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“Stop,” she whispered after we’d tucked Tessie into bed and read her a bedtime story with one of us on either side of her. “I can see your thoughts eating at you. Stop thinking about those things. Whatever they are.”
“Impossible,” I admitted.
Her eyes flashed with the challenge as she shut Tessie’s door behind her, and she launched herself at me. Her lips found mine. Rough. Needy. Begging.
She drowned the thoughts in my head until it was just me and her.
She pulled back and looked at me like she knew me—not the surface-level bullshit I’d been passing off for the past eight years, but who I really was deep down.
This felt dangerous. Whatever we had between us had grown and snowballed into something too big to deny.
I trusted her.
I trusted her with me.
I trusted her with Tessie.
And if Everett were here, I’d trust Ariana with him, too.
It’s dangerous, Elsa’s ghost taunted.
It’s worth it, assured the small part of me Elsa hadn’t damaged.
I shook the thoughts out of my head and bent forward to kiss her again.
Fuck.
I was drowning without a shore in sight.
Chapter
Thirty
Duty is not collective; it is personal.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
ARIANA DE LUCA
Days Missing: 12
“Why is Contessa here?” Jenn had that stupid pen poised above her notebook again.
Tessie sat in the waiting room with a coloring book in her hand because I couldn’t get anyone else to watch her, and I also couldn’t miss this check-in.
I’d long ago made the executive decision not to tell Jenn or the bureau about Vince being gone.
“Her babysitter is borderline brain dead and unworthy of a brain cell let alone the responsibility of caring for an eight-year-old child.” I tossed a rubber band stress ball from palm to palm. “This legend is a dead end by the way,” I lied.
It felt weird to lie and lead Jenn away from the truth. Not because I had a duty to the FBI but because Jenn was my best friend. Or, she used to be.
We pulled apart with each legend, but this one topped the cake. I didn’t think, once this was over, I could reconnect with her like we usually did.
My heart broke for our friendship, and I tried to latch onto a life raft, anything to salvage us.
“Can I say something off the record?”
Jenn leaned forward. “Of course.”
