She liked the sound of that so much.
Too much.
Worried about the new danger she’d be introducing to her life if she followed him to the long, black shadowed loaner car.
But she took a step in that direction anyway. And then another.
Truth was, she wanted to go with him.
“I told Melissa I was planning to keep you at my place for now, so she’ll be calling if they need anything else from either of us in the course of the investigation.”
Did he know she’d been battling with herself? Looking for legitimate justification to go with him? Something told her he did. Which somehow made him more of a threat...despite the fact he’d just saved both their lives.
She brushed the thought aside as she fell into step beside him.
She’d just had a gun to her head. Held by a woman she’d thought was a friend. She was estranged from her family. Her husband had been murdered in their home by his adulterous lover, all while he’d been divorcing her. Her grandmother was in prison. She’d been in prison. Had no job. Her home was a crime scene. And the man who’d sent her to prison was still on the loose.
A few more hours to hide from the world wasn’t too much to ask.
Was it?
* * *
The immediate danger was gone, but Clarke had never been one to walk away from a job until the loose ends were tied up. It wasn’t done until it was done.
“Do you have work to get back to?” Everleigh’s question came softly, about the time they’d turned off from her road. She’d been silent up to that point.
Nothing about the near-death experience she’d just had. Or any of the events that had transpired that morning. Where, in his family, it seemed to him that everyone talked things to death, analyzing situations, regurgitating them until every fact had been dissected. She just...took it all in and moved forward.
He’d never thought he’d find himself admitting it, but he preferred the Colton way.
She’d almost died. He’d almost lost her. They should talk about that.
“It’s Sunday,” he answered. “I’ll spend time poring over whatever I can find on the internet that can help the GGPD with the two manhunts they’re engaged in, but other than that, no.” If she’d been anyone else, he’d have asked what she had in mind.
With Everleigh...everything was different.
“I’d like to visit with Gram. I’d asked for permission when I called this morning, with her still not feeling well, and if you need me to go back for my car, I’ll either wait for the police to finish and move their vehicles out of the way, or I’ll ask them to move. But I’m allowed eight visits per month and the deputy director is allowing me special circumstances to visit outside visiting hours and...”
If she’d wanted to go alone, wouldn’t she have suggested she get her own car two minutes ago, when they’d still been at her house? Maybe?
He liked thinking that she wanted to be with him.
Just had to not think about the horror he’d just come through, thinking he could see her shot. That beautiful body, hurt in any way...
She wasn’t his to ponder over.
Her agitation, her need to see her grandmother, was something he could help fix.
“I’ll take you,” he said. And added, because he felt the truth strongly, “I wasn’t kidding about keeping you under protection until Larissa is officially locked up and arraigned. You never know what a lawyer can argue, what a judge will do...”
“It’s Sunday,” she shot back at him. “Court isn’t in session.”
He didn’t see the issue. Hadn’t they already decided she’d be at his place at least one more night? In that room? With a door that locked?
He’d said those things to let her know, without opening any doors to conversation about what was done between them, that she’d merely be sleeping at his place. That he wasn’t, in any way, insinuating, hoping or wanting that door to be unlocked that night.
One and done. Because otherwise he was going to disappoint her, and she was going to get hurt.