“And how would you know?” I snapped. Between Daniel, and the emotional release from the week, my ability to bury my irritation was down.
“It’s my office, of course I know when people come and go.” I cocked a brow, knowing he made a point to check on me specifically. “Also, Jared has been working on a special project and staying late. He’s seen your light on when he leaves.”
I froze for a moment, letting the real meaning of Jared working late sink in. He worked for Bergamo and Brandt as an analyst…on paper. And did do that job. He just also surfed the dark web, hunting down anyone who advertised slavery. He and Erik had a system to find traffickers and take them down, rescuing any people they found and rehabilitating them at Haven. My chest squeezed that they were close to finding someone else.
Each time, I hoped it’d be the last, that maybe we got them all, but that was a joke, and each time, I remembered monsters still lurked out there.
“Tattletale,” I grumbled.
“I’ll let you know if we bring anyone to Haven,” he assured, knowing I liked to help. We had doctors of all kinds at Haven, but I liked to help them get settled if I could; buy things they needed. All behind the scenes work, too scared to put myself out there.
Daniel’s words about taking control before it controlled me crept through my mind, and I shoved them down. I didn’t want to think about that or him right now. Even though it was all I thought about.
“What’s really going on, Little Brandt?” Ian asked, plopping in the seat next to me.
“Nothing.” I tried laughing it off, but they both knew me too well.
“Does this have to do with Daniel?”
“What? No.” This time my laugh reached too high of a pitch with a scoff in between.
“What happened?” Erik asked.
I swallowed, calming my nerves, and going for a calmer, more believable tone. “Nothing. We’re just friends.”
“Does he know that.”
“Yeah. He most definitely does.”
“What does that mean?” Ian asked.
Taking a deep breath, I decided to give them the truth—at least part of it. “I want more, and he…most likely doesn’t.”
“Most likely?” Erik asked, leaning his palms on the table and glowering like this was some kind of interrogation.
“We haven’t talked about it.”
“Is there something that happened that would need to be talked about?” he practically growled.
I pursed my lips and considered just laying it out there, letting him know we fucked like bunnies, just to make him regret pushing me like he has a right to. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Maaaaaybe we don’t want to know, Erik,” Ian suggested lightly.
Erik’s lip curled up, and he rolled his eyes, pushing away from the table. “If he hurts you,” he said, turning back, finger pointed. “I’ll kill him.”
“Aye-aye, captain,” I mocked his deep voice and saluted.
Ian laughed behind me and ruffled my hair like he had since we were kids. Done with the questioning and older brother glares, I made my excuses and got the hell out of there, heading back to my office.
Flopping back in my chair, I heaved a sigh and dared to look at my phone.
Daniel: You’re avoiding me.
Daniel: If you won’t come to me…
What the hell did that mean?
I didn’t have time to consider it before someone knocked on my door. Clicking the phone off, I shoved it to the side. “Come in.”
And in walked the person I was just trying to avoid.
“Daniel.” Tingles washed over me when I caught his blue eyes, made all the brighter by the dark circles underneath.
“I decided to be a little proactive and come to you. This way, you can’t avoid me anymore.”
“Oh…” I looked away, shuffling papers and buying time to come up with a valid excuse out of this. My office was spacious, but the threat of facing him turning me away had the walls closing in. “I, um, I have meetings so I really can—”
“No, you don’t. I ran into Ian in the hall and asked.”
Shit.
“Come on, Hanna. Don’t try to put me in a box like everything else.”
My gaze snapped up at that. “I’m not shoving you anywhere.”
He sighed, running a hand through his hair before almost closing the door.
“Leave it open, please.”
I needed as much air in here as I could get and having the door open would prevent me from flinging myself in his arms, begging him to love me, like I so desperately wanted to.
His jaw clenched, but he nodded and sat in one of the seats across from my desk. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. But you have been avoiding me.”
“Gee, I wonder why,” I deadpanned.
“Hanna…”
Just my name and fire burned up my throat, stinging my eyes. I didn’t want to cry. I didn’t want to hear him tell me I pushed too far and now he was done with me. I couldn’t handle it. I also couldn’t handle him asking if we could forget the words and go back to friends.