Peering through the open doorway, Leila saw lights on in Eric’s office. She knew Theresa was still here, too, hard at work creating plans for more transparency, more security in their build process. People who would stick by her, stick by the company. People who cared about her, too.
But they weren’t her family. That was all gone now, no one left except her father’s abusive parents, who she’d never contact, and her mother’s family in Pakistan who she’d never met, except over a few brief video chats.
They weren’t Davis. Davis, who’d somehow wormed his way into her heart while he was digging through her company’s darkest secrets.
He hadn’t called. Maybe he’d been too concussed to hear her declaration of love. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered even if he’d known how she felt.
Because he was an FBI agent. And she was just the CEO of a company he’d been investigating. His job was finished here. He was gone.
Even if he wasn’t, could she be with someone who—intentionally or not—had put her in a position where she’d had to kill the only real family she had left?
A shiver racked her body, a sob lodging in her chest. But she blinked back the tears, forced the sob down. She’d already cried for her uncle. Knowing what he’d done, what he’d been willing to do, she refused to give him any more of her tears.
She couldn’t cry for Davis, either. Couldn’t cry for what might have been. Not yet, because that would mean admitting she’d truly lost him, too. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to admit that yet.
“Leila.”
The soft voice speaking her name made her jerk. Realizing her eyes had gone unfocused, she blinked and there was Davis. She blinked again, certain she’d imagined him, but he was still in front of her. Real.
Beyond him, in the dim lights of the space outside the office, Eric gave her a sad smile and a nod. Then, he slipped back into his office and she refocused on the man in front of her.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“I couldn’t stay away,” he whispered back, stepping closer.
There was still a big Band-Aid on the side of his head. Underneath, she knew there were a dozen stitches. But his eyes looked clear, his gaze steady as he took one more step toward her, then reached out and took both her hands in his.
It was something Eric had done in her office not so long ago. But Eric’s touch hadn’t made her heart race, or made hope burst through the pain in her chest.
She gazed up at him, trying to read his intention in his eyes. And yet—did it matter? Had anything really changed in the past week? They’d lied to each other. And she’d killed one of the people closest to her in the world. For him. Could she ever get beyond that?
As he brought her hands up to his lips, closed his eyes almost reverently as he kissed her there softly, she knew: she desperately wanted to.
“I’m so sorry about your uncle,” he said when he lowered her hands from his lips.
The pain he felt on her behalf was in the crinkling around his eyes, in the downturn of his lips, the way he gazed at her. But there was something else there, too, and even though it didn’t seem possible, Leila’s heart beat even faster.
“I never expected it to end like that, Leila. I never expected...” He gave a shaky—could it be nervous?—smile. “I never expected to fall in love with you.”
The words that followed were a jumble she couldn’t quite piece together, about being sorry he’d taken so long to come here, about wanting to start fresh. But all she could hear was the thundering of her own heartbeat in her ears, those most important words repeating over and over in her mind. I never expected to fall in love with you.
“What are you saying?” she finally interrupted him, unable to process too much about the past, needing to know more about the future.
Davis stepped even closer, as far inside her personal space as he could get without physically pulling her into his arms. “I’m saying I can’t let go, Leila. Maybe it’s what makes the most sense, given everything that’s happened, but I can’t do it. I love you. I want to give this thing between us a real shot. No more lies, no more half-truths. The same side.” He turned one of her hands in his, stroking her palm enough to send shivers of awareness over her skin. “I think we’ve always been on the same side, even if it didn’t always feel that way.”
She nodded back at him. They’d always been searching for the same thing: the truth. And they’d found it, even if it wasn’t what she’d wanted, wasn’t the way she’d wanted.
“A new start,” she said, feeling more certain as the words burst from her mouth without thought.
He smiled, tentative but genuine. He shifted his grip on her hand until it was more of a handshake. “Agreed,” he said, an echo of the promise they’d made to each other weeks ago, when he’d first gone undercover in her company.
Then, he pulled her closer still, until she was pressed against him. She rose up on her tiptoes, the first smile she’d felt in a week shifting from a small, hopeful thing into a full-blown grin. “I love you, too, Davis.”
“I know,” he answered. “And I promise you this—whatever comes next, we’re in it together.”
Then, he sealed that promise with a kiss.
TCD agents never sleep! Look for the next book
in the Tactical Crime Division series—
Midnight Abduction by Nichole Severn.
Keep reading for an excerpt
