‘I just asked them not to volunteer where I was, that’s all. I know it was the wrong thing to do, but sometimes – sometimes it doesn’t matter. Right, wrong, it’s just the thing you have to do. And I had to see you. I had to know you were okay. I’ll apologise for basically hovering, but I can’t be sorry for being worried about you. I didn’t crash your door and demand to see you. I just … stayed close.’

‘Watching me from a distance,’ she said. ‘You didn’t trust me enough to let go.’

I felt a surge of panic, followed by a confused bolt of realisation. Was she right? Was it a trust thing, and not a worry thing? How did it look from her side … like I’d been following her, spying on her, judging her? Yeah, it probably did look that way, horribly enough. It wasn’t what I’d been doing, or at least I didn’t think it was.

I leant forward, elbows on the table, and I held her gaze as I said, ‘Claire, I don’t want to let you go. But that has nothing to do with not trusting you. I trust you with my life. Always have.’

I didn’t keep talking, because that pretty much said everything I meant to say. She blinked slowly, thinking about it, and then sighed, shook her head, and said, ‘You’re an idiot, but I know you mean that. And you’re not angry, I know that too. You just …’

‘Wanted you,’ I said. ‘Needed you. That’s why I’m here. Maybe it’s a bad thing, I don’t know; if you look me in the eyes and tell me to go back to Morganville, I’ll go. I won’t like it, but—’

She suddenly sat straight up, eyes growing wide, as if someone had jabbed a pin in her, and she lunged forward and caught hold of my hands. I was surprised, but not too surprised to wrap mine around hers. Touching her stilled some voice inside me I hadn’t even known was screaming.

‘Michael and Eve,’ she said. ‘Did they call you?’

‘Not for a couple of days – wait.’ I checked the phone’s call log, and there it was, a missed call from Eve. No voicemail. ‘What’s happening?’

‘Even if you went back there, you’d end up here again,’ she said. ‘Michael and Eve are on their way. Amelie sent them after Myrnin.’

‘Myrnin is coming here? By himself?’ I admit it, that gave me a surge of tired frustration so strong I wanted to stake him myself. ‘What the hell is he doing?’

‘I’ve got no idea, and neither did Eve, but they’re following. They’re supposed to get him to come home.’