The captain’s footsteps on the stairs told me he’d gone, so I didn’t feel the need to squirm, to hide, to run away from someone who might see me as less. Fin didn’t look at me like that. He didn’t look at me like he couldn’t wait for me to screw up so he could rub it in my face. I hadn’t realized how much I needed that confidence from someone, that show of faith.
“Do you need to go deal with that?” I whispered.
The tension between us shifted, morphing into something I couldn’t even touch yet.
He hung his head, finally dragging his eyes from mine. “Probably. He’ll only come back in a moment to interrupt again.”
I nodded and used his moment of stillness to launch up off the floor, flip him onto his back, and slam his arm into an arm bar. He wiggled under my legs as I tightened them across his torso, dragging his other side into my ass with my ankles and feet.
After a second, he tapped my hip, and I released him.
“Not fair,” he said.
“The chief says nothing in life is fair. Get used to it.” I lay down on the mats and spread my limbs wide, sprawling out and enjoying the feeling of everything around me.
Did I have a lot of questions about myself, and my past, of course? Could I do that all in one day? Nope.
He gripped my hand and hauled me to my feet before I was ready. I stumbled into him and he grabbed my hips to steady me. Our gazes clashed in that moment, his surprised, mine weighted, and the entire world seemed to grind to a halt, filling the room with a bubble of silence. Shit. This wasn’t something I could face either. Whatever was between Fin and I would need to wait, at least for my drama to catch up with my hormones.
My phone that I’d thrown onto the floor, rang out loudly, interrupting the moment, and he stepped away. He grabbed his clothing and belt from the floor. Instead of dressing there, he took his stuff and walked out of the training room without another word.
Part of that alone felt like a victory. Fin wasn’t someone I’d considered flappable, but his face as he left was confused—or bemused perhaps.
I answered the phone and jolted as Tegan’s voice cut through the speaker. “I’ve got something for you.”
Chapter Eleven
I put Tegan on hold, then raced up the steps toward Fin's office. By the time I made it, and pressed the phone back to my ear, Tegan was in mid-tirade about her boss, and how he wouldn’t let her take the detective exam. I made a few noncommittal noises at her to keep her talking. When I walked into Fin’s office, I found him and the captain whispering by his desk.
The captain stopped talking the second his eyes slid over me entering the room.
Without another word, he walked out, but not before delivering a glare I could feel in my toes. Oh yeah, we weren’t going to be braiding each other’s hair later.
Fin turned toward me, his eyes expectant, but guarded. Good, he wasn’t ready to review what we’d faced in the sparring room either. It would make things easier for now.
I cocked my phone toward him and then pressed it back to my ear. Tegan continued her assault on her boss’s character, some of which was probably unfounded. No one who could eat a dozen donuts in under five minutes could be all bad.
“Tegan is on the phone,” I told Fin. “She says she might have something for us.”
He walked toward me and pressed in close. I backed away.
“Teags, okay, so what do you have?” I asked.
She stopped short in the middle of her sentence and then switched gears. I loved a woman who knew where her priorities were.
“The lab said they found some DNA on the ribbon and they—”
Fin cut in closer. “What is she saying?”
I put my hand into his face and gently pushed him backward. “Sorry, Teags, I missed what you said. Someone is being impatient.”
“Oh, is your babysitter there? He was cute. Is he single?”
I snorted as he slapped my hand away from him. “Yes, but he probably bites.”
“Even better,” she said.
“Tegan, back to the lab report.”