Page 37 of Her Forbidden Shifters
Hell, who was I kidding? It didn’t take a rocket scientist or a relationship guru to figure out I was too much of a coward to make a move on her. Now that Liam beat me to her, I understood I had both him and the partner to contend with while I put my plans on reuniting with Savvy into play.
Sure, I realized I had no right to feel betrayed by her. I had no right to her in any sort of way. So, I shoved my emotions as far down as I could get them to go and focused on helping everyone find my sister… or die trying. My plans with Savvy would have to wait for a little while longer.
All of these things and so much more ran through my head as I stared at the ceiling of Savvy’s living room. She was so close. Liam didn’t make a peep while he slept on the sofa. Liam was the polar opposite of the detective who was snoring loudly again. It wouldn’t take much for me to stand up and walk into her room, cuddle with her, and remind her of what we had.
The only problem was Liam. He slept lightly from what I observed. Any motion and he would stir. And I had no doubt he would be less than thrilled with my attempt to get Savvy back into my arms.
No. My focus needed to remain on finding Avery. Once she was safe and sound, and things had settled, I would make my move.
The man’s snoring increased. How anyone could sleep with him around was a wonder.
“Gah.” I sat up and threw a small, square pillow at the detective.
He startled, snorting himself awake. He groggily asked, “What the hell?”
He glared at me and held up the pillow.
“I can’t sleep here,” I said with a shrug. “I want to go back to the hotel room.”
“Deal with your inability to sleep on your own. I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
Liam sat up with a groan. “I think heading back to the room is a good idea. It will help to put some distance between us and the events of the night.”
“Is that an order?” Detective Abadi said. Judging by the way he spoke, I figured out he was challenging his boss. There was a dynamic between the two of them. One with Savvy in the middle. And this only worked to further complicate things.
“Does it need to be?” Liam asked back. There was a hint of irritation in his words. I assumed he detected the same thing I had.
The detective groaned and stood from his seat. “Fine. Let’s go.”
“How does this work with the whole not leaving Savannah alone thing?” I asked.
The detective turned his attention to the ceiling and muttered a curse under his breath before settling his attention on me. “You were the one who wanted to leave in the first place.”
I shrugged. “Don’t blame me for not being coherent enough to make sense. Logic took a back seat a long time ago.”
The detective shook his head.
“We’ll only be gone a couple of hours. She can handle herself. And she needs the sleep,” Liam said. “Besides, she has a ton of protections and wards in her bedroom. No one would be stupid enough to walk in there without an invitation.
Thankfully, I didn’t try, and my resistance ended up panning out for me better than I had expected. For two reasons now.
I groaned. “Thank God… or whoever.”
The detective snorted as he collected his things. Liam busied himself with picking up the throw blankets and pillows, stacking them neatly onto the sofa. Before long, we headed out the door.
Once we arrived back at the hotel room, the air was tense and hard to breathe. No one gave the impression they wanted to address the elephant in the room. Though I was grateful I was no longer the odd man out. I could still feel the irritation oozing off of Savvy’s partner.
Liam was under the detective’s unfortunate microscope, judging by the snide remarks the detective was giving him.
“Well, it’s clearly too late to sleep, so I’m going to go take a shower,” I said, not really intending on going through with it. I was just giving off the impression of what I was doing in an effort to keep their suspicions at bay. My guess was they would have an exchange of words. And whatever was said might be useful and to my advantage.
Luckily for me, I overheard part of their conversation. Though it seemed like they were trying to keep their voices as low as possible. Maybe they suspected me of listening in. Regardless, I wasn’t going to change my course unless I needed to.
“Savannah was seriously hurt, Jacob,” Liam said.
So that was his name? I smirked to myself. This was proving fruitful already.
“I understand where you are coming from, but did you have to sleep with her?” Jacob, the great detective, asked.
