Page 45 of Shadow Justice

“Safe but shaken.”

“You need another body there?”

Reid looked toward the living room. Holly had moved to the edge of the couch, one hand on Blue’s head, her face angled away from Reid. “Not tonight.”

“You sure?”

Reid rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and tried to drag his mind back into the operational lane where it belonged. “No immediate threat has presented itself here.”

“Still think this Hopper Shaw looks good for it?”

“Unsure. I’ve started a preliminary search.”

“Send it to Jasper. He can dig deeper.”

“I will.”

Garrett paused, and Reid heard what was coming before he said it. “You want to bring Holly to the compound?”

The compound would be safer. Fewer windows, controlled access, armed personnel, cameras, gates, and people who understood danger. But it would mean asking Holly to leave Sanctuary, Blue’s routine, her apartment, and every fragile scrap of control she still had. “She won’t want that.”

“That wasn’t what I asked. This is your wheelhouse, but it’s her call.”

Reid looked toward Holly again, but she wasn’t there. The couch was empty. Blue stood near the hallway, watching him.

Reid’s pulse kicked once, stupid and hard, before he saw the mostly closed bedroom door.

Garrett’s voice sharpened. “Fleming? Offer her the compound.”

It was the right thing to do. “I will.”

“If you get even a whisper of movement around that shop tonight, you call.”

“Understood.”

“And Reid?”

“What?”

“Don’t try to carry this alone.”

Reid almost said he wasn’t, but the lie would’ve been too obvious, even over the phone. He had his grandfather’s streak of stubbornness and independence. “Copy.”

Garrett ended the call.

Reid glanced past Blue to Holly’s bedroom door. The kiss still burned through him like an accusation. He’d handled cross-examinations with less difficulty than standing ten feet from that door.

The first opening statement he’d ever given had been in a Navy courtroom under fluorescent lights that made everyone look guilty. His mouth had gone so dry he’d nearly choked on the first sentence, and he’d still managed to argue the case with more competence than he currently trusted himself to show.

Holly had kissed him. Then she’d disappeared behind a closed door.

He didn’t know if she was embarrassed, angry, overwhelmed, or regretting it. Maybe all of that. He didn’t know if knocking would feel like pressure. He didn’t know if not knocking would feel like retreat.

He set the phone on the counter, crossed the room, and stopped outside her door. Blue came with him, as if he needed an emotional bailiff.

Reid lifted his hand. The door opened before his knuckles touched wood.

Holly stood on the other side in the old cardigan and pajama pants, her hair loose around her shoulders and her eyes still damp. She looked at his raised hand, then at his face.