“So why did it? Why didn’t you pull away? You could have politely put the brakes on this thing between us when you realized it was getting out of hand.”

“How?” he asked. “How was I supposed to do that, Samiah?” Daniel stood and began to pace the length of the small teahouse. “Do you have any idea how hard I tried to fight what I felt for you? I knew better. Getting involved with someone while working undercover, that’s how you end a career.” He stopped in front of her, his chest aching with the need for her to understand. “But it didn’t matter. I fell so fucking hard for you that none of it mattered. I couldn’t stay away.”

“So you lied to me instead.” The tinge of hurt in her voice crushed him.

Daniel closed his eyes as shame seeped into his bones.

“Yes,” he said. He looked to her again, struggling to find a way to convey the breadth of his regret. “It was wrong to lie to you, and I’m sorry. I should have done things differently. I could have asked my supervisor to pull me from the case. But that meant I would have had to give you up, and I couldn’t make myself do that.

“I know how selfish that sounds. It was selfish. Fuck, my bringing you here is selfish. Enlisting your friends to help? Making you think something had happened to Taylor?” Daniel dropped his head back and blew out a deep breath. “Look, you don’t owe me anything. Not your understanding or forgiveness. Nothing. But I had to make sure you understood that what I felt for you wasn’t a lie. It was real. It remains real.”

Time stood still as he waited for her response, the air redolent with significance, the weight of the moment like a living thing.

Samiah stood and clasped her hands in front of her. After several more excruciating minutes, she said, “This past week has given me time to work things out in my head. And I’ve come to understand why you did what you did.”

His brow crinkled. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I just said. I understand why you were compelled to steal my access card. You had several choices you could have made. For one, you could have trusted me enough to tell me what you were really up to.”

He started to speak, but she stopped him, holding up her hand.

“But I also understand that you had another, much harder choice to make: You could use my card to access that database or allow a group of shitty criminals to get away with committing their shitty crimes. Honestly, when I think about it, it’s actually not a hard call to make. You did what had to be done.”