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“ Y ou’ve got the SFPD in quite the tizzy.”

Tanner looks down at me from the side of the bed.

Between my skills in wilderness first aid and a stash of antibiotics, I was able to convince Everly to let me recover in her apartment. The umbrella didn’t hit anything vital, and I’ll do just about anything to stay out of the hospital.

Warming my hands around the mug of herbal tea she left on the bedside table, I inhale the vaguely spicy scent. It’s in my best interest to try to be a better patient for her than I was for Nurse Rebecca. “If I could let them off the hook without producing a body, I would.”

The San Francisco Police Department was all over the venue after I had it evacuated, finding several fog machines full of a very concentrated hydrogen sulfide solution. The “grand finale” Vincent mentioned to Everly, no doubt. He’d planned to lock everyone inside and let them suffocate, while he cruised out into the Pacific and disappeared.

His motives were a mystery, until Garrison checked out that hotel I’d almost walked into the night before. Though the man I was following had vacated, he’d left supplies behind: industrial bondage attached to a chair, tranquilizers, and a video feed set to stream the fashion show. Live.

It was a trap.

A trap set for me.

The bastard was going to make me watch it go down—witness all those people dying, with Everly as the main attraction, just to prove he’d won. A big fucking checkmate.

If she hadn’t texted before I walked into that motel room—if I hadn’t been so paranoid I’d high-tailed it out of there the next morning—every one of those lives would have been on my hands.

I was still too late to help Jasper Cross, who will always be on my conscience. Maybe I didn’t like the guy, but he took a risk to get me on the scene.

No one should have died on my watch.

Of course, I immediately called my former partner, who managed to locate Allison James, uninjured, in a hotel room outside of Los Angeles. One of Vincent’s hired men had duct-taped her to a chair and abandoned her when he failed to hear from his boss.

The look Tanner gives me now would be unreadable to most people. “I guess they’ll have to be satisfied with a blood-soaked boat and DNA results. Convenient you had the ocean there to dispose of him easily.”

“Yeah. Convenient.” I take a sip of the tea. This way it ends, and I can disappear off the radar without explanations or unwanted attention.

He raises an eyebrow that says he suspects there’s more to it. “Not much has changed from our days in the department together, I see.” He points at his mug. “You don’t think she did something to my coffee, do you?”

I look at him sideways.

“This is the first time I’ve seen Everly since she found out I haven’t been exactly truthful for the past year. She looks sweet, but that’s the type you need to watch out for.”

“Oh, Tanner.” Everly enters the room with a plate of blueberry muffins. “I never thought you were being truthful. Besides, if I were going to do anything, it would be to that muffin you just took off the top.”

When he sets it on the plate like it might bite him, she hands it directly to me. I shove half of it into my mouth while she presses her lips to my forehead.

He shakes his head disdainfully. “This case consumed the last three years of your life. Have you thought about what you’re going to do next?”

Everly glances my way. “That’s true. Now that The Timekeeper is gone, you?—”

“Leonard Vincent,” I say, teeth clenching. Silence falls like a hammer as they both stare at me. “That was his name. Leonard Vincent. Not The Timekeeper, not some title that feeds his ego. He was just a murderer—a coward hiding behind a clock. And now, he’s nothing.” My gaze cuts to Everly, and I watch as realization dawns.

She swallows, nodding slowly. “Yeah. You’re right.”

I reach for her hand. “And I have no idea what I’m doing. Private sector bullshit, I guess.” Which sounds terrible.

“Have you considered fugitive recovery?” Tanner clears his throat. “Batman would approve.”

Everly suddenly appears very interested. “Is that the same as bounty hunting?”

Tanner and I cringe.

“What? They still have those; I’ve seen them on TV.”

“Those guys are bail bondsman runners who want to sound cool.” Ignoring the flowery-tasting tea, I snag my friend’s untouched coffee mug from the side table and take a drink. “Tanner is talking about a type of independent contracting the government doesn’t admit to.”

“Sounds perfect for you.”

She’s not wrong. It would allow me to do what I’m good at, fulfilling that part of myself that will probably always feel like I’ve got something to prove—that I’m the opposite of the evil bastard who created me. Because even though being around Everly has done wonders for my mental health, childhood wounds have a way of working their way into your molecular structure.

“Yeah.” I let my hand trail down from her arm to her ass, giving it a squeeze. “But it’s also dangerous. And there’s a lot of traveling.” That would never have stopped me before. But what I’m not saying is that it’s a lone-wolf type of job—the kind that works best when you’re single. “I don’t know.”

Am I still a lone wolf?

Since that day at the club when Everly discovered who I was, we’ve been—well, I’m not sure, exactly. Enjoying each other? Exploring this magnetic pull we have? But there’s always been a threat looming over our heads. Somehow it made everything feel temporary.

But over the last twenty-four hours, everything has changed.

We’re bound to change, too; that’s inevitable.

Where do we go from here? What does she expect?

Fuck, I’m starting to sweat. I scratch at my neck.

Tanner’s eyes narrow for a second, before he glances at Everly and back again. Understanding washes over his face.

I can’t look at her. Is she watching me? I blink at Tanner like an S.O.S. signal.

The itch spreads to my chest. Will I be expected to “settle down?” Do I want to settle down? Do I know what the hell settling down even means?

Shit. I can’t breathe.

“Isaac.” Everly gives me a coy smile. “I don’t expect you to change personalities now that he’s dead, you know.”

I just look at her, helpless, because I don’t know.

“That would be boring. And you…” she leans over and kisses me, her hair falling in a curtain around my head, “are incapable of being boring. That’s one of the things I love about you.” The smile widens until it practically takes over her face. Turning on her heel, she leaves the room, taking the empty mugs with her.

Oh, God, the room is spinning.

Also, I really want to grab her and throw her down on the bed, dammit.

Plates clink in the kitchen, along with the sound of water running in the sink. At least I have a small reprieve. I look out the bedroom window at the tree line where I stood not so long ago, wondering what her apartment would be like.

“So.” Tanner chuckles. “When’s the wedding?”

“Fuck off.” I glare at him. “How’s Shay?”

His face twists. “Bite your tongue. I’d take Everly any day—even if she was a gigantic pain in my ass for the past year.”

I stare at him. He’s one of those people who rambles under pressure.

He’ll crack.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he grumbles. “Shay is a completely different thing.”

“Okay.”

He sighs. “She’s staying with some deadbeat with a record. I’m keeping an eye on her only because I still feel responsible. Plus, my mother is attached. The end.”

“Ah. It’s a favor to Mom. Right.”

“Stop trying to change the subject by antagonizing me.”

I grab a bottle of water and take a casual sip. “I just asked a simple question.”

“Uh-huh. Do I get to be your best man?”

“Do I look like a wedding kind of guy to you?”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to string that poor, smoking-hot angel along. There are millions of men who’d snatch that right out from under you in a heartbeat. Wouldn’t even care if your dick was still wet.”

My blood pressure rises. “You, my friend, are about five seconds away from needing to run.”

“Just saying.” His eyes sparkle at me like a motherfucker. “You need to do right by that girl. She’s a gem.”

“All right, Grandpa. In this millennium, people don’t have to be married to be in a long-term relationship.”

His laugh is fucking triumphant. “All I heard is you admitting it’s a relationship. And the words long-term. ”

I throw the water bottle at him, forgetting he used to play baseball.

“Must be love.” Tanner’s voice fades into the distance.

“Yeah,” I mumble absently, staring out the window, watching the trees begin to blur.

Maybe I’m the one fading. Maybe some part of me has disconnected. I’m floating away, somewhere past that tree line and out into the horizon, where there’s nothing but blue.

“Wait…” His voice comes from somewhere distant. “I was joking, kind of. Are you?—”

“Hey, can we talk?”

Everly’s voice aims at me from the doorway, and I slam back into my body so abruptly, my wounded shoulder throbs.

Shit.

“Tanner, did you say you were staying at the motel around the corner?” she asks. “How about you check back in with us later?”

“Yep. I’m out.” He excuses himself with a fast wave, disappearing out the bedroom door. “I’m taking the last of these muffins,” he calls, then the front door closes.

And now I’m alone with a woman who wants to talk .

“Looks nice outside.” I push myself up on my elbows, gritting back the strain in my voice. “I think some fresh air would do me good.”

“Absolutely not.” Climbing over me on the bed, she straddles my waist. “I’m not sure who you think you’re fooling, but I’m aware of how hurt you really are.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“I can see the pain in your eyes; that’s why I brought these.” She opens her palm, showing me the painkillers, then grabs the water Tanner returned to the side table after I threw it, gesturing for me to swallow them. “And, by the way, if you get out of this bed right now, I’m marching you straight to the hospital. Don’t test me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I can’t focus on anything but the warmth of her body pressing into mine, and with no will left to fight, I collapse back onto the pillows.

Her voice shifts to a gentler tone. “Listen, I’m aware it’s not your favorite thing to talk about, but I think it might be time for us to discuss the dreaded subject of feelings.”

“Mmm, I’m definitely having some feelings.” I push my hips up enough to make sure she feels the same thing.

“Stop distracting me.” She smacks my bicep lightly. “I heard what Tanner said. Now I want to know what you’re thinking.”

Well, let’s see: five seconds ago, I was thinking I was turned-on, and now I’m back to thinking I want to vomit. “Do we have to figure this out today? We could take it one step at a time. See how we’re feeling tomorrow, or next week.” I swallow. “Maybe we’ll never have to give it a label. We could wake up one day, and it’ll have figured itself out.”

Fuck, why am I still talking?

“Hmm…” She regards me thoughtfully, holding herself far enough away from my groin that I can’t easily shift the subject to other things. “No, we don’t have to figure this out today, and yes, we can take it one step at a time.”

Oh, thank God.

“But the fact that you said the word we five times during that panic-ramble tells me a lot.”

I’m not sure what to say to that. “Does it?”

“Yes. Especially considering it was connected to future dates. It sounds like you think we have something you don’t want to end right now.”

“Did you expect me to?”

She rubs her fingers over her forehead, bringing them down to her cheeks. Her body drops against mine.

She looks…thoughtful? Hopeful? Sad?

I don’t know, but this time, I don’t try to distract her.

“I don’t really know what you’re thinking, Isaac.” Her eyes rove my face, studying me like she’s trying to piece together a puzzle. Her hands drop, one trailing lightly over my heart. “I’m not sure what you want, or what you need; if you’ll stick around, or disappear into the wind in the next hour. But I know that the thought of it makes me want to cry.”

A glossy sheen glimmers in her blue irises.

There’s a pang in my chest where her hand rests, and it has nothing to do with the injury.

“Oddly enough, I’m hoping the fact that you seem on the verge of a meltdown is a good sign.” Her lips turn up in a half smile. “If you didn’t care, you’d just leave without a backward glance. Wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah. I guess I would.”

“Then I’ll take this as a positive.” Her fingers thread through my hair, stroking lightly, soothing, moving down to the back of my neck to gently knead the sore muscles there.

“I don’t know how to do this, Bee.”

“Be together?” She frowns a little. “It’s not that difficult. We’re doing it right now.”

Exhaling, I lift my good arm, gesturing for her to tuck into my side. “For the record, you’re the only person I’ve ever considered doing this with.”

She pulls her face to mine, rubbing against the scruff of my beard. “That’s a good start.”

The ceiling fan circles slowly over our heads, and I stare at it, unblinking, letting it take me into a hypnotic space. “I’m just not sure what you’ll need from me. Or what comes next.”

Snuggling into my side, she molds her body to mine. “All relationships evolve. The only thing we need to know right now is whether we want to go forward with our lives without the other person in it.”

My eyes snap to hers. “I don’t.”

“Neither do I.”

I nod once.

We’ll just let it evolve.

Her lips brush against mine, and I press in, sealing our mouths together. My hand tangles in her hair, tugging her head backward. Then I lick a line along her jaw, to her neck, where I nip at the tender skin.

It hits me like an epiphany that should have been obvious all along.

“I was never going to leave tonight,” I whisper into her throat.

She hums dreamily, her eyes drifting closed.

“Or tomorrow.” My fingers move between her legs, pulling a moan from her. “Or next week.”

Or probably…

Ever.