A heartbeat later, he dropped his hands and I scrambled out of his reach.
Good to know that no matter how angry I was at him, he could still touch me and make me lose my ever-loving mind.
Damn it.
I swallowed hard. “Get yourself together and we’ll leave in thirty minutes. I’m going to talk to the Chief real fast and make sure we’re armed before we go.”
He nodded, the strain entering his eyes again. I hated seeing the sadness on his face, written in the lines around his eyes and mouth. Even his hair looked a little dull in the low lighting of the Chief’s guestroom.
I left him there, not sure I’d be able to control myself if he touched me again.
Chapter Four
THANKFULLY, WHEN WE left the safety of the Chief’s non-magical house, Fin’s injury only got a little worse. He groaned a little more as we drove back into town, but overall, it held.
We’d need to do some magical healing though, which meant I was up for using my magic again. Hopefully I was up to the task.
When we arrived at the destination he gave me, I pulled the black SUV onto the side of the road and gaped up at the building before me.
Fin’s ‘safe house’ was a million-dollar piece of real estate in a high rise building right in the center of town. I grumbled the whole way up the elevator and as I punched in the code he relayed.
Then I helped him inside. “If Esteban wants to find us, all he has to do it price out the most expensive properties in the state and start picking them off,” I said as I lowered him into a steel grey sectional in the heart of the penthouse.
He hissed out a breath and closed his eyes. “Well, he’d have to get past the security teams on the ground floor first. The magic wielding security teams.”
Hm. Interesting. “How much more does hiring magical security cost?”
I surveyed him closely, monitoring his pain and little movements.
“Does it matter?”
With a sigh, I lowered myself
to the couch beside him. “Go get some rest and then we can attempt to heal you. I just wanted to wait and let the wound settle before we tried, just in case the magic returned to the wound or whatever.”
He nodded and I helped him to his feet and to the bedroom. There was only one, I noted, as I carefully situated him on the rich navy bedding. The heavy curtains were open, revealing the city skyline below. Any other time, I might have stood there gawking at the view, but not when I had a whole list of things to take care of, and one pissy fae to babysit.
“Stay,” he whispered.
My heart squeezed in my throat so I couldn’t answer him.
Instead, I dragged the silver curtains closed and returned to the bed. While he lay back on the pillow, I tugged off his shoes and let them fall to the floor. Once his breathing evened out, I returned to the living room and looked around our new base camp.
The view was equally lovely from the living room and the kitchen. There were a few closets, so I went hunting for weapons. Hell, even a scary looking kitchen knife would do, but found nothing I could use.
It looked like food was highest on the list of priorities, weapons second. Fin flopped around on the bed for a little bit, and I watched him from my vantage point on the couch. He didn’t look comfortable, and he also seemed upset that I hadn’t stayed with him.
I wasn’t ready to face everything between us just yet. For now, we could work together, and then, maybe when we got a break from all the drama, I would be able to wrap my head about whatever we were. Or he’d man up and tell me whatever the hell he’d been keeping from me, besides the way too huge to touch ‘mate’ thing.
I pulled out the burner phone the Chief had tucked into my hand before we left the cabin and pulled up a search engine. With a grimace, I typed in ‘fae mates.’
I shouldn’t have had to search for this because the fae I was fucking should’ve had the balls to explain it to me.
Turned out the internet didn’t know anything more than I did. So either fae mates were a rare thing that wasn’t documented online, or they weren’t spoken of publicly.
I deleted the search and cleared the browser history just in case Fin used the phone at some point.
Punching something in the face sounded super good right now. I paced to the bank of windows and stared down at the grid of the city instead. I wished I could afford a place like this. The mansion Fin lived in before had been too stuffy for my tastes. This place, I wouldn’t hate coming home to this every night.