And for that matter, why hadn’t he bothered mentioning this little detail before now? That he’d been in danger all this time, hunted down? Perhaps they could have pieced it together sooner. Realized that her Go partner was working with his opposite number. She spun away, too many factors enumerating themselves for her to sort while she was looking at him.

His hands rested on her shoulders. “Nothing’s more important than soothing your tears, ridiculous or warranted. You matter more than a dozen German agents.”

She tried to shrug his hands away, though they settled right back where they’d been. And she was stupidly glad of it. “Don’t be absurd. One is never greater than twelve.”

“It is when you love the one.”

She huffed out a breath.

“You’re thinking I should have told you all this sooner. About the man following me. About Jaeger.” He pulled her toward him four inches, until her back brushed his chest.

Her eyes slid closed. “I’ve been obsessing over what killed my mother, wasting hours of time on newspapers that told me nothing. I could have been working on this instead. Finding answers that obviously are there. Because he’s there.” Had been for so long. Could he have had anything to do with Maman’s death? No, that didn’t fit. Not if he’d been hovering outside this flat. It must have to do with something else.

“I’m sorry.” His thumbs rubbed at her neck, digging into the knots of tension and bidding them loosen. “I’m used to protecting the women I love—hence why I didn’t even want to tell Dot what my position in the navy really was. But I should have told you sooner. You’re right.”

“Not to appease me. Because I could help. You know I could.”

“I know you could.” His voice was a whisper at her ear. “I didn’t want you to have to. I didn’t want to bring that danger to your door.”

She turned, dislodging his hands but catching them in her own. Facing him. “It was already there. I don’t need to be coddled, Drake. And I won’t coddle you. He could have killed your sister. He was aiming a knife at her.”

He knew that. The sobering truth of it turned his eyes from silver to lead, heavy and dark. His fingers tightened around hers until it nearly hurt. “We need to stop him.”

We. One plus one. But the truth was, it didn’t always equal two. Sometimes the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Sometimes, when two things worked together, they were stronger than they should have been.

Pounding on the door made her jump, her gaze breaking away from his, her pulse hammering as fast as it had when she’d run here fifteen minutes ago. As fast as it had when he’d kissed her.