Alonzo and Birdie joined us on the couch, curling around their owner.

“Sneaky felines,” I whispered at them.

Alonzo moved himself closer to me, snuggling right up against my leg.

“You win this time,” I said, and I swore, Len smiled.

I couldn’t help it; my body reacted before I could even think it through. My free hand moved to grab her hand, pulling it up to my lips. I pressed a light kiss to the back of her hand, thankful she was here and safe.

“I heard them,” she whispered. “I can’t exactly remember, but I know I heard them,” she murmured as she drifted off in my lap.

“Try not to think about that,” I whispered as I went back to stroking her hair.

I continued my reading as she fell asleep. I knew the moment she was no longer awake, recognizing the deeper breaths she took and the way her head felt heavier in my lap. The cats eventually left us, but I refused to leave the couch.

I refused to take my eyes off Len until I knew she was alright. I’d pushed her to her limit, and everything in me hated me for it. The pale look on her face when I’d pulled her into my arms outside the pub would haunt me forever.

No matter how many times I told myself I was only doing this to solve the case for the FBI, it was a lie, one that was growing out of hand. I stayed for her. I continued to let her help me and piece together this case because my mind couldn’t stand the thought of sending her away.

I was breaking every possible rule. The system I believed in and followed religiously was completely disregarded.

I couldn’t face the facts.

Instead, I did the singular thing I could think of: I threw myself back into the book and pushed all those feelings back down where I wouldn’t be able to find them.

17. Lenny

17

LENNY

I woke with a jolt and sat up, slamming into a hard surface. My hands flew to my nose, pain spreading across it, a warm, sticky liquid now dripping down my face.

“Are you okay?” Stone said, mildly panicked. “You’re bleeding!”

I pulled my hands away from my face just long enough to see the red covering them. The blood dripped down onto the white shirt I wore. I jumped up and realized Stone held a hardcover book I must’ve hit my face on when I woke so suddenly.

He followed my line of sight. “I’m so sorry,” he said, rushing to the kitchen and coming back with a rag.

The rag replaced my hands, and I clung to it, hoping the bleeding would eventually stop. I couldn’t even recall the last time I’d given myself a bloody nose. A small laugh escaped my lips, and Stone looked even more concerned.