Page 85 of His Every Move

“How ya’ feeling?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said after a pause. “Good, I guess? I keep thinking I should be feeling good, you know? I’m safe. It’s over. But every time I close my eyes, I still see his face.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t need to. I just reached out and took his hand, still slightly damp from the shower.

“He was my best friend,” Eli whispered. “I trusted him with everything. I let him in.” He looked down at our joined hands. “And he wanted to kill me.”

I felt his words like a blade sliding beneath my ribs. “None of that is your fault.”

“I know,” he said, though his voice was thin. “I do. But I keep replaying everything. What I missed. What I should’ve seen. I keep wondering if there’s something about me that attracted someone like that.”

“No,” I said, firm. “Eli, no. There’s nothing wrong with being open. With caring. You didn’t invite that kind of obsession—he made that choice. You didn’t cause what happened. You survived it.”

He blinked rapidly and gave a shaky nod. “Thanks,” he murmured.

I moved a little closer, knees brushing. “You were brave as hell. Through all of it. Hell, you warned me, even when you were barely conscious.”

He gave a soft, surprised laugh. “That was… fuzzy. But I remember feeling you there. And knowing I was going to be okay.”

That made something in my chest ache. “I was terrified,” I admitted. “When I got to that building, when I didn’t see you next to me in bed, I just knew something was fucked..”

“I should’ve woken you up. Told you where I was going.”

“No,” I said. “This isn’t about blame. If anything, I should’ve pushed harder. I should’ve—fuck—I should’ve seen it sooner. Zack, he was always…around.”

Eli’s brows furrowed. “It’s not your fault either.”

A long silence stretched between us.

“You know what’s fucked up?” he said finally. “I still don’t know if he would’ve gone through with it. If you hadn’t been there, would he have just…” He trailed off, eyes distant.

“He was dangerous. And unpredictable,” I said. “And now he’s where he can’t hurt anyone.”

Eli nodded slowly, leaning his head back against the couch. “I just… I need a little time to feel normal again.”

“You can take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

He turned his head and looked at me. Something sparkled in the air.

“I didn’t expect this,” Eli said, voice low. “Any of it. You. Us. But I don’t want to run from it either.”

A smile tugged at my lips. “That makes two of us.”

We sat in silence again, but this time it was comfortable. Charged in a different way. It was pushing us away from the negativity and into a more positive space. Where the air crackled with an energy that feltright.

I brushed a damp curl from his forehead. His eyes sparkled with something soft. He reached out and grabbed the front of my tank. “Come here.”

I leaned in. Our foreheads touched. His lips brushed mine, light, tentative—like he was still testing the waters.

But when I kissed him back, it was with the promise that I washere. Present. Committed.

Not as the detective who kept secrets.

But as the man who’d do anything to keep him safe.

Eli smiled against my mouth. “You didn’t even drink tonight,” he whispered.

“I didn’t want to. Not anymore.”

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