Page 101 of Yours to Keep
It made me fucking furious.
After everything Adrian had done, Eli still believed he wasn’t worth saving.
I take another drink of coffee, my jaw tightening as a message flashes across the screen next to the TV. My attention snaps to it.
Vehicle registration. Doctor Adrian Blackwell. Confirmation coming.
I grab my phone just as Finn walks in, carrying a paper bag and two coffees. Thank fuck. Proper coffee.
I look at him. He looks exhausted.
“You haven’t eaten,” he says.
I turn back to the screen. “I’m busy.”
Finn snorts. “Yeah, CJ said you’d say that.”
He crosses the room and drops the bag on the table beside me. The smell of burgers hits instantly, and only then do I realize how hungry I actually am.
I glance at him. He’s standing there with his arms crossed, hip slightly popped, watching me through tired eyes.
“Eat.”
“Finn…” I growl.
“Deck,” he says, mimicking my tone.
That gets a small smirk out of me. He always does that, always pushing.
I watch as he moves through the room, taking in the photos, reports, maps, and timelines we’ve built. Every detail. Then he stops at Adrian’s photo in the center of the wall.
“That’s him,” he whispers.
I nod.
Finn stares at it a little too long. I see it then: the anger, sharp and personal. Finn and Eli had become brothers the same way CJ and I had. And the man in that photo had hurt someone Finn loved.
“He’s ugly.”
A surprised laugh slips out of me. His anger hits me harder than I expect. He doesn’t get angry often, but when he does, it means something.
Finn doesn’t smile. “Seriously. I expected more.”
I study him. Beneath the anger, there is something else: hurt.
Finn turns back to me, his expression softening. “Eli’s asleep upstairs. CJ’s with him.”
CJ hasn’t left Eli’s side since those photos came in. Something has shifted between them, something I can only describe as love.
“He’s finally starting to eat again,” Finn says quietly. “I took him chicken soup. He ate half of it before I left.”
Relief eases through my chest, slow and heavy.
“He asked where you were.”
That hits harder than it should. Eli worries about everyone except himself. I rub a hand over my jaw. “He has enough to worry about.”
“Yes,” Finn glances toward the staircase leading to the apartment above the office. “But I think knowing you’re down here fighting for him helps more than you realize.”
