“You won't leave me, right?”
“I think they would prefer to interview you without me being present,” he said gently.
“No,” she practically shouted, surprised by the strength and conviction in her tone. “I can't do the interview unless you're there with me. I can't.”
She needed him to understand that.
She needed him to understand how important he was to her.
“Don’t leave me, please. You promised you wouldn’t.” Taylor deliberately left out that he had promised to stay with her only until her family got here.
He smiled. A breathtakingly beautiful smile. “Don’t worry. I'm not going anywhere. I promised I would be here for you. If Tom and Chloe have a problem with my being here while they speak with you, then they’ll just have to get over it.”
Relief settled over her.
Fin was staying, and she didn't care whether those FBI agents didn't like it. She didn't like them. Especially the woman. There was something between Fin and the woman, and she didn't want anything or anyonegetting between her and Fin.
If Taylor had her way, Dr. Fin Patrick would never leave her side again for as long as she lived.
*****
9:09 A.M.
Fin was starting to think it was a bad idea agreeing to stay with Taylor until her parents arrived.
She was getting too attached.
Way too attached.
He’d been trying to do the right thing, but now he thought he might actually be making things worse. She needed stability, and that was something he couldn’t give her. He could be here to support her and keep her company while she waited for her family to arrive, but then he was leaving. He already knew that wasn't going to go well.
Taylor wanted him to be at her side permanently.
But that was never going to happen.
He wanted Chloe and Tom to find who had hurt her. He wanted her to be safe and to heal and to be able to move on with her life. But he wasn't a part of her life, and he wasn't ever going to be.
Despite what she thought, he wasn't what she needed.
She needed the people who loved her and cared about her.
Fin understood why she had latched on to him; in her mind, he was her savior, her white knight, her hero. But in time, once she started to heal, she would realize that her feelings were getting jumbled up. Gratitude over him helping her—really doing no more than any decent human being would do—didn't mean love.
He really hoped this didn't turn out to be a huge mistake. He didn’t want to end up causing Taylor more harm than good.
“What if I can't tell them what they want to know?” Taylorasked quietly, looking up at him with all the vulnerability and fragility of a distressed child.
“Why would you think that?” he asked.
Before Taylor could answer, the door to her hospital room swung open and Chloe and Tom walked in.
Chloe’s eyes grew wide when she saw him, and something flittered quickly through them before it was gone and she frowned at him. Apparently, she was as unhappy about the prospect of having to spend time around him as he was about having to spend time around her.
“You’re here,” Chloe said, stating the blatantly obvious.
“I told Taylor I was here to support her until her family arrived.” He raised a challenging brow. Part of him wanted her to try to stop him, to make him leave. Fin wanted an excuse to unleash the anger he’d been bottling up inside ever since she’d packed her things and walked out the door.
She looked like she was going to argue, but before she could, Taylor said, “If he doesn’t stay, I can't talk to you. I need him here.”