Page 126 of Brutal
“What is it?”
“A place no one finds unless I want them to.”
She looks back at me. “And I’m here because…?”
“Because you’re already visible.”
She raises her eyebrows slightly but then walks deeper inside and brushes her fingers lightly along the back of a chair.
“Do you bring women here?” she asks.
“No.”
“You didn’t hesitate,” she says.
“Because it’s the truth.”
She smiles. “No. I mean you didn’t hesitate at the door. You didn’t check anything. You didn’t even look. You just knew.”
The dock access should have been secured.
It wasn’t. The chain hung loose, tapping softly in the wind. I saw it and ignored it. We were already moving. Already committed.
Halstead was already there, watching. For a second, something didn’t line up.
But we were all in.
I told myself he was the target. I didn’t question the open access. Didn’t question the timing.
Didn’t question why everything was already in place.
I stepped forward.
I made the decision.
Or I thought I did.
The present snaps back hard. Delaney is watching me too closely.
“You went somewhere,” she says.
“I didn’t.”
“That’s not true.” She cocks her head, squints at me. “It was like you were someplace else for a minute.”
I step toward her. “You notice a lot.”
“It’s kind of my job,” she says. “We have that in common. Our observational skills.”
I close the distance between us, inhale her fresh fragrance, remember the feel of her, the sound of her…
Close.
Too close.
Last night isn’t gone. It’s here. In the air. In her body. In mine.
“You’re not wrong,” I say.
