Chapter 8 No More Distance
Trust Me
Gideon waited until the studio was closed.
He had spent the entire afternoon thinking about the photograph.
The tattooed man.
The missing name.
The possibility that someone had deliberately kept information out of the investigation.
Every time Gideon thought about it, the same conclusion returned.
Nico needed to stay out of it.
The decision felt obvious.
The fact that Nico would hate it was equally obvious.
Gideon crossed the street anyway.
The lights inside Reyes Ink were still on. Through the front window, he could see Nico cleaning one of the workstations.
Nico looked up when Gideon entered.
“You’re early.”
“For what?”
Nico smiled.
“Whatever excuse you were going to invent.”
Gideon ignored that.
“We need to talk.”
Nico’s smile disappeared.
“That sounds serious.”
“It is.”
Nico put down the cleaning cloth.
“About the photograph?”
“Yes.”
Gideon walked toward the counter.
“I want you out.”
Nico stared at him.
“Out of what?”
“The investigation.”
There was a brief silence.
Then Nico folded his arms.
“No.”
Gideon had expected resistance.
He hadn’t expected it to be immediate.
“Nico.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand what we’re dealing with.”
“I understand enough.”
“You found one photograph.”
“I found evidence that someone connected to the warehouse wasn’t documented.”
“Exactly.”
Gideon’s voice sharpened.
“That is why you need to stay away.”
Nico shook his head.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.”
“To you.”
Gideon stepped closer.
“Someone may have concealed evidence from a major fire investigation.”
“I know.”
“And we don’t know why.”
“I know.”
“And we don’t know who.”
“I know that too.”
Gideon stared at him.
“Then why are you arguing with me?”
“Because none of that means you get to decide what I do.”
Gideon felt his jaw tighten.
“This isn’t about deciding for you.”
“It sounds exactly like that.”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
Nico’s expression changed.
There was no anger in it now.
Only disappointment.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
Gideon stopped.
The words landed harder than they should have.
“You shouldn’t have to ask.”
“Yes, I do.”
Nico’s voice remained calm.
“My life is mine.”
“I know.”
“Then act like you know.”
Gideon looked away.
He had walked into the studio determined to be reasonable.
Instead, every word coming out of his mouth sounded like an order.
He tried again.
“Someone knows we found this.”
“Do you have proof?”
“No.”
“Then you’re guessing.”
“I’m making a risk assessment.”
“That’s what you do at work.”
Gideon looked at him.
“It is what I do everywhere.”
Nico’s expression softened slightly.
“I know.”
That should have calmed him.
It didn’t.
“That’s why I’m telling you to step back.”
“And I’m telling you no.”
Gideon dragged a hand over his face.
“You don’t know what this can become.”
“Neither do you.”
“I know what happens when people get too close to something dangerous.”
Nico looked at him for a long moment.
“You’re talking about the fire.”
Gideon said nothing.
“You think because something terrible happened once, it will happen again.”
“I’m not saying that.”
“You don’t have to.”
Nico moved around the counter.
“You’ve been doing this since I met you.”
“Doing what?”
“Watching exits. Checking doors. Counting people. Looking at me every time something changes.”
Gideon went still.
“You notice too much.”
“It’s part of my job.”
“Your job is tattooing people.”
“My job is paying attention.”
Gideon looked at him.
Nico stepped closer.
“You’ve been afraid since the beginning.”
Gideon shook his head.
“I’m not afraid.”
“You are.”
“No.”
“You’re afraid something will happen to me.”
Gideon’s silence answered for him.
Nico’s expression softened.
“That’s the real reason.”
Gideon looked toward the door.
He wanted to leave.
He wanted to end the conversation before he said something he couldn’t take back.
But his feet didn’t move.
Nico waited.
“Gideon.”
“I don’t want you involved.”
“I know.”
“Because this could get dangerous.”
“I understand.”
“Then listen to me.”
“I am listening.”
“Stay out of it.”
Nico shook his head.
“No.”
Gideon’s frustration rose.
“Why are you making this difficult?”
“Because you’re asking me to give up my choice so you can feel safer.”
Gideon stared at him.
“That isn’t fair.”
“Neither is deciding that I can’t handle my own life.”
“I never said you couldn’t.”
“You’re acting like it.”
Gideon took a breath.
“I don’t think you’re weak.”
“Then what?”
The question was simple.
Gideon didn’t answer.
Nico stepped closer.
“What do you think?”
Gideon looked at him.
“I think you’re important.”
The words came out before he could stop them.
Nico’s expression changed.
Gideon looked away.
There it was.
The thing he had been trying not to say.
The thing that made the whole argument different.
Nico’s voice became quieter.
“How important?”
Gideon swallowed.
“Too important.”
Nico didn’t move.
Gideon continued before he could lose the courage.
“That’s the problem.”
His voice was rough.
“I know how this works.”
“How what works?”
“You care about someone. You let them get close. You start thinking about them when they’re not around.”
Nico listened.
“You start knowing their habits. Their voice. The way they look when they’re concentrating. The things that make them laugh.”
A faint smile touched Nico’s mouth.
Gideon didn’t smile.
“Then one day they’re gone.”
Nico’s smile disappeared.
Gideon looked at him.
“I can’t do that again.”
“You’re assuming you’re going to lose me.”
“I’m assuming I could.”
“Those aren’t the same thing.”
“I know.”
“But you’re treating them like they are.”
Gideon looked down.
“I don’t know how to protect someone without trying to control the situation.”
Nico reached toward him.
He stopped before touching him.
“Can I?”
Gideon nodded.
Nico placed his hand against Gideon’s forearm.
“You don’t have to protect me from everything.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to protect me from making my own choices.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to protect me from caring about you.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
That one hurt.
Because he was beginning to understand that his fear wasn’t really about the investigation.
The investigation had simply given the fear a reason to speak.
Gideon opened his eyes.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Nico’s fingers tightened slightly around his arm.
“I know.”
“I keep thinking about that photograph.”
“I know.”
“And all I can think is that someone hid something once. Maybe they can hide something again.”
Nico nodded.
“That’s a reasonable concern.”
Gideon looked at him.
“But?”
“But reasonable concern doesn’t mean you get to remove me from my own life.”
Gideon let out a slow breath.
“You’re impossible.”
“So you’ve told me.”
“And stubborn.”
“You like that.”
“I do.”
Nico smiled.
Gideon looked at him for a long moment.
The tension between them changed.
It was still there.
But it wasn’t anger anymore.
It was something deeper.
Something warmer.
Gideon moved closer.
His hand found Nico’s waist.
He stopped.
Nico looked down at it.
Then back at Gideon.
“Still choosing?”
Gideon nodded.
“Yes.”
Nico smiled.
“Then stay.”
Gideon didn’t kiss him.
Not yet.
Instead, he pulled him closer and rested his forehead against Nico’s.
“I hate this.”
“What?”
“Caring this much.”
Nico’s voice was gentle.
“You don’t have to hate it.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
“I’m trying not to.”
They stood together in the quiet studio.
Outside, the streetlights reflected off the pavement.
Gideon knew the investigation could become dangerous.
He knew there were questions they couldn’t answer yet.
He knew someone might have a reason to keep the truth buried.
But he also knew something else now.
Nico wasn’t a liability.
He wasn’t fragile.
He wasn’t someone Gideon needed to lock away from danger.
He was a man who had chosen to stand beside him.
And Gideon had finally admitted the truth.
His protectiveness wasn’t professional.
It wasn’t simply instinct.
It wasn’t only because Nico had discovered something important.
Gideon was afraid because Nico mattered.
He mattered enough to lose.
And that frightened Gideon more than the possibility of facing the fire again.
Still, when Nico leaned against him, Gideon didn’t step away.
He stayed.
For now, that was enough.
Chosen Touch
The studio was quiet after closing.
Nico had turned off most of the lights, leaving only the warm lamps above the workstations. Outside, the street had settled into its nighttime rhythm. Cars passed occasionally, their headlights sliding across the front windows before disappearing.
Gideon remained near the counter.
He had been there for almost twenty minutes without saying much.
Nico didn’t ask him to leave.
He knew Gideon sometimes needed silence before he could find the words he was looking for.
Eventually, Gideon looked at him.
“I keep thinking about what you said.”
“Which part?”
“That I don’t have to protect you from everything.”
Nico smiled faintly.
“Good.”
“I don’t know how to stop.”
“You don’t have to stop all at once.”
Gideon leaned against the counter.
“I’ve spent years controlling everything I can.”
“I know.”
“Where I stand. Where I sit. Which doors are closest. Who is around me.”
Nico listened.
“If someone touches me without warning, I react.”
“I know.”
“And when I can’t control something, I don’t like it.”
Nico nodded.
“That makes sense.”
Gideon looked at him.
“You’re different.”
“How?”
“You make me want to give up control.”
Nico’s expression softened.
“I don’t want you to give up control.”
Gideon frowned.
“You don’t?”
“No.”
Nico stepped closer.
“I want you to know you can choose.”
Gideon studied him.
“There’s a difference.”
“A big one.”
Nico stopped a short distance away.
“You don’t have to surrender control to be close to someone. You can decide when they touch you. You can decide where. You can decide when it stops.”
Gideon looked down.
“And if I change my mind?”
“Then you change your mind.”
“Even halfway through?”
“Especially then.”
Something inside Gideon loosened.
He had always thought intimacy meant allowing another person into territory he guarded.
Nico was showing him that it could mean something else.