Matty turned his face into Shaw’s hand, his breath heavy and tickling Shaw’s wrist.

“Then you ran,” Shaw said. “And then?”

“I don’t know.” He spoke into Shaw’s palm. His lips tickled the sensitive skin there. “I guess I came out of it a little. Enough to stop running. And then I just wanted to hide. I kept telling myself I was going to call you, I was going to tell you where I was, but I—I couldn’t.” He turned harder into Shaw’s touching, nuzzling into his hand, and Shaw responded automatically by stroking the side of Matty’s face. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I screwed up so bad.”

“You didn’t screw up, baby.” Shaw took Matty’s face in both hands and forced Matty to look at him. “You’re safe right now because you made a choice, and that choice kept you safe.”

“I’m safe because of you.”

The words detonated a chain of explosions through Shaw’s brain, a neural whiteout of protectiveness and happiness and power. This. This was what he could have been feeling for the last seven years.

Shaw checked the clock. “I want to drive by your place. No, hold on. I’m just saying drive by. If things look wrong, we’ll just keep driving. But this is an opportunity, Matty. We don’t know what these guys want from you. We don’t know why they’re after you. And if they left anything behind, any sign of what they want, then that could help us.”

For a long moment, Matty didn’t say anything. Shaw couldn’t quite believe how good it felt holding his face like this, the softness of his skin broken by stubble the color of cornsilk, the purple-blue of his eyes like wine Shaw could swim in, the way Matty pulled his lower lip between his teeth, the way he looked at Shaw with so much fucking trust.

Then he nodded.

They drove six blocks to Matty’s building, where blue-and-red police lights strobed the street. Shaw pulled the Mercedes to the curb and studied the scene. Two cars were pulled up in front of the lofts: one was a black-and-white patrol car with its lights awhirl. The other was a gray Chevy Impala with both doors open. An unmarked car, Shaw was willing to guess. For detectives. And why had two detectives shown up so quickly at a call about a possible B and E?

Shaw didn’t know the answer, but he had a pretty good guess about who the two detectives were.

“Come on,” he said, squeezing Matty’s knee. “Let’s go inside and see what they found.”

Matty hesitated with his hand on the door.

“It’s ok,” Shaw said. “I told you I’d keep you safe, didn’t I?”

Matty smiled tentatively. “You didn’t tell me that. Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“No.” Matty pulled his lower lip between his teeth again. “But I’d like you to.”

“I’ll keep you safe, Matty.”

Matty’s smile flickered in and out, and he brushed at his eyes, and he nodded. He opened the door.