Chapter 24 #2
She’d almost forgotten she’d called her and asked her to come. Tori stepped out of the bathroom and almost walked into Harlee.
Harlee’s smirk stretched wider as her gaze bounced between them. “About time you two figured things out.”
Tori’s stomach dropped to somewhere around her ankles. Harlee wasn’t the only one who teased about what a great couple they’d be.
“Don’t start.” Blade’s voice came out rough, exhausted. “I’m in too much pain for jokes.”
The smugness melted from Harlee’s expression, replaced by genuine concern as she took in the extent of his injuries. “That looks bad. Are you okay? What happened?”
Blade braced a hand on the counter, shoulders tight. “Guy came at me on the beach. Sprinting out of the dark.”
Harlee’s eyes flared, and she stepped closer. “You need a hospital.”
He flicked a glance at Tori, lifted his bandaged arm with a wince. “Already handled.”
“It looked worse in the dark. Once we got up here, I realized the cuts weren’t deep.”
Harlee’s gaze cut back. “You get a good look at this guy?”
Blade’s jaw flexed once. He gave a short shake of his head.
“I fired,” Tori said. Her fingers worried the hem of her sleeve. “It was too dark to be sure if I hit.” The image of Blade and the dark figure about to bring the knife down. Her blood flashed hot then cold. She could’ve hit Blade.
“Please tell me you called this in,” Harlee said.
“We didn’t call local PD.” Tori crossed her arms. “Didn’t really want to deal with Barclay and his possible corruption issues.”
“You can’t just let this psycho run around loose.” Harlee’s voice carried that edge it got when she was gearing up for a fight. “He’s escalating. First your house, now this.”
“I’ll call it in now.” Blade headed toward his bedroom. “But I’m calling my people at BSO, not Millie Beach.”
The bedroom door clicked shut behind him, leaving Tori alone with Harlee’s penetrating stare.
“All right.” Harlee dropped onto the couch, arms folded. “What’s really going on here?”
“What do you mean?” Tori perched on the edge of the coffee table, maintaining distance.
“Something changed between you two. I can feel it from across the room.”
Tori opened her mouth to deny it, to insist nothing was happening between them. But the memory of Blade’s eyes holding hers in the bathroom stopped her cold. The electricity when her knuckle had brushed his shoulder. The way her heart had stopped when she’d found him bleeding in the surf.
Truth was, she’d been fighting it for weeks.
“I don’t know.” The words came out smaller than she intended. “Maybe it’s the stalker. Maybe it’s the case. Everything feels . . .”
“Different?”
“Yeah.”
Harlee’s expression softened. “Tori, everyone knows you two belong together. Seems like the only ones who don’t realize it are you and Blade.”
Heat climbed Tori’s neck. “It’s not that simple.”
“Why not?”
Because friendship was safe. Because she’d already lost everyone who mattered. Because crossing that line meant risking the one relationship that had never failed her.
Because she was terrified.
“Because Blade only ended up in the Warrior program because of me.” The words hurt to say aloud. “He nearly ruined his life protecting me from that knife attack when we were kids. Went to juvie for it.”
Harlee’s eyebrows pulled together. “So?”
“So I already destroyed his life once. And now I did it again with Kiara.” She picked at the bandage on her arm. “Maybe there’s still time for him to patch things up with her. She’s good for him. Safe.”
“Kiara’s a great woman,” Harlee said, pushing to her feet. “But she’s so not the one for Blade.”
The certainty in her tone froze something behind Tori’s ribs.
“I’m gonna head out. Big project at work, and it looks like you two have things handled.” Harlee moved toward the door.
Tori followed. “Thanks for coming.”
“It’s what family does. We have each other’s backs.” She pulled Tori into a quick hug at the threshold. “And listen, Blade might have been the man who saved your life that night at the pier, but I’m pretty sure that whole incident saved his life too.”
Harlee wasn’t talking about his heartbeat. Without that night, Blade would have stayed an alligator-wrestling swamp kid instead of becoming a man with a badge. Saving her gave him the only exit ramp he was ever going to get.
The door clicked shut, leaving Tori staring at polished wood and wondering what had gotten into Harlee. First the wise-old-man-type advice, then the hug. Physical affection wasn’t Harlee’s usual speed.
But it was the other phrase that suddenly blazed through her consciousness like a lightning strike.
The man who saved your life that night at the pier.
“The man who saved Tori can find it.”
Damien’s riddle. The message from prison that had sent them chasing shadows, assuming he’d meant Stryker.
But Stryker had found her after.
The man who had physically saved her life, the man who had pulled her from the darkness that night—
She didn’t walk. She ran. Across the living room to Blade’s bedroom. She burst through the door without knocking.
Blade stood beside his bed, struggling to pull a fresh T-shirt over his head, movements stiff with pain from his wounds. The fabric caught on his bandaged bicep, and his mouth pinched.
“The pier. The message from Damien.” The words spilled out of her, breathless and ragged. “It wasn’t about Stryker. It was you.”
She took a step closer.
“You’re the man who saved me.”