Then he settled with a doggie groan on his side, his back pressed into my front.
Oh wel .
Whatever.
I was total y exhausted, way too comfy and I had the human and canine Nightingale boys’ warmth seeping into me front and back. I wasn’t going to fight it.
I was about to fal asleep, mindlessly scratching the soft fur behind Shamus’s ears, when Hank cal ed, “Sunshine?”
“Yeah?” I mumbled, snuggling a bit deeper into him.
“I’m lettin’ you go,” he told me.
I thought it was weird that he’d announce this but it didn’t matter, Shamus was fencing me in.
“That’s okay. I’m good,” I said. “Even if you do, I have nowhere to move, Shamus is plastered to the front of me and taking half the bed.”
He was silent for a second and the air in the room started to feel close.
Then he said, “That’s not what I mean.”
I opened my eyes and looked, unseeing (for more reasons than one), into the darkness.
“What do you mean?”
“When this is finished, I’l get your car back and you can go with Annette and Jason to Chicago.”
I felt the muscles in my body tighten.
“Excuse me?” I whispered.
“I’m lettin’ you go,” he repeated.
I felt my lungs contract.
“Are you…” I hesitated, “breaking up with me?” His hand moved up my thigh and then wrapped around my waist.
“You already did that, remember?”
I was such an idiot.
I felt my breath get shal ow.
“Though, I need you to understand something,” he said.
I nodded my head on the pil ow but didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything.
“I’m a cop, al I ever wanted was to be a cop. I protect people and keep them safe on a daily basis. Doin’ it for someone I care about…”
He stopped talking.
I stopped breathing.
He started talking again. “I understand why you didn’t want me to be involved with this business with Flynn,” he paused. “But you need to understand that I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
I started breathing again, mainly because my body needed oxygen and, if I didn’t, I would have died.
Not that dying would be a bad thing at that moment.