporary and now this part of the job has ended so I get to move on and be safe. That should make you happy.”

“Of course, your being safe makes me happy. I care about you, for fuck’s sake.”

“Well, you shouldn’t. I’m a bad bet.”

“I don’t care about the odds, Naz. I care about you.”

“Stop, just stop. I can’t think when you say these things to me. I need space.”

He must have sensed the panic in her voice or maybe he felt the fraying of her nerves because he listened.

“I understand. If that’s what you need to do then I’ll step back and give you time to sort things out, but I’m not leaving you to fight this alone and I’m not giving up.”

It was more than she expected, and she was grateful. “Thank you.”

She turned and grabbed her stuff, as he closed up the safe house and they headed for the car. The drive was silent, and she pretended to sleep as he drove, ignoring the way her heart ached or the way she just wanted his arms around her.

This was for the best.